How to Promote Your Quiz Night

COVID-19 UPDATE

In the absence of traditional trivia nights our lives do not have to be completely trivia-free. Check out QuizNightHQ’s guide to Isolation Trivia + Games. It contains plenty of ideas to get your friends, family and workplaces engage in an online quiz night or online video fun.

Article Summary

  1. Word of Mouth
  2. Social Media
    1. Facebook
    2. Instagram
    3. Twitter
    4. More
  3. Emails
  4. Physical Signage
  5. Ticket Sales
    1. Ticket Sales Websites
    2. Pre-Sale Tickets
    3. Tickets at the door

Getting people to the event

Marketing your night isn’t just about making people aware that it exists. You want people to make the effort to lock in the date, pay for a ticket, turn up and spend cash! There are so many ways to connect with people these days but, generally, some kind of a connection to your organisation / club is going to be your point of difference for getting someone in the door.

Creating an event that interests a variety of people will get people to attend, too. However, you may only want a specific crowd, so catering your event towards the group you’re wanting to interest may be a better fit for your event. For example, your hobby group may be organising a Quiz Night, in which case it might be preferable to do a themed event. Check out QuizNightHQ’s Guide to Trivia Rounds to get ideas for specific rounds and whole Quiz Night themes.

Keep in mind the main communication tool your organisation/club uses – whether it be email, social media or printed newsletters / bulletins etc. This will help you determine the best to make people aware of the event; particularly people within your group. After all, if people within your groupd don’t attend, then they also won’t bring others from outside your organisation/club.

You should also consider the size of your event. If you’re a major community organisation, then contacting local newspapers and radio stations (in addition to social media and physical marketin)g will assist in making many people aware of the event. If it’s an event for a smaller group or organisation, then email and SMS notifications may suffice.

Keep reading for specific information and handy tips on different ways to market your event.

What to Include in Quiz Night Marketing / Advertising?

Starting and Approx. Finishing Times

Common sense, but this is the first question you will get even if it is displayed in your advertising. It’s very important for people to know when to organise babysitting and to know that it’s not going to drag on for hours and hours.
It’s worth advertising specifically, for example, “7pm for a 7:30pm start” so people are clear on the arrangements. Then, when you start on the dot of 7:30pm you don’t get complaints from people who missed the first few questions.

Cost of Entry

Make it clear how much you are charging for attendance. You may even link to the payment method if tickets need to be purchansed in advance. This is much easier when promoting the event via social media, SMS or email. Also, make it clear in your marketing how people will need to purchase their tickets. You may decide to sell tickets in groups or by table. This method can help to ensure that you don’t have multiple tables with just 3 or 4 attendees on each.

Team Sizes

Clearly state the number of people that can be a part of the teams at your Quiz Night. A number in the range of 8-10 works well but smaller groups may suit your event better. Be clear from the start and it will save you from hearing complaints on the night about tables with too many people having an advantage. Be asssured, this will happen.

Fundraising Opportunities

Also worth mentioning in the marketing of your quiz: the different games and methods you plan on using on the night to raise money. This will often prepare people to spend more money on the night. For example, mention “Lots of Silent Auction Items Up for Grabs,” “Live Auction,” “Games,” “Trivia,” and, “A Great Night Out.”

Valuable Items in the Auction

If there are some seriously impressive items in the Auction or Live Auction, it can be worth mentioning these in your advertising. This may help in drawing a crowd. If an attendee knows they could purchase an amazing item at a low price, this could further motivate them to attend the event.

The Cause

If your event is to serve as a fundraiser, it’s well-worth mentioning this goal and, in particular, the people / organisation(s) for whom you’re raising money. If the cause is known upfront, people who supporting the cause could be more generous or willing to attend, purely out of a desire to be supportive. Be careful not to be too specific as to where the money goes. After all, things may change if not enough money (or more than enough) is raised; it may have to go to something else. You don’t want to mislead your crowd.

Sponsors

If you have managed to acquire sponsorship for the event, maybe for venue hire or a company has given cash to run the night, it’s important you mention them. It means they will see their name out there being advertised. It also doubles as an opportunity for you to ask the sponsor to advertise at their place of business. They will often take this up and it looks good for them to be promoting community events etc.

Word of Mouth

Having people from within your organisation/club to promote the Quiz Night to their friends is going to be your most successful way of bringing people to the event. As an outsider you are much more willing to attend something if your friend says “come along with me” rather than you saying “let’s go to that” after seeing a Facebook ad.

Knowing the Quiz Night is going to be a fun and interactive night will also help. Using products from QuizNightHQ.com’s marketplace will guarantee a fun night and will encourage attendees to return the next time you host a Quiz Night. Having an engaging Trivia Master will help with positivity on the night.

Suggestion:
Encourage people from various areas of society within your organisation/club to be a table captain. That way it’s their responsibility to bring in tables from outside people. This can be of great benefit to the organisation/club as there will be plenty of opportunities to promote what you do to people who may not have heard about it. It also pulls people in from many different social circles. I’ve run a number of Quiz Nights annually over 8+ years and I’ve spoken to some attendees who say, “I was invited by my friend, 2 years ago and now I organise my own group of friends to attend.”

Social Media

Create a Facebook Event

Most people are on Facebook and this is a good one-stop location for all the event information. It can be easily shared by anyone attending or connected to your club/organisation. Just don’t use this as your guide to how many people are coming… people don’t RSVP like they used to. To get an accurate number make sure you get people to buy tickets prior. See below for more detail about ticketing – these will give you a better idea for your numbers on the night. Encourage your members and others involved to share the event and get the word out there.

