How to Sell Tickets Online for Your Event: 4 Powerful Tips

Have you ever been so keen on an upcoming event that it’s marked on your calendar, and you’re ticking off the days until it’s finally here?

That’s the vibe you want your attendees to have for your events, right?

You want to be able to sell your event tickets to a crowd that’s super pumped to have a great time and is raring to go for the big day. Your potential attendees first interact with your event when they buy tickets.

You have to leave a great first impression, so selling your tickets online in the best way possible should be your top priority—the whole experience should be seamless, leaving your customers with nothing to complain about.

And with people clocking in about 395 minutes (six hours and 35 minutes) a day on the web, you are missing out on a lot if you aren’t already selling tickets online.

So, you need to figure out how to sell tickets online for your event in a way that’ll give them a great first impression and serve up a smooth experience for your attendees.

In this article, we’ll share the tools and strategies you need to sell out your event fast. So read on.

Work with the Right Online Ticketing Platform

You need to make a great first impression and give your potential customers a seamless experience to convert them into loyal paying super fans. And working with an online ticketing partner is the best way to do just that.

They have tons of experience selling tickets and can help you sell out yours. But the key here is working with the right one, like TicketsCandy. Why? They’ll essentially be your virtual ticketing booth.

If your potential customers have a bad experience buying tickets, they’ll perceive your whole event through the same lens—the first impression is the lasting impression, after all.

Anyway, here are a few reasons why you should work with an online ticketing platform:

Works 24/7 for Your Business

An online ticketing system doesn’t need sleep or sick days (unlike your hardworking team members). It’s there for you 24/7, even when the office is shut for the night.

No Surprises – Free, No Extra Charges

A great online ticketing system won’t charge you for adding users, activities, courses, or events. And the best one (TicketsCandy) won’t charge you at all—there are absolutely zero fees for working with TicketsCandy.

So you don’t have to pass on the cost of selling tickets online to your customers, making the ticket price unattractive to them.

Cash in on the Extras

If you also sell merchandise, food, etc., you can make extra money by upselling these to customers already in a buying mood.

The right online ticketing platform will have an option for an “Add on” ticket type that you can use to upsell and increase your profits.

Gain Marketing Insights

We’ve all been in that spot, trying to dig up some marketing insights, like figuring out the crowd’s age and how they caught wind of the event. It’s a real headache, especially when you’re at the checkout—your customers are just keen on snagging those tickets and hitting the road.

But when selling tickets online, you have a bit more wiggle room to throw in a couple of extra questions. It’s a great way to scoop up those priceless insights you’ve been craving in the purchase process.

On the other hand, trying to squeeze email addresses out of people at good old face-to-face sales is not as smooth.

Knowing who showed up last year is gold because you can hit them up for the next event. It’s easier to sell to repeat customers than to chase new ones and do the whole song and dance to get them on board.

The odds of roping in a first-time customer usually float around 5% to 20%. But with a customer who’s already been to your event, you’re looking at a 60% to 70% chance of sealing the deal.

Source: Markinblog

How to Sell Tickets Online for Your Event Using TicketsCandy

Now that we’ve explained the “Why” behind using an online ticketing platform, we’ll discuss how to sell tickets to your event using the best ticketing solution out there—TicketsCandy.

Using TicketsCandy, you can use their highly customizable event page or deploy their ticketing widget on your own website (for more control).

They’ll also help you market your tickets to a hyper-targeted audience already interested in attending your event using their email list and social pages.

Here’s how you can start selling tickets to your event with TicketsCandy:

Step 1: Sign Up with TicketsCandy

First things first—you’ll need to register with TicketsCandy to start selling tickets to your event. As the platform is free for you to use, you don’t even need to enter your credit card information when signing up.

To sign up for TicketsCandy, here’s what you need to do:

Head to our sign-up page. You only need to fill in your name, email, password, and country. That’s all we need to get you started.

You’ll also have to agree to our terms and conditions, privacy policy, and services agreement.

After that, click the “Sign up” button.

Check your inbox; you’ll find an email like the one in the image below. Follow that link to confirm your email address.

Once you’ve verified your email address, you have successfully registered with TicketsCandy.

Step 2: Create Your First Event

Once you’ve registered with TicketsCandy, you’ll land on the dashboard where you can kick off your first event. Just give one of those two buttons in the image below a click.

When you hit the “Create Event” button, a pop-up will come your way, asking for extra info about your event. You’ll need to drop in the event’s name, the starting and ending dates and times, the timezone, the venue name, its address, and your organization’s name.

When you spot the choice that says “Enable booking calendar for multiple dates and time slots,” make sure you pick the right one because you can’t change it later when the event has been created.

Choose “Yes” if your event has specific days and times for ticket sales.

Go for “No” if buyers can use their tickets anytime they want or if your event is just a one-day deal where they don’t need to book for specific time slots.

The “Event Start Date” is when your appointment calendar starts. Dates before this are not visible.

