Not everyone is an artist. But almost everyone enjoys pretending they’re an artist for a night — especially if friends and wine are involved.
Enter paint parties. These nights out for friends put a spin on traditional art classes, with teachers guiding students through their masterpieces as they chat with friends and destress.
For artists and interested events professionals, putting on paint parties and classes of your own may seem like an easy win. But it’s a crowded marketplace — so you need a promotional plan that will stand out to an artsy audience.
Here are simple steps you can do each day of the week to promote your paint parties and classes.
Monday: Help the arts-inclined find your paint party on Google
89% of attendees use search engines to find events. That means people should be able to find your parties and classes on Google when they do a quick search. But first, you have to know what they’re searching to find paint parties and classes like yours.
Use a tool like Moz’s Keyword Explorer to discover which keywords are often used to find events like yours. Here’s a sample of the keywords and monthly search volume for paint parties and classes:
- “painting classes near me” has 4.3k-6.5k searches per month
- “painting and wine classes near me” has 201-500 searches per month
- “canvas painting parties for kids” has 201-500 searches per month
- “private paint party” has 201-500 searches per month
- “paint parties near me” has 101-200 searches per month
Once you’ve selected your keywords, here are three ways to use search engine optimization (SEO) to improve your ranking:
- Include top keywords in your event name and event page URL
- Link to your event page from your website and social networks
- Choose a ticketing or registration partner with a high domain authority score
Tuesday: Automatically post your paint classes on social media
You want your paint party to appear wherever potential attendees are online — especially social media platforms like Facebook. But copying and pasting your event info across the web is a significant waste of resources, which would be better spent developing new themes or fun experiences for your customers.
It should take less than five minutes to link your event details with Facebook Events. If you use Eventbrite, for example, you can post your event to Facebook fast with the Add to Facebook button. The integration automatically syncs your event details to Facebook — and allows attendees to purchase tickets without ever leaving the Facebook app.
Wednesday: Get creative with your email marketing strategy
Email is one of the most effective marketing channels for events, but generic invitations won’t help you sell out your painting events.
- Stand out in the inbox with a good subject line: Use your subject line as a teaser for the goodies you’re offering inside. According to MailChimp, the best subject lines are short (fewer than 50 characters), descriptive, and tailored to the target audience.
- Let your event speak for itself: People don’t trust emails that use attention-grabbing tactics like all-caps and overused exclamation marks. Always remain conscious of how your email recipients perceive the legitimacy of your event — and let the branding, programming, photos, and testimonials speak for themselves.
- Write your emails in advance to save time: Create templates for your most commonly used emails in advance to speed up your email marketing and make it more effective. Use these templates from the email experts at MailChimp to get started.
Thursday: Partner with artsy or adventurous influencers
Reach out to influencers or local organizations that share a common thread with your classes and have a following on social media. Offer them an exchange: free tickets in exchange for them sharing their experience on social media. For organizations, you could also offer to teach a free class at their local fundraiser or offer a discount to their patrons.
Never worked with an influencer before? Here are three tips for choosing the right one:
- Pinpoint your objectives: You are most likely looking to create awareness about your paint party or class as a stepping stone to selling tickets. Get these goals down on paper to better understand which audience you need to be tapping into and what your ask to influencers will be.
- Focus your influencer search: The best influencers have a very targeted audience in a specific niche or even geographical location — especially since you’re promoting an event in a specific city.
- Create a win-win scenario for your influencers: A portfolio of influencers will help you reach a larger audience. But that doesn’t mean you have to pay them. In fact, providing micro-influencers with VIP experiences or exclusive classes is a great way to generate awareness and see a positive return on investment (ROI).
Friday: Make it incredibly easy to register or buy tickets
A difficult purchase experience can deter for potential painters. In fact, each step in the purchase process can cause 10% of buyers to drop off.
Make it super easy for people to register by teaming up with a registration or ticketing partner who automatically knocks down any purchase barriers.
How to create a simpler registration or purchase process that can help bump ticket sales:
- Ensure your registration page is built for phones: If people need to pinch and zoom to fill out their information, you’re asking them to reconsider their interest.
- Limit the number of steps in your checkout process: The internet is littered with abandoned shopping carts. Many are deserted because checking out is too difficult. The faster someone can go from page visitor to registered attendee, the better.
- Bring the checkout to your customers: Many event creators have doubled their conversion rates by embedding their checkout on Facebook. If you use Eventbrite, you can sell tickets directly on your Facebook page and from your Instagram profile.
The right ticketing or registration partner can help you implement all of the tips above. Start promoting your paint parties and classes in minutes today with Eventbrite.
