10 Winning Strategies for Increasing Event Ticket Sales Online

Event Management

EventUp Planner Contributor
October 9, 2024

Filling seats is your biggest priority and your biggest challenge as an event planner. Potential attendees have a smorgasbord of options, meaning competition for their attention is fierce. It’s normal to be left wondering— how can I stand out and sell more tickets?

The good news is, the event ticketing market is booming. Revenue in the U.S. event tickets market is projected to reach $36.26 billion in 2024 and grow at a 2.85% annual rate through 2028. This represents a huge opportunity for savvy planners to capture their share of ticket sales!

In this post, we’ll explore 10 proven strategies that leverage event ticketing software and your event communications to sell more tickets. When implemented effectively, these strategies allow you to maximize your reach and ultimately sell out your events. 🎉

Let’s dive in!

How to Increase Ticket Sales for Events? Check out these 10 Tips!

Make sure you’re on the right track to drive ticket sales with the following strategies. Plus, learn how event registration platforms like EventUp Planner make it easier to promote your event and sell tickets online.

Create a winning pricing strategy

Nailing your ticket prices is crucial for making sales. Price too high and you risk driving attendees away. But price too low and you risk leaving money on the table. Ideally you want to take an approach that maximizes sales while still appearing valuable to potential attendees.

One way to find that sweet spot is by offering flexible bundles and packages tailored to different audience segments:

Tiered pricing for basic, premium, and VIP levels
Group discounts for larger parties
Bundled packages with added extras like merch or experiences
Dynamic pricing based on demand

Creating a sense of urgency through limited-time pricing and low ticket availability can also boost conversions. Advertise early bird discounts or things like “50% off tickets this week only!” to capitalize on the fear of missing out. (But use this tactic sparingly—using scarcity or urgency can get old really fast.)

Once you’ve perfected your pricing, use event ticketing software to easily sell tickets online. EventUp Planner has top features like different pricing categories, promo codes, and group passes—making it super easy to implement your ideal pricing structure.

Promote your event on social media

Social media is a fantastic way to get your event out there and reach a larger audience. The key is concentrating on the two or three social media platforms your target attendees use most. Ensure these are places your people actually spend time, and tailor the content you share to that specific audience and platform.

Here are some more best practices to keep in mind when selling tickets using social media:

Create engaging content. Stand out with creative videos, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, and other share-worthy content tailored to each platform’s native style. For Instagram, design eye-catching graphics and Reels. On TikTok, recreate trending challenges related to your event theme.
Encourage user-generated content (UGC). Incentivize attendees to organically share about your event through contests, branded hashtags, and photo ops! Award prizes for the best fan photos/videos using #YourEventHashtag.
Use hashtags and geotags. Increase the chance of your event being discovered by using relevant location-based and interest-based hashtags that your target audience follows. (For example, #NYCevents or #TechConference)
Engage with your followers. Don’t just broadcast—reply to comments, re-share user posts, go live, and stir up conversation around your event. This builds buzz and a sense of community.
Run targeted ads. Run paid ads to laser-target your ideal attendee personas across social platforms using their specific interests, behaviors, locations, etc.
Offer contests and giveaways. Drive engagement through giveaways for free tickets, VIP upgrades, or event merch and experiences. For example: “Like and tag 3 friends for a chance to win VIP passes!”

Need help streamlining your social media promotion? EventUp Planner allows you to schedule and automate social media campaigns and posts through integrations with marketing platforms you already use! Plus it’s easy to capture user-generated content through branded hashtags, then re-share through automated workflows.

Use email marketing to its full potential

Email marketing allows you to tap into your existing customer database and retarget people who have already expressed interest in your event. This warm audience is far more likely to convert compared to cold outreach. Email is also highly measurable, letting you optimize campaigns for maximum ticket sales!

