Facebook, the most popular social media in the world, has more than 2.7 billion monthly users. With that staggering number, it is easily the best platform to use in promoting your upcoming events.
Set up your events on Facebook to reach people, increase attendance, or even sell tickets. About 700 million people market events on Facebook monthly, with 35 million people viewing a Facebook event every day. This makes it easy for every event planner or host to make their events easily discoverable by people.
So how do you set up an event on Facebook? Whether you are creating from a business page or a Facebook personal profile, here is a quick guide to help you.
Creating a Facebook Event:
1 On your computer desktop, log in to Facebook, go straight to your brand page and click “Create Post”.
2 Choose “Create Event” as the post you want to make.
You can also do this by going to the Events tab under your Page name. In the “Upcoming Events” section, click “Create New Event” in the upper right.
For Event creation under a personal page, on your Facebook homepage click Events on the left sidebar menu.
Then click Create New Event
3. Choose whether you’re hosting an Online or In-Person Event.
4. Input the event details on the left side of the screen – event name, date, time, location, description, and event category (music, food, networking, etc.).
Privacy of events posted on business or brand pages is automatically set to Public.
You can preview the event details you’ve input on the right side of the screen to make sure all the details are correct.
On the event details of In-Person events, you can choose whether it’s a recurring event and you can input frequency.
5. Click Next and choose the appropriate “Location”.
For online events, choose how people can join your event. You can host through Facebook Live, through external links, or Others.
For in-person events, input the physical location of where the event will be held.
6. Once done, click Next. This is the last part of the Facebook Event creation and where you can edit the cover photo of your event as well as other necessary event settings.
Click Event Settings to add co-hosts or to make your guest list viewable by all invitees.
For In-Person events, you have the option to include additional information on admission tickets. You can input the price or ticket URL on this part.
7. Check that all event details are correct. Click Create Event and you’re done!
8. Upon completing details of your Facebook event, a pop-up will ask if you want to boost your event.
When you boost your event, you can pay for targeted ads to certain audiences that you want to reach.
On your final Event page, you can now share your event link and see event insights – know how many people have seen your event, how many responded, audience data, as well as ticket link sales.
Unlike business pages, events posted from personal Facebook profiles have the option to be shared with friends.
A typical Facebook event should look like this to your audience:
Now that you’ve created your event on Facebook, you can now start inviting guests. It’s an easy-to-use platform that offers great leverage and can be an asset you can utilize for your next big event.
When the pandemic swept the globe, the events industry seemed to be put on hold. Conferences, festivals, business workshops to fashion, and cultural events have been affected.
But the world adapted. Virtual events happened in place of the cancelled shows. There was a sudden influx of content online to market events.
Now, with the world slowly getting back to its feet, how can your event stand out from all the noise and get the spotlight it deserves?
A successful event, whether online or in-person, is every organizer’s dream. Filling the room with people chatting, buzzing with activities, and attendees wanting more after each event looks like a perfect scenario. But without people knowing your event, how can you fill up a room?
Here’s a guide to help you craft the best event marketing plan to attract the right people and, well, get them to attend.
Get to know your target audience.
First and foremost, your event won’t get the attention it deserves if you’re targeting the wrong people.
Before you start marketing, know the people to who you are going to market your event. This will help you decide on the information and content you’ll create to connect with the audience you want. There are several ways to do that.
Use Analytics. There is no best place to start than starting with your numbers. Use data to make informed decisions about your customers or the people interacting with your website or channels – looking into their demographics like age and location, and then digging deeper than the surface level.
Create Psychographics. Once you’ve narrowed down your audience using data, it’s time to know “why” they interact with you. “What is their buying behaviour? What are their interests? Why should they attend? What value does this event bring them?” List down the answer to these so you can pinpoint the best message for these people.
Run a Little Survey. If you want to know your audience a little more, you can try sending out a little survey. It can be through email or social media. Try to keep it short and simple so it won’t take up too much time.
Create the right content
Creating the right content for the right people is crucial to marketing an event successfully. Remember that it should consist of three phases: pre-event, during the event, and post-event.
Pre-event content consists of all the promotional content you’ll be creating and sending out. Content ranges from emails, social media posts, press releases, or blog posts.
