Selling advanced tickets for your event involves several key factors such as the event image, an event description and setting accurate ticket prices that will help make your event a success: you can have the best event image, the catchiest event description but if ticket prices are too high, you might struggle with selling tickets.
An important external factor are the search engines such as Google and the way they index your event and tickets. Make sure your OutSavvy home page has the correct organiser/brand name as this will help with your SEO.
Below 9 tips on how to promote your event:
1. Event image
Try and use a high-res image and refrain from using logo-only images or ‘no image or any image at all’. Make it stand out! Beautifully designed event images are more likely to grab a guest’s attention, but there are loads of other options such as using photos from previous events or photos from one of the many sites that offer royalty free images.
2. Event title
Besides the image, the most important thing is the event title. Stick with the event name and theme (if there is one) and refrain from using a long event name such as date & event name & month & year & theme & location.
OutSavvy clearly highlights the date, month, year and location so stick with just the event name.
3. Event description
Be as informative (but concise) as possible; announce acts, performers, DJs, special occasion, full programme and tickets and clearly state any terms and conditions including age limit and special entry instructions. The event description gives you the opportunity to really ‘sell' your event. Refrain from using “TBC” or announcing acts at different stages - the latter might grab the attention from your most loyal fanbase, but new guests are more inclined to book tickets when they know exactly what the event is all about.
Only use imagery in the event description if really necessary. The event description is meant to be a description of the event and using images could see a guest focussing on the imagery instead and not on what the event is actually about. The best results come when an event description is clear and concise, yet informative.
4. Date, location & tickets
Double check event timings and make sure each ticket type is added with the correct start and end times. You can save and preview an event at any time before publishing it.
Clearly mention the venue and full address. The OutSavvy system makes it really easy to add and customise locations and automatically recognises most UK venues and addresses when you start typing the venue’s name, first line of address or post code.
Set your ticket prices sensibly. Using really low ticket prices does not necessarily mean more ticket sales, nor would a guest expect to see a higher ticket price compared to similar events. Check other events on OutSavvy and set your ticket prices accordingly.
Put the cheaper tickets at the top and gradually add the other ticket types (First Release, Second Release etc). This way the guest doesn’t have to check each ticket type and your event tickets will be ordered by pricing, making it clearer for a guest to book the right tickets.
Don’t make too many changes to tickets and ticket prices during the time tickets are on sale. It’s best to set the correct ticket prices prior to adding the event, upload all the different ticket types at once and let them run all the way up to the start of the event (the OutSavvy system automatically sets tickets to go off sale one hour before the start of the event - see tip 5). Changing tickets/ticket prices often or using different on-sale and off sales dates requires more management when a guest often prefers to see all the tickets when booking, even if a specific ticket type is sold out.
5. Ticket on sale and off sale dates/times
When adding your event and tickets, the system automatically sets the on sale date on 'now' and the off sale date on one hour before the start time of your event.
These are the most common settings to help you maximise bookings whilst giving you enough time to prepare your guest list. Some guests simply book last-minute and it's important to allow guests to book as long as possible and to not miss out on important bookings - if you set the off sale time too early, you might risk losing guests and we would advise to set the time as late as possible. You can even set the off sale time all the way until the end time of your event.
With our Partner app OutSavvy Dash you have real-time sales stats and a real-time guest list with ticket scanning funcationality at hand, enabling you to maximise the ticket sale run.
6. Add the event to your website and Facebook page, work with the venue
Add the event to your website and Facebook page. OutSavvy offers a range of free widgets (Dashboard > Promote Event) for your website and you can also add a ticket shop to your Facebook page (Manage Account > Sell On Facebook). When you create a Facebook event, make sure you add the OutSavvy ticket link to the Get Tickets link in the event (Facebook currently only allows this for business pages so create a business page if you don’t have one yet).
When done, make sure to share the Facebook event with the venue and ask the venue to add the event to their website/Facebook page.
Adding the links will also help with the way search engines index your event. If a guest comes across your brand new event, and instead of booking immediately they search for the event later on using one of the search engines, it is more likely that your event will be on top of searches, especially with your amazing event title and event description with unique keywords.
7. Promote the event
Stay in touch with your website visitors and social media followers. Regularly post about the event, add the ticket link to each post and build up the excitement.
You may wish to set up sponsored ads to reach both previous guests or potential new guests or get your event listed on event listings sites. Please note: ads cost money, event listing sites often search for and add events themselves, mostly free of charge.
8. Make use of the OutSavvy promo tools
OutSavvy offers a range of free promo tools to help you promote your event (Dashboard > Promote Event):
• Invite Guests: send or schedule invites to all previous attendees. The system automatically adds all the event info including the image and you can customise it to your liking.
• Widgets: as mentioned under tip 6, OutSavvy offers a range of free widgets for your website such as a ticket shop, calendar, checkout and more. Customise the colours and size, add the widget code to your html site and guests will be able to book directly from your website.
• Affiliate campaign: sell tickets via your favourite event promoters. Simply create a campaign, agree with the promoters whether to reward them for selling tickets by giving them a percentage of each ticket sold or a flat fee per ticket (not mandatory), and the system automatically sends unique event links to each promoter so you can keep track of sales.
• Promo Code & Discounts: feeling generous and want to offer a discount? Or are you noticing a high click rate but lower ticket sales (you can track this with our Google Analytics tracker: Dashboard > Event Reporting > Google Analytics)? Then set up a Promo code or offer a ticket discount. These are more popular than 2-4-1’s.
N.b. if you switched to OutSavvy from a different ticket platform, you can upload your previous guests email addresses to your account (under My Customers) so you can use the OutSavvy system to send email invitations - make sure each guest has consented to receiving marketing emails from you.
9. Free OutSavvy exposure
OutSavvy publishes public events for free to the OutSavvy app and website (terms apply) and promotes all upcoming public events through our weekly newsletter, specific landing pages and social media channels.
Due to the large number of events, we regret that we can't take individual requests.
Event publishing and promotion are at the discretion of OutSavvy.