Ever wondered if there was a science behind the art of nightlife graphic design?  Specifically, the techniques and procedures to producing great event flyers.

CEO and founder of The Creative Complex, Alex Miranda, has put together the definitive guide for event marketers and nightlife professionals to help create flyers that make people look.

This FREE eBook guide is available for download here: Download Now

• Learn how to your nightlife marketing department needs to see the flyer design process
• Have more effective creative meetings
• Discover the structure of a great flyer
• Weight the options of print vs web flyers

This is a free download.  What’s the catch?  Well, The Creative Complex wants your email address so you can receive their monthly newsletter with design inspiration, blog posts and client spotlights.

Guide in exchange for an email seems like a pretty good deal

Hope you enjoy!

This FREE eBook guide is available for download here: Download Now

These flyers were designed for Creative Complex clients whose venues completely cater to an urban crowd, or have one or more nights playing hip hop music.

The fundamental design concepts remain the same across music types, but design style varies drastically. Even within the hip hop (urban) category, you can have “hood” and you can have “upscale urban” design variations.

Below are some examples:

CLICK THUMBNAIL IMAGES TO ENLARGE

CLICK THUMBNAIL IMAGES TO ENLARGE

So you have a huge event coming up and people are talking about it on social media networks.  Have you been able to turn your chatter into cheddar (that’s slang for money)?

If you’re interested in making money from your online efforts on various social media channels, then keep reading for five tips.

But first, I must warn you that I’m about to get very strategic and introduce concepts that are NOT basic but instead are tagged along with sophisticated proven good old sales strategy.  Sorry, this is the sales person in me talking now.

Understand the Social Media Sales Funnel

What the heck is a sales funnel?  I told you I would be getting technical.

The sales funnel is as follows:

1. Expose the Event
2. Influence the Prospect
3. Engage the Fan
4. Make the Sale

Traditionally, you create an event and hand out invitations to all of the key people you want to invite.  Once you hand off that invitation, there’s little or no interaction or influence after that.  Depending on how cool the invitation is and how important the person feels, that’s what will bring people to the event.

With social media, you’re more commonly reaching potential event participants earlier in the sales process without a formal invitation in hand yet. Getting potential buyers’ attention early has tremendous value, but it means you’ve added some layers to the sales funnel that you need to be aware of and user properly.

Provide a “Remind Me Later About This” Option

How many times have you seen an event that looks interesting, you’re not just ready to buy it now because it’s too far out for you to make a decision now?  This happens ALL THE TIME!

Instead of tweeting for people to BUY NOW, you should have what the industry calls a “soft conversion” tactic.  Giving potential attendees the ability to give their email address so you can remind them about it later lets you get an email address of a warm lead that you’ll send an email to two months before the event.

Send a tweet like “Want to be reminded about the upcoming event?  Send us your email address and we’ll update you as the event approaches”.

Combine an email marketing strategy for these potential attendees and you’ll be increasing your number of attendees for sure!

Talk to Social Media Leads Differently

Since social media leads are likely to be soft leads that can be nurtured over time, you’ll want to not be so direct in the sale.   Social media leads enter the sales funnel much earlier in the process, so you have the opportunity to include content that is designed to answer questions and overcome objections and provide opportunities to convert them into a HOT LEAD.

A hot lead is someone ready to buy right now.  They are very interested in attending your event.

Through your other social media efforts, you have been able to develop trust with potential attendees; therefore, show them that you are a thought leader by answering their questions before they even have them!

So remember, there is a difference between someone who wants to be reminded about your event and someone who actually wants to attend.  Once a social media lead becomes a hot lead, then you can start traditionally selling them.

Make it Easy To Buy Now

It’s important to make sure it is super-easy for potential event attendees to buy. We tend to be fairly lazy consumers and if we have to search out how to buy from you, we are less likely to convert.

Take a look at your last Facebook update on your event.  Does it take them directly to the www.eventbrite.com page you set up, or is the lead sent to your event page on your site where they then have to find the “buy now” button that will eventually take them to the same EventBrite.com page anyways?

Communication is king when it comes to building your website with your graphic designer. At any point along the course of working on the nightclub web design you should be prepared that miscommunication is bound to occur; however if you follow some of these simple rules you can easily avoid disaster.

When you have an idea for a webpage, skin, banner or any other graphic content you need to be able to explain the details thoroughly to your graphic designer. You are the director of the graphics that appear on your website, so be sure to explain all variables to your designer. Graphic designers are usually responsible for a development team; this team is dedicated to performing for you. Therefore, it should be understood that most designers will fail or succeed based on the expectation and direction of their employer.