When creating content to market your event, it’s important to take note of the following:
Website or Event Landing Page
Create a website or dedicated event landing page where potential guests can get all the event information they need. You can host this on your website or create it from a listing website.
Events Page on Social Media
Time to use the power of social media in marketing your event. You can create Facebook event pages to help generate the buzz you want. LinkedIn also has the Events features that allow you to create professional events such as seminars, meetups, or online workshops.
Social media event pages can be very beneficial in marketing any event. You can reach people outside of your current following and share content easily with people interested in attending. You can even use it for follow-up campaigns after the event.
Promotional Materials
In creating assets for your event, always remember to stick to your event branding. As you’ll create tons of graphics like photo and video content, a cohesive and consistent look should always be observed.
Take the time to figure out the best content to share before, during, and after the event. You might want to stick to short animated videos during the event promotion stage. Answering questions about why people should attend and then giving them brief event details. During-event content, event photos, and videos should do the work. Post-event posts should include feedback and testimonials from guests. This helps build your reputation as an event organizer while keeping attendees’ interest in your next event.
Calendar your activities
Now that you’ve managed to figure out the people you want to target and have created the perfect content for this audience, now is the time to calendar all your activities. A good marketing plan should always feature a sensible calendar that will work best for you – one that highlights your event in a special way.
A calendar will help you plot out the key deadlines leading up to your event.
These steps might help you:
Mark the final event date on your calendar.
If you have deadlines and tasks, mark them out on the calendar as well. If you’re running a series of content coming out, include the writing deadlines and publishing deadlines on the calendar. This helps you keep track of everything.
Plan how and when each content is coming out. When does your promotion start? When is the social media post for the last day of ticket selling coming out? Make sure you plot everything out on the calendar, so nothing gets lost.
Here’s a sample marketing calendar to help you get started:
3 months before the event
Event landing page designed and published
Registration page working
Event logo finalized
Early bird discounts set up
Launch announcement on social media and email
Reach out to possible partners and promoters
2 months before the event
Two blog posts about why people should attend
Tie up with a popular blog site to reach out to new people
Share blog content on social media
Start social media content promotion
Announcement of the end of early-bird discounts
1 month before the event
Final blog post to attract last-minute sales
Social media content on full blast
Planning and schedule of during-event posts
Now that you’ve set up a well-thought-of event marketing plan, it’s time to execute it. There are tons of marketing tools and event ticketing platforms available to help you navigate event planning and marketing. Leverage the use of these tools with your marketing plan so you can sit back and watch as ticket sales go in.
With a reputation for being the heart of an exciting destination for events and conferences, Birmingham, a city for business and cultural activities, offers a wealth of venues that can accommodate any event objective, style, and budget.
Birmingham venues host a vibrant mix of options – from contemporary ones to the usual convention centres and much more off-beat and original ones. The city is home to six universities and major companies in the business districts, making it an ideal place to host academic and large conferences. Also known for its array of historical sites, Birmingham’s city also offers the option to accommodate unique and intimate events.
But if you are budget-conscious, there are plenty of options in the second largest city in the UK that are low-cost but can still leave your guest in awe.
The Bierkeller Location:195-196 Broad Street, Birmingham, B15 1AY Capacity:260-500 Price: £15 (Minimum of 10 people) Nearest Bus:3 minutes from Bishopsgate St, Birmingham B15 1D
Located in the city centre, The Bierkeller is an ideal place to hold events and gatherings. It offers different food and drinks package options to suit whatever event you are planning to host. If you’re looking to have bubbly and canapés, hot or cold or finger buffet, or maybe even a sit-down meal, Bierkeller also offers bespoke design packages to fit for the party you want.
What’s great about this location is that it’s armed with 3 three different venues, all under one roof. From quiz or game nights to conferences, weddings, birthday celebrations, or even hens and stags – The Bierkeller prides itself with the capacity to host such varied events.
The Studio at The Blue Orange Theatre Location: 118 Great Hampton Street, B18 6AD Capacity: 60 Price: £25-125 Nearest Train: 6 minutes from Jewellery Quarter Station
The Studio at The Blue Orange Theater is the perfect venue if you plan to host rehearsals, classes, conferences, small gatherings, and simple celebrations. It’s a fully air-conditioned place with natural light beaming from its windows, giving it a light and spacious feel.