The “Event End Date” is simply the last day available on the appointment calendar. Any dates after the “Event End Date” will be kept hidden. If you decide not to set an end date, the calendar will keep running on those daily time slots endlessly without stopping.

If you need to charge some taxes to your customers, tick the box that asks, “Do you want to charge taxes?” and fill in the rate you’re after.

After filling in those fields and clicking “Create Event,” you’ll move right onto your event dashboard.

Step 3: Set Up Tickets for Your Event

Once you’ve created your event, head to “Your First Event” and click “Tickets.”

To whip up a ticket for your event, click “Tickets” on that menu and then hit “Create Tickets.”. A pop-up will appear where you can fill in the ticket name.

In the section labeled “Ticket Type,” you choose either “Ticket” or “Add-on Item.” Remember, once you’ve created a ticket, you can’t change the type, so choose right the first time.

A ticket gets someone into your event, while an add-on item lets you add extra things besides tickets to your customers’ day.

You can use this option to upsell for extra revenue, especially if you sell food, merchandise, etc., in your event.

“Ticket Price” is what your customers will pay for a ticket. If you’ve got a discount going, put the discount price in the “Discount Price” box; otherwise, leave it blank.

If you’ve only got a certain number of tickets to sell, fill in the quantity in the “Quantity Available” box. If you’re selling an unlimited number of tickets, just leave it blank.

To limit how many tickets a customer can get at once, pick the minimum and maximum amount under “Tickets Per Order (Min-Max).”

The default number is 1-30 tickets per order.

“Ticket Icon” is the little icon your customers will see next to the ticket name on your widget.

“Ticket Description” shows up under your ticket on your widget to explain what the ticket’s all about. It could say, “Admits one adult 18 and over,” for example.

“Start Sale On” and “End Sale On” are when you want to start and stop selling tickets.

“Start Sale On” is when the ticket goes up for sale. If you pick a date in the future, the ticket stays hidden until that date. To start selling it right away, leave “Start Sale On” blank.

“End Sale On” is the day you want to stop selling tickets. If you choose a date, the ticket goes away after that date. If you don’t pick a date, the tickets stay on sale indefinitely.

“Calendar” is where you choose the calendar to attach the tickets to. The calendar controls the available time slots and their capacity. For your first event, you can go with the “Default Calendar.”

If your tickets need to be bundled with other tickets, choose “Cannot Be Sold Individually.” This is usually for kids’ tickets that need to be sold with adult tickets.

If you’re not ready for the ticket to show up on your widget for customers to buy, you can tick “Hide This Ticket.”

Once you’ve filled out all the ticket details, hit “Create Ticket” down in the bottom right corner.

Your ticket will pop up under your “Tickets” tab. You can change the order by dragging and dropping them however you like.

The order they show up on your dashboard is the order they’ll show on your widget for the customers.

Step 4: Creating an Event Page

To create an event page (the place where your customers can snag tickets), look for that option right above the “Ticketing Widget” on the menu.

Give it a click, and you’ll be taken to the event customization page. You’ll spot a few sections there; the first is the “Basic Info.”

You can update your event’s name, location, and the name of the organizers behind it.

You’ll also need to pick your event type from the drop-down menu called “Event Type.” If you want to share your own website and socials with your customers, you can do that in this “Basic Info” section.

Just fill in the relevant links in the right spots, and they’ll appear on your event page.

Now, let’s move on to the next part, the “Details” section. This is where you can give your event page a personal touch and ensure it aligns with your branding.

You can chuck in your event logo (just keep it under 5 MB and in JPEG or PNG format) and the main image (the big header pic, same size, and format rules as the logo and 1200×490 pixels work best).

To let your potential customers know what your event’s all about, pop something engaging in the “Short Summary” box.

If you want to share your story to make your customers feel more connected to your event, you can do that in the “Detailed Description” section.

In the “Media Gallery” part, you can toss in more images and a link to a YouTube video to make your event page more unique and engaging.

Click on “Save Changes,” and your event page is all set to be promoted.

Tips for Writing an Engaging Description

If you want to pack the house at your event, you need to get inside the heads of your potential attendees. It’s all about understanding what drives them to show up. And that’s the secret sauce for whipping up your event description.

By now, you should have a fair grasp on your crowd – what gets them excited to attend your event and what they’re gunning for when they walk out the door. Keep those motivators front and center as you put pen to paper. Just rattling off info about your event won’t cut it; you need to write from the heart.

If you start throwing around phrases like “the best,” “amazing,” “thrilling,” and “unbeatable” left, right, and center, your description’s going to come off as fake. Those words can make you sound like an amateur and turn your event pitch into pure opinion, not fact. Let your readers be the judge.

If you claim your event’s got “unrivaled content,” show them the proof. Toss in your keynote speaker’s credentials or list a few educational offerings. People reading your description want substance, not a bunch of empty phrases.

Aim for urgency, but don’t confuse it with overblown promises.