Facebook reminders closer to the date will help people to book tickets/organise babysitters etc. Perhaps even on the night, including a short Facebook: LIVE video can help promote it and share some of the fun for the evening. This will help you when you’re promoting the next Quiz Night.

Instagram

Instagram is another common way of promoting events. It will certainly help in creating awareness for the event – sharing images and posters of your event on the platform. Getting people to invite others is what will bring people in. So using people with influence and large numbers of followers within your club/organisation to share the Instagram posts will be a good idea. Mentioning that they will be attending will also help.

Instagram is a fun way of promoting it as you can include video, graphics, imagery, comments and hashtags that could link people to the Quiz Night that would otherwise be disconnected from your organisation.

Twitter

This is the most public way of sharing details on your Quiz Night. If you want to make this open to anyone and everyone then Twitter can help. If you are wanting to keep it smaller and more personal for people just within your organisation/club then stick to the other social medias as you have better access to stricter privacy and sharing settings.

Email/Newsletters

Email is more for your internal information sharing. I suggest that this be the way you communicate the need for people to invite others and encourage people within your organisation/club to spread the word. Providing links to the event on Facebook and access to ticket sales through the email will help your members etc. to be aware of the Quiz Night.

Using email to remind people of the event or share last minute details is ideal as it’s not public and still shareable digitally.

Physical Signage

Having signs around the community will help raise awareness for the Quiz Night. Especially if you’re a charity or a Not-For-Profit there may be many more people in the community than you are aware of that would be keen to support your event.

Suggestion:
Driving around your city, you will notice Real Estate agents’ signs promoting upcoming community events. If you have a connection or someone in your organisation/club that is in Real Estate then ask if they’re willing to provide signage. Either at their place of business or on a member’s high-traffic front fence. These are highly visible and companies are often willing to support Not-For-Profits knowing that they’ll get some visibility.

Also, physical signage doesn’t have to be on a large scale. A3 posters on notice boards, in shop windows, staff rooms etc. can be enough to get the message out there.

Try asking around your local community as to whether businesses are willing to display a poster promoting your event – it doesn’t hurt to ask. If you are doing this, perhaps double-up by asking for a donation for your silent auction or a winning prize. It’s worth stating that you can promote their business on the night. In addition, they may be willing to sponsor a round. Check out QuizNightHQ’s comprehensive guide to Fundraising Ideas for much more information on getting support from local businesses.

Ticket Sales

It’s up to you how much you charge on the night. Entry fees for Quiz Nights can vary between $10 – $50. Even free could be an option if it’s within your organisation, perhaps as a team building event. No less than $15 and no more than $25 is good range for a standard Charity/School/Sporting Club etc. event. You want people to put some money in so they’re not booking a ticket and then pulling out at the last minute. Also, you want people to be willing to spend money on the night – charging too much will put people out-of-pocket before they’ve even bid on a Silent Auction item.

It can be worth mentioning that there are only limited tickets. Identify how many people you can have attend when booking your venue. For more ideas and suggestions for this stage of organising your Quiz Night check out the Guide to Finding a Venue. In addition, keep people posted about how many tickets are left after a portion of time. That way it builds momentum as people ‘have to be there’ once they see it’s getting popular.

Ticket Sales Websites

There’s a number of really simple websites out there that allow you to create an event and they sort out the transfer of money for the purchase of the tickets. There are fees involved but see below for a breakdown of some of the options:

  • www.trybooking.com
    Customer is charged ticket price + 30cents
    Seller is charged 2.1% per ticket + 50cents per transaction
    If your event is free there is no fee.
  • www.eventbrite.com.au / www.eventbrite.com
    Various Models but basic (‘Essentials’) looks like this:
    Customer is charged ticket price + 2% + 49cents per transaction
    Eventbrite also has digital tickets available which can be useful.
  • www.ticketebo.com.au
    A lesser known option.
    Customer or Seller is charged 3.85% (with a $1 minimum) per transaction.

Most of these provide you with a list of those that have purchased tickets. This enables you to keep track of those that you can still ‘encourage’ to come along. Also, they can provide tickets that can be scanned using QR codes – a very high-tech, futuristic approach. Ooh, how impressive!

If you have your own suggestion for a great Ticket Sales Websites leave a comment below. We’d love to share it with others too.

Pre-Sale Tickets

Encouraging people to purchase tickets by a certain date/time before the night helps you to accurately plan your event. It gives you clear details on the outgoing going costs compared to profit on the night. You want to know numbers as close to the final total before the night for many reasons:

  1. You may need to let the venue know the numbers so they can have chairs and tables available.
    The venue may also need to provide additional bar staff if you have larger numbers of attendees.
  2. You can prepare adequate prizes for the winning tables (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc).
  3. You can organise more silent auction items or even live auction items with higher numbers of attendees – knowing that there’s more chance you will get bids.
  4. With greater numbers you may be more willing to have higher outgoing costs for prizes etc. Knowing that you will easily make it back on the night from ticket sales + fundraising – this can help create more hype for the event too.

Another ideas is to offer a $5 (or so) discount to tickets sales if you get in early or a percentage off if you book a whole table in advance. It’ll encourage numbers and help you identify numbers of attendees early. You don’t want to have to have a late drive for numbers as that’s when people may state their unavailability, perhaps due to a clash with another event.

Tickets Sold on the Night

Having someone at the door checking tickets and selling last-minute tickets will create a smooth process for your Quiz Night. Using some ticket sales websites will provide you with a list of attendees too. Check names off as people arrive so you can keep track of when everyone has arrived. You may find everyone’s there nice and early so you can get the night underway. Or you may find a large number of people have not turned up yet. If they’re running late you may have to delay the start time slightly – make sure you make this clear to the teams already in attendance.

 

Perhaps you have another way that you promote your events. Comment below to share your ideas.