Renting the Studio comes with its in-house sound system. If your event requires additional technical equipment, the venue can give access to equipment hire and technical experts to help you make your event a success.
The Theatre and Bar spaces at The Blue Orange Theater can also be hired together with the Studio or separately.
Chaophraya Location: St Martins Square, 6 Spiceal St, Bullring, Birmingham, B5 4BW Capacity: 120-140 (Full venue) | Upstairs: 54-70 | Downstairs: 66-80 Price: £30-50 / person per session Nearest Train: 4 minutes from Moor Street Station
Are you looking to throw a party, Thai style? Then this is the perfect venue for you!
Book at Chaophraya Birmingham if you want to celebrate extra special and want your guests to fall in love with the taste of Thailand. Located opposite the Church of St Martin in the Bullring, you will have a stunning view of the church, with the Chaophraya offering an impressive mix of classic Thai and signature dishes, including vegan and gluten-free options.
So, whether it’s a birthday, anniversary, graduation, or even a simple milestone celebration, the Chaophraya is the perfect and closest getaway from the city.
The Old Library Location: The Old Library, Zellig, Gibb Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B9 4AA Capacity: 25-300 Price: £500-2000 Nearest Train: 16 minutes from New Street Station
Located near the Custard Factory in Digbeth, Birmingham’s creative quarter, The Old Library is a unique and dynamic place to host your events. It brings the charm of an old Victorian library with its light and airy space flooded with natural daylight, vaulted ceilings, and iconic arch windows.
The large open space allows large gatherings, conferences, parties, and weddings. There is an adjacent Reading Room that is available for breakout space, buffet area, or cloakroom.
The Old Library offers in-house catering with their dedicated chefs creating fantastic food and drinks menus, with the option of library-themed cocktails served at the Library Bar.
Blakesley Hall Location: Blakesley Road Birmingham, B25 8RN Capacity: 20-100 Price: £180-480 Nearest Train: 19 minutes from Stechford Station
One of Birmingham’s finest timber-framed Tudor houses located just a few miles from the heart of the city, Blakesley Hall is a unique venue for a special occasion.
Its atmospheric Great Hall, 18th-century barn, and tranquil garden can be the place for your meeting, conference, or wedding. The Blakesley Hall sets a historic setting for any event making it truly memorable for your guests.
Besides hiring this space, Blakesley Hall also offers guided tours and talks tailored to your specific event to make it even more special.
The Florence Location: 106-110 Edmund Street, Birmingham, B3 2ES Capacity: 15-30 Price: £50 (minimum spend) Nearest Train: 5 minutes from Grand Central
The Florence is situated right at the heart of the business district. It’s a budget-friendly venue that’s not too far from the city’s hustle and bustle but offers privacy and sanctuary.
It offers different packages, and whatever suits your needs, they’ll organize it for you. They have a semi-private area that can accommodate 30pax standing, 15 pax seated. The Florence provides an all-day event option from a simple meeting over coffee to a bottomless brunch on the weekend, up to late-night dinner and cocktails.
You can hire the Semi-Private area at The Florence or the hidden-away private function room if you’re looking for a more intimate set up.
The Events Space at Soho House Location: Soho Avenue (off Soho Road) Birmingham, B18 5LB Capacity: 110 Price: £300-400 Nearest Train: 10 minutes from Benson Road Metro Station
The Events Space at Soho House is a modern space set with a backdrop of the beautiful Soho House and its gardens.
Its flexible space provides the perfect place to host your meeting or party. The Soho House also offers non-exclusive access to their gardens on a complimentary basis for booking their event space.
Terrace Suite at Birmingham Botanical Gardens Location: Westbourne Road, Birmingham, B15 3TR Capacity: 150-250 Price: £30 / person per session Nearest Train: 33 minutes from Birmingham New Street Station
Accommodating up to 250 people, the Terrace Suite is an elegant setting ideal for daytime meetings, conferences, gala dinners, receptions, and Christmas parties.
It has a built-in bar and a sprung dance floor for evening entertainment, while the space benefits from a flood of natural light during the day. The Terrace Suite is a historical space with a large arched ceiling, private washrooms, catering facilities, and a private suite bar.
The venue also sports a multi-zone sound system, a PA system with channel mixer and Sonos music player.
