So you want to contribute to the Eventarc blog?

Thanks for your interest in writing content for Eventarc! Here are some guidelines to help you get the most out of this opportunity.

Before you start

Email us at scott@eventarc.com before you begin writing with examples of your previous work and some topic ideas you would like to write about. Please ensure your work is written in clear, Australian English, and be sure to include some personality in your writing.

What to write about

Our focus is Australian event organisers across many fields including education, non-profit, government, small businesses, entrepreneurs and many more. Relevant topics might include:

• event planning and logistics
• promotions and marketing
• social media
• fundraising

Be sure to bring your own ideas and experience when suggesting topics.

Give credit where it’s due

It should go without saying, but don’t steal. Only submit original content that you have created, and make sure everything in your post that doesn’t belong to you is properly credited.

Linking

We love it when guest bloggers link to related content already posted on Eventarc. You can also link to outside sources, providing they are relevant, but please do not include affiliate links.

Our prerogative

We reserve the right to edit your post. We will only do this if we deem it necessary to correct spelling or grammar, or to improve the usefulness of your work for our readers (improving titles or phrasing, for instance). The more appropriate your work is for our audience to begin with, the less we will have to edit it – which is better for everyone! A good way to nail this is to read through some of our previous blog posts to get an idea of what works best. Here is an example to get you started.

We also ask that the content you submit is exclusive to Eventarc.

And for you…

Eventarc received over half a million unique visitors in 2011 from event organisers and attendees. Each guest post we publish will include an author bio, putting your face and your link in front of these visitors.. Your bio should be a couple of sentences about you, including up to two links, as well as a profile picture.

Have you ever wondered how closely Australian fast food advertising matches the finished product?

Take a look at the infographic below to see how your favourite food matches up.

Embed This Infographic:
<a title="Advertising versus Reality with Australian Fast Food" href="http://www.eventarc.com/posts/2011/12/12/advertising-versus-reality-in-australian-fast-food/"><img title="Advertising versus Reality with Australian Fast Food" src="http://www.eventarc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Eventarc_Topfive_Advertising_Vs_Reality.jpg" width="600" height="2615" alt="Advertising versus Reality with Australian Fast Food" /></a>

Whether you are trying to attract people to your event through Internet marketing, social networks or by reaching out to influential bloggers, you want to put your efforts into finding the right people – people who are interested in your products or services, your brand and your event.

Here are some tips on how to track down these rare gems online.

Search social networks

Most social networks offer search functions of some kind. Try to find the most advanced search features to really narrow down the results.

Twitter’s advanced search lets you carefully filter search results.

Searching for mentions of your brand, event name or your products or services will lead you to those who already have an idea of who you are and what you do. By extension, this will lead you to their friends and family – people who trust their opinion and recommendations.

To get past this initial search you will need to be a little more creative. Searching for similar products or services, industries or occupations which are related to yours, mentions of travel to (or within) the area you are holding your event and keywords relating to issues your products or services can fix will all give you potential leads.

Trawl blog directories and forums

If it’s influential social media users you’re after, bloggers and frequent forum posters are the way to go. Using search tools like Social Mention and Board Reader or directories like Technorati and Alltop, you can find the most popular blogs (and therefore bloggers) in your industry.

Technorati separates blogs by category to make them easier to find.

Reading these blogs will help you get an idea of whether the authors would be a good fit for your event before you reach out to them. Discussions in the comment sections will also lead you to other bloggers, and readers interested in your industry.

Steal from the competition

Just like in the classic Willy Wonka film, sometimes to get what you want you have to steal from your competitors. If you haven’t come across mentions of them already in your search efforts, try searching for competing brands, products and events. These will give you an idea of where related discussions are taking place online, what people are saying about other brands and the industry in general and who is doing all the talking. This can give you a leg-up when targeting potential attendees for your event.

Once you’ve got them, hang on tight

Most importantly, hang on to the new customers you find online. Set up an email newsletter, a Facebook fan page, a Twitter stream or LinkedIn account – whatever works for you. Just make sure your new fans have a way to stay updated with your activity and later events. With an email newsletter or Facebook page, you have the added bonus of getting more detailed information about your customers, and being able to deliver important updates directly to their inbox.

