Event growth without partnership marketing is difficult. While it’s important to run your own promotions, partner organisations and individuals can help extend your reach to new audiences.

Some partners will happily promote your event, unprompted. Others might never post a single tweet. So how can you turn more partners into evangelists?

Make every partnership a win-win

Including marketing expectations in partnership agreements can help create a win-win arrangement. Test out different incentives to determine what works best for your event and partners. Examples include:

  • Holding a contest to reward the partner who sells the most tickets
  • Setting out a budget for sponsored posts or online advertising in sponsorship fees
  • Giving special brand visibility to engaged partners

Create a social media toolkit

This document should contain shareable images, messaging, and — most importantly — links to your event ticketing page. The toolkit serves as a reminder to partners that your event is approaching, and makes it as easy as possible for them to share your event.

Recognise your event partners

If partners can expect a strong social relationship, they’ll be more likely to reciprocate in the future. Make a point of tagging partners on social media as often as possible and agree upfront to how many posts you’ll publish to highlight their involvement. If your want partners to be encouraged to sell tickets, consider providing a special discount code for their audience.

Cultivate media relationships

Connect with local bloggers and social influencers who resonate with your attendees — is there potential for a partnership? You should also seek PR opportunities with reputable media sources. Getting published in popular, well-regarded publications that promote “Top 10” or “Best Of” event lists will help spread the word and appearing in online lists can contribute to good search engine optimisation for your event.

By establishing a plan and marketing process with event partners upfront, you increase the likelihood that they will be more active participants in sharing your event with their audience.

Need help securing strong event partners and sponsors? Download The DNA of Relationship-Based Event Sponsorship