Tell your readers loud and clear if your event has limited tickets or an early bird deal that’s about to expire. Phrases like “limited time,” “act now,” and “limited availability” can light a fire.

Your event description should be super easy to skim through. Think about where your readers are likely to see it – maybe at their desk, on a hectic commute, or in between meetings. We all have busy lives, so make it easy for them to read.

Break your content into small chunks and throw in bullet points when possible. Some tools online will grade your description for readability, so use them.

Once you consider your description ready to go, get someone else’s take on it. And be ready for some constructive criticism – you might not like what you hear. When you’ve worked over every word, losing perspective is easy. What makes sense to you might leave others scratching their heads.

Ask your colleagues to give it a read, and if you can, find a member of your target audience. They’ll tell you if your description gets them pumped up.

If you can, throw in an image of your event, but steer clear of stock photos. Show them the real deal, the energy, and the vibe from past events. “Generic photo of multiethnic group of people smiling and laughing” just won’t cut it.

Strategies to Sell Tickets Online

Now that you have successfully created an event page, you need to promote it. Here are some tried-and-tested strategies that’ll help you sell out your event:

Leverage Social Media to Sell More Tickets for Your Event

Social media is your biggest asset for selling tickets to your event—people tend to spend 20–40% extra on brands that have interacted with them on social media.

Here are some ways you can promote your event on social media:

Throw a Competition for Free Tickets

Host a contest where your potential attendees can snag free tickets to stir up interest in your event. When hundreds of people enter, and only one lucky duck wins, you’ll likely see ticket sales from those who got all revved up about your event.

If you want to keep it simple, you can organize a contest that revolves around tweets, like what Social Media Examiner did with their contest to win free tickets to their Social Media Success Summit.

Source: Disqus

Create a special #hashtag for entrants to use, and to pick the winner, just go through Twitter for anyone using that hashtag.

If you’d rather run your contest on Facebook, follow Facebook’s rules and use official contest apps from developers like Wildfire and North Social.

Create Custom Facebook Tabs

If you want your Facebook fans to score tickets to your event, why send them outside of Facebook to get them? With the help of a Facebook whiz or app provider, you can create custom content right on your Facebook page that’ll direct your fans straight to the ticket checkout. Take a leaf out of Coldplay‘s book – they have custom tabs for their North American and UK ticket shops on their Facebook page.

Fans can find their city on the tour list and buy tickets without leaving Facebook using these tabs. This prevents people from quitting when they have to navigate from your Facebook page to your website and then to your ticket sales page. Treat your ticket sales like impulse buys, and make it super easy for your fans to grab your tickets.

Lead Your Audience to a Clear Call to Action

Guide your social audience to your website. Once they’re there, make sure you’ve got a strong call to action that leads them straight to buying tickets.

In celebration of their position in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Arizona Coyotes have nailed this by directing fans from their Twitter profile and Facebook page to their website.

Coyotes fans couldn’t possibly miss the fact that their team’s in the playoffs, and tickets are up for grabs. They even throw in a competition to win luxury seats.

If you don’t want to overhaul your whole homepage like the Coyotes, you can always create a big banner on your homepage or direct fans to a custom landing page designed specifically to drive ticket sales.

These custom landing pages should focus solely on ticket sales, removing any distractions that might keep your fans from snagging their tickets.

Start a Loyalty Program

Selling tickets online can get a boost from the loyalty of your past customers. If they spread the word, give them a little extra incentive by dishing out discounts or other sweet deals on the event. This strategy is super easy and can score you some extra promo (without costing you a dime!)

Here’s the go: when a customer buys a ticket for your event online, you could give them a special code to share with their friends. That way, they can grab future discounts and nudge them to snag tickets for upcoming events.

Or, you can take a more social approach. Say, customers who shout out about their attendance on social media can get some discounts on future events.

Provide Customers with Different Pricing Tiers

No matter what kind of event you’re throwing, make sure to give your customers choices. You can do simple things like different prices for where they sit or throw in a pre-event food and drink deal for a few extra bucks.

Having different ticket levels is a great strategy for selling tickets online. It’s because people love having options. You can dish out early bird tickets or limited-time offers. People want to pick their ticket type.

Plus, when you tier your ticket prices and perks, it makes parts of your event seem extra fancy, which can reel in more attendees.

Boost Visibility for Your Events Through SEO

SEO for your event is a must to boost online ticket sales. To amp up your event’s organic traffic, use the right keywords in the title and description and sprinkle them throughout your website and linked content.

Don’t forget to list your event on external websites – they often reel in more local event-hungry users.

Wrapping Up: How to Sell Tickets Online for Your Event

When you are selling event tickets, going with a trusted ticketing platform is your best bet. The right online ticketing solution makes it super easy for you to sell more tickets for your event—it’s faster and more secure.

So, if you haven’t yet, consider signing up with TicketsCandy—it’s totally free and will help you jam-pack your event venue without putting in much effort.