Combining old and new forms of advertising and marketing efforts to promote your local fundraising event will set it up for success.

With well-rounded, varied strategies, it shows you care about your community and the event you’re promoting. Make it a great gathering that everyone will want to come to by following a few simple tips.

Offline Marketing

There are many free, traditional forms of marketing at your fingertips: press releases, community calendar listings, company newsletter mentions, radio, and even word of mouth, to name a few.

One nicely written press release can be distributed to many different outlets, which will maximize your coverage. A newsworthy angle to your press release will add value to your event. Submit your press release to magazines, newspapers, local bloggers, specialty publications, radio and TV stations.

Be sure to write about what makes your event especially unique. Editors like concise, brief, and relevant information. They don’t want to wade through a bunch of paragraphs with no point. Keep the press release to one page.

If the budget allows, another effective type of promotion is the use of slick-looking posters or banners in high-traffic public places. Companies that specialize in banners for events can crank out the digitally-printed materials in no time.

Generally, it only takes a day or two to print and ship a banner after the printer receives the art file. Many professional printing companies can even help with the graphic design. Or ask a talented friend with an eye for design to create a flyer or poster for free.

Online Marketing

If you haven’t heard of Google Ad Grants, you could be missing out on $10,000 every month in free online advertising and not even know it. Google awards thousands of dollars worth of in-kind advertising to nonprofits that apply.

Google Ad Grants gives organizations the ability to create an advertisement in search results for free. When people search for related keywords or nonprofits, your ad will appear first in the sponsored section. For more information and to apply go here.

The internet has obviously revolutionized event planning and increased reach for potential attendees. A simple social media campaign using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the perfect platforms to utilize.

Before your event, create a public Facebook event page and include pertinent information, links to your website, photos, stories, announcements and weekly updates to your followers. An active Twitter and LinkedIn presence also gives your organization another opportunity for buzz that’s not overly promotional or annoying.

Social media can help build ticket sales, but don’t forget to make it easy for people to buy tickets in advance to your event either online or through a mobile app. A ticket giveaway contest might be a good way to generate more interest, too.

Do Your Homework

Comprehensive advertising entails a wide variety of tactics, everything from old-school posters to the selfie ticket. Don’t rely on one area of promotion; cover your bases without spreading yourself and volunteers too thin.

The bottom line is there are a lot of options to consider and pursue to promote your event in the “traditional” and online sense. Make a list of what’s important to the cause, then execute your plan.

“Understanding traditional forms of offline marketing will make you a much stronger force in the field,” according to the Moz blog. “Most businesses will need to employ a combination of both on and offline publicity, and you’ll need to be in the know about all of it.”

Image: Photospin

Author Bio:

Melissa Davidson is a freelance writer with a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Montana. She especially enjoys writing about business, mental health, education and social issues. Melissa and her canine companion, Romeo, can be found running and riding on trails throughout the Rocky Mountain West.