A five step timeline that you as the employer should always abide by:

1.            Sample – Provide a sample for your designer

2.            Mock – Ask your designer for a mock-up

3.            Confirm – Confirm what you like and what you do not like

4.            Beta – Put the plan into action

5.            Launch – Critique the beta and launch the live site.

Try not to get caught in the minutia. Your graphic designer has your best interests; giving him/her your total trust is what ties all communication together. Creative Complex takes pride in listening and fulfilling your needs. We have the experience that is required to accomplish what is needed. We know first-hand that communication is king and have years of experience to draw upon. Without clear communication both the clients and vendor will be left in the dark. After we understand your goals we provide a concise game plan for our team to follow. Our deliverables are then measured against your expectations.

We all know that the image we put out for our event can be worth 1000 words.  Well, Instagram is banking on that.

For the newbies, what is Instagram?  It’s pretty much a social media site based around visuals.  If you haven’t played with it yet, then ask someone who has and how addicting it is and to show it to you on their phone.  The app that allows you to take, edit and share photos with your friends.  Why is it so popular? Everyone wants to be an artist and looking at pretty pictures inspires people!

So when social media sites start to get really trendy, naturally us marketers want to see what’s going on to see how we can profit from the popularity….right?  Isn’t that what event marketing is all about?

As an event branding expert, I’m always coming up with fun and cooky ideas to get more exposure for my clients (the event marketers that I consult).  Although I haven’t seen many examples of event coordinators entering the Instagram scene with marketing intentions, I’ve come up with some pretty cool ideas for you to begin showing off images that convey the core of your message without looking like you’re promoting your next event.

What you’re looking for are “brand journalists”.  These people are not a part of your paid staff.  They are the first ticket purchasers to your event…the first RSVPs.  As an event promoter, all you need to do is come up with the idea that they are supposed to take pictures of.  They look at your brand as an outsider would, and create content (in this case, filtered photographs), that is real and that others will want to look at. These “brand journalists” are experts at finding these unique nuances and interesting games that you’ve set out for them.

The beauty of a photograph is that an athlete can truly “get” an event brand through an image, without the brand having to push the marketing message. Here are a few examples of how event marketers can use Instagram well:

TICKETS IN HAND

Have someone in your office write down on a big poster that you’re awarding VIP passes to people who post pictures of their ticket to Instagram.  Then someone on your staff will take a picture of another person holding the poster and will post to instagram.  The rules are that the first 10 people who post a picture of their ticket IN HAND (must see a hand) with the hashtag #Countdown[EventName]. The picture goes viral.

CONFERENCE EXIBITOR

Hosting a conference event and want to get attendees excited about the exhibitor booths?  Then open up a contest to exhibitors!  To celebrate that the exhibitor is excited about attending your show, challenge them to take a cool picture of their product or service and post to Instagram with the hashtag #VisitBooth222[ConferenceName].  As a conference organizer, you’ll determine the prize (if any) of the most creative photo leading up to the conference.

I LOVE [YourEvent]

In this challenge, your brand journalists will be asked to snap pictures of the reasons why they you’re your event with the hashtag #Ilove[YourEvent] for a chance to win a prize and to have their photo featured on a future flyer, Facebook cover photo, and Twitter background.  You see how you can get your fans involved in all of your branding and tie it all together???

REAL TIME INSTAGRAM GALLERY

Regardless of weather you make a contest out of it or not, people are going to take pictures at your event and post them to Instagram…so why not make some fun out of it?  Announce to users that the photos they tag with #Funat[EventName] will be posted real-time to a projector of pictures you have at the event.

What are some ideas that you’ve had success with using Instagram before, during or after your event?

Schedule Your Tweets

I’m not going to lie, we use www.hootsuite.com to schedule some tweets out for The Creative Complex.  It’s an effective way to get our message out.  We have a ROUTINE.  Yes, we have a systematic approach to schedule tweets so that you can get the most out of your follow of us.  That being said, we know when our tweets are read by event marketers more often so we schedule them for those times.  We have a science behind scheduling, and that makes a big difference.  Do you know when your audience is retweeting and reading the most?  Make an appointment with yourself and use tools like Hootsuite to automatically tweet and engage with your fans that are waiting for you to engage them.

Find Cooler Followers

Use tools like FollowerWonk and take 10 mintues to follow five new people.  Try to find people that share a common passion in the purpose the event serves, or see who is tweeting about your event competitors.  Follow them and say hello.  Just start a regular conversation, don’t promote anything to them.  Sounds crazy, huh?  Remember back before promoting and selling when we used to just be ourselves online?  That’s how you build relationships my friends.

