Using Online Marketing to Tie NOLA Business into Voodoo Fest

The Voodoo Music + Arts Experience takes place in New Orleans in late October / early November every year. And yes, you can spend thousands of dollars to become an official sponsor. Or you could use a little guerrilla marketing to capitalize on it without such a significant budget. Let’s talk about the latter option.

Any company that has associated itself with the quickly growing music festival has a unique opportunity to directly benefit off of one of the biggest and youngest fests in the nation. In order to put yourself in that position, though, there are certain things you must do.

Create a Social Media Calendar

Almost nothing matters more in today’s age of instant communication than social media. Especially with a young music festival like Voodoo, social media is crucial. It can’t be willy-nilly, though. These must be well-tailored tools that will travel within your target demographic. This won’t happen if no one sees them, which is where the calendar comes into play. Sit down one day and think of twenty interesting Twitter posts. Then think of twenty more. The more INTERESTING Tweets you have the more successful you will be. Keep Facebook to around 5-10 poests per week. Track likes, shares and Retweets, and interact with those interacting with you. If you’re doing it right, you will begin to see a dramatic difference.

Enable Prizes for Foursquare & Social Media check-ins

If you have any sort of booth at the actual festival, set up rewards for those who check-in. Say, for instance, the person who has the most check-in gets a free meal everyday. Get creative. If you don’t have anything to give away, or don’t have a booth at the fest, give something away in collaboration with the event. For instance, advertise the person who has the most check-ins by October 15th gets two free Voodoo tickets and watch the customers flock.

The same goes with other forms of social media. Offering rewards for Instagram and other social media posts will only draw more people to your business or restaurant. When people following you “tag” your business in an Instagram or Twitter post, find a way to reward them. It can be as small as a follow-back or as large as a random drawing for a ticket. Anything will do.

Give Things Away Through Your Website

Everyone has heard about a giveaway on a radio station—“BE THE 13TH CALLER AND RECEIVE TWO TICKETS TO THE BIGGEST CONCERT OF THE YEAR!!!!!” Then the phone lines go crazy. They don’t do these things to be nice. They do it for the revenue. If possible, you should do the same.

Cross-Promote With Other Sponsors

If you’re trying to promote your product through Voodoo Fest, your fellow sponsors are probably doing the same thing. Talk to them. If you have a good product it should be no problem to get other sponsors on board. Try to get a link on their website, ask them for a giveaway, or just see if they can mention you in a Facebook post. With cross promotion the opportunities are endless..

The most important thing to remember is that people are trying to have a good time, first and foremost. The more fun you have, the more fun they’ll have. So give them what they want. If you scratch their back, they’ll scratch yours.