A well-planned strategy is crucial for a successful event. Proper planning and action can help event managers to sell out more event tickets. With vacation and festival season, it’s the right time to ignite ticket sales. Are you looking to sell out more event tickets? Then we have brought 10 proven marketing tips that help you sell out your event tickets.
“To achieve remarkable things, two things are needed: not quite enough time and a plan.” -Leonard Bernstein.
Events are the best way to boost culture, educate people, and for many reasons. However, creating an event is not enough; you also need to focus on marketing the same. Right event marketing ideas and tips will definitely help you get the word about the event, create buzz, and reach the right audience.
Selling Out Your Next Event: Top Tips to Follow
The event industry size was valued at $1,135.4 billion in 2019. The market is projected to reach $1,552.9 billion by 2028, registering an 11.2% CAGR between 2021 and 2028. The event simply refers to a public gathering at a determined place and time. The purpose of event organizing is entertainment, business profitability, community, and celebratory causes, among others.
The popular events include corporate events & seminars, conferences & exhibitions, promotion & fundraising, festivals, trade shows, product launches, music & art performance, and sports. The main stakeholders within the events market are public organizations, NGOs, and corporate organizations.
“Productivity is never an accident. It is the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” -Paul J. Meyer
Selling tickets is a bit of a complicated task; it becomes more complicated, especially when you have high targets. However, it does not have to be challenging; you can find what works for you and helps you reach a wide number of people. Inspire your event marketing strategy with the top 10 tips that help you sell more event tickets and improve the audience number at the event.
1. Event Promotional Video
Every small piece of information matters the most in event promotion. You can choose to make a unique and edgy trailer that explains the reason why attendees must attend the event and invite them to join the event.
Focusing on creative promotion ideas can help you make your next big hit; these will also help you boost word-of-mouth marketing as people who have bought the tickets will spread the positive word about your event to others.
Keep your targeted audience as a central focus while creating content, find best content ideas and try to deliver an exact message for them. Find what kind of content your targeted audience usually consume and try to produce the same.
2. Reward Previous Attendees
As an event planner, if you are organizing an event annually, then the very first thing that you can do is announce it to the last year’s attendees. Attendees who have previously visited your event can prove to be big supporters and are more likely to purchase the event ticket.
If you don’t have all the information on hand for the event hammered out yet, you can appreciate the attendees by providing them with a special discount for following the sign-in process. You can create and send a personalized email to the prospects and your contact to inform them about the event.
3. Work with Influencers
If you know the targeted audience, you can identify which influencer can help you reach more people. Once you find the right influencer, you can approach them with a cooperation offer. They can help you to spread word of mouth, make a competition, provide free tickets, or personally show up at the event. You can find influencers on different platforms like YouTube, Instagram, or any other.
4. Creative Landing Page Can Prove Beneficial
“Nothing will work unless you do.”-Maya Angelou.
No other option is better for selling more event tickets than having a creative and engaging landing page with amazing call-to-action. Adding different elements to the event page isn’t ordinary. However, you do not need to have thousands of words and lots of turns. Focus on having all the essential details that your attendees are looking for is just enough. Make sure to include all the elements like:
- Comprehensive description: Add date, place, time, type of event, and other such details for your attendees
- Content: It is something that encourages people to join your event; hence you can choose to add a short description of what they can expect from the event;
- Speakers: One of the effective magnets for attendees is the speakers. Therefore add images, contact information, and bios.
- Images/Videos of the Event: Helps to showcase what to expect;
- Call-to-action Button: Add the button like Join us! Register! on more than one section;
- FAQ: Try to include repetitive questions from the attendees, and add them to the landing page; this can save time for your attendees as well as you.
- Link Social Media: Never forget to add social media links and contact details; this can help you stay in touch with your attendees.
5. Sell Tickets on a Scarcity Model
Make sure to have two different pricing models: Regular and Early Buying. Having more than one pricing strategy can help you encourage more people to buy tickets for the event before the price increases. This creates the urgency for attendees to buy the ticket sooner.
Consider structuring early pricing on your event website; this makes it irresistible for your targeted audience to sign up. Add a date and time on a website and app to make people know that they have limited time to buy the ticket. Isabella Kirsch, Marketing Manager, says, “Creating urgency with the pricing will help to engage the targeted audience early on. It’s crucial to know what you are relying on.”
Are you going ahead with event planning? Then it becomes crucial for you to change the price on a specific date and time because attendees are prepared and are likely to act before the price increases. If you succeed in creating a buzz, the scarcity model encourages people to buy earlier since they do not know when the current price is going to increase.
6. Utilize the Power of Podcasts
“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” -William James.
The podcast became a big hit in today’s digital world, so it’s wise advice to become a Podcast superstar. You can take the support of speakers and sponsors and ask them to talk a little bit about your event. You can host a podcast with interesting topics related to your event.
You can organize an interview with influencers in the event industry or well-known people that can inspire your targeted audience. People just love meaningful podcasts; they are more likely to share the same with others; this can help you increase your chance of selling more event tickets and reaching more audiences.
7. Include Humans of “Your Event”
People just like real stories, especially the ones where they can see humans. You can use the same concept in promoting your event. You can choose to showcase people that have previously attended your event, and show images or videos that present their stories.
People can choose to share what they have learned, why they would recommend the event to other attendees, and why they attended the event. You can choose to share the same on social channels; your targeted audience will feel like they know the people and will get motivated to attend the goal to achieve the same; however, this is all you want.
8. Create Your Community
As an event organizer, you need to know how to navigate an online networking event. Besides that, you also need to have a community of attendees; the potential audience will definitely see the value of the event and can be more interested in joining.
You can manage to create the community before organizing the event; it can help you grab the goal. Each attendee can support each other enthusiastically and spread word of mouth to present and new audience with excitement about the upcoming event.
You can connect the attendees on social channels via LinkedIn and Facebook groups; you can develop and use an app to let attendees network events even before you host them. Few platforms provide outstanding networking tools to attendees, enabling them to chat, connect, and arrange meetings beforehand.
9. Facebook and Instagram Livestreams
One of the best ways to use social channels for event promotion is to leverage the benefits of live streams. Individuals love live streams as it is authentic. You can create live streams from the preparation of the venue, from the team meeting, and do an interview with great speakers so that more people can ask questions. People feel connected to the event and will be likely to shop for tickets. Live streams boost your reach, improve your visibility, and add creativity.
10. Use LinkedIn for Promotions
LinkedIn groups, events, etc., are a perfect way to contact individuals in the industry who might be interested in events you host. Take advantage of the ability of the social platform to promote your event to hundreds and thousands of people in the same segment on social channels developed for networking, you know, the primary reason people go for events.
Developing an event page on LinkedIn gives opportunities for the attendees to post questions and network with every other. Join groups related to your segment; you can post about an amazing event that you are hosting. If you put effort into paying, consider providing offers to a group of members who share the post.
Sell Out Event Tickets with Creative Ideas!
There are lots of marketing tips to sell out event tickets; it can prove to be beneficial. Brag about your sessions, tools, and speakers to reach a large group audience. planning and implementing the right marketing tactic can help make your attendees walk to your event. However, people are more likely to invest in a ticket if they are provided with all the details. You need to know they will receive a worthwhile retrieval on their investment.