Here’s how to get the most out of email marketing for your event:

Segment your list and personalize event communications. Don’t blast the same generic email to everyone. Segment your email list by factors like demographics, interests, previous attendance, etc. Then, personalize emails with dynamic content tailored to each segment for higher engagement. (For example, market VIP packages differently to past VIP buyers.)
Promote special offers. Entice signups by promoting early bird pricing, group discounts, package deals, and other special offers through dedicated email campaigns. This exclusivity drives purchasers to buy early.
Capture abandoned carts. Set up automated remarketing flows that re-engage prospects who started but didn’t complete registration. A simple “Forgot something in your cart?” can help recover lost sales.
Use clear CTAs. Every email should have a clear, prominent call-to-action (CTA) driving users to purchase tickets through your event website or registration page. Make it obvious and frictionless to convert.
Testing and optimization. A/B test elements like subject lines, copy, CTAs and imagery to see what resonates best with your audience. Then double down on the highest performers while continually optimizing.

Email marketing getting you down? Use EventUp Planner to create fully-branded email templates once and then reuse those designs across all email campaigns, saving time and energy! Our platform lets you segment email lists to send personalized, timely messages to specific audience segments at optimal times.

Collaborate with influencers and industry experts

Expand your event’s reach by partnering with relevant influencers, industry experts, and thought leaders. The goal is to leverage their existing followings by having them promote your event—through endorsements, takeovers, guest content, and more—in order to sell more tickets.

For social media, you can co-create promotional videos, Instagram Reels, or TikTok challenges featuring the influencer. Have them go live to hype up the event, share behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, or run a joint giveaway for free tickets.
Enlist influencers for dedicated email campaigns where they introduce the event to their subscriber list. Or have them contribute guest content for your email newsletters.
You can also run co-branded ads together or negotiate affiliate marketing deals where they earn a commission for any tickets sold through their unique referral link or code.

The key is identifying influencers and experts highly relevant to your event niche and audience. Their authenticity and sway over your target market is incredibly valuable.

Optimize your website and landing pages

Your website and event landing pages are prime real estate for converting browsers into ticket buyers.

Ask yourself the following questions to evaluate their effectiveness:

✔ ️ Is the website easy for visitors to use and find what they need?

✔ ️ Are there clear, prominent calls-to-action like “Get Tickets Now” on every main page?

✔ ️ Is the website mobile responsive and optimized for mobile purchases?

✔ ️ Do pages load quickly to minimize abandoned carts?

✔ ️ Does the site incorporate social proof like testimonials or badges showing the number

of tickets sold?

✔ ️ Is there comprehensive, up-to-date event info and an FAQ section?

✔ ️ Is the online checkout process streamlined and secure?

Even small tweaks to these factors can dramatically improve your website’s ability to drive ticket purchases! Test relentlessly to find the ideal user experience.

Expand your reach through Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website and content to rank higher in search results for relevant keywords. For events, utilizing SEO can increase your online visibility and, in turn, your ticket sales.

Here’s how to get started:

First, conduct keyword research to identify high-value search terms like “[event name] tickets” to target. Then, optimize your website pages, title tags, and meta descriptions with those keywords.
Next, create and publish regular blog content that utilize the keywords you’ve identified. (Your event descriptions on the website should include the keywords, too.)
From there, try to earn backlinks from reputable sites (e.g. event association or sponsors’ websites) through outreach and partnership building.
Finally, make sure your website or landing page(s) load quickly and function properly on mobile devices.

While SEO is free organic traffic, pay-per-click (PPC) ads allow you to “pay-to-play” at the top of search results immediately. A combined SEO and PPC strategy can maximize your visibility. 👍

CHECK OUT: Everything You Need to Know about SEO for Event Websites

Harness sponsorships and strategic partnerships

Selling tickets is a numbers game. The more people you reach, the more tickets you’ll sell.

That’s why appealing to the warm audiences of event sponsors and strategic partners can be such a powerful strategy. You don’t need to invent a new audience— you simply need to access ones that already exist!

Every time a sponsor cross-promotes your event to their social media following or email lists, you’re gaining access to an entire new audience of potential attendees. Increase your event’s perceived credibility and value by highlighting sponsors prominently on your event website, in your email campaigns, and via social media campaigns.

Strategic partnerships with complementary businesses, media outlets, non-profits, and local organizations also expand your online reach. For example, events focused on specific industries or interests can team up with relevant professional associations or membership organizations. Those groups then promote the event through their newsletters, websites and communications, driving ticket purchases from their membership base.

