For effective ticket sales, it's worth using all the online tools available, such as email marketing, promotional campaigns, and social media, to reach as wide an audience as possible. Discover these options and find out how you can sell more tickets!
Mind your timing
Every event has a sales curve that tracks when people buy tickets. For most events, sales spike when tickets first become available, thanks to the anticipation built up by the event announcement. Then there is another rise in ticket sales in the final days. Between these two periods, sales are relatively stable, a "maintenance" phase.
It's important for event organizers to understand that timing is critical. Consistent messaging throughout the entire ticket sales lifecycle keeps the event in the spotlight, which can help increase sales.
Advertise consistently
Your audience has different motivations at different stages of the lifecycle. It's the organizer's job to nurture prospects' intention to buy tickets until they are ready to purchase.
You should build your event promotion strategy around this. If you spend your entire budget or make all your big announcements in the early stage, you may not be able to spark interest again. That's why it's important to map out the stages of your campaign and think about which marketing tools best serve your goals and when.
We've also brought three practical examples for planning the ticket sales lifecycle.
Even though we live in the age of apps and social media, email remains one of the most powerful marketing tools. With spam filters and overflowing inboxes, however, sending an email doesn't guarantee a sale, or even a click. Here are five tips to help you stand out from the crowd of emails and drive traffic to your event listing.
Give people a reason to click
Use the subject line to spark people's curiosity. Aim to make it descriptive and under 50 characters, and always tailor it to your target audience.
Keep it short
Start with the most compelling information, and make sure the email includes a clear call to action.
Avoid spammy language
People - and some spam filters - don't trust emails that use attention-grabbing tactics such as all caps, dollar signs, too many exclamation marks, or multiple font sizes. It's important to avoid these elements.
Don't rely on images alone
Create an email that makes sense both with and without images. Spam filters are more likely to block emails with no text, so don't rely only on visuals.
There are a few key ways to make an impression on social platforms too. Here they are!
Create custom content for your event
This is more time-consuming than simple social media posts, but creating unique videos, blog posts, and guides can greatly extend your reach and visibility.
Involve your event partners
Ask the event's hosts and sponsors to cross-promote the event on their own channels. Together, the reach can be much greater, and sponsors can get the word about the event out to an already engaged audience.
Make use of the connections you have
Reach out to the event's past attendees and biggest customers, and ask them to promote the event on their own social media channels. You can even encourage them with a discount or gifts.
Run giveaways to boost ticket sales
Social media contests can engage your existing audience, which can increase ticket sales.
Partner with influencers
Brand ambassadors can be a great way to reach new audiences while building your brand. To cut costs (and increase credibility), look for local "micro-influencers" who have smaller but highly engaged followings.
Optimizing your event page and ticket sales for mobile isn't just about the experience, it's also about wider reach.
98% of Facebook's daily active users access the app on mobile.
If you promote your event on Facebook (who doesn't?), there's a very high chance that people will view your ad on mobile. This means that if they click the link and land on a page without mobile-optimized ticket sales, it hurts your sales.
People want to be able to buy on mobile as well. As mobile use grows, so does the expectation that they can do everything on the go, including last-minute purchases. This is one of the reasons why it's important to make tickets available on mobile for an audience that loves buying online.
Search engine optimization (SEO) can help you attract more attendees to your event. It's an important digital strategy that helps your website show up when people search the internet. We've gathered a few tips on how to improve your SEO.
Choose your domain name well
If you build a website for your event, the domain should match the event's name as closely as possible. Google and other search engines put great weight on website names when displaying search results.
Think about keywords
The words on your website should be in line with what potential attendees may search for.
Keep your website up to date
If you add authentic, valuable content to your website, it leads to a better search ranking. Keep your web content up to date with event details, write blog posts, or do interviews with the headliners and sponsors to build interest in your event.
The right sponsors don't just add money to your budget; they can also make the event more attractive and help you reach a full house. Don't stop at the basics; instead, encourage brands to enhance the attendee experience with experiential marketing.
Create mini-experiences with them in the form of brand activations, enriching the event with unexpected elements. In return, brands will see greater engagement, and they can be confident that the event is worth partnering with again and again.
If you invest in promotion, you need to know what works and what doesn't. The most effective way to increase sales is to identify which channels bring in the most revenue. Here are two ways to track conversions so you can optimize your marketing spend.
Promotion with a tracking link
Tracking links help you find out where ticket buyers came from. For example, if you work with social media influencers, give them a unique link so you can see how much traffic they send to your event page.
Pixels
Advertising platforms show you how many people saw or clicked your ads. For this, you need to use tracking pixels, which tell the advertising platform you use when a website is reached through your ad. If the tracked website is an order confirmation page, you can see every time your ad resulted in a completed order.
The first step in organizing sold-out events is understanding how to attract people to the event. The more tools and tactics you bring into the process, the more you increase your chances of effective ticket sales. For the best value-for-money ticketing in the country, get in touch with us!