Marketing 3-4-5™ Activities Specifically Crafted For Promoting Local Events on Your Website, via Email, Social Media & Google, and Beyond - Browse all local marketing plans here
As we visited more than 400 communities as part of our nationwide Marketing 3-4-5™ tour, we had the pleasure of participating in dozens of local events from Parades to seasonal activities. In all cases and all communities large and small, there was a great deal of effort put into the events and marketing them - though they weren't all well attended and, in some cases, the attendees didn't know who was hosting or what the purpose was... they just happened to be there.
The cause is usually a blend of limited time, too much to do, lack of marketing know-how and experience, and the wrong tools for the job... notice we didn't list budget?
This simple marketing and content plan is based on our Marketing 3-4-5™ approach and shows how every local business or nonprofit can effectively promote their events and activities.
As we always say, content drives marketing, and we've built tools that make it surprisingly easy for local businesses to follow a repeatable process for creating impactful content.
Below are simple ways for you to rapidly create content that is relevant, and compelling, yet requires zero creativity for your Main Street & Downtown Associations.
If you don't have a robust website everything else you do is less effective, more expensive, more time-consuming, looks less professional, and generally more likely to fail.
Locable's tools can be added to any existing website and this includes our Calendar - promote your events, classes, meetings, and deadlines and highlight them on your website through this free calendar. You can also use our calendar to include events from your community, from the businesses and nonprofits that you support in real life.
As a result, you can ensure your website is the source of truth for your activities which is important as anyone who visits your site thanks to an ad, referral or anything else is unlikely to think to themselves, "boy, this website is lacking but I bet their good stuff is somewhere else."
This also means you can ask your supporters or sponsors, your Main Street, your Chamber, your Tourism bureau and others to include your events on their website automatically so you can reach more people without extra effort and they can have a more complete local resource.
Share this marketing plan with any local business association to help them improve their marketing.
Your events may be a major focus and these activities are more than just a day on the calendar, they're stories that need telling!
As we discussed above, these events should be listed in a calendar on your website featuring upcoming events (it should be sortable to show past events and classes too).
Go further, create companion blog posts - including event preview article(s) and an event recap article - for the event... these are two of the 12 templates available through our Prompt-based Guided Blogging feature.
At its core, Business Blogging enables you to share activities from your business or organization, or - in this case - your activities.
Event preview articles enable you to tell more of the human side of the story and add more context to connect with people and places in your community. Highlight sponsors, vendors, beneficiaries volunteers, the grand marshall or whatever else is relevant.
Continue with another post after your events, we call these "Event Recap" articles.
This follow-up article can include pictures, embedded YouTube videos, and a simple recap. Including funny or unexpected happenings and quotes from attendees and volunteers help further drive home the connection to your community.
These event recap posts commemorate a recent event and remind people of the great time they had, or that they missed out on a fun or impactful experience...
You should reference any and all local businesses and nonprofits and - when shared to social media - tag those organizations on social media to take advantage of “ego-bait.”
This approach goes beyond a singular event and creates story arcs that can span weeks - if not months - to deliver ongoing promotional value.
Best of all, if this event recurs annually, then when you write next year’s preview article you can refer to last year’s recap article to relive the fun. Not only is this sort of compelling content quick and easy to use, but when you link within your own website, you’re showing Google that you are a force in your community.
How can you reach more people with your events, classes, and other activities?
Content distribution is an important aspect of local marketing and it's fundamental to Marketing 3-4-5™ and the Locable platform.
Distribution means that the content lives on your website but is pushed to many places so people see it, engage with it, and ideally return to your website to read it.
Email marketing is a key aspect of promoting your event and our Express Email Newsletter™ feature makes this ridiculously fast - as in, send an email in about 5-minutes fast!
Go further and use event registration or paid attendance enhancements with your events and Locable will automatically confirm registration and send registrants reminders 24 hours and 1 hour prior to the event to drive up attendance.
From there, publish your events to your Google Business Profile and Google Maps with a single click to increase exposure across Google's platforms and improve SEO.
One last thing, in addition to the distribution you get from cross-promotion with your Local Connections™ mentioned above you, can also reach people through online calendars at local magazines, newspapers, and resource websites. Locable's Publisher Network includes hundreds of local sites and publishers beyond the network are also able to utilize these events.
How often do you have an event attendee seek you out in person or via email to thank you for the event, share that they had a great time, or something similar?
This is satisfying but also an opportunity to give even more exposure to your activities.
The simple approach here is the say, "Great! Do you mind if I share some of your experience in an article on our website?" They'll be more than happy to oblige and you can proceed to ask them a few simple questions.
Note, this can be part of an Event Recap article referenced above or a standalone article - in general, a stand alone piece is more valuable.
Tell their story.
A simple post explaining their experience and a simple Q&A with your partner is fast and easy. A few questions we recommend include:
If this is a business participant, you'll want to ask about their community involvement, why they participated as a business, and what other events they participate in.
Best of all, when you distribute this content people who know them, their business, or are from their town are more likely to take notice. Be sure to tag them on social media so they can amplify it with their contacts and you'll get added SEO benefits as these articles include useful keywords and phrases for Google.
Don't forget that the blog lives on your website and follow our suggested approach to post and distribute content online.
Would you like to add resources for local businesses to your website? We provide them free of charge to help your merchants get started or go further with their marketing to attract more customers, improving hiring & retention, and positively impact your community.
