This comes from client work and is fascinating to me. What follows is illustrative of how many events approach their advertising and marketing. Especially not for profit organizations.
What is it? It's the mindset of:
"We're not going to pay for advertising if we don't have to!"
That's bad advertising attitude or advertising "baditude." And that attitude severely limits any event's opportunity at growing future ticket revenue and attendance.
For years clients have consistently seen a 2x to 5x return on every dollar invested in recommended advertising and marketing. Yet, long term clients who have seen massive growth in their advance and total ticket sales can no longer grow ticket revenues without paid advertising.
At the beginning of the year, one client asked me, "Eugene how much money do you need for advertising this year?" To which I reply, "Well how much can you get?" They insist on a number, so I request $100,000 to $200,000.
Their response is one of total disbelief. "That's ridiculous, we can't do that!" Not because they don't have the money. But because they've never spent that level of money on advertising and marketing.
Again, 2x to 5x return on investment for every advertising campaign we manage for clients. With zero additional cost for campaign management or agency commissions. Some clients see over a 1,000% return on their advertising and marketing investments each year.
If given a choice between "free advertising" and paid advertising, I'd choose paid advertising every single time! For both clients and for my own business. I encourage you to do the same. Why?
Because I am confident that any event can grow 5x to 10x faster with a systematic approach to marketing and paid advertising. Google and Facebook have made it very clear, you need to pay to play.
My strong recommendation is to break free from the "we don't have to pay for any advertising mindset." Per yesterday's email, you can start with as little as $5 a day.