For tips on how to engage with your new customers, see our earlier post on how to involve your attendees with social media.

Do you have any other tips for finding new customers online? What strategies have you used before? Join the discussion by leaving a comment below.

When it comes to event planning, there are a number of ingredients that are poured into the mix to ensure your eventual success. One of the most important parts of the process is selling tickets, as without a good turn out it is easy to lose the motivation to keep running events.

Here are a few little tips to help you on your way to selling more tickets to your event.

Invest in an Online Presence

No matter what your event, where it is or what it’s in aid of, you need to have an online presence in order to promote it. Social media properties such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can help your cause by directing your potential attendees back to your website. Putting up a ticket page on the website and enabling guests to purchase online after reading about your event, will make it that much more convenient for your attendees.

Programme of Events

Including a programme of events on all advertorial platforms will give everyone the full picture of what they can anticipate. Your website, media releases, TV spots, radio adverts, magazine pieces, posters and flyers should all have a comprehensive guide to what attendees can expect from your event. Whether you’re offering a five course meal accompanied by a string quartet, or a three day festival of arts and culture, you need to be very open about what people can look forward to.

Offer Assistance Where Necessary

Included on your website should be a list of FAQs as well as an avenue through which people can contact you. Opening up the lines of communication will make people feel more comfortable when buying tickets to your event, especially if they can have all their questions answered first.

Build the Hype

Starting off with a mention a few months in advance, you should have a definitive plan for building the hype surrounding your event. Plan each space you’ll take up in the media and how you’re going to use it to your advantage.

Remember the Key to Marketing Success

Last but not least is your AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.

AIDA is the general emotive process that you want your guests to go through right up until they buy those tickets. You need to start off by grabbing their attention; this could be done months before the event, but in such a way that they make a mental note for future reference. Interest; this can be twigged with a news release or magazine article that offers more elaborate information on the event. Desire; your promotional material needs to sell and convert each guest to take action.

Having access to a database of contacts or potential clients is like having your own personal pot of gold. Referring back to those who have previously been in attendance at one of your events can be an excellent way of driving future event growth.

But how do you convince previous attendees to attend future events?

Converting Your Database Into Customers

You’ve got the contacts, now how do you market yourself to them in such a way that they take notice? You need to be smart about it.

Before you write anything or contact anyone, start off by constructing an effective marketing plan. Keeping your end goal in mind, plan out each step of the process of communication and then begin with the content creation. You should have different levels of communication, such as:

• First point of contact, introductions and a taste of what’s to come
• A list of all the events that are available to them and perhaps a special offer should they buy a ticket within a prescribed timeframe
• A reminder about the events and some more information about them; something they might not know that could sway their decision to attend
• A reminder that time is running out

Try not to inundate people with too much information. Communication that is seen as too frequent can annoy your database and cause them to unsubscribe.

Getting Down To Communication Specifics

You’ve got your marketing plan ready, now it’s time to formulate the words that will draw them in. Here are a few pointers that you can refer to that will make this process a little easier:

• Always refer to your customers on a personal level; you want them to feel like they’re special
• Perhaps remind them about the last event they attended and discuss how the next one is going to be even better?
• Try to capture the essence of why they would want to go to your event
• Tell them what they’re getting for their money, and spin it in such a way that they realise it’s value for money!

In Conclusion

When it comes to your database of contacts and how to market to them, you’ve got to put yourself in their shoes and try to imagine what it is that would encourage them to buy a ticket. If you can get into that headspace then that’s half the battle won.

Stay in regular contact with them and make sure to always keep them well informed. If they don’t want to hear from you, they’ll let you know. That way you’ll only be marketing to those who want to hear what you have to say.

Quick response codes, or QR codes, connect digital materials and the online world with real-life. In promoting your event, QR codes can help you to provide more information to your potential attendees. Even better, it provides this information on their phone, right in the palm of their hand.

If you’re not sure what a QR code is, check out this short video from market rumba to see what they can do:

QR codes can do many things, from adding contact info to your address book to providing multi-media content on your phone. Here are some great ways to take advantage of this technology to help your attendees make the most of your event.

