One of our Marketing Track sessions this October will focus on “Local Guerrilla Marketing for Your Wine Event”. While the overall goal of any event is to make more money than you spent and to create goodwill in your customer base, your marketing goal should be to get people to attend. Putting on a fabulous event that is under-attended and costs more than you get in return (either financially or in good will) can be frustrating, time-consuming and counter-productive.
Here are a few ideas to get the word out about your event without breaking the bank:
Create targeted, effective email campaigns. Look at your customer base and evaluate your message. Segment by geographic location, include your best customers and get personal with invitations.- Use social media. Create an event on Facebook, upload photos of past events on Instagram and Pinterest and encourage people to share. A picture is worth a thousand words!
- Cross-market. Use your vendors to get the word out about the event. If you are using a local restaurant to cater, ask them to promote it to their audience. If you have a band, ask them to reach out to their loyal audience. They want publicity as well, so make it a win-win situation.
- Be realistic. When creating an event, make sure you start with how many people from your existing base can realistically attend and adjust your event from there. Don’t assume you are going to get an overwhelming number of new visitors unless you know your strategy will work. Start small and grow – if you are effective, word of mouth becomes more valuable than any other marketing strategy.
Promoting events does not have to be expensive but it does take perseverance. Join us at #WMTC18 for more great guerrilla marketing ideas for your next event!