[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]You want an amazing looking calendar for the following reasons:

– Attract Visitors: A cool “What’s Happening” page is one of the best ways to build a following – driving traffic, repeat & longer visits
– Attract Money: Advertisers/Sponsors spend their limited marketing budget on where they perceive the most value to be
– Attract Events: People are busy, and they’re only going to take 5min to post events to 1 site at best – make it yours

Here are some tips on setting the framework for a great calendar and strengthening your brand.

Font & Colour

Dashboard > Calendar Settings > Customize

Keep your calendar as a consistent experience with the rest of your site & marketing material. If you’re just getting off the ground, now is the time to set the stage.

Calendar Views

– Dashboard > Calendar Settings > Display

Set your calendar to Posterboard if you can display 3 tiles or more wide; otherwise go Stream. You can still allow visitors to flip through calendar views

Organize

– Dashboard > Organize

Use this section to organize your calendar in terms of venues, organizers, categories and tags

There are lots of events happening around you (even in small towns and narrow niches). How you choose to broadly categorize sends a strong signal as to what types of events are available and what you deem important. Here is an example:

– Arts & Culture
– Deals & Specials
– Nightlife
– Health & Fitness  
– Wine & Dine

Adding a default category image will give your event a backup image if one isn’t provided.  Hint: Local images are best, look through your image files or grab a camera and take a few shots – local businesses are happy to comply.

Go easy on the Tags.. use them strategically. I prefer to use them for ‘Featured’ and for campaigns (ie. Holidays)

Custom Groups

You have the ability to create as many drop downs as you like.  Consider a drop down selection for ‘Where’ – provide a list of neighbourhoods, districts.. for ‘Audience’ (e.g. family friendly, adults, seniors), for ‘Type’ (e.g. concert, festival, conference, workshop, etc), maybe even ‘Cost’ (e.g. free, donation, over $25, etc). Select your drop down specifically for your audience – if you’re a Parenting site, you could define your ‘Audience’ by prenatal, infant, toddler, etc.  The order of your drop down list is based on the order that you create them.

Consider setting up seasonal (ie. Holiday), topical (ie. Burger) or Neighbourhood calendars. Your tagging system will automatically send all relevant events there.  If you feel creating categories helps brand your site – this takes it up a notch!

Embed

The Embed tab will give generate the code you can use to copy and paste your calendar onto your website.

Choose between Calendar and Slider.

The Slider is used to feature special events you would like to highlight. Either put this above your main calendar or standalone on your homepage. Choose events that have mass appeal, and have a great visual. [/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]