Selling tickets for an upcoming event? Check out these 3 things you should NOT be doing.

If you’ve ever hosted an event or put any sort of effort into selling tickets, you know that it can be a [very] daunting task at times.

No, it’s not rocket science but it can be formulaic in nature. There are things you should be doing and other things you should absolutely NOT be doing.

Recently, we’ve been focused on writing about event tips and tricks that directly benefit the outcome of your event. But rather than focusing on these “to-do’s” we figured it was only a matter of time before we switch things up and provide some insight about a few things that event organizers should be avoiding.

Here are 3 things that you should NOT be doing when selling tickets for an upcoming event:

1 | Don’t dwell, start to sell

One of the most common things, and biggest mistakes, that we often see is when event organizers simply don’t give themselves enough time. This is especially true for first-time events and new brands. You have to consider the reality that no one knows about your event and when it is taking place.

The first place to start is building event awareness, and that takes time. The lesson to be learned when marketing an event is don’t put the cart before the horse. Give yourself time to advertise and expect converting ticket sales to take time as well.

It has been well documented that the average path to conversion on an event ticket takes anywhere from 6-8 touch points along the customer journey. We see often that when organizers give themselves less than 3 weeks to advertise their event, they rarely succeed in reaching buyers beyond their personal networks.

The best way to look at it is you only ever have so many people who will buy a ticket for an event on a given night, and on top of that, your event is competing against all the other events happening that same day. If you want your event to stand out, then you should expect to put in more time and effort than your competition towards marketing.

And for those who have already grown your event/brand where you can sell out in 2-3 weeks? There is a purpose to sticking with the formula and keeping with the strategy of selling tickets well in advance. Quick ticket sales for one event allows you to build on the hype for the next.

Lets say your event sells out within 24 hours. Sure that’s great for this one, but now leverage that momentum for the next. Start working ticket pre-sales into your strategy (this will allow you to begin ticket sales and event marketing well in advance), do giveaway contests and ticket releases after the event is sold out in order to increase engagement on social media platforms. At the end of the day, you are nurturing the hype/excitement around your event so that you can continue to deploy that same excitement for future events.

But there’s a catch. Don’t just go selling tickets right away because the clock is ticking. You’ll want to make sure you have some sort of sales and marketing strategy in place, knowing exactly who you’re selling to and how you’ll be getting the word out to them.

Personal tip: Depending on the size of the event, you’ll want to give yourself a minimum of 4-6 weeks to start marketing and selling. This means a solid 4-6 of knowing who your target audience is, and knowing the value you’ll be providing them at your event. For larger events and festivals, you can easily double that time frame.

2 | Don’t rely on “others”, it’s up to you

Here’s the thing. Your events are your responsibility. And yes, especially when it comes to selling tickets.

This comes up often enough where we have to mention it. Unless you’ve hired an agency to manage sales and marketing for you, the success or failure of tickets sales is solely a result of your own efforts. Often times an event organizer will partner with an influential brand or company who is well known in the community, and there becomes an assumption that the partner will increase sales dramatically.

More times than not partners who are not directly involved in organizing the event, especially larger partners, will not have time to help market the event like you might be expecting. On a good event, your partner might end up resulting in the sale of 5-10% of the total tickets. It’s not going to be enough, that’s why this is up to you to drive sales.

You are the marketing and the selling machine for your event. If you’re unable to sell 50% of the tickets to your own event, then you may need to be realistic as to what your expectations are from others involved.

And your event partners/ stakeholders? Think of their contribution as an added layer of support on top. You’re the cake, and their added support is the icing.

Ultimately you NEED to have your marketing in check and clearly understand how, when and where you are going to sell tickets.

Can’t stress this enough.

3 | Don’t go in blind

This one seems obvious, but happens all too frequently. If you go into a ticket sale blind, you are entering at your own risk.

What do I mean by being blind? There are important strategies you need to be, at the very least, considering in order to prepare yourself for the sales that are about to unfold. A general layout works wonders for organizing that strategy.

For example, the first thing you might want to do is create the Facebook event page. Pre-sale tickets? That will go all over social media week one. Artist announcements? Launch that 3 days before tickets official go on sale. Ticket giveaway will be week 3 to drum up engagement on social media. Sponsored ads throughout week 4 to drive the announcement of 60% tickets sold out, etc, etc, etc.

Sure, there is something to be said about testing different strategies and tactics to see what works. I’m actually ALL for that. But don’t go in to this entirely blind. You’ll also want need to know what your goals are, KPIs and how you can accurately measure the return of your efforts.

For this exact reason, we suggest and always recommend that our clients take to Facebook if there is an Ad Spend available. The amount of detailed and precise targeting along with reporting insights let’s you know how and where your efforts AKA your green little soldiers (dollars) are being spent.

Personal tip: Treat your event like a business. Plan, strategize, optimize and measure where your return is coming from.

Hopefully these 3 NOT to do things provide some value for your next event. And if you’re looking for some tips, tricks and advice for your next event, don’t hesitate to reach out to us or tweet at us @BruhaExclusive!

Until next time,

Hosting an upcoming event and looking to sell tickets? We can help with that.

About Brüha :

Brüha is a local entertainment discovery & ticketing provider changing the way people interact with their local community, discover events and purchase tickets. Buy and sell tickets for upcoming events using Brüha. Whether you are a tourist visiting a new city or a local resident, Brüha provides a one-stop-shop that allows you to stay connected to your city.

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