LEARN MORE: How to Get More Sponsors for Your Next Event

Implement a referral program

Implementing a referral program is a brilliant way to incentivize your existing attendees and fans to become brand ambassadors, driving more online ticket sales!

The benefits include:

✅ Increasing word-of-mouth marketing

✅ Reaching new audiences through trusted recommendations

✅ Lower acquisition costs compared to other marketing channels

Here are a few tips to successfully implement a referral program:

Offer desirable rewards like free or discounted tickets, VIP upgrades, event merchandise, or other valuable incentives
Make it easy to share and track unique referral links
Promote the program through email campaigns and your event website
Gamify your referral program with rewards tiers and leaderboards for added motivation

Even simple referral efforts can provide a huge sales boost when you mobilize your loyal audience.

Host webinars and live Q&A sessions

Hosting webinars and live Q&A sessions allows you to connect directly with potential attendees and sell more tickets online.

These interactive sessions provide a forum to dive deeper into event details, address common questions and concerns, and build excitement. Attendees get their queries resolved in real-time, instilling confidence to purchase!

Choosing an intuitive virtual event software makes it easy to set up and run webinars. EventUp Planner has interactive engagement tools like live polls, Q&A chat box, and more to provide an ‘in-person’ feel to your webinar.

Tap into your network

Don’t overlook the powerful marketing potential of your own network when selling event tickets online! Tap your event team, vendors, sponsors, and partners to help generate buzz:

Ask them to share promotional emails and social posts with their contacts
Have them directly reach out to colleagues, clients, members, or subscribers
Connect with related local businesses, organizations, or meetup groups
Get support from industry associations or non-profit partners in your space

An event’s success relies on a village of supporters; leverage your extended network by making them brand ambassadors. Their relationships can drive more ticket purchases than advertising alone.

Boost Ticket Sales with Event Ticketing Software 🚀

When it comes down to it, there are tons of strategies for selling more tickets online. The key is to work smarter, not harder so you can reach your revenue targets—without losing your sanity.

Enter EventUp Planner.

Our leading platform makes it easier to create custom registration forms and manage submissions so that you can spend time promoting your event. Plus, our tools for event communications and marketing make it easier to sell more tickets with less stress.

Ready to learn how an online event ticketing system can make selling tickets easier? Book a demo of EventUp Planner today!

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7 Steps to Secure Your Event Ticketing Process & Registration

Event Management

November 21, 2023

Believe it or not, corporate events make prime targets for cybercriminals and bad actors. The event ticketing process is the number one target. Whether running a face-to-face, virtual, or hybrid event, you must safeguard your incumbent technology stack and integrated solutions from attacks. Otherwise, you may be risking sensitive customer data falling into the wrong hands.

Cyber attacks Can Happen Anywhere Online

Cyberattack methods are growing and evolving every day. Because of this, it’s imperative that businesses adopt a security-first mindset when organizing their events. Event organizers should be looking at all online aspects of their events, from registration and check-in, to scheduling and marketing communications.

One of the key components of an event organizer’s attack surface is the technology associated with the event registration and ticketing processes. If appropriate security measures are not implemented from the outset, data breaches can occur. This leads to issues ranging from compromised customer information to fraudulent ticket sales.

If you are running a corporate event, be it a sales expo, networking meeting, trade show, or conference, it’s vital that you understand the possible vulnerabilities within your event management infrastructure. This means first making a list of any exploitative weak points in your tech systems. Then, you’ll want to plan preventative measures you can take to protect your own brand, plus any suppliers, and, of course, your attendees.

This guide looks at some of the top cyber security risks to be aware of when managing your B2B event and, in particular, your event ticketing process and registration.

Breaches From Phishing or Social Engineering Attacks

Phishing remains one of the biggest and most frequent cyber threats to businesses of all sectors. There are an estimated 3.4 billion phishing emails sent every day. Hackers methodically craft these seemingly innocuous emails to deceive users into thinking that the ‘sender’ legitimately needs access to user accounts or data. Users are tricked into thinking that requests come from known parties, not realizing that they have been deceived.