Get to Know Your Audience

If you know your audience is predominantly Hispanic, then share content and information that is interesting to them.  By taking the time to develop a profile for your audience, it will help guide your tweeting much more.  Remember, the quality of your followers matters, not the quantity.  And the more you know them, the more they will entrench themselves in your event brand.

Share Relevant News

Did your city just pass an ordinance that will affect your event?  Did a major entertainer at your event release a new album?  Share ONE piece of content today that really make you think or really affected your event.  We scour the online internet marketing sites for news to share with you all the time.  Google Reader is a great place to get relevant news customized to your audience’s preferences.

Be a Problem Solver

Take a look at some of your follower’s tweets.  Maybe someone is asking for a dinner recommendation that night?  Be the HERO to suggest a place.  Be a resource to them.  If you can’t help, retweet it to your audience and be the “connector” that made it happen.

Give Tips

Share tools, resources, tips, helpful followers, ideas, strategies or anything else that might be helpful to your audience.

Tweet Your Stuff More Than Once

Don’t be afraid to tweet 2-3 times over the course of the day of a big event to make sure people are coming.  Switch the content up, write about different things related to the same event.  Don’t just copy and paste the same message…that’s annoying.

At The Creative Complex we are serious about our Twitter usage.  We have someone dedicated to tweeting 3 times a week for 5 hours.  That’s serious.  If you’re putting an event together, you should also be showing some of the same dedication, especially as the event date approaches.

Event marketing can be a lot of fun on Twitter, but you can’t just use it like a gumball machine and put in a quarter and expect a piece of gum.  You have to interact and immerse yourself in the conversations.

Good luck promoting your next event on Twitter!  Let us know how it went and if you have any other suggestions.

But now we have cell phones and they make it so much easier to let people know about a party.  A little less personal, but more effective for reaching the masses.  But there are some big mistakes I see event coordinators make when using mobile marketing to promote their events.

Here are 4 mobile marketing mistakes that event promoters and coordinators must avoid.  I also give solutions to the mistakes so you can get your marketing back on track.

Using Mobile to Share Event Flyers

Did your designer make a mini-version of your event flyer that is good for phones?  Probably not.  I’ve had event promoters send me actual event flyers over MMS.  Seriously?   And even better, I’ve gotten a few videos over MMS.  I applaud your efforts, but ultimately have to say that sending event flyers over the phone is not cool.  They are a waste of time and resources on your part and they don’t convert.

INSTEAD:  If you’re going to promote an event over text, have a clear call to action for someone to visit a mobile-optimized website.  Ensure that it will load on their device so they can have a proper experience.  If not, you’re just wasting time.

QR Codes that Lead to Event Website Home Page

Most now thing of QR codes when they think mobile marketing.  They are great for putting on your event flyers with a call to action (scan for artist line-up, scan for ticket info, scan for rsvp).  Once scanned, a user is taken to a mobile-friendly event landing page where they can read about the special.

When QR doesn’t work is when you just send them to your event website’s homepage.   If you’re going to invest in a QR campaign, don’t just send people back to your event website.

INSTEAD:  Create an event landing page for that code with some unique content that is mobile-friendly.  This is creating a positive experience that they couldn’t have achieved on their PC.  Remember, you want to create POSITIVE experience, not frustrated users.

Not Knowing Thy User

Do you know who you’re sending event invitations to?  Is it your VIP list?  Do they know who you are?  What are their demographics?  Knowing this information means you’ll be able to better target your event promotions to people who are OK with a more personal interaction.

Gathering more information about your user can be done by simply asking these questions and waiting for a reply.  Use this method sporadically and tell them why you’re doing it.  Also, analytics will be able to give you this information.

INSTEAD:  Attendees will be more likely to sign up if you send them special discounts or announcements that have been hand-crafted for them.  Purpose to get to know your list a little better.

Non Mobile Friendly Website

When you visit your website on a phone, does it morph to fit your mobile device?  In other words, have you created a mobile-friendly version of your site?

Visit www.mansionmiami.com from your computer and then from your phone.  You’ll see that Mansion has a different experience for both, yet they are tied to each other.

INSTEAD:  At the very least, you need to create a mobile site of your events, directions and contact information.  This will help you to optimize an experience that is relevant to their needs and helps them get the info they need faster. Give your mobile searchers what they want and very little noise.

Event marketers using mobile marketing can take advantage of this awesome medium if it’s done right.  If it’s done wrong, it could seriously hurt your event branding and ultimately your success in the event.

