5 Ways to Get the Word Out About Your Event Venue
You created a great section on your website about your event space. You uploaded beautiful photos, wrote a description, listed your contact information, and clicked the publish button.
Now you can sit back and watch the requests roll in, right?
Nope.
Unfortunately, a great website won’t bring in bookings on its own. You need to do a few more things to make potential clients aware that you exist and get found online. Here are 5 tips on how to market your venue directly to prospects:
1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
If you don’t have the correct search terms in the text of your website, you are not going to come up when people are searching for a venue like yours. Sit down and come up with a list of keywords that describe your venue, the types of events you book there, the locations you serve, and anything else that you want to be associated with in an online search. If you’re not sure where to start, do your research with these free SEO tools from Moz.
2. Connect with local bloggers and Meetup groups
Tap in to the blogging communities in your area to help spread the word for you. Bloggers who write about lifestyle topics (such as weddings, food, family, travel, fashion, or local happenings) have huge followings of readers that rely on their advice and insights. Do some searching for the bloggers in your area that write about topics that are relevant to your venue, and invite them to check it out. It’s very common for local businesses to hold social events for bloggers as a way showcase their services or products and provide discounts on their offerings. In exchange, the bloggers will talk about the event or business on their blog and social media, which gives you more of an online presence and puts you in front of a larger audience. Keep these tips in mind when working with bloggers to make sure your relationship starts off on the right foot.
Many Meetup groups hold events and they’re looking for the right space to host their book clubs, dinners, networking nights, and social time. If you are in Meetup groups or know people who are, suggest your venue as a place to hold their next event. Share an open invitation to Meetup groups by putting up signage in your venue or discussing it on your website, via your social networks, in your regular newsletters, or anywhere else you do your marketing.
3. Use social media
Make a point to remind your social media followers about your event space on a regular basis. Post a link to your venue information a few times a month, and be sure to post photos and videos of the events you’re hosting with a note about how your followers can reserve your space for their next gathering. Don’t forget that the social networks won’t show your posts to every single one of your followers – they all use algorithms to serve up the most relevant information to each user. So you will need to throw some money behind your social posts and place some social media ads to get your messages in front of the right people. It doesn’t take a lot of money to get started, and each of the social ad platforms have some excellent targeting features to reach the locations, age groups, and interests of the people most likely to become customers.
4. Try email marketing
If you’re not using email marketing to promote your venue, now is a great time to start! People have not abandoned email as a way to get information – in fact, 72% of consumers prefer email as their source of business communication. Choose an email service provider and use it as a way to keep in touch with your customers and prospects on a regular basis about what’s happening at their venue and any news or promotions they may be interested in. Follow these tips to make sure you’re sending the right amount of relevant information at the right day, time and frequency.
5. Get listed in our Venue Finder
Tripleseat’s Venue Finder has more than 2,400 venue listings and yours could be one of them! It’s easy to get your venue listed – just sign up here and you’re all set. All event planners have to do is search by keyword or use our handy map or list view to find the perfect venue for their next event. Then, they’ll fill out a contact form and Tripleseat will send the info to your venue rep. The Venue Finder is getting a new look and feel in a few weeks – and we’ll be promoting the site on the blog, through email, and on our social networks, so now is the perfect time to add your location.
Take it one tip at a time
You might be feeling overwhelmed at the work it takes to get found online, but don’t give up. Start with the SEO tasks first to make sure your website is searchable, and then work your way down the list, one tip at a time. When you’re done, you’ll get directly in front of the customers that are right for your venue, and every season will be your busy season. Just make sure you’re using an event management software like Tripleseat to streamline the planning process and coordinate more successful events for your business.
