Blog
Oct 9, 2021
Now that you found an incredible venue and managed to secure a list of remarkable performers for your event, it’s time to get attendees. The success of your event largely depends on how many tickets you’re able to sell. To sell tickets online successfully, you need a solid marketing strategy to get the word out that your show is happening to as many people as possible.
If we place our faith in numbers, event ticket sales revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate of 52.59% between 2021-2025 in the US alone. This figure shows that people are more than ever looking to socialize at events just like yours.
To maximize ticket sales, you need an exceptional social presence and a killer online ticketing platform that will allow your attendees to purchase their event tickets in advance and without a hitch. But how do you sell tickets online?
In this post, we’ll show you how to sell tickets online successfully and give you the winning recipe to promote your event like a marketing wizard. Let’s get started!
How to Sell Tickets Online?
- Choose a reputable event ticketing platform
- Select a reliable merchant service to process online payments
- Create an optimized event website
- Use unique content to promote your event on social media
- Invest in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads to reach your target audience
- Reach out to influencers to talk about your event
Use Event Ticketing Platform to Sell Tickets Online
Relying on traditional box office sales is not going to cut it. To sell tickets online, you’re going to need a ticketing platform. An event ticketing platform is an online box office that never closes. It allows you to manage your event ticket sales and helps you collect essential info on who you are selling to and how.
You won’t find a better ticketing platform than TicketsCandy. With this ticketing software, you can sell tickets online directly from your website, manage your ticket orders and guests with confirmation emails and scannable QR codes, control your finances with a major merchant service, and create custom tickets that match your brand and event.
How Do Ticketing Platforms Work?
Ticketing companies let you use their platform to sell tickets online in exchange for a fee. That’s simple enough. But every company does it differently, and that’s where it gets a little tricky.
While most ticketing platforms resemble one another in terms of features, they aren’t priced the same way. Some have tons of hidden fees and aren’t transparent about their pricing.
There are four main pricing types:
- The company takes a percentage from the value of each ticket sold
- The company charges a set dollar amount on each ticket sold
- The company takes a percentage and a set dollar amount on the value of each ticket sold
- The company charges a percentage based on the number of tickets sold (scalable pricing)
In short, you can sell your event ticket through their specially adapted platform, and they take a little off the top. But some will take a little more than others.
Why Should You Use TicketsCandy?
There are plenty of other ticketing solutions out there, so what makes TicketsCandy better than the competition? With TicketsCandy, you keep all your ticket sales in your pocket because they are completely free for event organizers. With no sign-up costs or contracts, you don’t pay a dime for their service.
How does it work? At checkout, a small processing fee of 0.9% flat rate per ticket sale is added to the ticket price that customers must pay. The fee is much smaller than other ticketing provider fees, making it barely noticeable to customers. Plus, if you decide you want to pay the fees yourself, you can absorb them instead of passing them on to customers without worrying about it breaking your bank.
To put it in perspective, let’s look at other ticketing platform fees:
Ticketmaster
One of the oldest ticketing platforms in the industry and likely a name you recognize, Ticketmaster has one of the heftiest price tags on the market. They charge you (sellers) 15% and your attendees another 10% for each ticket sold.
Eventbrite
Eventbrite is a large ticketing platform that charges a percentage and a set fee on each ticket sold. Eventbrite charges 3.5% of the ticket value and a set fee per ticket starting at $1.79.
Stubhub
Stubhub is another ticketing giant that doesn’t mind charging premium prices for using its platform. Like Ticketmaster, Stubhub takes 10% from buyers and 15% from sellers on each ticket sale.
TicketsCandy’s flat rate of 0.9% per order makes it the most affordable ticketing software on the market. With TicketsCandy, you keep more cash for each ticket sold, thus making your event as profitable as possible.
How to Use TicketsCandy?
TicketsCandy makes it fast and easy for you to sell tickets online and increase ticket sales.
First, create an account to get started with TicketsCandy. You’ll need to fill in some basic info about yourself and your business. Then you can create as many events as you would like with their own specific settings, tickets, calendars, and time slots! Need assistance creating your tickets? Just check out their support page for information on how every setting works or reach out to their incredible support team!
