Boost Ticket Sales for Your Event, Festival, or Retreat with These 5 Instagram Tips
Exploring Central America: My Upcoming Adventure to Nicaragua
Soon, I’ll be heading to Nicaragua to explore the beauty of Central America. This journey is fueled by my curiosity and the love I developed for the region after falling for Costa Rica a few years ago. While I’m there, I’ll be making a special stop at the Ometepe Gathering, where I’ll be hosting a workshop on strengthening the heart chakra through Kundalini yoga, meditation, and breathwork.
If you know me, you know how much I value work exchanges. For offering two workshops, I’ll receive free entry to the festival, along with accommodation and meals—an amazing tradeoff for sharing something I’m passionate about.
On top of leading the workshops, I also volunteered to provide the organizers with some advice on how to make their Instagram profile more engaging. Below, I’m sharing the info I sent them, filled with tips you might find helpful for your own projects. While these ideas are tailored to events and festivals, they can be easily adapted for other uses!
Boost Ticket Sales for Your Event, Festival, or Retreat with These 5 Instagram Tips
Establish a Consistent Brand
Choose a set of branding colors and fonts, and use them consistently in your posts to create a cohesive look.
Use Templates for Posts
Make your Instagram posts more visually appealing by designing them with templates on Canva.
Tag and Engage Facilitators
Whenever you feature a facilitator, tag them in the post and encourage them to re-share it.
Leverage Short Videos
Share quick videos of facilitators talking about their workshops or what excites them about the festival.
Have the festival organizers introduce themselves with a short video to build a personal connection with your audience.
Content Ideas for Posts (These can be repurposed for both Instagram and Facebook):
Spotlight a workshop facilitator or artist.
Share a fun fact about Ometepe Island or Nicaragua.
Provide logistical details like transportation options, nearby accommodations, or camping tips.
Post a packing list for festival-goers.
Highlight family-friendly offerings.
Share what attendees can expect for meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner).
Put out a call for artists or facilitators.
Talk about what the project site is like outside of festival season and share the backstory of the project.
Create lighthearted memes or inspirational quotes to add a fun touch to your feed.
That’s all I have for you for now! Using these tips will help you diversify your Instagram feed, keeping your content fresh and engaging for your audience. By showcasing a mix of facilitator spotlights, logistical details, fun facts, and behind-the-scenes moments, you’ll pique interest and create excitement around your event.
This variety will not only increase your ticket sales but also boost engagement, bringing more awareness to your project. An active, thoughtfully curated Instagram feed can transform casual viewers into loyal followers and enthusiastic attendees, ensuring your event reaches its full potential.
Have you ever attended or contributed to a festival like this? I’d love to hear about your experiences or any additional tips you might have for making events unforgettable!
When It Comes to Building an Audience, Engagement Matters
As a content marketer, I can get so wrapped up in the process of creating fun and exciting content that I leave very little time left over for engaging with my current or future audience. But when you are building an organic, sustainable community, engagement is ESSENTIAL!
Think of engaging like dating. You probably wouldn’t like it if all your date did was talk about themselves. What if your date never asked you how you were doing, what makes you tick, or how you felt or thought about a particular topic? What if they never commented on the things that fired you up? You’d likely never go on a second date again - or you might even ghost/block them.
Building a community follows the same logic. Yes, spend time creating relevant, unique content, but also make sure you allot enough time for engagement. It’s important!!
Here are some tips on how to engage well with others…
Follow folks who produce relevant content, either direct competitors or folks with similar values.
Like other people’s posts (including dream clients, past clients, brands who hold similar values, brands you’d like to collab with, and brands who are direct competitors)
Reshare others’ content and make sure to add your own thoughts, opinions, or spin on their content.
Comment on other people’s posts.
Post content you didn’t create but that resonates with your marketing pillars directly on your feed but make sure to tag the original creator/brand.
Partner with a relevant brand/influencer and run a simultaneous promotion, that way you can tap into THEIR audience.
Don’t have time to engage with your followers? Don’t fret. While I always encourage clients to engage with their audience when they have time, consistent engagement just isn’t feasible (or enjoyable) for busy entrepreneurs. If that’s the case with you, feel free to outsource your engagement to someone else (like, uh, ME! )