Help them get the schedule

For multi-day events or those with many sessions on one day, a schedule is imperative to help people choose which sessions to attend. With a QR code, you can easily provide a portable schedule that won’t get left behind or lost. By linking your code with an online or downloadable schedule, you take the work out of finding the schedule in your paper event guide or on your website. For multi-day events, this will make it easier for attendees to continually consult the schedule as the event progresses.

If you advertise your event in newspapers or magazines or use small print materials like postcards, this is a way to show the full event guide without taking up a lot of space.

Help them book

If you have a website or phone number listed on your printed promo materials for attendees to buy tickets, adding a QR code could make the process a lot faster. The code could provide a phone number to call immediately or save to the phone’s contacts for easy access later. This removes the need to write down the number, as the number is now stored in the phone. You could use this kind of QR code on your website as well, for those who want to remember the phone number for a more appropriate time to call.

If tickets are available to purchase online, you could put a QR code on your printed materials and link it to the website, allowing attendees to book without moving to their computers.

Help them remember when to show up

Make it easy for your attendees to remember when the event is on and show up on time. QR codes can be used to create a calendar reminder for your event. If you have many sessions, you can create separate codes for each one to place on the website or event guide listing. If you are providing paper tickets these could also be a good place to print your QR codes, to prevent people from putting their tickets in ‘a safe place’ and forgetting about them until it’s too late!

Help them find their way

This is one of my favourite uses of QR codes. When you add the address of your event to your posters or brochures, adding a QR code that links to an online map can make it much easier for people to find you. Once the map has loaded, attendees can look at surrounding areas to find their way, or get directions from their current location. Forget looking up the address in a street directory or copying directions from Google before you leave – this puts the map in their hands, with the correct address already provided.

Help them connect

Once people arrive at your event, use QR codes to provide links to your social media profiles – your Twitter account, Facebook page, website, Flickr account or blog. This will encourage attendees to engage with you and join your online community while they are part of the event, and takes out the effort of searching for your brand online. A QR code by the exit may be a good way to encourage online feedback from your event.

If you provide take-home print materials at your event, such as paper tickets, programs or brochures, these can also include QR codes linking to your online profiles to remind people to connect with you after they leave.

Bonus: Dress your code for the event

According to Mashable, up to 30 per cent of a QR code’s data can be obstructed by images or missing completely and yet the code can still be scanned. This gives you the opportunity to get creative with the look and feel of your code, rather than sticking with the standard black-and-white squiggly square image. Mashable has some tips for improving the way your code looks, including adding your logo or changing the colours.

To get your creative juices flowing, check out the examples of creative QR codes at Bit Rebels, Mashable and Digital Buzz Blog.

Raising money for a cause is not an easy task. People can be hesitant to part ways with their cash, and while you think you have a worthy cause, not everyone will agree. Having an events plan as part of your overall fundraising strategy can really help.

Below are six events you could host that would not only interest the public, but would also allow people to feel comfortable when it comes to handing over their money. The trick is to be clever about the event you host, how you publicise it and who it is you ask to get involved.

1. Host a Formal Benefit or Gala Event

While it sounds expensive to run, if you’re wise about how you set about planning for it then you can make an excellent return. Try and find sponsorships for everything from the event location to the caterers, music, decor specialists and others. This way, whatever you make off the tickets will be purely for profit and paying the staff

Make it a formal event and choose exquisite decor, food and gifts for your guests. You might be pleasantly surprised by how many people offer free services to help you out?

2. Host an elaborate Cocktail Party

While very similar to the gala event, a cocktail party would be less formal and more affordable for the general public. Bring in an attraction that will encourage people to make an effort to be there. Maybe a top DJ playing background beats or a TV personality welcoming everyone with an opening speech?

There should be some kind of draw-card, even if it’s just the venue and the sales pitch that gets people to come there.

3. Host a Live Concert with Top Bands

The trick to this event is getting the bands that draw the crowds to play for free. One of the best ways to do this would be to host an entire day or night time event that showcases the talents of many different bands. In doing so, you create an environment where varying tastes are catered to, resulting in numerous attendees from all walks of life.

