It’s Saturday afternoon, you have just finished your shopping for the week, put the bags away and sat down with a nice cup of tea. Next thing you know, your friend calls you and says she just heard on the radio that there’s an awesome event happening tonight only a 20 minute drive from your house. Wanna go? You think, sure, I am not doing anything tonight, why not!
So if you can be persuaded to attend an event just hours before it starts, how should a successful small business go about promoting events to make sure they capture the attention of as many attendees as possible and fill the venue to maximum capacity? These are the successful events that can fill small businesses with passion and provision.
So, how do you reach all those great people and share about your event? How do you make the most of your time and resources so you make sure the people that need to hear your message and come to your event have a chance to hear about it?
That’s where promotion becomes an important ingredient in marketing a successful small business event.
How can you get this important event in front of the eyes and ears of those who will truly benefit from attending?
Well there are four components of a successful promotional campaign that are critical and need to be considered as you create your plan to make sure the people you care about are hearing your message.
Listed in order of importance, the components are: Frequency, Reach, Message Quality, and Channels.
Let’s look at these four a bit closer:
You are a small business launching an event on a specific day. If you want to get your message out you need to consider frequency first.
Frequency
Frequency refers to the number of times your message is sent out. No matter what your budget, you should set up your frequency starting one hour before the event, and then work backwards, promoting your event every hour. Keep working back until you have used up your budget. If your event starts at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, then start your advertising spots at 7:30 p.m., then 6:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and so on. You want to start closer to the event and work backwards because you want your message to be in people’s short term memory. And who doesn’t need a reminder?!
Reach
Next you should examine your reach. This also should be based on your budget as well as how many products you have to sell or seats you have to fill. Remember, reach is the number of different people who are exposed to an advertising message at least once. You may not need to reach 50,000 people if you only have 100 products to sell or seats to fill. Keep this in mind as you establish your reach and more importantly, don’t violate the frequency rule.
Message Quality
The quality of your message is a component that needs to be considered. Of course every small business wants to communicate clearly and have a great message that people will remember. But the fact is that a mediocre message can be effective with the right frequency and reach, and a great message can fail with the wrong frequency and reach. Make sure you are allocating the right amount of time and resources so you have a quality message with the best frequency and reach for your promotion.
Channels
Lastly, consider your channels. Are you using TV, Radio, or Billboards? Or are you using the internet, social media, or email? These are all channels you may consider when promoting your successful small business event, but remember to pick one channel at a time and stick to your frequency rules. Then you can add another channel, and another, based on your budget and resources.
There are many distractions and reasons why people may not be interested in your small business event or even your product. There are probably even more reasons why they won’t hear your message, but when you follow the rules on these four components and remember to put the frequency rules first, your promotional campaign is going to be even more effective than ever before. You will see just how successful your small business event can be. This will bring you more customers and make your event a success!
If you are in need of small business consulting or promoting your event or even your business to bring more passion and provision into your company as a whole, contact us and we will give you a free business assessment today!