Situated upstairs at the newly renovated The Actress & Bishop, the event space is a multi-function room catering to corporate events and celebrations. The hire price includes the full PA/AV equipment plus private facilities and a staffed bar.
The Actress & Bishop offers its exceptional catering service fit to suit any event preference and budget requirement. You can choose from their tea and coffee packages, buffets, working lunches, one-pot menus, and evening options as well. The venue provider can also source live entertainment for you if your event requires it.
New event pages are going up daily on Helm Tickets, and there are always even more people looking for events to go to. So what makes certain event listings and pages more successful than others?
There are a few factors that make a great event listing. So whether you’re going to embed your listing on your own site or link directly to ours, discover how to make the most of your event listing here!
The Event Name
The most successful events have short, engaging titles that describe exactly what your event is and why it’s different from the rest. The most effective titles make an instant impression, are simple to remember and look great on any promotional materials.
Your title doesn’t need to explain everything about your event, just enough to catch potential attendees’ attention so they’ll want to learn more about your event. If you have a person of interest attending the event or the organiser, are the person of interest, make sure any notable names are included in the event title.
The Event Location
When people are looking for events, they often search by location. They may be looking for something close to home or something further away during a trip. Your short and engaging event title will appear where the potential attendees are searching by providing the exact location.
Having this exact event location means anyone who’s already attending your event is also more likely to share with people around them to help spread the word.
Event SEO
Making your event listing SEO friendly means it’s easier for search engines like Google to find your event, which is incredibly important. A good chunk of SEO is based on having relevant keywords in your event title and on your event page. When creating your event title, it’s important to think about making it short and sweet and including a keyword or two in the title that could be used to search for your event.
Then it’s time to look at creating your event description. Take a quick looking into the types of people you want to attend your event. Build up some keywords and phrases that you think they’d search for to find your event. These will be the keywords and phrases that you’ll want to include in your description. SEO can be as simple as that!
The Event Details
Writing out all the small event details may not be the most interesting part of creating your event, but your audience will appreciate it. Make sure that your event description tells any potential attendees everything they need to know about your event.
This could include:
FAQs
What’s allowed/not allowed
Line up
Recaps from a previous event
Transportation options
Any other information you might think will help convince your audience to buy a ticket.
Make sure your pricing and tickets types are clear, and it’s easy to understand what’s included with each ticket. For example, if you have a VIP package that includes free food and drink, make sure you let the potential attendee know that’s what’s included.
All this has many benefits: as well as helping your SEO, it’ll also help to answer any questions people have before they buy their tickets. Picture yourself as the attendee: if you couldn’t find the information you needed before buying a ticket, how likely would you buy that ticket?
Be Organised
No one likes having to read through lots of text to try and find the information they’re looking for. Use headers to help organise your event information and break up large text bodies with sections of broken down information. This makes it super easy for your audience to find exactly what they’re looking for. If you have a schedule for the day or a line up playing at different times, break it down using bullet points. Simple changes like this make it much easier for potential attendees to find what they need.
The quicker they find the information they’re looking for, the quicker they’ll start buying tickets to your event.
The All-Important Images
Your event images are arguably one of the most important features of your event page. It’s the best way to attract people to your page. It’ll be used when sharing your page and listing on social media and is one of your most important tools to help you sell more tickets.
Upload the logo of your event, business or organisation. Choose other images that are unique to your event (such as images from previous events) and images that reflect your event’s feel. By uploading lots of great images, you’re giving your audience an insight into your event before attending. Make sure you keep these images as professional as possible. This can help you sell more tickets and encourages people to share your event on their own social media profiles.
Combining Text, Images and Video For Success
The most successful event listings and pages include engaging text, compelling images and sometimes even video content embedded into the event description. Choose images and videos that add meaning and depth to your event, so your audience can learn more about your event through your visual content. If you’ve held this event or a similar event in the past, including images and videos that provide show how it went. If you have people of interest attending, performing or speaking at your event, consider including images of them (as long as you have their consent). Having visual media like this in your event listing is far more engaging for your audience and will help convert them to attendees.
Organising an event can seem a daunting task so discover a few of our top organisation tips and tricks to ensure that your next event runs smoothly!
Running an event can seem a daunting task, even to those who’ve been running events for years. To ensure your event runs a smoothly as possible, it’s important to set clear goals, prepare a schedule, look for partners, find service providers and, in our opinion, manage your ticketing!
