5 Ways to Integrate a Ticketing Platform Into Your Event

As much as 44% of marketers say that inadequate or missing integrations are the number one challenge they face in generating insights from data. Over 40% of businesses cite integration as their biggest challenge.

As an event organizer, when you use an online ticketing platform to sell tickets and manage events, your app should have multiple integration options so you can sell more tickets online and offline. That’s how you can make the most out of the event ticketing tool.

This article explores integration options for online ticketing platforms and what integration options to look for in an event management tool.

What is an Integration Option for Ticketing Platform?

The integration lets two different applications work together. The process involves merging the data, infrastructure, and workflows of the two software and making it accessible.

Integration options for online ticketing platforms and event management tools enhance the functionality of the platform and let you generate more ticket sales across multiple touchpoints. These integrations are embedded within the event ticketing apps.

For example, when you sell event tickets online, the platform you use has integration options including payment processing, POS, email marketing, and several other features. In the absence of these integrations, your event ticketing app won’t function properly.

Why Integrations are Important for Ticketing Platforms

No ticketing platform can work without integrations. This is because a ticketing app can’t work in isolation. It needs other apps to offer event organizers a complete suite where they can manage events end-to-end without having to manage multiple apps.

Here are the major integration features a ticketing app provides you with:

• Payment processor for managing payments
• Marketing tools like email marketing and autoresponder
• Integration with your website for selling tickets via any website
• Mobile app integration to sell tickets through your smartphone
• Landing page integration to create and manage event landing pages.

Imagine you have an online ticketing platform that doesn’t work with your website which means you won’t be able to sell tickets through your website.

Will you use it?

Probably not.

This is what lack of integration does. Integrations enhance the functionality of the event ticketing service. More integration options mean better features.

Integration Options for Online Ticketing Platforms

Let’s jump to the integration options for ticketing platforms and how you can use them to run successful events:

1. Website Integration

This is the core integration option that integrates the online ticketing platform with your website. This enables you to sell event tickets directly from your website.

If you can’t sell tickets via your website, it will reduce sales and tarnish event credibility because you will be relying on the ticketing platform to sell event tickets. You will send traffic to their website or a sub-domain.

Here is an example:

The event page and sales are handled on Eventbrite’s domain name. In this case, you will be sending traffic to Eventbrite to promote your event instead of sending the same traffic to your website. You lose control over your event and you end up increasing the authority of Eventbrite (from SEO’s perspective).

And such traffic is not trackable. Any traffic that you send off your website can’t be tracked and thus, you can’t improve UX and conversion rate. You won’t be able to figure out what visitors like and what they don’t.

Now compare this with TicketsCandy’s website widget that integrates seamlessly with your website and lets you sell event tickets via your website without sending traffic anywhere else:

Potential attendees can check out and buy tickets right away from the website using the widget.

The widget automatically updates and adds new events when you create a new event in your TicketsCandy account. It syncs in real-time with your account so you can track details in the analytics.

Website integration transfers control and you sell tickets through your website. You use your domain name in marketing campaigns, send traffic to your domain, and build the authority of your domain.

You can track the complete user journey which helps you improve conversions. For example, you can compare two different types of CTA buttons using the A/B test. And you can compare how visitors respond to guest checkout vs. account registration.

Website integration at TicketsCandy requires you to create a widget for your website and copy-paste its code to your website. In this case, you can tweak the code as per need. For example, you can adjust formatting using CSS and HTML. This gives you more control over integration.

It works across multiple CMS including Wix, WordPress, Shopify, and others. You create an event, get its code, paste the code to your website, and you are done.

Here are the key benefits you get from the website integration option from an event ticketing app:

• You can embed event management tools into your website without dealing with technical stuff
• It improves event credibility and reputation as you don’t have to send traffic off your website
• It improves UX because you offer them an end-to-end process right on your website
• You can sell event tickets from your website hassle-free and within minutes. TicketsCandy widget, for example, takes less than 5 minutes to create and set up its code. That’s instant integration.

2. Payment Processor

Event management tools are primarily used to create and manage virtual and in-person events. Ticket selling is an essential part of the event management process and this is achieved by integrating payment processors within a platform.

A payment processor is a vendor that manages payments made on your website and moves them to your account. The entire process right from when a potential attendee enters payment details on your website to payment withdrawal to your bank is managed by a payment processing company such as Square.

Here is how online payment processing works:

Source: Skrill

This is what the backend process looks like and is usually not visible to you or your customers when they purchase an event ticket.

Event ticketing platforms integrate and use payment processing companies to help their customers (event organizers = you) sell tickets and manage payments. So, when you use an online ticketing app or event management tool that lets you sell event tickets online, it has at least one payment processor integrated already.

Without payment processor integration, you can’t sell event tickets through your platform (online or in-person).

Ideally, the event ticketing platform you use must support both in-person and online payments. And it should support point-of-sale (POS) payments for in-person ticket sales. POS integration is a must-have because you might not be selling tickets in person now, but you could in the future.

And if the event ticketing app does not have POS integration, you will have to change your platform which is a painful process (and has consequences).

Always go with a ticketing platform that uses a popular payment processor and supports multiple integration options. Event ticketing apps that integrate a relatively new payment processor should be avoided because unpopular payment processors have acceptability issues and they usually don’t deal with multiple payment methods.

This is an area where TicketsCandy does a great job.

It uses Square as its payment processor which is one of the leading payment processors out there with no acceptance or legal issues. But what’s important is that TicketsCandy supports a POS system powered by Square allowing you to sell in-person tickets easily.