Let us know of any mistakes you might have made by commenting below.

A key component of event branding is a great website.  Alex Miranda of The Creative Complex, the famed Miami-based event graphic design firm offers his advice to affiliates on what items he’s always required his clients to send him before any project gets started.

1. Create a List of Pages – Most events need the same pages:  about, artists, sponsors, contact, buy tickets, merchandise, videos and photos.  Some more, some less.  Decide with your team.
2. Sites You Already Like – Visit other event websites from other cities.  Choose 3 to 5 that you like and explain why you like each on.  Do you like the structure, look, feel, pictures, social buttons, layout, etc.  Maybe there are websites outside of your industry that you like; throw those in there too.
3. Special Features – You want it connected to EventBrite.com?  You need it connected to your email service provider like Mail Chimp?  Does a newsletter signup sound good to you?  While visiting other websites, also point out any cool features you want on yours.  Do you want to be able to upload a bunch of pictures and automatically create photo galleries? Anything automated is typically going to cost more and you want to make these things clear to find the right company and get an accurate quote.
4. Investigate the Competition –Keeping up with the Jones’s online is easy because you can always one-up them when you see their site.  What do your competitors do well and do really badly? Learn from their mistakes, follow their successes.  It is easiest to identify the good, bad and ugly before diving into your project so that you’ll be looking at things with a fresh eye.
5. Budget – Be honest.  Can you spend $5,000 on a customized over-the-top website?  Make sure that is clear.
6. Timeframe – Your event is in 5 weeks and you JUST thought about the website?  Tisk, tisk.  Even though we can knock out a site in 2 weeks, you still want a good 2-3 months of pre-promoting your landing page to get followers and email sign-ups.  If you have MORE time, we suggest you give this process 6 months if you really want a great turnout.  The bigger the event, the longer time you need.
7. Existing Materials – Your designer needs your logo, business cards, brochures and company font.  Also send them pictures of the artists, shots of the venue, event flyers, and anything else that’s going to speak to the “soul” of your business so the designer can capture that essence in the design.
8. Content! – Oh boy, this is where things get tricky.  At the beginning a graphic designer can put IPSUM LOREM gibberish text to show where text will be, but wouldn’t it be nice if you already gave him the written text of the website exactly how you want it?  He would know so much more about your box, and it will translate into a better design.
9. Web Site Goals – This is one of the last things on my list because it’s the last thing you’ll ever think about:  Exactly what do you hope to accomplish with your site? How many tickets do you want to sell online?  I always tell my clients “a Web site is like an employee” you wouldn’t hire someone without giving them specific tasks and knowing how they are going to directly impact the bottom line would you? At the very least tell yourself how many visitors you want per month.
10. What are your calls to action? – Very important, but what do you want visitors to do when they get to your site?  If tickets aren’t on sale yet, then you need a sign-up box to be informed when they do go on sale.  If tickets are already on sale, then that’s always the call to action.  If you have a yearly event, then right after the event the call to action should be for people to look at pictures and videos and share them online.  You can’t just throw up a website without giving someone a reason to be there and leave their information.  How are you going to calculate your return of investment?  That’s like opening a movie theater and letting everyone in for free!  You need something in return for your investment.

This is a list that should make most Web site service providers smile with glee.

When designing a flyer, one of the most common challenges is to develop an effective color scheme. The 11 flyers that are showcased here have, in our opinion, done a great job of incorporating a “dark” color scheme and still creating an attractive appearance. Please feel free to mention which ones are your favorites in the comments.

Click thumbnails for full-size flyers

All of these event flyers were designed by The Creative Complex.  If you’re looking to learn more about event graphic designs services, please see our page Flyer Designs page and request a quote.

• Top Nightclub Website Designs of 2012

Nightclub web design galleries offer nightlife designers and developers creative inspiration on their own designs. By aggregating the top web night club web site designs on the web, this gallery serves as a prime spot for getting those creative juices flowing.

Since we are a nightclub web design firm, we always like to see in what direction the industry is moving.  We’ve scoured the internet to bring you the best in nightlife website design.  There are many design firms doing great work for nightclub websites.

In this article you’ll find 14 of the best night club web design galleries (in no particular order).

WALL – Miami

Sutra – Costa Mesa

HYDE – Las Vegas

FLUXX – San Diego

LAVO – New York

PURE – Las Vegas

LIV – Miami

ROOF on theWit – Chicago

AVENUE – New York

LOVE – Washington, DC

1OAK – New York City

Mokai – Miami

THE PARK at Fourteenth – Washington, DC

 SET – Miami