10 Best Ways to Sell Tickets Online for Events

Organizing a successful event requires more than just having an event planning process. In most cases, having a strategy and a clear plan of action for selling tickets online is key. Naturally, all events are not the same. Therefore, each event will have its own specific ticketing strategy. To make sure you’re getting the most out of your ticket sales, it’s important to follow some tried-and-tested best practices for selling event tickets online. In this post, you will learn the 10 best ways to sell tickets online for events and increase ticket sales.

1. Create a Compelling Event Page

Your online event page is your shop window into your event. It should be attractive, easy to use and tell potential ticket buyers about what’s in store at the event. Include compelling visuals such as high-quality photos or videos, and a detailed description of the event. Make sure you include clear call to action buttons that take customers straight through to your payment page.

If you host several events a year, a good idea is to have an online events calendar on your website. This way you can centralize all your events, making it easier for people to find them. Moreover, if you use an integrated event ticketing system, your customers can also purchase tickets online without leaving your site.

2. Boost Visibility for Your Events Through SEO

Event SEO (search engine optimization) is an important factor for promoting your online ticket sales. By optimizing your event listing, you can get more visibility in search results and drive customers to buy tickets for your event.

Make sure that you include relevant keywords that accurately describe your ticketed event in the title and description fields, as well as incorporate them into each page on the website and content linked to it. Additionally, consider submitting your event listing to external websites since they typically generate greater visibility with users who are looking events near them.

3. Be Mobile Friendly

The term “online” is no longer limited to desktop browsers. To fully have a strategy for the best ways to sell your tickets online, you should also sell them through a mobile-friendly site, or through your app. Make sure your event page and online calendar work perfectly on both environments.

Further, mobile devices shouldn’t be just a place to purchase tickets. They can also be used to hold purchased tickets, and even allow event admission with a barcode or QR code scanner. 

4. Start Selling Event Tickets Online Right Away

Once you start planning out your event, there is no reason to hold off selling your tickets online. This is not to imply you shouldn’t make an announcement and have an official release. However, if your promotion has already begun and details are coming out about your event, go ahead and start selling your tickets online.

If potential attendees want to know about your event, the option to purchase tickets should be available to them right away. You are likely to lose few attendees, if they have to return to buy tickets at a later date. Whether because they forgot to return to purchase tickets, or because something else came up in the meantime. So, don’t take the chance of losing a potential attendee by not having an online ticket sales option.

5. Set Up Payment Gateways for Online Ticket Sales

Every ticketing platform uses different payment gateways for online ticket sales. Payment gateways allow customers to securely purchase tickets using their credit/debit card information or other accepted payment methods. Generally, you need to register your payment gateway with the event tickets provider before you start taking payments from customers.

You should also consider the processing fees associated with each transaction, and whether or not those charges are absorbed by you or passed on to the customer.

6. Offer Customers Different Pricing Tiers

Regardless of what type of event you are hosting, you should provide options for your consumers. Whether this is as simple as different pricing sections depending on seating location, or perhaps offering a pre-event appetizer and cocktail hour for an additional fee.

Having pricing tiers in place can also be one of the best ways to sell event tickets online. This is mostly because fans like to have options. For instance, you can offer time sensitive or early bird tickets. People like to be in control of the type of ticket they are getting. 

In addition, by establishing tiers in your ticket prices and offerings, you put forward the idea that certain aspects of your event are more exclusive, which can draw in additional interest. Surely, ticket scarcity can be used as a psychological trigger to make your event more attractive to your audience.

7. Securely Store Customer Data

More than ever before, customers are concerned about their privacy. Recent privacy laws and regulations, such as the GDPR, COPPA, CaIOPPA and PIPEDA, make it mandatory for certain businesses to ensure consumer data security. PCI compliance is also relevant to protect the sensitive information, such as payment data that you receive from online ticket sales.

Look for an event ticketing platform which are compliant with global privacy laws, and allows you to securely store customer data. Additionally, take advantage of the reporting features to generate customized reports on your ticket sales.

8. Offer Incentives and Sell More Tickets Online

When it comes to selling tickets for an event, offering incentives can be one of the best ways to sell tickets online. Offering discounts, freebies, or special deals can help draw people to your event and create more interest in attending. 

Offering discounts is a great way to incentivize people to purchase tickets quickly. For example, you could offer a discount code for online ticket purchases. This helps encourage customers to take action, as well as entice them to buy more than one ticket. 

No matter what type of incentives you choose to offer, make sure they are appealing enough that people are willing to take action and buy tickets. By incentivizing customers, you’ll be able to drive more ticket sales and ensure your event is a success!

9. Promote your Event in the Right Channels

All of these strategies work together to create the best way to sell event tickets online. However, they alone will not get the job done. You can’t forget to promote your event. And promotion comes down to your business and your regular brand strategies.

There are many online and offline channels to promote events, with each having its own distinct advantages. To reach the widest audience possible, use both online and offline marketing channels to publicize your event.

When promoting online, take advantage of social media outlets, email newsletters and paid ads. These strategies combined can drive visitors to your ticket sales page. Offline promotions should focus on reaching out to local communities through print ads, direct mailers or even word-of-mouth campaigns. Reach them where they are, keep your outreach consistent with your ongoing branding efforts.

10. Start a Referral Program

A great way to sell tickets online is through the loyalty of previous customers. Incentivize these customers by offering discounts or other deals on the event if they recommend the event to others. This strategy can be simple, and also help you gain additional promotion (for free!).

If a customer purchases a ticket to your event online, you could offer them a code to share with others. This could lead to future discounts and encouraging them to purchase tickets to events in the future. Alternatively, you could have a more social-oriented strategy. For example, customers who share their attendance on social media are entitled to discounts on events to come.

There are all sorts of ways to handle referral programs. Certainly, it continues to be one of the best ways to sell event tickets online. Not only does it get other people interested in your event, but when people know their friends are going, they are more likely to jump in and join in the fun.

Choosing the Right Event Ticketing Software to Sell Tickets Online

When it comes to selling event tickets, one of the best ways to sell tickets online for events is to use a reputable ticketing software. Certainly, it can make the process of selling tickets online easier, faster and more secure. With a quality ticketing service, you will have access to a range of features that make your life as an event organizer much easier.

When choosing an event ticketing system, look for one that is reliable and offers the features you need to make selling tickets as easy as possible. These may include online payment processing, and detailed sales reports. It may also include customizable digital tickets, automated customer emails and notifications, QR code scanning for event admittance, and more.

Be in charge of your event, from inception to promotion to selling tickets online. But you don’t have to do this alone. Reach out to Timely to learn more about event ticketing software, and book a demo today!