Season to season, and month to month, there’s a holiday cadence to event planning that most event creators can’t ignore. And if you’re part of that large group who has at least one event tied to a specific celebration throughout the year, you know there’s a lot of competition.
That’s where thinking beyond the ten federal holidays in the U.S. can really help you stand out. There’s a whole world of whimsical, spiritual, and fun traditions waiting to be explored and celebrated.
Winter holidays, back to college, back to school, and Mother’s Day are the top 4 consumer spending events of the year.– National Retail Federation
So what does it take to plan and promote a truly magical holiday event? In this guide, you’ll find everything you need to think outside of the box and hack the calendar by finding your seasonal niche. Along the way, you’ll discover how to help your event become a beloved annual tradition and thrive in a saturated marketplace.
Event creators who want to help their seasonal event stand out against the competition by offering attendees a unique way to celebrate.
Every month is an opportunity to host an amazing event, with major, minor, and obscure holidays peppering most of them. The question is — which celebration will you choose?
Whether it’s kicking things off with a Valentine’s Day event geared towards proud singles, or welcoming the arrival of summer with a solstice-themed yoga workshop, you’ve got choices. Deciding now before things ramp up can help you make strategic decisions and have the kind of year you want for your events, attendees, and business.
Want to learn more about gaining momentum early? Check out the Essential Guide: Event Marketing.
In the next section, you’ll discover how to choose the right seasonal events to highlight for your attendees, from obscure niche celebrations to the big-name holidays. See how options are one of the best things you can have when it comes to choosing the best holiday to celebrate.
When creating a new seasonal event, it helps to take stock of whether you’re celebrating the best occasion for your audience. This is especially true if your event is struggling to stand out in a saturated market, like the winter holiday season or one-off holidays like Independence Day.
There are two tactics you can take when picking which holidays to plan events for in your city or town. Either you can find new ways to put a spin on a traditional, big name holidays like Hanukkah or New Year’s Eve, or, you can focus on an obscure or global holiday.
According to a Pew Research Center Survey, Christmas is widely celebrated by the majority of Americans, despite still over half saying they celebrate it as a religious holiday. So while Christmas is increasingly celebrated by many non-Christians, it can be seen either way.
Below, you’ll find five tips for choosing the best holiday for your event’s focus. Already know which celebration you want to honor? Skip ahead to the next section, which breaks down strategies for breathing fresh air into more traditional holiday events.
Take a different approach to helping your event stand out. Here’s a list of tips to help you choose the right holiday to celebrate:
Learn more about planning your niche holiday event in Find Your Tribe: Your Guide to Marketing Niche Events.
Just because your event celebrates a beloved holiday doesn’t mean it has to follow a traditional format. In fact, incorporating the unexpected is a great way to delight attendees and attract new people to your seasonal event. Here are two ways to help you think outside the box.
Sure, chocolate and beer sound like a weird combo, but there’s a reason why events that bring together disparate experiences like these are often super popular with attendees. Unexpected pairings are irresistible and exciting — the main ingredients of FOMO, or the fear of missing out.
The best place to start is with research on your attendees. Who are they? What do like to do in their spare time? What attracts them to the events? Answering these questions and building a profile of your target audience can help you find the fresh perspective your holiday event needs.
5 examples of unexpected holiday pairings:
Knowing your audience is key to finding your niche in the holiday events landscape. But you’re just one of many events in a crowded marketplace, so it’s important to understand how your experience fits in with the competition’s during these wonderful times of the year.
This means taking to the Internet and conducting some market research. You can choose how detailed you want to get, but the idea is to survey what’s already available in your area and find ways to differentiate your holiday event from the rest of the offerings out there.
If you’ve never done market research before, here are a few pointers to get you started:
Now comes the fun part — finding your audience and marketing your seasonal event, so you can help attendees get into the spirit and enjoy a special celebration.
Marketing can be overwhelming at the best of times, but with the pressure to stand out during specific holidays, it’s important to stay focused on what works best for your event. Here’s a quick overview of popular promotional channels to help you choose the right ones
One of the best ways to spread the buzz about an upcoming event is by using social media. With several platforms to leverage, you can get the word out to various segments of your audience where they live online.
Typically, if you can do some promotion on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you should be well covered. Here’s a quick overview:
For some events, search can drive a fair number of ticket purchases or registrations. But those sales aren’t automatic — it takes dedicated effort to make your event rank in Google search results. The key is search engine optimization (SEO).
Here are three basic principles to follow to get your event to rank on Google:
To sell out your event, you’re going to need a good email marketing strategy. Email is a direct line to potential attendees and an optimal channel to build your audience. To make it the most of it, you need to pay attention to three key metrics: open, click-through, and unsubscribe rates.
On average:
Discover how to stand out in an event-goer’s noisy inbox with these event email templates written with the experts at MailChimp.
When you sell tickets to any event, you’re asking attendees for two of the most precious things they have to give: their money and their time. So you need to capture what makes your Metal Holiday Sing-Along or 4th of July Beer Festival unique in as little space as possible.
Make it easy to read
You might feel pressured to capture everything awesome about your event in your description, but don’t fall into the trap of giving the whole backstory. Instead, organize your writing and make sure it’s skimmable by using headers and bullets.
Paint your unique picture
Pictures let people actually see what it’d be like to attend your seasonal event, which is why they’re a powerful way to keep people interested and persuade them to buy tickets. Choose strong visuals that help people imagine themselves at your event.
Add an FAQ
If your holiday event needs a little extra explaining, that’s where a solid FAQ section comes into play. If you don’t answer people’s most pressing questions upfront, they might not register or buy tickets. So be sure to include the most important details.
Discover more tips in Best Practices for a High-Quality Event Listing.
There’s a reason why most seasonal events follow tried and true formats. They’re recognizable, comfortable, and easy to create. But these types of events can’t hold a candle to unique and inspiring experiences that help people make new traditions.
Now that you’ve got a whole eBook of helpful tips and tricks up your sleeve to create a memorable seasonal experience, it’s time to put them into practice. Sign up today to create your next holiday event on Eventbrite.