How to grow your event audience

There are four simple considerations when identifying a target audience for your event: 

• who this audience is  
• where they come from   
• how you will communicate with them 
• what you will communicate with them 

You will likely have ideas already on who your target audience is but it’s important to clarify your audience and think about how you might be able to reach them. 

Who

Consider some of the following groups or categories of people and whether they might attend your event:  

• special interest and/or community groups  
• relevant clubs and/or schools and other organisations
• specific age groups  eg 18 to 25 / 65+ 
• socio-economic and/or ethnic groups  
• families and/or couples  
• tourists and/or locals  
• future sponsors, the media, stakeholders, people of influence, social media influencers/content creators etc.   

Your event will likely appeal to a number of these categories. Each individual audience member will likely fall into multiple categories as well.  

If your event is more niche, your potential audience (although often highly engaged and passionate about the subject matter) may be more limited. For example:  

• festivals focused on a particular genre eg world music, silent films etc.  
• farming or rural events eg sheepdog trials, ploughing competitions etc.  
• sporting events for unique disciplines eg curling, surfing etc.  

It will be up to your judgement which of these is a primary and secondary market i.e. those you are most confident in persuading to attend your event and those that will be harder to reach.

For events with smaller budgets, the sensible decision may be to largely focus this money on attracting your primary market. 

Where

For each entry in the “who” category, you should try to identify where they might come from:  

• the local community  
• the wider region  
• Scotland  
• UK  
• Europe  
• rest of the world   

This will likely depend on the type of event you are organising, the size, your profile (if any) with each of these different markets and the breadth of appeal for your event.  

You will need to make some decisions on which of these will be primary or secondary markets. For smaller events, it may be best to keep your focus narrow to help maximise the impact of your resources ie time, effort, budget etc.   

How

How best to reach these people will very much depend on what budget you have and how much resource you have to generate interest in your event. But you also need to consider where you’re most likely to find each audience. 

There is no exact science to marketing and there will be some trial and error but as you learn more about your audience and your event, your marketing efforts will become more focused and cost effective. 

Options might include:  

• organic social media activity and paid campaigns  
• posters and leaflets in the local area  
• press releases distributed to local and national publications  
• inclusion in online listings such as VisitScotland.com, The List or a local “what’s on” site
• community outreach/engagement – builds awareness, connection/ trust, leverages word of mouth etc.  

For events with bigger budgets the opportunities could also extend to newspaper, radio, billboards, television etc.

You can also think about how you may be able to secure free exposure in return for ticket giveaways eg a ticket competition with a media partner.

What

There will be some overarching messages that will appeal to all of your potential audiences. However, it is important to think about what messages you will need for different audiences, locations and/or channels.

Some considerations might be:

• New elements you are bringing to your event that show primary audiences there is more to see ie a cultural programme as part of a sporting event or a new stage at a music festival.
• Well-known or celebrity names appearing at your event who might appeal to secondary audiences.
• Information on travel partners for audiences who have to travel ie transport deals or information on bus / train options from relevant locations.
• Engaging content on social media ie behind-the-scenes videos or social media posts from performers / athletes that are interesting and don't push sales too aggressively.

Check out our information on unique selling points for more ideas.

Your existing audience is your most important and valuable asset so you need to ensure that you are constantly building and utilising your audience database. This can be achieved through:  

• collecting customer data through ticket purchases  
• pro-active data capture on the ground at your event or purchase points  
• active and engaging social media presence  

By examining information about your current audience (where they live, what they enjoy, what promotional messages they respond to, their family status etc.) you can begin to identify ways to reach out to others within that audience group.  

Your existing audience can also be useful ambassadors for your event. They are important in spreading positive word-of-mouth and should be nurtured so that they will return.

Find out how to use analytics to track your audience.