One of the most important factors to holding a successful event is the venue where the event takes place. The wrong venue could ruin your event while the perfect venue can help your event be as successful as possible. Bottom-line, venue selection matters a lot, and using a venue directory to find the perfect place for each of your events can make the process of finding and choosing venues quick, easy, and reliable.
According to research by EventMB, more than half of event organizers (58.3%) find venues using online search engines. Not only is this process time-consuming, but many of the best venues may not even show up near the top of search engine results pages. The highest rankings typically go to the venues that invested into search engine optimization and other marketing tactics to boost their search rankings. That doesn’t mean they’re the best venue for your event.
To ensure you control your venue search (rather than search engines), you can use a comprehensive venue directory, like the one coming soon from AttendStar, and find the perfect venue without dozens of online searches and endless mouse clicks. A good venue directory instantly shows you all of the details about a venue based on your specific needs and search criteria.
Tips to Use a Venue Directory to Find the Right Event Venue
The Price Should be Right – Free
You shouldn’t have to pay to search a venue directory, and venues shouldn’t have to pay to be listed in directories. The reason is simple. If venues have to pay, then only those with bigger marketing budgets will be included – similar to how the venues with deeper pockets are likely to appear on the first page of search engine results pages. This limits your search and could prevent you from finding the perfect place to hold your event.
Includes a Variety of Venue Types
There are so many creative locations to hold an event, and the best venue directories offer a wide variety of venue types for you to consider. Research by EventMB found that 52.8% of event organizers want to hold their events in unusual venues! The directory you use should include outdoor spaces, fairgrounds, racetracks, schools, theaters, conference centers, sporting venues, and more.
Easy to Use Search Functionality
A venue directory is useless if you can’t effectively search the listings in it. Facility size and zip code are nice, but they’re not good enough. To give you an idea of the search functionality you should have access to, consider the criteria you’ll be able to search by in the AttendStar Venue Directory:
- Market area
- Market area population
- Median income in the market
- Median home value in the market
- Population demographics
- Seating range
- Type of venue
- And much more
If you need to sell tickets to your event, having access to market area information is critical to your success!
Detailed Venue Listing Information
Every venue in the directory should have detailed listing information. Address and phone number are not good enough. The goal should be to choose a Venue Directory that allows you to conduct the majority of your early research without leaving the directory website at all. As an example, following is some of the information you can find in AttendStar’s Venue Directory listings:
- Types of seating
- Reserved seating availability
- Types of sound and lighting
- Parking lot capacity
- Parking fees
- Performance area size
- Concession information
- Safety and medical services required and available
- Local non-profit organizations that can help organizers with their events
- And more
Think of the time you’ll save on phone calls and email messages when all of this information is included in the venue directory.
Communication Tools
Searching for a facility or location to hold your event can be very time consuming, and it’s easy to get confused about who you’ve contacted already, who you need to reach out to, and who you need to follow up with. The best venue directory includes built-in communication tools, so you can email venues directly without leaving the website – either one-by-one or multiple venues at the same time.
Key Takeaways to Use a Venue Directory to Find the Best Venue for Your Event
Using a venue directory to find a venue for your event is very effective and highly efficient when you’re using a reliable and comprehensive directory. Keep the tips discussed in this article in mind as you’re searching, and you’ll save time, money, and frustration the next time you’re looking for an event venue!
Want to use the AttendStar Venue Directory to find a facility or location for your next event? Or do you own a venue that you’d like to get listed in the AttendStar Venue Directory? Click here to visit the Directory landing page and sign up to be notified when it officially launches!