TicketsCandy Tools
There are tons of tools available with TicketsCandy. Every feature has been carefully designed to help you sell more event tickets. Plus, you have access to analytical tools to gain insight into your attendees.
Some of their best features:
- Custom ticket types (VIP tickets, early bird, ticket tiers, bundles)
- Unlimited number of tickets
- Insight on attendees
- Attendees visit details
- Real-time sales data
- Freedom to create promo coupons
- Mobile App to scan attendee tickets
- No contracts
On top of these easy-to-use features, TicketsCandy has a dedicated support team to assist you whenever a problem occurs. In addition, their ticketing software is the easiest way to receive ticket revenue straight to your bank account through their partnered merchant services.
Merchant Services to Sell Tickets Online
Once you’ve set up your TicketsCandy account, you’ll need a merchant service to process credit and debit card payments when you sell tickets online. Merchant services are the only way for you to accept transactions from your attendees online. All transactions are safely kept in your personal merchant service account, which you can transfer to your bank account.
Merchant services charge a fee for each transaction they process. Be sure to choose a reputable merchant service that your ticket purchasers will recognize and trust.
TicketsCandy has partnered with one of the best merchant services in the US: Square.
Partnership With Square
Square is one of the largest merchant services in the US and one of the best credit card processing companies, according to US News & World Report. By partnering with Square, TicketsCandy makes it easy for you to set up your merchant account. With TicketsCandy’s unique onboarding feature, you can set up your Square merchant account in minutes.
What Does Square Charge Per Transaction?
Square charges 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction and gives you complete control over who pays the additional fees (you or your attendees).
Build a Website for Your Event
Okay, now that you’ve taken care of the essentials, it’s time to market your event. If you don’t have a website yet, you must build one before launching your event. It’s the foundation of any online business and is where you’ll want to lead your customers to buy tickets for your event.
To put it in perspective, 71% of small businesses have an online presence in the form of a website. But if you belong to the minority and haven’t made the switch yet, don’t worry; building a site is not as difficult as it used to be. Wix and Squarespace are great website builders if you’re feeling adventurous and don’t mind spending some time putting it together yourself.
If you’d rather spend time planning your event, it makes sense to let a professional website developer take care of building your site. A good website developer will build you a killer website to sell tickets online in a jiffy and stay on top of your site, so you don’t have to. Indeed, taking care of a website can be time-consuming, especially if you’re not used to it.
TicketsCandy partnered with Atavion, web developer extraordinaire, to help you sell tickets online like sweetcakes. The company will build you a professional event website with custom coding, design, and copywriting to help you promote your event and sell more tickets. It doesn’t take much to get these guys moving. Just throw them some general information about your brand and event, add a few requirements, answer a few questions, and they’ll deliver a fully optimized site that will help you drive online ticket sales.
Don’t miss the opportunity to get a 25% discount on Atavion’s website developer plans and get started with TicketsCandy now.
TicketsCandy Widget
TicketsCandy has a seamless widget you can add to your event website. The widget is an easy plug-and-play component that can display ticket prices and details and help potential attendees purchase tickets for your physical or online event.
The widget fits organically into your website, making it the perfect call to action to get more ticket purchases. The TicketsCandy widget will not redirect your potential attendees to another site. Payments are also directly processed on your website, so nothing gets in the way of your sale.
Promoting Your Event
Now that you’ve built your website, the foundation of your online business, it’s time for event marketing – the fun part!
Promote Through Social Media
Leveraging social media to get your brand out there is invaluable in promoting your event. It’s a great way to show your future customers what you’re all about and allows you to showcase your creative side.
With so many available social media platforms, you can reach a large audience with minimal effort. Using all possible avenues to generate interest, including pay-per-click (PPC) ads, is necessary to drive traffic to your website and get those ticket sales moving.
Let’s look at a few social media platforms to help you sell tickets online and promote your event.
Using Instagram to Sell Tickets Online
With over 115 million users in the US, Instagram needs no introduction. The image-driven app may seem one-dimensional at first glance, but it offers plenty of cool features to help grow your brand, sell event tickets online, and reach eventgoers in your area.
