Best Practice: Integrate marketing into your planning process Marketing is essential to successful programming. Regardless of the high quality of your event, you will gain more participants if people hear about it or want to attend. Marketing processes help you design a program that meets participants’ needs, effectively informs them of its existence, and explains why it is important to them. If you consider marketing problems before and during program design, you will gain a better understanding of your audience’s perceptions, values, and needs. Access audience worksheets and forms through the links at right.