As with the previous two options, you’d need to be clever about how you string the event together. Sponsorships go a long way to ensuring you can actually raise enough money for your cause or charity. A few things that you could look at having sponsored are:

• The bands would be the primary expense; if they’re willing to play for free, you’re already saving yourself a lot in expenses
• Venue hire; perhaps you could negotiate a reduced rate or even find a venue that will offer their space for free
• Soft drinks and alcohol; a sponsorship from a local liquor store will help
• Food – vie for discounts wherever possible
• Volunteers to help out at the entrance, behind the bar, as security etc
• Lighting and sound

4. Host a Sporting Event

Sporting events come in many different shapes and sizes, each one having its own perks when it comes to raising funds. Think along the lines of some of the following:

• A fun run (or walk) that requires runners to collect sponsorships from friends or family.
• A golfing event that requires each player to pay a large sum in order to enter. Sponsored prizes could be the draw-card for them, or perhaps it would just be a charitable act on their part.
• A Yoga-thon, Spin-a-thon or Dance-a-thon?. Each attendee pays to take part in an all day Yoga festival hosted by a number of teachers who would have to offer their services for free. This would also work with any exercise class such as spinning, dance, tae bo, Nia, Pilates etc.

Prizes could be offered to those who make it through the entire day or who meet certain criteria. You could also have prizes for certain novelty items such as “Most Dedicated”, “Best Dressed” or “Most Valiant Effort”?

Having the prizes sponsored will make the event that much more appealing to contenders, although something like this is usually fun and can work on its own just with the right kind of crowd participation.

5. Host an Auction

Art? Furniture? Clothing? There are many ways you could spin an auction event, the trick is to make it enjoyable for spectators, buyers and all the other folk in between. A nice idea would be to host a themed event, like an Antique Auction or a Local Artists Auction. Make money off the entrance fee as well as placing a mark up on all the items that are sold.

Make the day more interesting and exciting by having a jazz band playing in the background, perhaps having a small market space where people can sell their own art or wares. Having a variety of food and entertainment are key to making an event like this work, providing the platform for you to make additional revenue.

6. Organise a Family Fun Day

Family Fun Days can provide a great opportunity for you to raise funds for your cause. There are many different elements that will make the day exciting for those young and old. Finding the perfect venue to host the event will be the most difficult task, but once you’ve tied this part down you have an empty canvas to work off.

Schools are excellent for this kind of thing as you have everything you need in one location; playing fields for space, toilets, parking and a central environment that people are familiar with. There are a number of different ways you can make money off a Family Fun Day event:

• Live music and entertainment to attract more numbers
• A beer garden for the adults
• A variety of food stalls; everyone will need something to eat at some stage of the day
• Inflatable castle, slides and such or fairground attractions such as merry-go-rounds, Ferris wheels etc. You could charge a flat fee that allows them access to all the rides; payment can be identified by them wearing a wristband or something similar
• Activities for the adults and older children such as archery, go-karting, bungee jumping etc
• Market stalls with a variety of goods for sale including clothing, toys, organic produce, gimmicks etc

Whatever event you choose, make sure you and your guests have fun.

Best of luck!

Social media offers the perfect tools for sharing with friends and family. Through the social circles of those attending your event, you can reach many new customers who may not have heard about your organisation before.

Getting people to share your content online is not as easy as it sounds though. If you’ve asked those in your immediate network to help you out once or twice already, what else can you do?

This is where content marketing comes into play. The basic idea of content marketing is to develop content outside of your immediate needs – content that will be useful and valuable to your audience – in order to garner more support for your bottom-line products, i.e. event tickets.

When creating content for the social media space, there are no rules and there is no ‘right way’ to do it. There are some general guides you can use however, to give your content the best chance at being shared amongst online communities.

Online is the place for snacks, not three-course meals

It has been said many times, and backed-up with a recent study, that online users have very different expectations when it comes to reading. To keep the user interested, your content needs to be broken up into small, bite-sized chunks. That could mean shorter video content to entice the user to watch it immediately, or leaving gaps of time between sharing your pictures online. In this way they are more easily digested, one-at-a-time.

When writing blog posts or articles for your audience, keep them concise and informative. Use subheadings, lists and bullet points when appropriate and different font formats. Readers will avoid large blocks of text that are not broken up because they take more time and more effort to work through.

Make it easy for them – give them small chunks to work with.

If your audience members read/watch/look at your entire piece of content, they will be more likely to share it with others.

