Before you promote your event, ask these five questions

Venue booked. Date set. It’s finally happening. After months of planning, it is time to start selling tickets.

Your next job is promotion. And tempting as it might be to fire up Canva and create something you can quickly share on social media, it is worth pausing first.

Because after spending so long immersed in your event, you may have become, in the words of the Febreze advert: noseblind.

We’re not suggesting your event stinks, far from it. But you may be too close to it to see it as your audience does. Rush to “just get it out there” and your promotion could miss the people most likely to respond, leading to fewer ticket sales than your event deserves.

Taking a step back can be difficult when you are fizzing with enthusiasm. But these five questions will help you find renewed clarity: who you need to reach, what matters to them, what information they need and where they are most likely to notice your message.

There’s no secret sauce here. The value of the exercise lies in its simplicity. When deadlines are tight and excitement is high, it is easy to skip straight to outputs. Focusing on your audience first could save time, sharpen your message and make every channel work harder.

Q1. Who are you really trying to reach?

You may already have considered this while planning your event. Now is the time to look more closely and map out three types of audience using this simple framework:

1. Core: the people most likely to attend
2. Growth: the people with the potential to become interested
3. Support: those who can influence or enable attendance

For each group, note down as much detail as you can about who they are.

The truth: Your event is not relevant to everyone. The more specific you can be about your audience targeting, the more relevant your promotion can become.

Q2. What might encourage them to take part?

The big thing here is relevance. If your event doesn’t feel relevant to someone, they’re not going to attend. Think about what your Core and Growth audiences will gain, as well as what might motivate your Support audience to promote the event. Does your event provide entertainment, connection, confidence, discovery, practical value or simply an enjoyable way to spend their time? If so, tell them.

The truth: People will not attend simply because your organisation wants them to. Show them what is in it for them.

Q3. What could get in their way?

Barriers to attendance come in three main forms – practical and emotional and social.

Practical barriers:

• Cost: Can I afford it?
• Transport: How will I get there?
• Timing: Does it fit into my day?

Emotional and social barriers

• Uncertainty: What should I expect?
• Belonging: Is this event for people like me?
• Confidence: Will I feel comfortable attending alone?

Address the barriers you can and explain the experience clearly. Practical information and welcoming, inclusive language can reduce uncertainty and help people feel more confident about booking.

The truth: Leave out a crucial piece of information and a potential attendee may walk away. Make the decision as easy as possible for them.

Q4. What is the clearest reason to care?

You probably have a long list of reasons why someone should attend. If you try to include them all, your strongest message could disappear into the noise. Focus on the one thing you want your audience to understand. Test it by asking: if someone remembered only one thing about your event, what would you want it to be?

The truth: Clarity beats completeness. Give people one strong reason to care, not ten competing reasons.

Q5. Where would they expect to hear about it?

You have identified your audiences, understood what matters to them and clarified what you need to say. Now you can decide where to reach them. Go to the places your audiences already use and trust. Think beyond social media. An email newsletter, a poster in a familiar community venue, a WhatsApp group or a recommendation from a trusted organisation could be more effective if that is where your audience looks for information.

Truth: It’s not about where you like to communicate. It’s about where your audience is most likely to notice and trust the message.

We originally developed these questions to help a group of young event producers turn their ideas into practical marketing plans. But they are just as useful for experienced organisations, particularly when enthusiasm, familiarity or pressure to launch makes it difficult to step back.

If your organisation has become a little “noseblind”, Keystone can bring the outside perspective you need. Through practical workshops and collaborative planning, we help teams understand their audiences, sharpen their messages and make more confident marketing decisions.

Whether you are promoting an event, launching something new or helping non-marketers communicate more effectively, let’s start with the questions that matter.