Over 72% of Instagram users say they have purchased a product or service after seeing it on Instagram. That said, the old Instagram that was only used for foodies and travel junkies is now morphed into something much more powerful: a social network that can influence a momentous number of people and ultimately help your online ticket sales.
Here are a few tips to get people talking about you on Insta:
- Have a Solid Bio
You need a good picture of your brand’s logo and a description that clearly states what you’re all about.
- Unique Content
You want to share meaningful content about your upcoming events. Think about answering some basic questions: Who will be there? Why should people care? Why is it an unmissable event?
- Post Regularly
Not getting on a consistent posting schedule is where most businesses fail to grow their following on Instagram. You need to plan your posts well ahead of time and pepper them daily or weekly.
- Features
Use Instagram features to your advantage. Use stories, create polls, ask questions, and use the live feature to promote your event.
- Hashtag Please
Create your event hashtag when you post and use other hashtags that are linked to your industry.
- Giveaways
Think about giving away prizes when people repost your content. You could give away free tickets to generate interest in your event. People love free stuff, and they’ll gladly repost your content in their story and follow you to get it. Sometimes you must give a little to get a lot.
- Engage
Talk to your followers! Social media isn’t a one-way ticket; you’ve got to talk to your followers and do more than like a couple of their posts. Be proactive by asking questions about what they like and do your best to respond to messages in the comments section.
- Promos
Offer discounts to your followers. Instagram users are willing to follow an account if they can get special discounts.
Boost Your Event on Facebook
With over 30% of the global population using Facebook in 2021, the social media pioneer is undoubtedly still in vogue. What’s fantastic about Facebook is that you can reach specific groups of people that you think would be interested in your physical or virtual event.
While most of what was recommended above for Instagram can be applied to Facebook and other social networks, you should also consider setting aside a budget to boost your event with Facebook Ads.
With Facebook Ads, you can target a specific audience based on their age group, interests, demographics, location, and more. Done well, this can be a killer way to advertise your venue and sell tickets online.
Be sure to share your event details in relevant Facebook groups but try to do so in the most organic possible way. You don’t want to sound too salesy and risk endangering your brand.
Other Social Media Platforms to Promote Your Events:
- TikTok
- Youtube
While it may be difficult to be on all social media platforms, you must use a few that will best reach your target audience. Still, if you have the resource and time, investing in social media for your events will certainly generate ticket sales.
Connect With Influencers
If your event features some sensational performers or speakers, they likely have a significant following on social media. If they do, it’s essential to ask them to post about your upcoming event and help you sell tickets online. You should do the same with your sponsors. And don’t underestimate your staff. They may have a ton of friends that could help you drive sales. In the end, we’re all influencers.
But you shouldn’t stop there. Find out who’s trending in your industry and find a way to get them talking about your event. While you might not land a social media superstar right away, you shouldn’t limit yourself and ask as many influencers with a significant following to join your event.
Make sure to send influencers a custom invitation and not a one-size-fits-all job that you’ve quickly thrown together. Be sure to mention why you think these influencers would enjoy your event and how it can benefit them. Incentivize their attendance by letting them know that they’ll be “VIPs” at your event. Call on as many influencers as you need but choose them carefully, making sure they match your brand’s image.
More Ways to Take Your Event to the Next Level
Blog Posts
Adding a blog to your website can help your event get exposure by ranking higher on Google search results. It will also give you a chance to get writers interested in writing for your site as guest bloggers. Consider writing viral pieces for trending websites in your industry.
Newsletters
While this may not be the best short-game strategy, email marketing can help you sell tickets online and boost your event attendance by ten-folds when done well. With this strategy, you must drip emails to your subscribers to build interest in your event before asking them to join.
Testimonials
Whether on your site or social media, using past events to promote an upcoming event is invaluable. A great way to use testimonials is to repost your attendees’ posts; their images and “this event was off the hook” comments are powerful testimonials.
Last Thoughts
Using the right ticketing platform is crucial to start selling tickets online. However, your event’s success depends on many other factors that must be used in unison to maximize your ticket sales. Building a solid website, creating a social media presence, and sticking to a marketing strategy will help you get more attendees. Invest in the long game by installing your brand as an authority in your industry, and there is no telling how big your events can become.
