Posts Tagged ‘Squash’
Advertising Your Events on the Web
Advertising your events on the web can be a confusing proposition. Having your own website is great, but driving traffic to your site can be difficult. Dealing with search engines and confusing technology can be time consuming and expensive. Many websites offer event listing services, so how do you find the website that is best for you?
First and most important, determine the target audience for your event. Are you looking to advertise for people to come visit your event or are you looking for vendors for your event? For example, you are promoting a craft fair and you are looking for crafters to rent booth space and sell their wares at your fair. Then you need to find a website that caters to artisans and crafters. If you are looking for people to visit your fair and purchase from your vendors then you need a website that is appealing and caters to potential visitors.
Understanding this early is key to finding a website on which to list your event. Some websites offer services so that you can advertise for potential vendors, but these sites are typically not designed to help you advertise to visitors. If you want people to visit your event look carefully at how the website lists their events. Are the listings cluttered and difficult to read? Are multiple event types contained in the same listings, making it difficult for visitors to find your event? Is your event going to stand out or be lost among pages of unrelated events? Does the website make it easy to search for events and view individual events?
The best event listing sites will provide individual websites that are focused on each event type. This is important as you can choose how to manage your event listings. For example, you are promoting your community’s annual Squash Festival and you have local bands, an arts and crafts fair and food made from squash. With an event listing service that provides a single site for events, your event is listed just once. For an event listing service that provides multiple focused websites, you can create a listing for music, crafts and food. Each listing appears on it’s own website which is focused toward music festivals, craft fairs and food festivals.
The second item to look for is what information you are allowed to include in your listing. Foremost you should be able to enter one or two paragraphs describing your event. A one or two line description is not going to go far in attracting anyone to your event. If you are listing your event to attract vendors, are you able to provide the information that you think a vendor would require? Is the form to add an event cluttered and complicated? If you are listing your event to attract visitors, are you able to provide the basic information a visitor would need to find your event? Are you allowed to provide an email address and website if visitors want more information?
Regardless of whether you are looking for vendors or visitors, look carefully at how your event information will be displayed. Is your information displayed in an appealing manner and easy to read? Many listing websites will display a page of events with a shortened description based on the results of a visitor’s search. Make sure that visitors can click on the shortened version of your event and expand it into a full page display. Does your listing include a map or other features that a potential visitor would find useful? Is an email form provided if a visitor wishes to contact you?
Many websites are available which will list your events. Be wary of listing services that charge a membership fee to post events. Investigate what you are receiving for your membership beyond just the ability to post events. There are also sites that require you purchase a membership or charge a fee to post a listing and who then turn around and charge visitors to view your event! The best event listing websites will provide a free promoter membership and provides free access to the listing for potential visitors.
The last item to consider is your ability to manage your event. Once you have posted your event, make sure you are able to return and edit your event information. Are there additional features you can apply to your event, such as top-of-page for search results, colored borders and backgrounds and images? Most sites will charge a nominal fee for these extras. Also, check to see if the website provides information about the number of times your events was displayed. The better event listing services will provide additional details such as the number of times your event was expanded, the number of times a visitor clicked on the web link you provided and the number of times a visitor used any of the special features.
By: Bill Hooper
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