Promote, promote, promote!

If you’re here, you should have completed Toolkit 1: Get your event on the calendar.

Your event is on the calendar. Nice! 🎉 Now, let’s invite people and get them to show up.

💡 Tips and best practices

  • Include as much personal, one-to-one communication as you possibly can. Relationships are at the heart of good organizing. 

  • Make sure each interaction with prospective attendees makes sense in the context of your relationship with them. A little personal touch that shows you meant to invite them.

  • Every communication should have a concrete call to action that’s an easy “yes.”

  • Remind yourself: you’re not bothering people or asking for favors. You’re offering them an opportunity to take productive climate action—an opportunity they have probably been looking for!

  • Reach out to the existing Climate Changemakers network, including Slack community.

  • Always encourage attendees to build relationships with each another, not just you! Your group will be more engaged, you’ll find leaders more readily, and you’ll be able to have a greater collective impact. 

Sample promotion plan with 4 touch points

➡️ Use these graphic templates and sample language throughout your promotion.

    • Take full advantage of the Climate Changemakers network!

    • Activate your networks: Think about folks in your own networks who might be interested. This might include close contacts like friends, family, and colleagues. It could also include people one degree removed, such as fellow alumni, people from your gym or community center, other parents at your children’s school, fellow renters in your apartment building, members of your favorite Discord group, and other patrons of your favorite coffee shop. Extend them an invitation:

      • Send a big group email (either bcc or not!) or 1:1 emails.

      • Send a text in group chats or 1:1 texts.

      • Contact a communications representative or anyone from your “one-degree-removed” networks to ask about including the event in an upcoming newsletter or communication.

      • Post a flyer on-site!

    • Post on your social media.

    • Casually mention it in as many conversations as you can!

    • If you’ve hosted events on Luma before, use the “invite” feature to invite people who have RSVPed to previous events.

    • Post again in the Climate Changemakers Slack

    • Send Slack DMs to changemakers who you think might be interested (if any).

    • Forward your generic email invitation 1:1 to any recipients who didn’t respond or RSVP. Include a personal message to the effect of “I hope XYZ in your life is going well. I wanted to make sure you saw this note. I’d really love to see you there next week.”

    • Text again in the group chat and/or text 1:1 with folks who you think might be interested if they haven’t RSVPed.

    • Post again on your social media.

    • Program a Luma reminder email to notify guests 24 hours in advance. Consider editing the subject line and email body to make it more compelling. This is a great place for last-minute reminders (e.g. bring a laptop, be on time, parking is behind the building, etc.).

    • Send friendly reminder emails and texts to folks you know personally. Shore up support by confirming that they’re still able to make it.

    • If you opted to collect phone numbers in the event registration, you can go through the list and cold-call folks to confirm their attendance. You will be surprised how many people pick up and how well this tactic boosts your attendance rates.

  • The post-event followup is incredibly important for making your event a success in the eyes of attendees.

    • Program the Luma thank you email to go out 10-30 minutes after the event ends. It will automatically solicits feedback. It also lets you personalize your message.

      • This is a great place to reference some inside jokes from the session and remind people of how impactful their action was.

      • This is also the perfect spot to share your next call to action. Do you want people to join the Slack group? RSVP to the next event?

    • Message any friends or close contacts and thank them for coming. Tell them how much fun you had with them and ask for their feedback.

    • If you told an attendee you’d do something for them specifically after the event, follow through! Did you offer to send an article? Or add them to Slack? Make sure you actually do it!

    These post-event reminders are also included in subsequent toolkit. They’re so essential to effective event promotion we had to include them here, too!

Woohoo! 🎉 You spread the word about your Hour of Action!

NEXT UP: Move on to the Host a Successful Hour of Action toolkit.