How To Promote Events, Concerts & Shows San Francisco Bay Area
How To Promote Shows, Concerts, Events, Pop-Ups San Francisco Bay Area, Oakland, San Jose & Beyond. How To Market Events In The Bay Area, Offline & Online
How To Market Events, Shows San Francisco Bay Area
When it comes to promoting events, there’s a lot of consideration needed to get the word out, in a timely manner, to those you wish to reach.
I have observed countless organizers from large-scale events, small intimate talks, pop-ups and everything in between, market events with various results.
There is no magic formula, blueprint to guarantee success but there are certainly ways to improve turnout, reduce chances of it failing miserably if you follow some simple guidelines.
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Related reads on Eddie’s List:
Event Marketing Tips San Francisco Bay Area
The first thing you need to do is have a plan. Too many folks wing it with planning and awesome people are naturally interested, available, and aware of events you may be promoting.
Event planning starts before you actually decide to host an event. It starts with networking, building a website and/or social media page, and growing an email list. Sure there are shortcuts such as flyers, ads, viral social media posts but that can be costly, inefficient, hard to track or ineffective if your event is not interesting or targeted to the wrong audiences.
You need to develop a timeline for execution so that you have time to do basic things like:
create a flyer, update website, print flyers, post flyers
book talent, email subscribers
secure venues, sponsors, permits
post about it on social media, notify news outlets
and develop back-up plans in case of weather or more
share events with outlets, in a timely manner, for their schedules
Some organizers are ok with winging it which can be fine but can hurt chances of future events if your core audience and supporters have a poor experience.
How To Promote Shows, Concerts Offline In San Francisco Bay Area
Promoting events offline is usually done based on things like location, target audience and can either be done in advance to build awareness, sell tickets, build momentum or last-minute push to sell inventory, target stragglers or notify folks for future events in case sold out or unable to make the current event.
Some popular places can be around:
Walking/commute routes, public transportation stops
Outside venue, at partners’ place of business
Outside, near related venues
Depending on the city where your event takes place, one should be familiar with rules around posting flyers. Each city has a list of guidelines, timelines, and more, around size, location, information posted and more.
One helpful thing to note is to observe patterns and trends in places where you are thinking of posting flyers:
How often are flyers removed
Is proper etiquette performed or are people posting flyers over existing ones
Are people reading flyers at said location
How are people walking by poles, bulletin boards (height, from which side)
This may seem like overkill but after years of research, analyses and observation, this accumulated knowledge has allowed me to rigorously test and figure out how to expand reach, be efficient and each audiences.
Related read: Bulletin Boards San Francisco
How To Market Events, Shows Online San Francisco Bay Area
A lot of work is needed to promote events online including design, timelines for posting, coordinating with others and more.
Simply making a post on Instagram or Facebook can be ineffective if you have a history of posting too much and diluting reach of posts, not posting enough and having your page be a ghost town or not having a large enough audience to be able to sell.
Even though Facebook and Instagram are owned by the same company, posting to both can be effective because not all folks use both platforms. Sure there is some overlap but posting on each can maximize reach and make it easier to reach different demographics.
Also, if you are able to collaborate on posts (invite collaborators) to reach additional, related audiences, that can help immensely.
In terms of where to post events beyond social media, having a dedicated page on your website can be super helpful as social media posts and ticketing sites can have awful SEO. This may be difficult if you rely on a webmaster to update site, make changes and more.
Even if your event does not require tickets, using ticketing platforms or registration sites can be helpful to collect numbers and emails for future events, notices and changes.
Related read: Alternatives To Eventbrite
Depending on the type of event, location and more, you should consider submitting events to event calendars, city/state websites, local Facebook community pages, and reaching out to journalists (especially if it’s a unique event that can go viral). There are general rules around how to contact each outlet, how much notice is needed and how to address them. People have super poor awareness around etiquette and how to personalize notices.
You don’t need to be an SEO expert to have your page rank well for events but you do need time, awareness of basic tips and solid pitch as even great events can flop if not described adequately or excessively promoted, raising doubt. Similarly, you don’t need a graphic designer to make a great flyer but you do need to have some basic skills to get eyeballs (do not use AI).
If you are a non-profit or organization doing some social good, reach out to me for a free consultation (link in the weekly newsletter).
How To Promote Events San Francisco Bay Area, How To Promote Shows In The Bay Area, How To Market Events In San Jose, How To Promote A Concert In Oakland, How To Market Events In Berkeley