Outdoor Events & Advance Ticket Sales

Last week one of my local clients held a large press conference for their event. A few months ago, I posted an article on “Press Releases and Your Event Marketing” and passed along a copy to my client.  As in the article, I made it known to the client how important it was to include the web site in all possible media references to the event. The client wholeheartedly agreed and did their part to ensure the web site was featured. In fact, the last portion of the official press releases included mentioning the event web site and listing the web address. The press conference came and went. A few hours later news outlets started to feature information about the event.  It was great that the local news services were featuring information on the event, but unfortunately none of the outlets were including the web address.

The Opportunity Cost
Why be emphatic about something as simple as list a web site?  The opportunity cost was at least 500-750 target market visitors to the web site. I figured 500-750 possible visitors because after getting the web site listed with just one news outlet 120+ people visited the event web site.  In Rochester we have at least 5 major news outlets.  Because of an insatiable thirst for the latest and greatest, news stories become old news quickly. There is a very limited window of opportunity to get visitors via links with news features. Once the news stories fade away so do the web site links.

The Lesson
By the end of the day I was left scratching my head.  I decided to call up a friend that has been in the local media for over 30 years. He had some pretty insightful information as it pertains to my press conference lesson, “news agencies tend to truncate a lot of information.” I’m going to interview some additional media people to find out if there is something that can be done to ensure there is a better chance of getting your web site reference included. I’ll pass along the information when my research is complete.

The Recommendation
My friend suggested listing the web site in the first paragraph of any official press release. You should also include a really strong call to action for the web address.  Second, kindly ask the news media correspondents, “Can you please make sure to include the web site in any stories you feature?” A simple direct request like that can make a huge difference.

A web site listing is an easy to thing to add to any news feature, because of this, it is also very easy to forget.  Make sure you do what it takes to get your event web site listed in any news references.  As they say, “Good publicity is the best free advertising in the world.”

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• How to Get Them To Your Event
  
• Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• Leveraging Your Sponsor's Digital Resources

• The Event Promotion System - Get Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training