Festivals are undoubtedly a fun and entertaining type of event. They are great means to showcase local culture and creativity. Festivals are powerful drivers for tourism and help boost the local economy. For businesses and organizations, they are an effective way of brand exposure and customer engagement.
And if you’re planning on hosting one, then you need to plan as early as possible. Six months is the minimum planning time for festival events like music festivals, celebration festivals, or holiday festivals. And if you want your upcoming festival to have a big impact, you need to go big in trying to get exposure to your festival, such as using those partnerships and promotions and advertising the event..
Follow these 6 simple and effective tips on how to promote a festival.
Tip # 1: Partner with your community and local sponsors
A festival becomes extra special when it is a community effort. Partnerships and sponsorships with local businesses will bring a sense of belongingness to the community. And this is beneficial for you because you want to establish connection and loyalty with them.
Involve your local community by commissioning them for their services. Hiring food trucks from local restaurants is not only low-cost but will also ensure that your audience will love it especially if they come from the same place. In addition to that, you can approach your local sponsors to display your flyers containing your event logo and other promotional materials in their shops.
Tip # 2: Promote on Social Networks
Promotion is only effective when you are advertising your upcoming event to places where your target audience is. That’s why it is very important to know your target customers first. What are their demographics? What are their interests? Which social media platforms do they hang out on?
After identifying this critical information, you can now dive into social media engagement. Start posting relevant content that will resonate with your audience on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And one thing you need to utilize is the use of a catchy, relevant, and unique event hashtag.
Source: www.smartinsights.com
According to Naylor.com, “A hashtag is a label used on social media sites that makes it easier to find information with a theme or specific content.” Hashtags help people easily filter and find your content and social media campaigns. You can use your hashtags for announcements, special offers, updates, and event information. Lead your followers and customers to a single place.
Furthermore, using hashtags will help make your upcoming festival trending. And in order to do this, you need to encourage your customers to use your hashtags before the event, during the event and after the event.
Want more resources? Check out these articles to maximize social media promotion:
– How to improve event engagement with social media
– How to boost ticket sales with free Facebook Marketing
Tip # 3: Partner with an effective registration and ticketing system
Registration and selling tickets can be draining especially if your music festival or film festival is relatively big. Avoid all the hassle with Event Smart. Manage online registrations, sell tickets and accept payments right on your event website. With Event Smart, you can set up multiple ticket levels with different prices.
These festival tickets come with a QR code or a barcode that you can scan on-site for fast check-in. Registrants can make payments online. You can receive funds through credit or debit cards by connecting your account with a payment service like PayPal or Stripe. It will directly be reflected in your merchant account without any additional commission fees from us.
Furthermore, Event Smart is a month-to-month service with no contracts. Use the service as needed and cancel your purchase when you are no longer in need of the software.
Tip # 4: Maximize influencer marketing and email marketing
More businesses commission influencers in promoting their brands. Exposure from a notable influencer, no matter how brief and minimal may it be, can do so much for you. Hiring an influencer means tapping into their fanbase.
Another marketing strategy that you need to utilize is email marketing. Your email list is very useful in not only connecting to your active customers but also to those who’ve gone inactive.
Tip # 5: Set-up competition and give promotional items
Competition is an effective way to stir up festival attendees. Hold little contests right on your website and social media platform. By doing so, you are not only interacting with your attendees but they get to interact with one another as well.
Festivals are special because they give opportunities for like-minded people to meet and enjoy their common interests while promoting your business. Give away some festival merchandise, some incentives and giveaways as prizes for your winners and participants.
Tip # 6: Ask for feedback
Customer feedback is a necessity for knowing customer satisfaction and evaluating areas you need to improve. Asking for feedback based on their festival experience, furthermore makes the customers and festival goers feel valued and heard. And it heavily reflects your customer service as well.
You can also ask your artists, performers and vendors for additional feedback and recommendation. Get this valuable information by using your social media accounts or doing a manual post survey. And this is also a great way to continue engaging with your participants. Don’t forget to remind them about using your official hashtags.
Conclusion
Organizing and promoting a festival might not be easy but it could be fun and less stressful for you. These are only general promotional tips. Remember that you know your audience best.
Don’t be afraid to try out and experiment with new things to see which strategy or marketing campaign will work out best for your crowd. Work with a reliable team and invest in useful tools. If you’re finding difficulties in planning your festival, check out these quick and easy last-minute tips for event planning.
Ready to rock your next festival? Get started with our free trial.