Marketing support pack for event organisers

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Contents

1. Welcome

2. Getting started

3. Understanding your audience

4. Getting the message out

5. Designing your materials

6. Social media

7. Media relations

8. Photographs9.

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1. Welcome

We are delighted that you are running a CBA Festival of Archaeology event this year – you are part of a big success story joining hundreds of event organisers across the UK. If you are new to marketing this pack is here to help you.

The marketing support pack will guide you through the basics of marketing and event, covering promotional materials, press releases and many other different ideas. We’ve written the pack to demonstrate that you do not need to spend much on marketing or to have an in depth knowledge of how it works to be able to put together some effective promotion for your event.

We’re here to help. If you are uncertain of how best to promote your activities please do not hesitate to contact davemoore@archaeologyuk.org and we’ll get back to you with advice and tips to support you through your event.

We are also able to provide you with branding guidelines if you wish to base all your promotion on our branding.

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2. Getting started …

You will have already submitted your event details to the CBA Festival of Archaeology Coordinator so that we can start to promote your event via our website, on Facebook and Twitter and through our press and media activity. If you want to check your listing go to our new website at archaeologyfestival.org.uk to check out that your event details have been included correctly.

If you have not done so already make a full list of all the activities that you have planned. This does not need to be detailed but it is useful to separate out activities. For example, your list may say

Digging for finds in a sandpit Expert help in identifying finds Costumed character explaining different aspects of history (storytelling) Access to part of the venue/site not normally open to the public (behind-

the-scenes) Worksheets/quiz or other hands-on activities Treasure hunt

It is also helpful to prioritise which activities are the most significant or important – which parts of the events have the ‘wow’ factor and which are there to enhance the event.

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3. Understanding your audience

The key to running a successful event is understanding the type of people who may be interested in your event, who you

Want to come to the event Expect to come to the event.

There is a difference between these two points – you may expect that all the people in your local heritage groups will come along, but you may actually want to draw in younger people, those with disabilities, from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, families or education groups. These are the people you will need to focus your efforts upon to persuade them to come along – you need to sell the event to them using the language and the aspects of your event which will appeal to them.

On your list of activities write down the groups the activity may appeal to. For example:

Digging for finds in a sandpit – children, younger families, education groups Expert help in identifying finds – older people who will bring finds along,

children Costumed character explaining different aspects of history (storytelling) –

children to try on costumes, adults to ‘test’ the character’s knowledge Access to part of the venue/site not normally open to the public (behind-

the-scenes) – local heritage groups, regular users of the site Worksheets/quiz or other hands-on activities – children and education

groups Treasure hunt – families with young children

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4. Getting the message out

This is a crucial stage within the planning process. You know who you want to come to your event, you now need to work out how you are going to let them know what is happening.

Some channels of communication you might consider include:

Poster Flyers Leaflets Social media – Facebook and Twitter (you

can also draw on our social media accounts to ensure your event is promoted)

Article in the local newspaper Advertising in the local newspaper or neighbourhood magazine Feature on local radio Feature on local TV Emails to contact lists

If you have more resources to spend on marketing then you may consider a professional PR company and ask for their support in publicising the event. If you don’t, then you’ll need to do it yourself, but don’t be daunted. Most activities are straightforward to do and we have provided lots of downloadable template posters and resources to help make the development of promotion easier.

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5. Designing your materials

Designing a poster

The poster is a cheap and easy technique for getting your message out.

A simple and effective way of producing a poster for your event is by using the FESTIVAL poster template which you can down load from the Festival website at www.archaeologyfestival.org.uk. Add details of your event(s) to this by copying and pasting into the pdf or word document.

The most important messages are

What is the event title plus a line of description When – dates and times Where is the event (meeting places) Who to contact for more details

If there is going to be a charge for activities please provide a guideline cost (eg £3 for adults, £2 concessions, £1 children).

Council for British Archaeology logo

Please do try to include the CBA and Festival logos (available for download from the FESTIVAL website www.archaeologyfestival.org/organiser) on any bespoke posters you design to show that it is part of the Festival and include a line which describes your event as part of the ‘CBA Festival of Archaeology’.

