Hack the Calendar: Your Ultimate Guide to Seasonal Events
Season to season, and month to month, there’s a holiday cadence to event planning that most event creators can’t ignore. And if you’re part of that large group who has at least one event tied to a specific celebration throughout the year, you know there’s a lot of competition.
That’s where thinking beyond the main public holidays in Australia. can really help you stand out. There’s a whole world of whimsical, spiritual, and fun traditions waiting to be explored and celebrated.
So what does it take to plan and promote a truly magical holiday event? In this guide, you’ll find everything you need to think outside of the box and hack the calendar by finding your seasonal niche. Along the way, you’ll discover how to help your event become a beloved annual tradition and thrive in a saturated marketplace.
This guide is for…
Event creators who want to help their seasonal event stand out against the competition by offering attendees a unique way to celebrate.
You’ll learn how to:
- Pick and choose the right holiday events for your community
- Rethink the way you plan and promote your seasonal event
- Grow your business by growing your audience
Prepare for the year ahead by hosting awesome events
On January 1, there’s a brand new year stretching out ahead of you, ripe with possibility. Every month is an opportunity to host an amazing event, with major, minor, and obscure holidays peppering most of them. The question is — which celebration will you choose?
Whether it’s kicking things off with a Galentine’s Day event geared towards female besties instead of lovers, or welcoming the arrival of winter with a solstice-themed yoga workshop, you’ve got choices. Deciding now before things ramp up can help you make strategic decisions and have the kind of year you want for your events, attendees, and business.
5 ways to prepare for your year of events:
- Refine your event marketing timeline by highlighting gaps in your marketing calendar, so you can (for example) eliminate channels with low ROI.
- Level up your venue game, since logistics take time and the earlier you can sign a contract, the better chance you have of nailing down special rates.
- Reinforce who is responsible for what on your team. It makes it easier to ensure every detail has a point person on your team.
- Firm up your communication plan by visually mapping out how and what you want to communicate, and when you’ll do so, up until the day of your event.
- Think about the year ahead and move up your planning schedule if need be, giving you a chance to workshop your plan for bigger events.
Want to learn more about gaining momentum early? Check out the Essential Guide: Event Marketing.
In the next section, you’ll discover how to choose the right seasonal events to highlight for your attendees, from obscure niche celebrations to the big-name holidays. See how options are one of the best things you can have when it comes to choosing the best holiday to celebrate.
Choose the holiday(s) you want to celebrate
When creating a new seasonal event, it helps to take stock of whether you’re celebrating the best occasion for your audience. This is especially true if your event is struggling to stand out in a saturated market, like the winter holiday season or one-off holidays like Australia Day.
There are two tactics you can take when picking which holidays to plan events for in your city or town. Either you can find new ways to put a spin on a traditional, big name holidays like Easter or New Year’s Eve, or, you can focus on an obscure or global holiday.
Below, you’ll find five tips for choosing the best holiday for your event’s focus. If you already know which celebration you want to honour, skip ahead to the next section which breaks down strategies for breathing fresh air into more traditional holiday events.
3 tips for choosing the right holiday to highlight
Take a different approach to helping your event stand out. Here’s a list of tips to help you choose the right holiday to celebrate:
- Get global
You don’t need to limit yourself to Australian holidays. Internationally celebrated events draw big crowds and are becoming increasingly popular, possibly because of the FOMO we get from seeing them take place online. “Star Wars Day” (May 4), Diwali, and Halloween are just a few examples of some popular internationally celebrated holidays that you can focus your event around. In fact, research from ebay.com.au showed that spending on Halloween decor has increased by 82% over the past 5 years and costume sales have gone up by 31%. - Go niche
Another way to get around the most popular holidays of the year is to think niche. If you’re part of a specific community, you can bet there’s demand for events that celebrate special occasions for that community. For example, fans of Douglas Adams celebrate ‘Towel Day’ on May 25 as a tribute to the author. Burns Supper is a popular celebration with Scots around the world in honour of their most famous poet, Robert Burns. - Know your community
Depending on the state and city in which you live, there will be different demand for niche or international events. So knowing your community, what kind of events are most popular with attendees in your area, and population demographics is key. Another way to gauge interest in a possible niche event? Look at societies, fan groups, current events, and religious organisations in your geographic location. If there’s only one Harry Potter club, you might not have much luck with your Yuletide at Hogwarts Ball. But in Melbourne where the musical is almost permanently sold-out, you’re safe to assume that Harry-mania will draw a crowd.
Learn more about planning your niche holiday event in Find Your Tribe: Your Guide to Marketing Niche Events.
Events don’t have to follow traditional formats
Just because your event celebrates a beloved holiday doesn’t mean it has to follow a traditional format. In fact, incorporating the unexpected is a great way to delight attendees and attract new people to your seasonal event. Here are two ways to help you think outside the box.
Look for unusual pairings
Sure, doughnuts and beer sound like a weird combo, but there’s a reason why events that bring together disparate experiences like these are often super popular with attendees. Unexpected pairings are irresistible and exciting — the main ingredients of FOMO, or the fear of missing out.
