Writing for Your Business: How NOT to Write About Your Event
Whether you are planning a Christmas party for your employees or hosting a Chamber of Commerce mixer at your facility, you will have to write about your upcoming event to let guests and others know it will be happening. Your marketing plan for the event won’t be nearly as effective if you make one of these mistakes when writing about your business event.
Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Writing About Your Event
- Write the wrong information or conflicting information. There are countless press releases and event listings that go out every month with the wrong date, time, location or contact information. While a typo can be caught by an editor, if you put the wrong day of the week or the wrong time, you are setting your event up for failure. And the information has to be correct throughout the whole press release, article or blog, so double check every instance.
- Assume the reader knows who you are. Your brand may be easily recognizable, but assuming every reader that wanders across your piece knows your company is a mistake. If you can’t work in what your company does in the main body, include an “About” paragraph at the bottom. If any other organizations are involved in the event, give a sentence or more description of them as well.
- Make your document a PDF only. If you want to spread the message for an upcoming event, do not provide media outlets with only a PDF. These are often difficult to copy and paste from and create more work for the person who receives it. More work for them means less publicity for you, so include a written description along with any flyers you email.
- Forget the call to action. What is it that you want readers to do after learning about your event? Whether it’s joining a Facebook event or buying tickets online, remember to tell readers what the next step is. If you don’t, they are much less likely to respond.
- Leave writing until the last minute. Not only does putting this task at the bottom of your to-do list make mistakes more likely, it also doesn’t allow your potential guests time to plan. If you want information published in your local paper, you typically need to get the details submitted at least two weeks in advance. After the main announcement is sent out, you can send shorter reminder notices to keep the event in people’s minds (and schedules).