Small Biz Survival

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How to promote special events in a small town

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Special Event Ahead. Photo by Becky McCray.

How do you let small town folks know when you have a special event coming up? Photo by Becky McCray.

This is another list of ideas that came from a question by a real business owner. How do you get the word out about events in small towns? They were kind of stuck for ideas, past having the Chamber of Commerce send an email and creating a Facebook event. So what else could they do?

For example, we came up with lots of ideas to make a Grand Opening even more grand. But how do you let people know it’s going to happen?

Start with these ideas for inspiration:

  • Get all the details online in one place, easily shareable
  • Create a short URL to share and use that link all over
  • Create a Facebook event to share
  • Tweet about it
  • Ask everyone involved to reach out to their networks
  • Write suggested tweets or posts for others to use
  • Create graphics people can share
  • Put up fliers
  • Talk to everyone
  • Put table tents out
  • Email 5 friends and ask them to pass it on
  • Talk to local preachers
  • Combine with nearby towns to work together
  • Recruit students
  • Recruit teachers
  • Ask the chamber of commerce to send it to their email list
  • Get utilities or the town to promote it on utility bills
  • Speak to other organizations
  • Post Instagram photos
  • Reach out to former locals
  • Talk to alumni groups
  • Start a phone tree
  • Get the local media on board
  • Run ads
  • Label it as exclusive and secret, ask people NOT to share
  • Limit ticket sales or attendance
  • Tweet, Instagram and Facebook DURING the event

I’d love to have your ideas to add to the list. How have you successfully promoted events in small towns?
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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.

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