There’s a common misconception out there about marketing your event services. It’s the notion that you have to be in “party mode” across all your channels. And it includes a marketing strategy that feels like splashing messages anywhere and everywhere. But if you subscribe to these strategies, you’re going to be running out of time and budget. You’ll also be coming up short on results, too. If this “be-everything-to-everyone-everywhere-all-the-time” approach is the wrong way to market yourself as a New York event planner, what’s the right way?
We’re glad you asked.
Find Your Event Planner Niche and Lead with It
Lean into your best service, strongest delivery, or niche offering. Lead with your BEST event-planning foot forward with your marketing efforts. And you’ll begin to build a pillar target audience that can become a strong foundation for adding in your other valuable offerings.
There’s less competition when you niche your marketing, too. For example, don’t just promote yourself as a New York event planner. Instead, be THE New York event planner for milestone birthdays or company holiday parties. And instead of trying to compete as the best wedding planner, be the best engagement party planner. Then, you can win over the couples and earn their event-planning trust for the wedding to come.
Define Your Event Planner Brand Voice, Style, and Positioning
When marketing yourself as an event planner, you don’t want to mix up your messaging or be inconsistent. And because your events are all unique and different, just prompting your past events can lead to confusion among your audience.
Instead, build a foundation for all your marketing efforts with a well-defined brand voice, style, and positioning. Imagine your event-planning brand as a human with human-like characteristics. Maybe your brand is more traditional, or you define your brand as an innovative line of event services. Is your brand cool and collected or high-energy and red-hot? Identify your brand stance and then make sure every piece of marketing material or messaging resonates with that stance.
Build Your Event Planner Empire on Referrals
Paid advertising, Google Ads, and PPC are definitely great methods for boosting a specific event. But when it comes to promoting yourself as an event professional, grassroots networking and referrals are still king. Save your ad budgets for special marketing instances and get back to networking for your event business.
Devote your efforts to maximizing every networking opportunity to get in the room with the right people. Collect and promote every event testimonial you can. And build a robust referral program that taps into the endorsements and reputation you already have. Building your empire on referrals is how you can develop a steady stream of new clients ongoing.
Yes, You Still Need Those Party Reels
We’re not suggesting that you abandon those post-event party reels and photo-sharing marketing opportunities. You still very much need those to sprinkle excitement, social proof, and versatile event planning into your messages. Just be sure you’re keeping those post-event promotions in line with your niche, your brand, and your voice. And then use those high-energy experiences to drive referrals.
Learn More About Marketing at The Expo
Start gaining more marketing traction when you learn the right way to promote yourself as an event planner. This list of suggestions is just the tip of the iceberg, too. To learn even more about effectively marketing your event services business, you really need to get tickets to The Event Planner Expo 2023 this October. It’s here you’ll immerse yourself in three full days of high-energy networking opportunities with the industry’s leaders! Thousands of event planners, hospitality professionals, corporate executives, company decision-makers, and business owners will be there.
Get your VIP Education and All Access tickets NOW! And learn from keynote speakers, including the legendary Gary Vaynerchuk, event experts, and more at The Event Planner Expo 2023!
