By now, you've done a whole lot of planning and big event is drawing near! Now it is time to begin marketing & fundraising!
Importance of Advertising
Now you've put a lot of time and dedication into planning your event, it is time to share it and encourage attendance and fundraising for your cause! Advertising is crucial in order to make sure people know about your event, and when done right, can do wonders when trying to fundraise. By using advertising, your reach a larger audience than you would just by word of mouth. Also, with the innovations of social media, there are many creative ways to share your event and peak people's interest!
Utilize Social Media
There is no such as too much social media presence! I highly encourage you to explore every possible social media platform and use it to your advantage! Each platform offers something unique and reaches different audiences that could potentially be interested in your event.
One thing I really enjoyed doing when marketing through social media, was creating fun promotions. I'd brainstorm ideas, such as competitions to get free raffle tickets or admissions, or shouting out a performer featured in the concert. These are fun way to interact with your social media audience and get more following. Once I brainstormed what promotions I wanted to do, I created a marketing calendar, and picked out what day I was going to post what promotion. This kept me on track, while preventing me from flooding the social media accounts.
Some examples of promotions I did was called, "Spotlight Saturday." For a few Saturdays before the concert, I would ask one of the musicians performing some questions about themselves, and then post a picture of them with the answers to the questions. This allowed me to introduce the performers to the audience, get people more excited to attend the concert, and give them something to encourage them to check the platform regularly.
I also did a promotion the first year, pictured below", where I created a little scavenger hunt after I hung up posters around town. I gave hints to where the posters were and gave an incentive by saying that if you found a poster and took a picture with it and posted it to social media, you'd get free raffle tickets. This encouraged people to go find the posters, and then also post about it and share it with their friends on social media. In addition, I did things such as encouraging people to tag their friends on posts, to further promote and share the event, and asked people to leave comments to things related to the concert.
An image of Sterling, a committee member, participating in a social media competition and promoting the event.
It is also crucial to be recognizable on social media! Whether it is a catchy name, profile picture or logo, or a good hashtag, the more that know you, the better! Try to keep up with current trends and styles and you are sure to accumulate a large audience! Keep your feeds engaging and exciting, while also informative for those seeking more details. Take inspiration from your favorite social media accounts and make sure to reach out to your friends and family on the various platforms.
Plan Mini-Fundraising Events
Before the actual event, it might be advantageous to plan some mini-fundraising events to kickstart fundraising while promoting the event. A few ways you can do this is through fundraising dinners or bake sales, both tactics I've used in the past. These mini-events help keep the cause in people's minds and allows to promote and fundraise for your cause!
An image of the Baking for a Benefit bake sale held to fundraise for the Find Your Sunshine Benefit Concert 2016
Spread the Word
Besides social media, just make sure to spread the word in general! A great way to do this is thinking about one crucial thing: community. Think about what communities you are trying to reach with your event, as well as what communities you are a part of. Reach out to those groups in order to promote the event and raise attendance.
For example, I am part of my school community, my local Jewish community, and my city's theatre community. I reached out to members from all communities and shared my event with them. Since I knew that my event was most targeted towards teen and families, I made a large presentation at school so the entire faculty and student body would be aware of the event, and I also hung up posters all around the school. Also, since I am a part of a Jewish youth group called BBYO, I contacted many local chapters and encouraged them to come and support the event.
In addition to the communities I was a part of, I also tried to reach out to those who were affected in some way by Ovarian Cancer. You can make connections to whatever your cause is, but for my specific fundraising cause, I sent out newsletters to the subscribers of Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance (OCRFA) email, and promoted the event. I knew they'd obviously have a connection to the event, and it helped me advertise to people I otherwise wouldn't know, but were still connected to the cause.
No matter what, make sure your passion for your cause shines throughout your marketing, and you will definitely grab people's attention and create a connection.
As always, if you have ANY questions, please feel free to email me at find.your.sunshine.concert@gmail.com and send them my way!