If you’re a contracted event planner, whether it’s for colleges, weddings, or a corporate setting, you know that marketing yourself is half the job. Your clients won’t just come to you; you have to put in marketing efforts to attract your ideal clients.
Now…it’s time to ask yourself: are you utilizing all marketing outlets to ensure your success as an event planner? We put together three go-to strategies for driving interest, establishing relationships, and ultimately securing dream event contracts.
Social Media
Social media is an ideal platform for driving interest in your services and building a community — the key is to be consistent and engage with your followers and pages you follow, too. People want to see that interaction; credibility is moving further away from a company’s website and more towards what others have to say about the organization or service.
Each platform is different, so try different promotional tactics:
- Instagram allows you to keep your audience engaged with real-time stories and appealing photos and videos. Share client testimonials on your stories, include viewers in on behind-the-scenes action, talk to them about your upcoming events! Over time, this familiarity with your channel will drive them to engage with your content.
- Typically, LinkedIn is the place to make connections with seasoned professionals — aka, the decision makers in the companies that will hire you to plan their event. Keep them engaged with your content by sharing some event planning tips and resources, providing insights on hot trends, and sharing sneak peeks of current projects .You can even pay to have your post reach audiences that may have never seen your content before.
- Twitter is a great platform for thought-leadership content, quick updates, and cross-promotional content. (AKA, retweeting!) If you use it the right way, it can quickly make your page more reputable and become a true voice for your brand.
Venue Relationships
Word-of-mouth, referrals, and reviews are an important source of business development for a contracted event planner. You’ll want to work hard at building relationships with every vendor you work with, but in particular contacts at each venue. Why? Because venues are one of the first items companies check off when they begin to plan an event — and, venue staff knows everyone else! It’s definitely worth going the extra mile to impress them with your hard work, attention to detail, and personality. Having venues refer your services will go a long, long way!
Networking Events
If you live near a city, there are bound to be networking events in your industry that are occurring. This type of exposure to other vendors will begin to build credibility for your business and name. Not sure of where to find these events? Start with the local chapter of your industry’s association or with your chamber of commerce. They plan tons of networking events throughout the year, and will know what others in the industry are up to, too.
It’s definitely safe to say that marketing is a large part of how successful your contracted event planner business will be over time. Investing time into these three things, with consistency, will boost your clientele, drive engagement, and ultimately land a client that was once on your “dream” list!
