Marketing your Creative Event

Who is your Audience?

It is always important to start by getting clear on who is the target audience (or audiences) for your event. As a starting point, you will probably market to an audience that is drawn to your art form (visual art buffs, avid theatre goers, live music fiends) but try to get a bit more specific. Who are these people? Where do they get their information?

Remember to think outside the box. Ask yourself, what is the theme or focus of your show? If you are making a show about the experiences of a particular community - who are they, where and how do they gather, how can you contact them? If your costumes are inspired by a particular country or style - are there interest groups?

It is important to keep thinking about your audience as you are developing your images, copy and marketing plan.

Eye Catching Images

An eye catching image is essential. It is your attention grabber and your key communicator.

Creative planning - what does the image need to say?

When deciding what kind of image to use, ask yourself what is the story you want to tell, or what is the message you want to convey?
Make sure you get one ‘hero image’ - a strong image that you will consistently use to market your event and that can be easily identified with your project. Your hero image should be your strongest and best image.
It can be useful to have other pictures that go with your hero image. This will give you some variety when marketing your event, particularly on social media.

Practical planning - what does the image need to do?

If you know you need an image for social media headers, ensure you have some landscape options. Making a poster? You’ll probably need a portrait shot for that. Make sure you take shots that can be manipulated easily, to make sure you have the right size and picture quality for the marketing forms you’ll be working in.

Making great images

Once you’ve made a plan, it’s time to source or create your images. If you have capacity and / or budget, it is always best to make your own.

Making your Images

Think about the people, places or objects that should be included. Do you need to check people’s availability or book in a venue?
If you are working with a photographer, ask yourself - what is their style of photography, and does this fit with your intention of the image? Is there a type of imagery they are particularly skilled in, will they need to do their research?
Making your own images can be expensive if you are working with other creatives - such as photographers, stylists or graphic designers. Think about the budget for this when developing your project.

Sourcing your Images

Sometimes it is not realistic to make a hero shot from scratch. Instead you might like to find something from a stock library, such as Unsplash.

Adding Text and Graphics

What do you need to do with the image once it has been taken—can you do this, or will you require a graphic designer?
Sites like Canva can help you create designs for free.

Engaging Copy

Tell us about the event

‘Copy’ is the term used to describe the text that you write to market your event. It’s worth spending some time on developing this, as you will use it in a lot of different places when promoting your event.

Give your copy to someone who doesn’t know about your event to read and provide feedback. It should be clear to them what the event is about, and why they might like to come along.

It can be useful to have versions of copy about your event at a few different word lengths - such as 50 words, 100 words and 500 words. This gives different levels of detail which will suit different purposes.

Tell us about yourself

In addition to your event copy, it is a good idea to also prepare a short bio, giving a bit of context around yourself and your creative practice. If you are organising this event as a group, you might like to have a description about the group instead. Again, it is useful to have your bio in a few different word lengths to suit various purposes. Make sure you also include some links to where people can find other examples of your work.

Get the Word Out

Now you’ve got some great images and killer copy, it is time to start putting it together and to get the word out. You can pick and choose from your images and text to suit the type of marketing you are doing.

Get Organised

Make a timeline giving yourself deadlines to ensure you have enough time to promote your event properly.

Another top tip is to make a folder which has all your key marketing material in it, neatly organised and clearly labelled. You can store this on an online platform like GDrive or Dropbox. This makes it quick and easy for you to share marketing material with others that can help you promote your event, such as the media.

Marketing Activities

There are lots of different ways you can promote your event! For example, you might like to:

Make an event listing on social media or Eventbrite
Send out a media release to newspapers or bloggers
Make postcards to leave at local cafes
Running a digital advertisement
Send an email to your mailing list

How you choose to promote your event will depend on who your target audience is, and how you think you could best reach them. You will also be limited by how much time and money you have to promote your event.

You will need to tailor your copy and image selection to suit the marketing activities you are undertaking. When doing this, think about:

Who is the audience for this type of marketing, and what are they most interested in?
What are the practical limitations? How many words can I fit? What types of images can I use?

The Personal Touch

Don’t forget the value of personal connections in promoting your event. Sending individualised emails to people you think might be interested in your event can have a great return on investment.

Also, think about who needs to be at your event to get the word of mouth going? Is it reviewers? Social media influencers? Friends and family? Make sure whoever this is comes early in the timeline of the event, if that is a 6-week season or just one night.

A Little Bit More?

Can you put other things around your event to increase traction and attendance/ participation? If it’s theatre - could you have a Q and A? If it’s live music - are there VIP passes, a food truck you could ask to come and serve your attendees? If it’s visual art—a masterclass? Be inventive as you can around the ideas that can spring from both the form and content of your work.