How to Maximize Your Event Press Coverage on a Limited Budget

Many charities don’t have big budgets, let along any budget for public relations, but getting coverage in the press about your event is important. Stories about your event help build the brand. It entices people to attend your event and creates buzz. It also helps set the stage for future events you host as you can link back and refer to earlier press coverage.

Pubic Relations for Charity Events

Don’t let a limited budget curb your efforts. Here are a few simple tactics you can implement even if you have close to nothing to spend.

Don’t just hire any photographer. Hire a photographer that guarantees you coverage on a particular news roundup website or publication. I’ve used Guest of a Guest for many events. They offer discounted rates for charities. You get a professional photographer who snaps photos of your attendees and your entire event. Photos are put up on their website and your attendees can tag themselves in the photos – which people love to do! Guest of a Guest has high search engine optimization so your events are highly ranked in Google. This is good to raise awareness of your event and charity in the future.

Event calendars and roundup websites. Websites such as Charity Happenings make it easy and free to post your event to their calendar of upcoming events. You get your event in front of people you might not otherwise be able to…which means new people to potentially purchase tickets. Charity Happenings also lets you post your event photos for free which means added post event press. (Note: you can add your event to calendars on other sites such as Guest of a Guest and NY Social Diary – but they only post recaps from events that their photographers or reporters were at.)

Press releases on a shoestring. It can be pricey to issue a full press release over a newswire service – which don’t get me wrong, definitely gets your news in the hands of the right people. But, when budgets are tight and you can’t afford $500-$1,000 to issue a press release, you don’t need to call it quits. Write the press release and add it to your website. It’s great to be able to link to it at the next event you do (especially if you are seeking donations/sponsorships). And you can still “pitch the media.” Send them media alerts about your event 3-6 weeks prior. See if they want to come and comp them a ticket. Post event, send them a press release recapping the event and try to get them to write post event recaps. In both cases email the alert/release to contacts at your “go-to” publications.These should be publications that align with your event/organization. Search online to find email addresses. Many publications have the email addresses to their reporters and newsrooms on their sites.

Do you have additional quick and inexpensive tips? Share them and we’ll do a follow up post.

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