Making Your Events Highly Discoverable

If you’re throwing great events but no one’s attending them, the problem might not be the topics, but instead the discoverability of the events themselves. What does this mean? Simply put: if no one can find your events online or in person, how can they be expected to participate?

If your events aren’t discoverable at the moment, however, don’t panic – there are some easy-to-implement fixes that will get your listings in front of the right audiences in no time:

Key Elements That Make Your Event Discoverable

Putting events online

Roughly nine-in-ten American adults use the internet, and for the coveted 18-29 demographic, that number is even higher, coming in at 99 percent usage. This means that if you’re hosting events, there’s a good bet that your audience is looking for them online. Whether or not they find them there is up to you. But the first step is to ditch – or expand – your traditional paper-flyering strategy in favor of a digital one.

Using an event calendar

That being said, not all online presentation formats are created equal. If you’re working to make your events truly discoverable, we recommend using an event calendar meant for the purpose rather than a regular CMS. Why? Take metadata as an example. The metadata that accompanies a blog post in content management systems like WordPress or Drupal is very different than the metadata that should and does accompany an event listing in an online event calendar. You’ll want to make sure that the appropriate information is included and being indexed by search engines.

Optimizing for search engines

Speaking of search engines…they’re the tools that often deliver your event listings to eager attendees, and you want your events to be found by them! Search engine optimization is a very complex field, but to put one aspect very simply, more elements on your calendar (given the proper weight) mean more pages and content for search engines to index. This, in turn, means more eyes on your content and, hopefully, more people at your events.

Including the right event content

What is the content that gets indexed by search engines? Having robust event content is a crucial part of your event listings. From descriptions to user reviews to metadata, these details and additional items provide more room for search-friendly keywords and more elements for search engines to index. The more you optimize your listings up front, the more prepared your audience will be to attend and the more they’ll know whether an event is a good fit for them.

Leveraging existing channels for promotion

Existing marketing channels like email, social and SEO aren’t just a case of “set it and forget it.” Instead, use these channels to promote your events. Have an upcoming event? Make sure to share it with your email and social audiences. The right event calendar, in turn, will ensure that your event listings are optimized so that they’ll rank in search engines. The more eyes you can get on your event content, the better the discoverability of your event will be.

Benefits of Discoverability

What are some of the benefits of getting your event listings in front of your audience?

• Increased event attendance — how can people attend something they don’t know about? More eyes up front mean more attendees at the venue
• More tailored audiences — with accurate, authentic information promoting an event, the people that attend will be people who want to be there
• Increased opportunities for data collection — learn more about your audience’s interests and likes based on their interactions with your listings

If you’re seeing reduced event attendance, it may not be the topics of the events that are to blame. Make sure your events are promoted online in a properly optimized format, and there’s a good chance you’ll see a better turnout in future.

How have you made your events more discoverable? Let us know in the comments.