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Flyers

Flyers are a very simple marketing leaflet that can be distributed widely, either handed out or left for people to take away with them in libraries, information points, supermarkets, etc.

To keep costs low these can follow the style of the poster but smaller (perhaps A5 or A6). If you want to add more information make the flyer two-sided.

Guidelines on distribution:

Do

Give small piles to schools, libraries, tourist information centres, hotels and guest houses

Hand them out in person Ask local shops to give each customer a flyer when they hand over their

receipt Leave them in local pubs and cafes, with the permission of the owner

Don’t:

Put them in tourism leaflet racks, except in Tourist Information Centres. These are usually paid for display spaces

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6. Social media

Social media can help you to promote and build interest in your event and can be useful when you don’t have your own website presence.

Facebook

Facebook.com/archaeology-for-all 1

Facebook is a great way to get the word out about your events. The CBA runs a Facebook page for the Festival aimed at both organisers and visitors and we post messages throughout the year. If you add messages we will respond to you to help you promote your own event. You can find us at Facebook.com/archaeology.for.all. Through your own Facebook account you can upload photos, videos and add events and promote to groups with particular interests. Sign up for Facebook by visiting https://www.facebook.com/

It is advisable to keep your personal Facebook account separate from your event promotional work. You also need to ensure that you have someone who is responsible for maintaining and updating the messages you send out. Don’t post too frequently (we currently post four or five times a week, although we will increase this just before and during the Festival) and use Twitter for more frequent messages. Keep each post relatively short and use pictures to ensure to maximise impact. It is good to have event details, but also include other types of posts, for example about recent finds or some of the more social aspects of getting involved which can be linked to the event.Page | 9

Facebook is constantly updating the way content is distributed and its algorithms can make it difficult to know who actually sees your post – it normally distributes your post to a smaller audience and then uses their response to decide whether to share it further. Try to use the “insights” function on your page to work out when most of your audience are online to maximise positive responses and spread the word.

Also, ensure that anything you post on Facebook is positively worded. Posts that include negative language or with text included within an image are often penalised and not shared as fully by the site.

Twitter

Twitter is a micro-blogging service which you can use to send out short messages of no more than 140 characters. You can use Twitter on the lead up to and during an event to send messages and to encourage others to follow you and to tweet. Because Twitter is public you can use hashtags to encourage engagement and create buzz for your event. We have a Festival Twitter account (@FestivalofArch) to promote events which you can follow as well. It’s good to ensure that you have someone who is responsible for tweeting up to and during an event, so that they can respond to comments you receive via the hashtag. To find out more about twitter visit https://twitter.com/about

Though it can be difficult to get used to the real-time and short style of twitter, it is a straight forward channel without some of the complex behind-the-scenes algorithms that make Facebook so difficult to measure. When you post a tweet, anyone who follows you and is currently on Twitter will have your post presented to them.

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Instagram

A growing channel amongst younger audiences, Instagram is a mobile-based image sharing application. Although focused at individuals, an organisation can make good use of it if they have original content to share. A limitation is that to post content you require a mobile device (smartphone or tablet), which can mean running the account via your own phone if your organisation doesn’t have its own mobile devices.

To make Instagram work you need to have original content (images) to post, and be aware of the relevant hashtags – see below - to be able to share the image with your audience. It is worth looking around other similar sites to see how they phrase their comments and post their content. Once you have a few pieces of content, take the time to follow similar organisations and like-minded individuals to start to build a network.

A few successful posts will then start to generate followers for your account so you can rely less on hashtags and just enjoy posting your content and sharing those of visitors and members.

General Social Media guidance

These are the main services to consider, but if you feel confident with social media you could also consider:

YouTube or Vimeo for video footage of your events or hands-on activities at http://www.youtube.com/ and https://vimeo.com/

#Hashtags

A hashtag is simply a summary phrase for what you are talking about. It is a way that most Social media accounts index content so people can actively seek out relevant posts. So for example, if this document was a post, I’d include the hashtag #marketingtips .

