Looking to boost attendance at your next big conference or live event? If you’re an event organiser, planner or promoter, selling out events is your number one priority. But getting the big numbers in is easier said than done.
As an online printer that supplies event print to thousands of UK businesses, we know that getting your event marketing strategy right is crucial. We’ve gathered our top tips for event promotion success, so you can sell out your big event every time.
1. Market Tickets Online
Online marketing is a fantastic avenue for increasing ticket sales because it’s so easy to target potential attendees.
Here are a few ways you can boost awareness of your upcoming event online:
- Targeted ads – you can use sponsored posts on social media sites like Facebook to hone in on your target audience based on their location and interests. The benefit of targeting hyper-relevant audiences is that they’re the most likely to attend your event in the first place, meaning high gain for relatively little effort! You can also use discount codes to incentivise your CTAs even further.
- Blog post – create hype with a blog post! Blogs are great for giving your audience a lot of information and mean you can share the link via email and social media. Use keyword research to help people find out about your event using search engines.
- Ticket giveaways – using your email list or social media following, why not host a limited ticket giveaway? Scarcity helps create a buzz and the number of people who enter will help give you a better idea of how many attendees to expect.
From growing a solid online fanbase to spreading hype with a giveaway, there are loads of options for promoting your event online. Awareness is the name of the game when it comes to your digital endeavours – the more eyes that see your posts and ads, the better!
A Quick Word on Online Vendors
With more and more people making online purchases, neglecting your digital presence could hinder your success. Don’t know how to set up ticket sales online? Selling tickets online using an online vendor is a quicker and easier alternative for ticket distribution. Websites like Eventbrite and Ticketmaster are popular UK options for doing this.
2. Offer an Early Bird Exclusive
The early bird phenomenon plays on the totally human feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out). According to Skyword, 56% of social networkers experience FOMO, with more data from Strategy suggesting that this is most prevalent in millennials. 60% of millennials make reactive purchases because of this frantic feeling.
So, how can you emulate this to get more people to buy tickets (and to buy them quicker)? We recommend offering some kind of exclusive offer on early bird tickets, like a discount or some kind of VIP access. You could even offer event goody bags with everything your attendees might need for the day (did someone say branded notebooks?).
Whatever you do, make sure you set limits for the special early bird access – and that you stick to these limits. Exclusivity drives sales and the longer it runs on for, the less exclusive it is. You could offer a limited supply of early bird tickets or offer it as a limited time only deal.
3. Attract Attendees with Authority
For the majority of sold out events, you’ll notice that authority figures are key to this. Especially events like conferences where you’ll be hosting a number of speakers, try and attract people who are experts in their field to speak at your event. And then shout about it! Their names should be in your leaflets, on your emails – wherever potential attendees might see them.
Another top tip for using authority to boost ticket sales is to invite senior management and CEOs from relevant businesses to your event. Chances are, they’ll bring a team of people with them – which is sort of like turning 1 ticket sold into 5, 10, even 15 tickets sold.
4. Reward Previous Attendees
Annual events and conferences can pick up a growing fanbase – and these are the kind of attendee that will shout about your event from the rooftop. They’re also more likely to buy tickets for the next show before anyone else. So offer it to them! Send an email to last year’s attendees and give them the first invite.
Don’t be afraid to take this one step further offer a discount on the ticket price too! They’ll appreciate this gesture and be even more likely to buy a ticket.
5. Build a Solid Reputation
So, your first event didn’t sell completely out. Don’t worry – it takes time to make a name for yourself and for your big event. All this means is you’ve got to work hard to show that it’s worth this year’s attendees to come back again next time!
Start a hashtag on Twitter for your event so people can share that they’re there and their thoughts on the event. People trust other people, so if their followers see that they’re attending your event, it’ll make them more likely to do the same next time around. Save the really good ones to use as testimonials on your website to encourage more people to buy tickets to any upcoming events.
Key Takeaways
When it comes to event promotion, having a solid marketing strategy in place is crucial. You should start by making sure your event is the best it can be, with the most authoritative speakers you can find. Then spread awareness of your event through a huge range of mediums to make sure you get the message to the right people.
But the most important thing, we think, to keep in mind is the event itself. The better your event, the more likely people are to rave about it to their friends and attend again next year! Make sure you’re event-ready with print that makes you look amazing now.
