Tactical PR for event success

July 2010

Hosting an event can be a great way to differentiate you from the competition, generate sales leads, position you as a thought leader and build your brand awareness.

The success of your event depends on a combination of:

Planning: to make the event interesting
Promotion: to raise awareness of the event
Partnerships: to extend your reach and engage new prospects

We have recently worked with two clients to promote their industry events, and here we share our top tips to ensure yours is every bit as successful:

Big names get big headlines

Once you have the focus of your event, the key to its success is a great speaker line-up. Involving well-known industry experts in your event will get the media interested in arranging interviews. They will want to learn more about what you're doing, and will ensure you secure extra coverage in your target publications.

Saddle up with partners

Publications are often keen to align themselves with events they perceive to be of value – i.e. events with good speakers that appeal to their readership. Establishing media partnerships can help you reach thousands of new contacts through their circulation databases.

From pitch to print

Most editors plan their editorial months in advance, so it's no good pitching an article a week before your event; you need to give yourself time to plan and execute your campaign. We recommend planning your event four to six months in advance for the best results.

Beyond the event

The best kind of press release is more than just an announcement. Editors receive hundreds every day and will only print newsworthy stories they feel will be of value to their readers. To get your event noticed, you need to intersperse media alerts about the details of your event, with in-depth press releases about interesting topics and industry issues that will appeal to their readers.

Get involved

The event isn't just about you, so make it a collaborative effort and get all your speakers to contribute to the campaign with bylined articles, quotes for press releases and promotion to their contacts. Not only does this add credibility to your event by aligning your brand with the experts, but it also makes it far more interesting to your target audience.

If you’re planning an event and need some help, why not contact us? We can work with you to develop a campaign to make your event a success.

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