Let’s face it, there’s nothing more important to your next event than promotion.  An “A List” DJ at the worlds best venue, with the cheapest drinks and tickets, doesn’t guarantee a full house if no one knows about it.  While on the flip side, an unknown DJ playing a set a the local sports club with an expensive bar and entry could sell out every weekend if the world’s waiting for it.

So before your next big event, have a read of these 5 essential tips to promoting your next event!

1.  Build up the Hype

First things first, you’re going to want to tell people about your event, WELL BEFORE the event.  Now this may be obvious to most, but this tip is an art in itself.  Promoting your event early will lead to some great hype which will hopefully be carried over into the event, generating a buzz.  Start to do this too early however, and the built up hype will start to die away and once closer to the event, you’ll have to build it back up again.  You would be doubling your work and wasting time and money.  Not sure what I mean?  Remember buying the tickets to your first big holiday and afterwards feeling totally amped?  This probably lasted a week or so, and then you kinda forgot about it and started complaining about how far away it was.  Then closer to the date, you start to get all excited again?  This is exactly what I mean.

So start promoting early.  But only early enough that you can feel you can sustain the hype and buzz about your event.  And don’t leave it too late, as that in itself is a lost opportunity.

2.  Dirt jump that Hype

Ever see those crazy motocross riders jumping from a dirt jump and soaring a billion feet in the air while flipping, spinning and totally losing all contact with their bike?  Well concentrate on the jump, not the rider.  The start of the jump, the flat part, is you and your promotion start date.  The highest part of the jump, the take off, is your event date.  The path from the start, to the take off is a guide on how often you should be promoting your event.  At the start, it shouldn’t be so much, maybe a little noise, but nothing to confronting and “in your face”.  As you progress towards the take off you should ramp it up (pardon the pun).  Start to make more noise, in more places, and more often.  By the time you hit the take off, you should be telling the whole friggin’ world about your event.  In every medium you can, as often as you can, and as loud as you can!  So by the time you hit that jump, people are busting those doors down to attend your event.

3.  Spread the Hype

Nothing spreads news as fast as social media.  The MyGuestlist Social Media Command Centre is perfect for this and not only can you utilise your social database, but your employees or other fellow promoters promoting the event.  Did someone say “reach”?  So once you’ve figured out your start time, plan to spread the word through your Facebook pages, twitter tweets, and G+ updates (if you’re into it).

Emails also, never get old, and you can usually make a longer lasting impression using it.  Be creative with it and make it personal.  Embed a YouTube clip, include all of your social buttons in the signature and monitor who reads it and who doesn’t.  Did I mention MyGuestlist does this pretty well also?

4.  Focus the Hype

It’s easy to get caught up in the moment.  If you’re promoting a big event with big names at a big venue, you can tend to feel a little, er, BIG, it’s only natural.  But what you need to do, is think of the event first before yourself.  Use all that hype and focus it for the acts, the venue and the event, not yourself.  Who knows, one day your promoting efforts could lead to “(insert name here) presents (insert current chart topping group) at (insert current hotness in venues)” but it’s always better to start small and focus your efforts on who people really want to see.

5.  Live up to your Hype

Professionalism is where it’s at.  Whether it’s to the potential headline acts, the group of venues that you’re scouting, or the people that you want to buy tickets from you, you always need to be professional.  Whether your first small event, or the biggest one in your town, the same attitude should be employed.  Keep it up, and your name could be as synonymous as the acts themselves (see step 4 last sentence.)  Basically, live up to your Hype.