Advertising is a specialist area and the intricacies of advertising are a whole new problem. If at all possible use a professional to advise you on every aspect of advertising, including the wording to use, where and when to advertise, as well as what colours and art work you need for maximum benefit. They will arrange for that artwork, insert the advertisements on the most effective days and pages, and negotiate very good rates.

Should I advertise?

Advertising may not be strictly necessary, depending on the type and size of the event, but it is always, always, always beneficial. Especially when you remember that advertising doesn’t have to cost money!

If the event is limited to members of a small club and their friends, an announcement at a club meeting may be all the ‘advertising’ that is necessary to inform the potential audience of the event. As event manager, you must decide if you could attract a larger audience if you also advertised the existence of the event with surrounding clubs as well? Larger events, particularly those trying to attract members of the general public, especially if the event is being run for the first time, must advertise or die

Many events have failed not because the public didn’t want to come, but simply because the public did not know that the event was taking place, where it was and what the attractions were. When you have gone to the trouble of investigating, planning, organising and running the event, avoiding clashes with other events and pitching the costs and prices at the right level, it would be a shame if nobody came because nobody knew it was on!

Is it worth it? Yes it is – if your proposed target audience and income justify the costs, and only you can decide that, probably in consultation with an advertising professional.

Did you know that an advert on the right-hand page of a paper or magazine often gets more response than the same advert on the left-hand page? Positioning on the page is also important in the level of response, as is the day on which the advertisement is run.

Putting an identifiable code in the advert lets you know which ad the reader is responding to; knowing that allows you to see which advertising was most effective. For example including a code in the reply address such as ‘Reply to London Steam Show – Room LP1’ tells you that they replied to your first (1) advert in the Local Paper (LP), i.e. LP1.

Changing just one word in the text of an advertisement can have a remarkable effect as well. For example ‘Free Car Parking Available’ may get a vastly better response than ‘Car Parking Available’.

Advertising and publicity is nowhere near as easy as most people assume. Response can be doubled or tripled by using appropriate knowledge and experience, just as the price of advertising can be halved using knowledge and experience.