Red Desk have just finished working with Townsend Rose Productions on marketing their theatre production Learning which was on at the ArtsDepot, North Finchley on 16^th and 17^th November. After this four-month long marketing project, we are pausing to consider what advice we would give to marketing an event.

Venue

Once the venue has been booked for the event, find out about their marketing department: Who are the key contacts, do they will offer any promotion for the event, and if they do, what are the specifications. It is important to find this out early on, so you know whether they will:

• repost social media posts
• put out social media posts about your event in their socials
• include your event in their next brochure
• promote your event on digital screens or billboards etc

Once you have this information, you can build this into your social media marketing plan.

Social Media Accounts & Website

If your events aren’t going to be regular, you might find that your social media accounts are pretty much dormant with little or no activity for a few months. You will need to “wake” them up by updating your bios with the latest info (including ticket links) and start interacting with your followers.

If your event is in a different location to the last one then you will need to search for relevant accounts to follow and tag in Instagram or Facebook groups to join. If your event is in the same location then do review the accounts you follow or groups you have joined as there may be more relevant ones that have been created since the last time you checked.

As with your social media accounts, you will need to update your site with photos, information and blogs.

Social Media Marketing

Plan out your social media marketing from as soon as you have been booked, through to the event and a couple of weeks afterwards. Think carefully about the number of hours you offer, as there might be things that crop up unexpectedly like extra tasks. Make sure your client understands that your plans are only a guideline and you will keep them updated if things drastically change.

Here are a few things that we will be implementing again for our next event marketing project:

• Press Release – draft a press release as early as possible, pull together a press list (for publication and attendance) and send this out about 4 – 6 weeks ahead of the event. Follow up with phone calls, DMs etc
• Advertising – ask local press for costings of advertising opportunities and also ensure there is budget to advertise on social media as soon as tickets go on sale
• Competition – boost social media interactions and followers by running a ticket giveaway (we ran a caption competition) 2 – 4 weeks ahead of time and allow it to run for at least a week
• Social Media posts – review the posts you used before, and use these as a basis for your next event’s posts. Vary them (reels, video, static posts) and also use quotes from previous reviews/feedback from your last event.

Red Desk is available to set up social media accounts, provide social media and event marketing and social media training. If you want to chat on how we can support your next event or project, get in touch: mel@reddesk.co.uk.