So you’ve decided to invite another organization to help launch your event. Whether it is a nonprofit that you support or your neighboring businesses, coordinating an event has a massive amount of moving parts to manage. Anything you can do to help streamline the event process will help your event launch more smoothly.
Especially when you’re working with another organization, the easier you make promoting your event for the other organization, the more they will spread the word about your event, and the wider audience your event will reach. Here are a few pointers to help other organizations promote for you:
1. Distribute an e-media kit
It is a special kind of person who enjoys creating completely new content for an event, especially if it’s for an event they’re not directly associated with. If your event is difficult to market, another organization will not be inclined to promote it for you. So you should not rely on another organization to actively promote your event for you. Instead, provide a media kit.
Simply giving a list of sample social media posts, a sample press release, and example language that you’d like used when referencing your event are fantastic tools to help another organization promote your event. This tip is all about making the effort threshold of involvement low for the other organization. Luckily, providing sample language and social media posts are easy to distribute as well. They can be sent out in an email, newsletter, or even outlined in a blog post.
Pro Tip: Don’t forget to tailor your sample social media posts for each social media site you want other organizations to post them to. You can’t post the same amount of content on Twitter as you can on Facebook and your sample posts should reflect that.
2. Provide promo materials
First, let’s talk about what it means if you do not provide promotional material for your event. Without promotional material, you are insisting the other organization become fiscally invested in your event. Even if your event is beneficial to the other organization, like a check presentation for a nonprofit, the likelihood that they will actively go out and produce promotional material for you is unrealistic.
Instead, you can provide the other organizations with items like flyers, brochures, branded merchandise, and even t-shirts. Again, by doing this you make the effort threshold of involvement incredibly low. And, again, if the effort required for an organization to promote your event is low, the more likely it is that they will want to put in the time to promote your event for you.
Pro Tip: A unified color scheme for your event that carries through to your promotional material will make any material seen in public instantly recognizable as yours.
3. Be available for organizations to ask you questions
Each event is different and each organization has different needs when it comes to promoting your event. Some may need more posters, some will want to have a press release approved by you before sending it to the media, and some may just want further clarification on the event as a whole.
Also, don’t forget to keep lines open as you lead up to the event! Sending something as simple as an email reminder about the event is a great way to keep the conversation going and also keep your collaborators excited about the event. The more information they have the better they will be able to internalize your message and effectively promote your event.
Pro Tip: Being available to organizations you’re collaborating with is a lot like providing customer service. By being available for organizations who are promoting an event to contact you, they have a great experience and will be more interested in collaborating with your business in the future.
That’s a wrap
Launching an event can be time consuming and stressful, but also can be incredibly rewarding and a positive experience for your business. When you collaborate with another organization to launch your event, things get even more complicated. Hopefully the tips above give you a quick guide on making the experience a bit easier for you and your business.