Event organizers have a lot of responsibility when it comes to selling out an event. They have to handle several tasks including event planning, registrations, ticketing, and marketing. Savvy event organizers use online event registration and ticketing tools to take some of the heavy-lifting off their plate.
In this article, we’ll share some best practices and actionable tips on how you can sell event tickets online to maximize sales using online event registration and ticketing software.
Article Outline
#1: Create an event website or landing page
Creating an event website helps you establish a communication channel with prospective attendees. You can use it as a platform to share details of the event and make it easy for prospective attendees to register online and purchase tickets.
Here’s some of the basic event information you should publish:
- An event description that briefly explains what the event is about and who should attend.
- Details about the speakers, presenters, and VIP guests.
- The benefits of attending the event.
- Event venue, time, and policies.
In addition to this, an event website acts as a resource hub for prospective attendees to learn about the different events you organize. You can publish event photos, short videos, and attendee testimonials on your website from previous events.
In this way, having an event website helps you improve event SEO (search engine optimization) and reach out to your target audience. By using descriptive and keyword-rich events, your events will have better visibility in Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). It’s also a good idea to keep event pages of previous events published. You can link them to the upcoming events page to make them more valuable and relevant for search engines.
Here are some actionable tips for event organizers to sell event tickets online:
- Use event management software that lets you create event pages and landing pages on your website.
- Base your event registration strategy on the type of events you want to organize.
- When setting up an event registration form on your website, make sure that you keep it as short as possible and only request information that is absolutely necessary.
- Offer multiple ticket pricing tiers to your registrants as well as the option to purchase group tickets.
- Automate email communication with attendees to save time.
- Post details about the event on your website including the event name, event date and time, event venue, as well as information about speakers, presenters, moderators, and staff.
- Aim to create a consistent user experience for your customers by customizing event pages to match the look and feel of the website.
- Store registrants’ personal information securely. This is only possible if you can exercise full control over how that information is collected and stored.
#2: Accept payments online for ticket sales
A simple way to make the ticket purchasing experience hassle-free for prospective attendees is by setting up payment methods that allow them to make payments online.
Selling event tickets online through your event site saves time and money as compared to offline payment methods. It also helps you gather accurate and real-time sales data so you can make informed decisions quickly. An online ticketing system also helps you gather attendees’ data (such as email addresses) which can be useful for running email marketing campaigns.
In order to ensure that your attendees can easily pay for their registrations, you should offer an online payment method that is reliable and easy to use like PayPal or Stripe.. The easier you make it for attendees to purchase tickets, the more likely they will be to buy them.
Event Espresso is a premium event registration and ticketing plugin for WordPress that offers six different payment gateways out of the box (including Authorize.net AIM and PayPal Express) as well as 17 additional payment options that are offered as add-ons. It’s the easiest way to start selling event tickets online.
#3: Create event tickets
Your event site lets you set up a virtual ticketing box office that you can use to share information about tickets (such as ticket types, price of tickets, and the remaining number of tickets) and allow prospective attendees to choose the tickets they’d like to purchase.
Best practices suggest that you should offer multiple tickets and pricing options to attendees. By creating multiple ticket types, attendees can choose their event experience (such as general admissions, early-bird tickets or VIP passes) or purchase tickets based on their budget.
A great way to maximize revenue is by upselling tickets to attendees. For instance, you can offer discounts on multiple ticket purchases, package multiple events’ tickets in a bundle, give exclusive access, or offer meals at the venue. You can then use this information to better understand your customers’ preferences and improve the event going experience for future events.
Selling event tickets online is the easiest way to charge for paid events. Plus, attendees who have paid for tickets are more likely to show up at the event than if you were to offer free tickets. An online ticketing system also helps you reduce waste as you’ll know how many people will attend and the different options they want.
Another reason to create multiple ticket types is to give attendees the option to choose their own event experience. Sell tickets at different prices so attendees can pick which ticket they’d like to purchase. You should sell a limited number of tickets based on your event venue’s capacity. Displaying the remaining number of tickets on your event website is a great way to create a sense of urgency. You can also sell tickets at a discount to encourage early-bird registrations.
#4: Promote your event online
Event promotion begins with setting up a landing page on your event website, inviting your email list to register for the event, and using other marketing channels to reach out to your audience. Getting the word out about your event enables you to maximize event registrations and ticket sales.
Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are perfect for sharing important event details. They also enable you to interact with prospective attendees and increase your audience reach beyond your email list. You can also ask event speakers, presenters, sponsors, and vendors to promote the event on their social pages.
In addition to this, you can publish blog posts and guest posts from speakers, create a short promotional video, or share event photos, testimonials, and reviews from past events.
Email invitations are the first point-of-contact with your event attendees, offering an opportunity to spark audience interest in the event and to share what you bring to the table. By automating email marketing campaigns, you’ll be able to stay on top of potential leads, convert prospective attendees into registrants, and maximize ticket sales.
#5: Track ticket sales
You can use your event website to gauge event success by tracking sales and gathering feedback from your attendees. Analytics helps you learn which ticket types were the most popular i.e. the experiences and budget afforded by your event-goers. This can also help you plan better events in the future.
Successful event organizers use different reporting and analytics tools to gain greater visibility into audience preferences. Consider using event ticketing software that comes with built-in analytics features.
Event Espresso, for example, allows you to quickly calculate the ROI of an event so you can determine how successful your events were. You’ll be able to track the number of event registrants and the money you’ve collected.
Start selling event tickets online today
Organizing successful events becomes easier when you use the right tools and strategies to maximize ticket sales. Start by creating an event website or landing page for your event. Next, set up a payment gateway that lets you accept online payments to sell event tickets. Finally, remember to promote your event and track ticket sales to gauge event success.
Are you ready to start selling event tickets online? Try the Event Espresso demo today!