Here are a few tips and tricks to ensure that you can minimise some of that necessary stress when you plan your next event and help it go as seamlessly as possible!
Write everything down on paper first
Find yourself a piece of paper and brainstorm down all your goals for the event. By doing this, it will help you clarify what the purpose of your event is. Think about why you’re creating this event and who you’re creating it for.
There are many events out there, from cultural to social to sports events, so you need to work out what makes your event special. What makes your event different from the rest? This will help you to identify your unique selling point (USP).
These elements will offer you guidance in planning your event. They’ll act as a signpost to help you avoid going in a different direction that may not benefit your end goal. Having all these goals outlined at such an early stage can also help you in the future when you may potentially approach partners and sponsors. If you have a clear and solid idea of your goals, it’ll make it far easier to communicate that message to others.
From this point, you’ll define the visual elements of your event and help you shape the tone of the voice you want to give your event.
Create a schedule and budget forecast
This will become the holy grail of your event! Taking the time to plan all the tasks that need to be completed and managed throughout the planning phase until the day of your event can be incredibly beneficial. Always be open to reviewing these throughout the process, though.
Some of the things you’ll need to plan will include:
Building your teams
Looking for partners and service providers
Creating communication tools
Choosing and creating your online ticketing tool
Producing elements of your event
Looking for speakers or bands
Safety and other admin and legal steps, etc.
These steps can obviously vary depending on your event: you might need more steps or sometimes less. It would help if you covered everything you may need to do in the early stages of event planning, so you know what you have ahead of you.
Once you’ve planned and listed out all your tasks, begin to start organising your event. Event planning is notorious for being full of surprises, both good and bad, so it’s important to have a rough idea of a backup plan if not everything goes as expected.
At the same time as creating your planning schedule, you can begin to plan your budget, looking at available funds, forecasted revenue, financial needs, etc. It’ll be far easier to begin tackling your budget once you’ve completed your tasks and expenses, and this forecast will be crucial when approaching sponsors, donors and partners.
Contact potential sponsors, partners or benefactors
Usually, one of the first tasks in your schedule is to research and secure potential partners, sponsors and benefactors. Their support of your event can be a huge help in financial help, wellbeing and even equipment. It can also be precious in terms of exposure.
This process can require a lot of time and energy. The key to this is to define which organisations may be interested. You’ll need to look at which ones you can provide benefits to, as well as how they can benefit you. For example, can you provide sponsors with links into the local community or help build up their image and reputation within certain sectors? In return, the potential sponsors can then help by being part of your event planning and the event itself (speaker engagements, product samples, etc.).
Service Providers
When looking for partners and sponsors, you’ll also have to start looking for service providers. Obviously, this can differ hugely depending on the needs of your event. Usually, it’s common to have contracts with:
A service provider to ensure health and safety on-site and at entrances (the venue can sometimes supply this)
A caterer, food supplier or catering company for your teams and guests
Before the event, a platform to manage ticketing or registrations (a service we can provide, click here for more details)
A technical provider for everything that relates to sound and lighting, internet access, etc.
Many operational roles can be outsourced to service providers. Don’t hesitate to write a specification note listing your expectations and needs and issue a tender to choose them well. This will allow you to assess different proposals and prices.
Sell your tickets
As mentioned in the previous step, your ticketing platform is at the heart of your event. To make sure you get great attendance to your event, register to your online ticketing platform and list your event with plenty of time to market your event to make sure you see a high rate of ticket sales and registrations.
Many options are available to support and market your ticketing, such as:
Creating promotional codes to incentivise your attendees to share or communicate about your event, as well as boost your sales
Promoting your event on social media with lots of insider information about your event
Embedding your tickets on your website
Strong Communication
Linked to having high ticket sales, your event’s communication should be planned to help trigger your audience to perform certain actions at certain times. The can lead to an increasingly high impact on them as the event gets closer.
Make sure you target potential attendees using the most relevant support at certain times. For example, using social media, press, poster campaigns, partners, and media helps increase awareness around your event. Incentivise ticket sales at certain times using promotional codes as previously mentioned. You can use so many communication tools to maximise your potential audience; it’s up to you to choose which would work best for your event.