Entertain your audience

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of making ‘shareable’ content is the entertainment factor, simply because it’s not easy to define. This will depend on your audience and the type of events you want to promote.

When sharing content online, look for funny, remarkable or interesting stories. People love to be entertained online (why else would we spend hours watching videos about double rainbows,

kids biting each other

and marketing campaigns for body wash.

You don’t need to find the next YouTube sensation (and you most likely won’t), but you do need to find content that is interesting and fun.

By looking for the highlights from your event, the moments that make you laugh and the surprises or shocks, you’ll find interesting content. If you can share a lesson or important piece of information in a short piece of content, that will make a great tidbit for sharing online. Using different kinds of media will create interest, as well.

Don’t be afraid to step outside the square

It can be easy to stick to our very comfortable traditional-media-and-marketing armchairs when producing content to share online, since the Internet – and social media in particular – is all so new to us still. This may be a good thing though.

Given that social media is such a nascent space, it is ripe for experimentation. Trying new ideas or concepts is part of the fun of working with new forms of technology and communication.

Vancouver Opera is a perfect example.

To branch out in its content sharing, the company uses Twitter , Facebook and its blog to share fun and entertaining items found online, like photos from the Tokyo Toy Show, an IKEA opera video and even manga versions of its shows.

The company’s social media representative blogs with answers to reader questions, explains different aspects of the art and shares examples of opera in popular culture like The Three Stooges and The Amazing Race.

So next time you’re looking for fresh ideas to develop shareable content, try stepping outside your comfort zone and trying something new. If it’s fun, entertaining and short, it’s bound to catch the eye of your social media audience.

A last nugget of advice: make sharing easy, or it won’t happen. Grab some social sharing buttons for your blog or website, and make sharing your content easy and simple.

Using a Twitter hashtag is a great way to promote your event, as it gives followers-of-followers a clickable link to find related tweets, therefore reaching more people than just those following your Twitter account. It also develops a sense of community among those attending your event. We all love to be in on the latest craze or big event, and using a hashtag lets users show off their involvement.

Picking the right hashtag doesn’t have to be difficult, but there are some important tips to keep in mind before locking in your choice.

Make it short

Twitter’s 140-character limit doesn’t exclude hashtags, so choose a tag that’s as short as possible to save space. Using initials or numbers can help keep your tag short without losing meaning. For instance, #sytycd is used for tweets about the tv show, So You Think You Can Dance, and the annual conference and festival South by Southwest uses the tag #SXSW.

Make it clear

Whilst keeping your hashtag short is important, try to make it clear as well. A good example is the recent Melbourne Fringe Festival 2011, which used the hashtags #mfringe and #mfringe11. These tags are short, but simple and clear. Try saying your hashtag out loud, the way followers will say it to themselves. Is it easy to read, and easy to say? This will also make it easier to remember.

Make it memorable

If you want your followers to use your hashtag, you have to make it easy for them. Choose something that is easy to remember and users will be more likely to use it often. For instance, DKNY uses the simple hashtag #GG every week to discuss the tv show Gossip Girl, which is easy to remember and has become one of the account’s most popular Twitter topics.

Make it original

Before going official with your hashtag, do a quick search for it on Twitter and for similar keywords. Not only will this prevent you from using a hashtag that has already been taken, but it also guards against unrelated or unattractive content being associated with your event. Hashtags.org is a great resource to search for and monitor hashtag activity.

Make it official

Hashtags are a user-generated feature of Twitter, and continue to be user-focused. This can sometimes lead to confusion however as several hashtags begin circulating for one event, leaving tweets about the event disjointed and difficult to follow. Once you decide on a hashtag, make it public and official – promote the tag on your promotional materials, your website, and through your own Twitter account to encourage users to pick it up and run with it.

Use it early and often

Once you’ve chosen a great hashtag and made it official, you need to get the word out. One of the best ways of doing this is to add the tag to any tweets you send about your event. If you do this before your event begins, attendees will catch on early and use the tag during the event. Using the tag often will also boost its visibility, and add results for those who click on the hashtag to find out what it’s for.

Have you used an event hashtag before, for your event or someone else’s? What’s the best event hashtag you’ve seen, and why?

We were recently interviewed on TheNextWeb on what it is like running a startup in Melbourne.  The resulting video is embedded below!