When a bad actor gains access to data stored in ticketing and registration systems, customer data like names, email addresses, phone numbers, financial information, and more can be compromised and exploited. Staff training and awareness are crucial. Train your team to identify and report any suspicious or otherwise harmful messages. Event organizers can also assess which parts of ticketing systems or networks are most prone to targeted phishing attacks or malware installations using third-party penetration testing solutions. These services can identify weak points and give actionable suggestions to strengthen your defenses.

Insecure Data Storage and Transmission

Event organizers need to keep personal and payment information of each customer’s ticket purchase secure. Having a record and receipt of the transaction is pivotal. This usually means your event data is transmitted and stored in a digital cloud infrastructure. According to recent statistics, 45% of data breaches have occurred on cloud-based platforms.

If this cloud storage solution is not encrypted correctly and lacks data security controls, the sensitive data is left vulnerable at multiple touchpoints. Not only is it at risk of interception when transactions are made, but also as it moves to and from multiple servers. Deploying HTTP across your website and ticketing platform – with a valid TLS or SSL certificate – will ensure that standard HTTP requests are undecipherable, with data encrypted at rest and in transit.

Outdated and Unpatched Ticketing Software

Ticketing software, like most other programs, requires ongoing maintenance, updates, and patching to ensure optimum stability and performance. Install regular patches on your proprietary technology to ensure that you address any known vulnerabilities. This will also ensure your customer data is not susceptible to compromise.

However, using outdated platforms that no longer receive managed updates poses an inherent security risk. Vulnerabilities are more easily exploited this way. Event organizers should proactively maintain their ticketing solutions and apply patches immediately when prompted to address any known vulnerabilities. If you are using outdated platforms that are no longer supported by developers, migrate and update to solutions that offer sufficient security.

Learn more about EventUp Planner’s secure registration and ticketing platform here.

Lack of Proper Authentication

Authenticating across all endpoints within your event management platform and any third-party integrations requires users to enter multiple usernames and passwords. Irrespective of industry, users are overwhelmingly guilty of reusing familiar passwords across multiple systems and applications. This is easier with organizations that fail to implement clear, strong password policies.

Hackers exposed over 24 billion passwords in 2022 alone, with more than 80% of confirmed breaches pointing to weak, reused, or stolen passwords. Hackers can often initiate brute-force attacks to compromise logins and move laterally across systems with fewer passwords to guess. If your ticketing platform makes it easy for users to enter basic passwords, or if you don’t have an established secure password policy, you’re inviting hackers in. Because of this, event organizers should implement a strong policy across your infrastructure by enforcing complex, unique passwords for each user login. Back these up with enterprise-wide, multi-factor authentication (MFA) to prompt users to verify their information and login attempts. Prompting users to enter one-time passwords (OTPs) or biometrics to validate requests can block an estimated 99.9% of modern automated cyber attacks.

PCI DSS and Non-Compliance

Processing credit card payments online requires your business to adhere to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). Failure to comply can lead to hefty monthly fines, sometimes as high as six-figure sums, depending on the size of your organization and the seriousness of non-compliance.

Validate all your ticketing payment controls and gateways to ensure sufficient vulnerability management, access restrictions, data encryption, and more. Identify any gaps, ensuring you only collect the minimum amount of customer data during the checkout process. Be sure to communicate how you use data and outline processes for deletion. Transparency is key when handling consumer and attendee data for your event. Maintaining an open, proactive approach will provide much-needed reassurance that you’re acting lawfully and ethically with data protection laws.

Mitigating Event Risks Ahead of Time

Proactive planning and due diligence is key to ensuring your event runs smoothly. These steps can protect your event from hackers or data hiccups:

Conduct security assessments ahead of time to identify weak points in ticketing software and knowledge gaps in your team.
Initiate regular, comprehensive security training. This will ensure your team is skilled and capable of recognizing key threats like phishing or social engineering.
Create detailed data security policies and incident response plans. Clearly outline and communicate your team’s specific roles in threat reporting and containment.
Validate your third-party software thoroughly, ensuring that you understand its security policies.
Upgrade from legacy, non-supported solutions into industry-leading event management tools like EventUp Planner that support your event goals and offer premium protection.
Maintain regular updating and patching schedules for your own tools. Plus, work with companies who have their own frequent updates, to ensure optimum stability of systems and integrated software.
Implement strong, unique password policies for all users.

