It’s the season to sleigh your ticket sales! Seasonal events like festive concerts, winter markets, and ice rinks present a golden opportunity for businesses to embrace the holiday spirit, create lasting memories, and boost ticket sales. Here are six strategies to maximise those crucial first few days of sales and set the stage for success.
- Be Ready to Capture Demand
Predicting event demand can be challenging until it goes on sale. Pre-registration campaigns are valuable for gauging initial interest and identifying engaged demographics, which allows you to cater your marketing to specific audiences ahead of the onsale. Get access to all the reports and insights that show engagement from your announcement, both from your own marketing channels and from any other organisations who are helping to promote your event.
Running a presale for pre-registered attendees or closed groups via event partners can help assess general onsale busyness and identify any price resistance. Setting up a waiting list for events likely to sell out helps capture demand for extra tickets and additional shows. - Give Fans the VIP Treatment
Offering bundled upsells, VIP packages, and add-ons provides customers with added value during the onsale. Up to 65% of fans are willing to buy more than just a ticket, and selling these add-ons during the ticket sale is more effective than post-purchase, especially for items like accommodation and parking. - Get Your Ad Campaigns Live
Launching a programmatic ad campaign for your event during the announcement or onsale phase allows you to retarget engaged fans who visit your event pages, converting interest into sales. Starting your ad campaign early maximises the announcement and onsale buzz among wider audiences and enables the ad platform to optimise results. - Connect with Your Event Partners
Working with event partners, regardless of your database size, significantly increases your reach. Ticketmaster affiliates, for instance, can sell up to 15% of event tickets through preferred partner deals.
To stand out with event partners receiving numerous event requests weekly, offer something exclusive, such as a line-up announcement, a presale, or a discounted offer, to gain attention and feature your event. - Get your pricing right
Setting the right pricing strategy ahead of time can be a challenge. It’s key to understand which days and times within the season are going to be your most popular, so they’re priced correctly. Knowing your peaks and troughs in demand can help you adopt a flexible, pricing strategy, which can ultimately lead to better ticket sales. - Expand your distribution
Consider expanding your distribution into the travel market. Tourists travelling over the festive season are often looking for novel ways to entertain themselves, and your event could be the perfect addition to their trip. Ticketmaster Distributed Commerce capabilities connects clients with travel websites and tour operators, allowing your event to be served to travelling fans alongside their hotels, flights, or tours.
At Ticketmaster, we can assist with all the above strategies, including programmatic campaigns with our Ticketmaster data. Speak to your Ticketmaster representative or contact the team to discuss your options.
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Author: Adam Parry
Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.
