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Want to sell more tickets? Here’s some marketing advice

Roxanne ArmstrongEverything, Marketing & Promotion, Quicket

Marketing advice for your event.

Your event can be the best thing that’s come to town since Elvis (and we’re talking the real King of Rock Elvis here, not one of those terrible impersonators)… but if people don’t know about it, they won’t come. Here's some marketing advice to help you get the word out.


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Know your target market


Let’s start there. Knowing who your main audience is will guide you in where and how to market to them. Think about their age, interests, gender, occupation, location, use of technology/media etc. All of these points will help you define how best to reach them, and how best to speak to them.



Speak to them where they already are


Are they young and into social media? Which platform is most popular with them? Are there interest groups or event sites you can reach them in? Think of activity Facebook groups, blogs, online magazines etc. Are they older and you find they rely on email more that social media? What shops/coffee shops could you put up posters to reach them at?



One picture = a thousand words


Make sure the look of your marketing material is eye-catching, slick and sets up the right mood for your event. Online, posts with an image get on average 39% more engagement. And while you’re at it, if you have the budget, chat to a professional designer to help wherever they can.



Involve your collaborators, partners and sponsors


When you sign an agreement with food vendors, hosts, DJs or artists, make sure you include a clause that says they must market the event on their platforms. All you need to do is supply them with the content or design elements they’ll be able to use. You’ll be reaching new people who already know and support them. And new people, well, that means new opportunities to influence others. Speaking of which...



Influence the influencers


Can you offer someone who has a big social circle or a specific, relevant interest group discounted group tickets? A promotional code could be used to distinguish them.

Influencers can be absolutely instrumental in getting your event out there and are good to use because you can track who’s bringing in the most leads with those promotional codes.

See how to create these here or read our article that explores influencer marketing more here.



Your event page: Your final marketing tool


When people do arrive, are they being enticed enough to buy a ticket? Do you have cool photos or videos? Are you setting the right mood for your event? Is all the info they need there, but presented in a simple, concise way?

See how you can customise your page here and read our tips on putting together an effective event page here.



Make it easy for them to buy a ticket


If you’re using social media do you have:



If you have a website, are you:




Early bird tickets


If lots of people are visiting your event page, but not buying tickets, consider offering an early bird ticket. It could get the groundswell started and can get your accounts pointing in the right direction much quicker.



Create a social media content calendar


Plan ahead and know what posts you’re going to make when in order to stay top of mind. Up the engagement by asking your audience questions and getting them involved. This is also another opportunity to use influencers if you have them onboard.


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Hashtags, search engine optimisation (SEO) and paid social media


These are all valuable tools that will help people find your event no matter which one of the above places or points they might have seen, engaged with, or heard of it. Make sure you think like a consumer and choose words they would use to search.

Another tip, once you’ve settled on a hashtag, do a quick search for it across social media to see if it’s already in use or something that you can fully take advantage of.



Mailers and SMS's


Do you have a database of previous attendees you can send something out to? Maybe even offer them a discounted or loyalty ticket.



Run a competition


If you come up with a clever idea, you can get your target market to market the event for you. Get them to tag a friend they’d like to go with, for example. People love a good incentive. Especially those who were on the fence about attending your event and needed a little push to get them to commit.



The final stretch


Reach out to invitees by sending out posts or an emailer that highlights some of the exciting elements of your event like key speakers or performers, how many attendees will already be there, what great food will be there etc. This also ups the excitement for those already going.


We hope this marketing advice helps you increase the success of our event. Good luck!


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