The best place to start is with research on your attendees. Who are they? What do like to do in their spare time? What attracts them to the events? Answering these questions and building a profile of your target audience can help you find the fresh perspective your holiday event needs.
5 examples of unexpected holiday pairings:
- Hanukkah 5K Race
- Easter Doggy Fashion Show
- New Year’s Eve Obstacle Course
- St. Patrick’s Day Pop Up Pub
- Die Hard-themed Holiday Escape Room
Discover fun new holidays and dates to celebrate with 365 Reasons To Get Together in 2020.
Find your niche in the market
Knowing your audience is key to finding your niche in the holiday events landscape. But you’re just one of many events in a crowded marketplace, so it’s important to understand how your experience fits in with the competition’s during these wonderful times of the year.
This means taking to the Internet and conducting some market research. You can choose how detailed you want to get, but the idea is to survey what’s already available in your area and find ways to differentiate your holiday event from the rest of the offerings out there.
If you’ve never done market research before, here are a few pointers to get you started:
- Start a spreadsheet to track all of your data
- Identify 5-10 events that are similar to yours in your area
- Collect information on their theme, positioning, and target audience
- Look at each ticketing page and note if they use multiple tickets and what the pricing is
- Use the information you gather to see how your event compares
Kickstart your marketing with The Ultimate Event Marketing Kit: Templates from Industry Leaders.
How to promote your seasonal event
Now comes the fun part — finding your audience and marketing your seasonal event, so you can help attendees get into the spirit and enjoy a special celebration.
Marketing can be overwhelming at the best of times, but with the pressure to stand out during specific holidays, it’s important to stay focused on what works best for your event. Here’s a quick overview of popular promotional channels to help you choose the right ones
The most common event marketing channels
Social media
One of the best ways to spread the buzz about an upcoming event is by using social media. With several platforms to leverage, you can get the word out to various segments of your audience where they live online.
Typically, if you can do some promotion on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you should be well covered. Here’s a quick overview:
- Facebook: Share event updates, engage followers, and create event pages. Target your messaging to specific groups using paid promotion.
- Instagram: Share pictures and videos at all stages of event promotion, with Instagram Stories and livestreaming to engage your audience.
- LinkedIn: Use this professional platform for B2B and industry networking, and to post company news and event announcements.
- Twitter: Write short posts and create an event hashtag to build excitement before and during your event.
SEO (search engine optimisation)
For some events, search can drive a fair number of ticket purchases or registrations. But those sales aren’t automatic — it takes dedicated effort to make your event rank in Google search results. The key is search engine optimisation (SEO).
Here are three basic principles to follow to get your event to rank on Google:
- Keywords: Search engines know that events are timely and location-based, so they will use your event’s date and location to determine its ranking. You increase your chances of ranking even more if you include your city or state in the title of your event.
- Domain authority: The higher your partner’s domain authority, the better your event will rank. Eventbrite is one of Google’s top 100 most trusted sites — the only ticketing or registration page with a high enough domain authority to rank alongside sites like TripAdvisor.
- Mobile search: More than half of Google searches happen on mobile where it becomes an Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP) search result. Eventbrite is the only ticketing company using AMP for all event pages.
To sell out your event, you’re going to need a good email marketing strategy. Email is a direct line to potential attendees and an optimal channel to build your audience. To make it the most of it, you need to pay attention to three key metrics: open, click-through, and unsubscribe rates.
On average:
- 26% of recipients open their event emails
- 4.95% of recipients click links in their event emails
- 0.8% of recipients unsubscribe to their event emails
Discover how to stand out in an event-goer’s noisy inbox with these event email templates written with the experts at MailChimp.
Craft a stellar event description
When you sell tickets to any event, you’re asking attendees for two of the most precious things they have to give: their money and their time. So you need to capture what makes your Metal Holiday Sing-Along or Labour Day Beer Festival unique in as little space as possible.
3 steps to an amazing event description
Make it easy to read
You might feel pressured to capture everything awesome about your event in your description, but don’t fall into the trap of giving the whole backstory. Instead, organise your writing and make sure it’s skimmable by using headers and bullets.
Paint your unique picture
Pictures let people actually see what it’d be like to attend your seasonal event, which is why they’re a powerful way to keep people interested and persuade them to buy tickets. Choose strong visuals or videos that help people imagine themselves at your event.
Add an FAQ
If your holiday event needs a little extra explaining, that’s where a solid FAQ section comes into play. If you don’t answer people’s most pressing questions upfront, they might not register or buy tickets. So be sure to include the most important details.
Discover more tips in More Than Just Words: How Your Event Description Drives Attendance.
Give attendees a new annual tradition
There’s a reason why most seasonal events follow tried and true formats. They’re recognisable, comfortable, and easy to create. But these types of events can’t hold a candle to unique and inspiring experiences that help people make new traditions.
Now that you’ve got a whole eBook of helpful tips and tricks up your sleeve to create a memorable seasonal experience, it’s time to put them into practice. Sign up today to create your next holiday event on Eventbrite.