The most effective music festival marketing campaigns begin long before the festival season kicks off. It will come as no surprise that social media plays a pivotal role in cultivating a dedicated community of followers who will undoubtedly contribute to the success of your festival's on-sale moment. Keep reading for six strategies to ensure your festival's social media marketing thrives.
Start by developing a compelling organic content strategy. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok are ideal for festival marketing because they emphasise visuals and videos. Unique, native content is one of the best ways to generate anticipation and awareness before festival tickets go on sale.
Here are some tactics you can use to level up your organic content plan:
Nurture your community and ensure you're actively engaging with them through the lifecycle of your festival. Cultivating an engaged event community is essential because it fosters trust and camaraderie among attendees, brewing word-of-mouth marketing. To amplify your followers' confidence in your event, consider investing in a customer service representative to monitor comments and direct messages consistently. Inject personality into your responses and engage in real-time conversations with your audience that are not just direct questions but discussions about cultural topics relevant to them and your brand.
Whether you're just starting out or your festival is well established, consider partnering with a complementary brand to boost exposure and credibility. Collaborative social media posts and mutual giveaways can benefit both brands, but you can also extend partnership content to your newsletters, blogs, and other promotional channels. Consider offering your brand partners a prominent role as an official event sponsor in exchange for supporting your festival on their social media. Think creatively about what you can provide in return to leverage their brand equity for growing your social community.
Prominently display your social handles and official event hashtag on all event materials to encourage patrons to create their user-generated content. Implement a pre-event UGC strategy and collaborate with digital creators to make content their audience will love. For example, you could collaborate with fashion influencers who show their audience the outfit options they have planned for your festival.
All the exceptional organic content in the world will only reach its full potential throughout the customer journey when paired with a well-structured paid social strategy that guides your audience seamlessly from awareness to ticket conversion. Once you've got your native content sorted, paid social ads become a powerful tool. In the lead-up to your event, we recommend having an always-on strategy that prospects high-affinity audiences, nurtures them by educating them about your festival, and finally pushes them to a ticket sale once your audience decides they can not miss your event!
Alongside this paid sales funnel, it is wise to invest in lead generation campaigns before tickets go on sale to have a substantial email list of your most dedicated fans ready to buy.
While the festival may pass in a flash, your marketing effort continues. To ensure your audience keeps coming back year after year, you must maintain a presence and engage with your community even after the event.
By implementing these strategies, you can build a robust social media marketing plan that drives success during the festival season and keeps your audience engaged and excited year-round.
Do you need a hand-creating a strategy for your Musical Festival Marketing? At Mostly Socials, we specialise in helping brands attract the right audiences and create exciting content that takes the stress off your hands. If you'd like more information, get in touch today.
Photo © Liam Simmons