Create a press kit for the media to talk about your event and offer interviews, testimonies and reporting opportunities for the day of the event. The local and regional press may be interested in covering your event, so it’s always good to be prepared. This strategy will obviously need to fit in with your budget.
Spoil your attendees
The experience you create for your attendees should be your number one priority when developing your event:
Make sure you remind everyone involved with your event of the essential and useful information ahead of time.
Create a friendly, warm and approachable atmosphere at the event itself
Establish dedicated spaces to relax and enjoy the event, and don’t forget about the basics such as toilets, water fountains and access for people with reduced mobility
Have locations where attendees can seek out additional information depending on the scale of your event. – having easy access to these facilities and short waiting times will improve the attendees experience overall.
Brief, Communicate and Review
Before the main event day, take the time to create a summary of all the necessary information for your attendees and anyone who might be involved in your event. Make sure everyone has all the information they need.
Ensure any staff you have can communicate effectively throughout your event. This way, both you and them will be able to keep an eye on the event’s progress, track any feedback or handle any possible questions your attendees may have.
Once your event is over, don’t forget to get a review from any staff you may have at the event and your attendees to discuss what worked well and what you might need to watch out for next time!
As the internet evolves, the solutions for better protection on websites increases. However, so does the inventiveness of cybercriminals and hackers. For years now, organisations like Google have been working on making the web a safer place by encouraging website owners to use the HTTPS certificate, making sure that data sent from your computer to the website you are using is encrypted and secure.
In recent Google Chrome updates, Google will ensure that all sites without HTTPS are marked as not secure. All other websites will continue with the green HTTPS letters in the URL; this means that an SSL certificate secures them. Continue reading to determine why SSL certificates are so important and how they can benefit your business or personal website.
What Is An SSL Certificate?
For over 20 years, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates have been available for use. Having an SSL ensures that the sensitive data of your website’s visitors will be transferred over a secure network. Despite this essential component of SSL, many end-users and organizations have delayed their adoption due to the price of the certificates and the complexity of implementation. Today, getting an SSL certificate is much easier because there are options that offer them free and have made their installation super simple.
Is It Important To Have An SSL Certificate?
If you still need convincing, here are several important reasons:
Increasing site security: Firstly, SSL certificates protect the sensitive data transferred from and to your website. Such information can be login details, signups, addresses and payment or personal information. SSL certificates encrypt the connection and help protect your visitors’ data from being misused by attackers.
Safety for all your subdomains: A specific type of SSL certificate known as a Wildcard lets you secure your main site and all its subdomains (like blog.yourdomain.com or shop.yourdomain.com) with one single SSL certificate. That’s useful if you are a business owner or if you maintain large websites with several subdomains. With a standard SSL, you’ll have to install separate certificates for each of your subdomains.
Credibility and trust for your customers: A benefit of SSL certificates is that they can help you gain visitors’ trust. Your website will be displayed with a security padlock in the address bar of the browser. This indicates that the connection is secure and will show your website’s visitors that you take privacy seriously. If your website doesn’t have a certificate, some browsers may label it as “unsafe.”
SEO advantages: Another benefit of having an SSL certificate installed is the SEO improvement in rankings that your site will get. In line with their HTTPS everywhere initiative, Google gives websites with encrypted connections a slight rankings boost. Although the boost may not be substantial, having an SSL will give you an advantage over your competitors who don’t have certificates yet.
How Do You Get An SSL Certificate?
The most common way to get an SSL certificate is to check if your current website hosting provider offers any SSL certificates. Until recently, all SSL versions were a paid feature. However, more and more companies have started to release free SSL certificates.
In some circumstances, it is better if you use paid Certificate Authority. If you have an enterprise-level site (or multiple sites), consider using an EV certificate. The EV certificate has a strict authentication process. It will add even more visible indicators of trust like the name of your company, country abbreviation, green bar in the URL of the browser and more.
In conclusion, the benefits of activating SSL certificates for your business or personal websites are incredible, and some web hosting providers have made installing them easy and quick. Don’t miss to take full advantage of the HTTPS revolution, add an extra layer of security for your website visitors and gain their trust.
To ensure your attendees view your event as safe, we always recommend having an SSL certificate on your site. Alternatively, use the direct Helm Tickets link provided to you as that is HTTPS secure.