More important when you are establishing a new account, these let other users find what you are saying and, if it is good, start to follow you. They are also more important on some channels than others, for example they are vital on Instagram, useful on Twitter and only used sometimes on Facebook.

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7. Media Relations

If you have a great news story please do let us know and we will try and craft it into our national and regional activity. If you wish to carry out some of your own activity it may be possible to get your event featured in the media, whether it is the local paper, regional radio or television. However, it does help if you know the best ways of contacting journalists and letting them know what you are doing.

Although you want to advertise an event when you are undertake media relations you are trying to gain editorial coverage rather than paying for an advert. You need to be clear when you contact local media to ask for the newsdesk or the features desk to avoid being put through to advertising.

From the CBA we will be sending out regional and national press releases which will highlight some local events and to promote the online listings to get full details of all events in an area. However, we cannot get editorial coverage for every single event as there are over a thousand taking place across the UK during the Festival fortnight. Your additional publicity work will complement the CBA’s activity and ensure your event gets noticed.

Writing a release

The news release is a written document which explains what, when, where, who and how an event is happening in a concise manner which a journalist can quickly understand.

There is a simple structure that you can follow to make a perfectly good news release that gets your message across. In a nutshell this is

Start with the name of the group hosting the eventPage | 12

Underneath put the title “New Release” Add in the date of the release Then put a creative title (a good eye-catching headline may help)

The first paragraph of the news release should feature all the key details of the event in two or three lines. Who, what, where, when, why (ie part of the CBA Festival of Archaeology)

The second paragraph expands on the first a little, so explains some of the background to the event, or provides more detail about what will be happening

The third paragraph should include a quote from someone from within the organisational team saying how much fun/how interesting/how exciting the event will be – this is where you can really enthuse and talk about how great it will be. Remember to put the person’s full name and title, eg “John Does, head archaeologist, says …”

The fourth paragraphs adds extra details in about the activities, times, costs, as well s the contact details for further information.

Then insert the word “ENDS”.

Right at the end include contact details for the media – who they should contact if they need further information. On the next page we’ve included a sample press release from last year.

‘Pitching’ the story at journalists

After you’ve completed the release sent it to as many journalists in your area as you can. Websites will normally provide email addresses and the name of the news editor for radio and papers. Sometimes you can also find the names of feature writers, days out or listings editors and local reporters in your area. Send them all a copy, preferably via email.

You can also follow up with a phone call to the newsdesk and they are likely to ask you to send through a release.

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8. Photographs

Good photographs can turn an average story into a brilliant newspaper feature. However, many papers prefer to use their own photographs to ensure that there will be no issues with copyright. If you have a really visual event on offer invite the paper to send down a photographer.

It is also good to send a photograph with a news release which needs to be of a good quality. To see what sort of pictures appeal to your local newspaper take a look at all the pictures they already use and aim to take something similar.

Don’t have lots of people stood around posing or shaking hands!

Do include some action or something unusual, whether it be colourful costumes, a picture of a local community leader digging, a close-up of an archaeologist holding an unusual artefact.

Local radio and press will be interested in local people.

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Credit: Dom Ennis 2

Please remember to get the parental permission for photos of children, whether it will be used in the press or not. You can download a photographic permission from the Festival website at www.archaeologyfestival.org.uk/organiser.

If you are inviting the local press photographers to come down before the event have clear idea of what, where and who they can photograph and when you’d be available to do it. You can then phone the newspaper and ask to speak to the picture desk or picture editor directly. They may also ask to see a copy of the news release.

Good luck

We do hope that your event will be a huge success.

We would welcome any feedback you have on this pack. What worked for you what did not work, or if anything was not particularly clear. We hope to provide this pack every year to make it increasingly helpful for event organisers like yourself.

If you have any queries please do get in touch:

Dave Moore, Communications OfficerCouncil for British ArchaeologyTel: 01904 671 417Email: festival@archaeologyUK.orgWebsite: www.archaeologyfestival.org.uk

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