If you’re planning an upcoming event and need some expert advice on how to boost last minute ticket sales online, follow these ten top tips.
1. Run an Instagram Contest
Instagram is a great platform for promoting your arty snaps and engaging event videos, plus statistics show that retention levels for information delivered visually is up to 65% greater than information delivered via other methods. With this in mind, consider launching a contest on Instagram to capture the attention of potential event goers, creating engagement for your event while promoting ticket sales. Here are some competition ideas to get your creative juices flowing.
2. Boost your event page with Facebook Ads
Facebook is another great online platform, well known for its ability to get your event in front of potential attendees. However, to drum up more attention in the final few months, weeks, or even days and hours, you might want to consider investing some of your marketing budget on paid ads. These ads broaden your reach and put your event before the eyes of the people most likely to pick up a last-minute ticket.
3. Capitalise on Interest
Take Facebook advertising one step further by running a retargeting campaign. Retargeting gives you the opportunity to engage with the people who have shown interest in your event page, but haven’t purchased a ticket… yet. It can be one of the most effective means of closing on potential event goers, and can yield one of the highest returns on ad spend for your event.
4. Utilise Mobile Vending
As you get ever closer to zero hour, you need to shift as many tickets as you can before it’s too late to do so. This means optimising the channels through which you can vend tickets to customers. Making sure your tickets are available via an online ticketing solution, like Ticketebo, is essential. Look for vendors that offer a web based booking system that provides fully automated and mobile friendly functionality, such as the ability to easily turn smartphone and tablet devices into mobile points of sale, enabling you to really push ticket vending rates right up until show time.
5. Highlight Exclusivity
Everyone wants to make sure they can bag tickets to the hottest event in town, and if they hear that tickets are selling out quickly it’s more likely they’ll purchase a ticket. A common way that experienced event marketers manage this is with a staggered ticket release model. For example, customers can get discounted ‘early bird’ tickets for a few weeks until these sell out, then pay a little more for the next phase. By time the final phase rolls around, customers are handing over more money in greater numbers because of the urgency of the event.
6. Know Your Most Successful Channels
Are your Facebook links providing the majority of your online ticket sales? Or does Instagram drive people to your online event page? Know what channel is working for you, well in advance of event day. When the time comes for the last push, you’ll know exactly where and to when to spend your last marketing dollars. Most platforms provide you with access to analytics, or if you have an event website you should be able to see when and where your traffic comes from.
7. Don’t Forget About the Slackers
Perhaps, during your analysis, you find that mobile searches aren’t converting to buy tickets? Or you actually get very little engagement with people on Twitter. If you review your analytics in the months and weeks running up to the event there’s still time to tweak and improve on your poor performing channels, ahead of the final push.
8. Focus on Influencers
Do you know if your event has caught the attention of any influencers? Specific to your event, this is anyone who has influence over the people likely to attend your event. With access to your social media channels, it is easy to pinpoint these influencers and to reach out to them with incentives to encourage sales.
9. Consider Bundles
What can you offer to encourage those last minute procrastinators to encourage them to part with their hard-earned money? Consider bundling in drinks vouchers, food vouchers, or other additional perks that can be used at the event. Alternatively, offer discounts on tickets for the next event bundled in with a pass for the current date.
10. Schedule Lead-up Events
Building momentum and anticipation is an extremely effective way of encouraging ticket sales as the start date and time grows ever close. To achieve this, schedule miniature events during this lead-up period. Hold live web broadcasts with performers or other key event members. Launch free gifts and teaser content. Just make sure you follow a well publicised schedule so that your events have the right effect on undecided consumers.
To get started on the Ticketebo event online ticket management system, click here. For more information, get in touch with our team.
