How to Sell Event Tickets and Improve Your Sales

How to Sell Event Tickets and Improve Your Sales

Planning an event comes with a mixture of excitement and nervousness. Whether you’re putting on a stadium concert, a sporting event, a corporate gathering, or something totally unique, it’s important to engage in event promotion to sell event tickets if you want to make a profit, or bring in money for charity, if that’s your goal.

Whatever event you are putting on, you need to bring a crowd to your ticket selling booth in order to sell tickets and make the event a success. This article provides tips for event marketing to help you sell tickets both online and in person in a way that ensures that your event is jam packed with people ready to have a good time or participate for an important cause.

Social Media Event Marketing

Nearly 90% of event planners use social media to improve pre-event engagement, that is informing people and getting them excited about your event. Nearly 52% of these social media promoters use Facebook for event promotion, making it the most popular channel by far.

Facebook is Still Top

Facebook is a great tool because it is so easy to create a Facebook Event and invite people to it directly. Remember to make your event public, so anyone can see and invite others. These invites can also be shared by those who respond to bring in even more people.

Get Free Exposure!

One of the best features of Facebook events is that FB will provide regular reminders for your invitees. Also, friends of those who have RSVPed to your event will often see a suggestion for that event on their Facebook calendars; that is free marketing with absolutely no additional effort on your part! Be sure to share the post and promote it out regularly and comment on the event page to get the most visibility.

Paid Promotions Can Also Sell Concert Tickets and More!

Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of the paid promotion option to market your event. Nearly half of event planners use FB paid ads. With the ability to target a very specific audience, or simply promote your event to all users within a certain mile and age range, paid social media ads are a solid investment.

Think Beyond Facebook

Keep in mind that Facebook is not the only social media option available. LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest are all tremendous avenues for promoting and selling tickets to your event if your audience uses these channels.

LinkedIn Links People to Events

LinkedIn is a particularly easy outlet for promoting events. Something as small as posting a status update with your event info at different times and days, or sending direct messages with a link to purchase a ticket can be beneficial.

Consider joining a few groups and posting your information in their discussion sections. Make sure you include the event information in your profile summary and include a brief synopsis or teaser for your event in your headline. You may also want to make one of the websites in your contact info a link to the online ticket sales. With just over 26% of planners using LinkedIn, it is often an overlooked avenue for promoting events, so taking advantage of it will put you one step ahead of your competitors!

Tweet on Twitter!

Twitter has become the go-to network for many social media fans and it’s easier to utilize than ever. Whereas users were previously limited to 140 characters per tweet, the new guidelines of 280 characters make it much more conducive to promoting events.

Creating a dedicated Twitter account for your event can be extremely helpful.
This will help Twitter users follow updates and reminders in their feed whenever you tweet. Get creative with a username that reflects your event and use some clever hashtags (#) and tags that are in some way associated with your event.

For instance, if you are hosting an Oktoberfest, make sure you take advantage of hashtags like #Germany and #GreatBeer. Research some similar events and see what hashtags they have used, then add your own personal flair.

Instagram Can Bring Instant Sales

Depending on your target audience, Instagram may be a wonderful outlet for procuring online ticket sales. Much like Twitter, this particular platform relies heavily on the use of hashtags. Using Instagram to post pictures of past events or converting a flyer to a .jpeg and adding hashtags can garner a new audience who may not have a presence on other social media sites.

Go Public!

When using social media to promote events, it is imperative that your profile is public, otherwise, the only people who will see your posts are those who already follow you. Again, take advantage of the paid advertising with these two social media giants – buy some ads! You will significantly expand your reach with little monetary expenditure.

One other social media avenue that often falls by the wayside when promoting events is Pinterest. If women are a part of your target demographic, Pinterest should definitely be a part of your social marketing campaign! It is a very user-friendly platform that also offers paid promotions and is still a widely untapped resource in the event promotion game.

If you are wondering how to promote an event, know that social media is a cheap and efficient way to expand your reach. With the ability to cut and paste information, low add prices, and the ability to reach people without paying for any adds at all, social media is one of the quickest, easiest, and least expensive outlets for promoting events.

Use Other Digital Channels

An event blog or website will help promote your event when people are conducting online searches. In addition, while social media gets a lot of hype, good old email marketing is a highly effective way to create engagement. In fact, 40% of event creators say that event invitation emails are the most effective event marketing materials.

Should you choose to go this route, make sure your email subject lines are catchy and precise. You need to grab the reader’s attention immediately in order to get them to open that email. If you have the capability to auto-insert the recipient’s name in the subject line that can be quite beneficial; personalization almost always yields results. Remember with email to tell people what is in it for them – make them feel compelled to attend your event by telling them they will enjoy themselves, win a prize, be the first to see something, or some other “reward” for attending.

YouTube is also an often disregarded source for promoting events. Short video clips of earlier events, or testimonials from those who have previously attended a similar event, can not only build excitement for upcoming festivities but expand your reach further still. Using the same hashtags as you choose for other social media campaigns makes your promotions more effective by tying it all together. Be sure the audio in your videos is easy to understand and make sure you get permission from anyone appearing in your videos who is not employed by your organization before posting them online.

Whatever platforms you choose to utilize, be it social media, email blasts, or other online avenues, make sure you always include a direct link to purchase online tickets, or your efforts will be for naught.

Also keep in mind that most local television stations, newspapers, and radio stations have sections on their websites dedicated to events in their area. Submitting your event through these venues is not only free but requires minimal effort on your part by cutting and pasting your pre-generated event info.

Don’t Forget Fliers, Posters, and Traditional Channels

Speaking of TV, radio, and newspapers, do not forget the basics. You want to appeal to as many people as possible by creating a visually attractive event poster/flyer that can be distributed in any number of ways (direct mail, hung up in partner locations, posted online, etc.).

Direct mail is great if the event is area-specific, and newspaper event sections, as well as cultural publications, shouldn’t be forgotten. Pounding the pavement to promote your event may seem like a waste of time but something as simple as posting flyers in a local coffee shop, laundry mat, library or other locale near your event site is not only cost efficient but often reaches audiences who may not be as connected through social media as some of their peers. Back to our Oktoberfest example, what better way to advertise than to post colorful posters in local craft breweries?! You might even partner with the breweries, having them hand out coupons or fliers for your event in exchange for being allowed to set up a booth to give away fliers or samples inside your event.

Sell Tickets Online and Off

Of course, you need to know how to sell tickets, because that is the point of this entire exercise! Online ticket sales are great, and with so many reliable website options available such as Eventbrite, Eventbee, and Ticketleap selling tickets online has never been easier. People love the convenience of being able to purchase tickets ahead of time and it is a simple, effective way to boost ticket sales for your event.

Of course, you’ll need to have an official ticket booth for people who want to buy tickets at the door. A ticket booth is absolutely necessary to sell tickets at the door for any event where you’re expecting a crowd.

If this is a one-time location event, a pre-owned portable booth can be easily relocated to your next event location. Renting a ticket booth adds a sense of professionalism and grandeur to your event. It also makes it very clear to people where they need to go to buy tickets and ask questions. You can also buy a small ticket selling booth, and then you’ll have the booth handy for your next event.

Of course, looks matter. To get the most out of your ticket booth purchase or rental, be sure to use an appealing design for your concert ticket booth that will attract passersby who are potential attendees. Your ticket booth can use lighting, color, and signage to attract attention, and tell people where to go to get involved in the most fun event in town!

Read More About Ticket Booths:

Event Planning Checklist

Six Amazing Ticket Booth Designs 

How to Properly Maintain Your New Ticket Booth