You can sell in-person tickets using:

• Square Stand powered by iPad POS
• Square Terminal is an all-in-one credit card machine for accepting in-person credit card payments
• Square Reader allows you to accept contactless payments through chip cards.

These integration options improve your event-organizing business’s ability to process payments in multiple forms across multiple touchpoints including online and offline. For example, you can use Square Terminal to accept credit card payments right at the gate. This gives an option to generate more sales on the event day as research shows that the majority of the people buy event tickets on the event day at the gate and most of the ticket sales are generated on event day.

It shows how important the integration of in-person payment processing is for event organizers. In the absence of integration options like Square Stand and Terminal, you will miss those last moment sales that are mostly driven by fear of missing out (FOMO) and are pretty much a norm for every event.

The online and in person payment integration options by TicketsCandy are truly helpful for event organizers as these options open unlimited ticket selling options and channels.

Here is the thing: You might not use all of these payment integration methods today, but you might need one or more in the future as your business grows.

3. Mobile Integration

Event ticketing apps offer two types of mobile integration in the form of apps:

1. An app for event attendees where they can manage their profile, ticket, seating, etc.,
2. An app for event organizers to manage events and sell tickets on-site.

Both these integrations are essential. Especially a dedicated mobile app for event organizers where they can manage the entire event hassle-free.

Here is what makes mobile integration important:

• There will be more than 187 million active mobile users in the US by 2024
• There are 5.56 billion unique mobile phone subscribers in the world as of July 2023
• People spend, on average, 3 hours and 15 minutes on their phones per day
• An average person checks their phone up to 58x a day.

Imagine, in a world where more than 60% of the population has access to mobile phones, you end up using an event ticketing app that is either not mobile-friendly or does not support mobile integration.

This is disastrous.

The worst part is you can’t track and analyze attendee behavior and journey when they purchase a ticket from a mobile device. Lack of mobile integration means you can’t track visitors and you will be clueless on how your target audience interacts with your website and checkout sequence on mobile.

The platform needs to provide potential attendees with a seamless experience across devices (not just mobile). Event organizers should also have access to a mobile app to manage events, scan tickets, and even sell tickets.

TicketsCandy, for example, has a mobile app for event organizers that lets you sell event tickets on the move with a few simple taps. You can sell tickets on-site with extreme ease. The app is pre-integrated with the Square card reader and other hardware which means you can scan credit cards easily. It lets you take prints by connecting to a printer via Bluetooth. The payments sync with your payment processor in real time.

These types of handy integrations boost ticket sales by providing you with multiple sales touchpoints.

Here are a few major things to check when analyzing the mobile integration capabilities of an event management app:

• The event ticketing platform must be mobile-friendly and work across multiple devices seamlessly
• It must support mobile integration
• At least one mobile app
• Both users and organizers should be able to access relevant tools and resources from mobile devices.

4. Event Pages

An event landing page is a standalone marketing page that’s specifically used to sell event tickets or generate leads. Almost all the leading ticketing and management apps offer event pages of some sort. Some are more advanced and customized while others stick with the basics.

But it’s there.

You get a handy integration option that supports online ticketing selling by creating standalone event pages.

Take the example of the event page by TicketsCandy:

You can create a personalized event page with its easy-to-use page builder. You can add detailed descriptions, videos, featured images, organizer details including links to social media accounts, location, map integration, and much more.

And the page checkout process is clean and easy where potential attendees can add billing details and buy tickets right away. No hiccups.

This type of smooth event page integration option by TicketsCandy ensures that there is minimal friction and user experience is top-notch. You get this all free of cost when you sign up with TicketsCandy as an event organizer.

5. Marketing

You can’t generate event registrations without marketing. The event management platform should have marketing integration to help you promote your event and generate sales.

Marketing tools like social media, PPC, email marketing, partnerships and collaborations, marketplaces, etc. are some of the most effective ways to promote an event. If these basic marketing tools aren’t integrated into your event ticketing app, you will have a very hard time generating sales.

This is what TicketsCandy understands and it offers multiple marketing tools to event organizers all of which are pre-integrated in the app. You can send email notifications, newsletters, promote events on social networks, run paid ad campaigns, leverage partnership marketing, and use other built-in marketing tools and resources to reach your target audience.

Research shows that social media marketing and email are the two top marketing channels (besides your website) to generate event registrations:

Source: Markletic

You get both with TicketsCandy.

Its website widget integrates with your website and social media marketing is integrated in the form of social media buttons on the event landing page where users can share any page with their social circle with a single click.

Additionally, TicketsCandy supports event organizers by sharing events on its own social channels. This helps you reach a new audience without paying a penny.

Attendee management is also integrated which helps you connect with attendees and send them emails including newsletters. They can set calendar reminders when purchasing a ticket or even after they have purchased a ticket. These attendee management integration options significantly improve engagement leading to a high CLV and retention rate.

Final Words

Event management software comes in all types and price ranges. You won’t get everything from a single ticketing platform. Set your priorities by asking yourself the following question: What integration options do we need to have in our online ticketing app?

Your answer will make it easy to make the right choice.

Integrations are mandatory – not optional.

A standalone ticketing tool that only sells tickets and doesn’t do anything else will cost you much more than money. Integration options make a tool holistic, and you can manage events peacefully and generate more sales through multiple channels.

Not sure where to begin your journey?

Try TicketsCandy.

It is a free all-in-one online ticketing platform that is loaded with an event page builder, website auto sync widget, payment processor, POS integration, mobile app, mobile selling, marketing tools, checkout process, and much more.

Sign up here free of cost and check it out yourself.