Following these steps will give you a much stronger baseline level of security for your event ticketing process. If you need more advice on management or other solutions, EventUp Planner can help. Book a demo with one of our experts today!

Navigating Important Event Analytics Hidden in Your Registration Site

Event Management

April 26, 2023

Event analytics can be found in obvious and not-so-obvious places. One undervalued place is your registration data. Buried inside your event technology platform is a whole constellation of event registration analytics just waiting for you to explore. And you won’t believe the kinds of insights waiting for you there. For instance, information that can help you improve your marketing and event planning efforts. Also, data that can help increase your overall registration, both for your current event and in the development of future event marketing campaigns.

Event Analytics in the Registration Funnel

First things first when it comes to event analytics. Visitors pour in to your site from your event marketing. Your goal is to turn as many of these people as possible into event attendees by enticing them to register for your event. If at least 25-30% of your visitors become registrants, then you are doing great! This percentage is known as the registration conversion rate, and obviously you want this to be as high as possible.

But there are a few steps along the way to reaching the goal of a solid conversion rate. First, many visitors to your event website will never do more than lurk around for a while. Fair enough. Next, some will venture a little further into the registration funnel and begin the process of signing up for your event. Great! These are people who are interested in your event and responding well to your event landing page.

Should You Forget About Incomplete Registrations?

Now, here’s where we hit the next level. Some of those folks mentioned above will go all the way to the end of the registration process and become fully registered event attendees. Ding ding ding!!!! Success! But a fair amount will abandon the process part of the way through. This could be for a number of reasons including:

The instructions were not clear
Th user realized the event wasn’t really for them
They discovered that the pricing was too high for their budget

In any case, these incomplete registrations become the next part in your registration funnel. You can address the abandoned or incomplete registrations by reaching out directly to these folks in a series of emails. For instance, gentle reminders that their registration hasn’t been completed yet. Another option is to offer assistance with the process. Lastly, you could even offer a reduced rate to entice them to commit to your event.

Studies have shown that a concerted effort at targeting these abandoned registrations through personalized outreach can convert at least 20% of your incomplete registrations to completed. It’s a fairly easy way to boost attendance among the people who have already shown interest in your event. This is often much easier than trying to find new potential attendees who don’t already know about your event.

Event Analytics Insights

Examine your registration conversion rate and launch a campaign to re-energize incomplete registrations through direct outreach to improve your event analytics. A strong re-engagement campaign is definitely worth the time and energy. It will likely boost attendance at your current event and it will give you plenty of actionable data to apply to all your future events.

Here Are Some Tips To Improve Conversions:

If your conversion rate is low, then perhaps you haven’t targeted your audience properly.

Have you properly identified and effectively reached out to the correct buyer personas for your brand? Is your social media messaging on point? If your conversion rate is exceedingly low, then it would pay to revisit these aspects of your marketing campaign to ensure that you have focused your efforts in the right place.

Take another look at your event website, and in particular your event landing page.

Is it well written, clear, accurate, and exciting? Does it inspire you to want to get on board and register for this fabulous event right away? If not, then see how you can improve the content until it really shines.

Review and test your pricing

Is it possible that you have overpriced your market? If you think this could be a factor, then you can try offering a discounted rate to your incomplete registrations and see what kind of a response you get. If more than 20% of the people you contact register after the price has dropped, then you can bet that was a key factor in them not completing the registration process in the first place.

Event Analytics Takeaways

Your event management software is designed to not only perform a key role in the event planning process, it’s designed to give you feedback in the form of analytics to help you iterate your process as you go along, and learn lessons for future events. Event planners take heed, you have a great tool at your disposal to help you boost attendance at your events, as long as you take the time to respond to the information it gives you.

For more information on how Attendease can help you make the most of a robust event website, contact us here.