Online Ticket Sales for Small Events
For all cultural institutions, but especially for non-profits, hosting small events can be an effective and affordable way to drive ticket sales and accrue new members. Museums and Zoos can offer limited tickets to certain events/exhibitions to generate excitement around their organization, enabling their marketing and branding strategies to thrive.
But even if you plan and execute an excellent small event, it won’t amount to much if you don’t market properly and no one attends the event. That’s why nonprofits and cultural institutions need robust online ticketing strategies to help them convert online visits into ticket sales and memberships.
Below is everything you need to know on how to develop a robust online ticketing strategy for your cultural institution or nonprofit.
When to start selling tickets online
If you’re wondering when is the best time to boost your online ticket sales for small events, the answer is very simple: ASAP.
Today’s consumers are interested in new experiences, and they want to be a part of events and experiences as they’re being released. This means that all your new content, exhibits, and galleries in your institutions need to be marketed online today, so people can engage with your exciting new events as they occur.
Generating excitement around small events will not only aid you in attracting new visitors, but it will help reignite the interest of old guests as well. Especially after nearly two years of the COVID pandemic, a lot of old guests might be unaware that you’re now open, and reaching them on online platforms can help get the word out.
How to increase event ticket sales
So how do nonprofits and cultural institutions increase event ticket sales, and what’s the most efficient and cost-effective way to boost online sales? Below we’ll look at the various means that institutions have to increase event t ticket sales and boost their online presence.
- Sell tickets on mobile – Ecommerce sales continue to rise every year, representing 20% of all sales in the US, and in 2020 we saw a 32% increase in total online sales. It’s also important that smartphones and mobile shopping is the leading device used for digital shopping. If cultural institutions want to drive ticket sales for their events, it’s incumbent that they integrate their ticketing systems into an app or mobile-friendly online platform.
- Referral programs – People trust referrals made by those close to them or in their social circle. Incentivizing referrals by offering discounts, free tickets, or other benefits to guests who recommend an event to a friend is a great way to get in front of more customers and utilize a trusted sales method for your future events.
- Email campaign – With a cutting-edge CRM solution, you can create an effective, streamlined email campaign that allows you to connect with old customers and form connections with prospective guests. With the help of automation, you nurture leads by sending well-timed and perfectly crafted messages to your prospective customers.
- Social media presence – In 2021, social media has to be one of your biggest marketing and online ticketing strategies. This means taking a multi-pronged approach to your social media account, where you share relevant and interesting information from other groups and post your own unique content, videos, and images. And when you do host an event, share it. Share it through videos and photos of guests at your event and the various items and attractions that they’re interacting with. On top of sharing content and interacting with other groups, you should also be communicating directly with guests in the comments section or in your DMs. When so many new customers are interacting on social media platforms, it’s important to invest a significant amount of your marketing resources into your social media account.
However you choose to connect with your customers, all roads should lead back to your online ticketing platform. You need to make it easy for guests to find their way back to your website or your ticketing system, and the online ticketing process itself should be intuitive and seamless.
One of the ways to ensure your customers have a positive ticketing experience is by investing in a cutting-edge ticketing solution, like ACME.
How ACME can help
ACME’s custom online ticket platform makes the ticket-purchasing process easy for your customers by allowing them to easily purchase additional tickets, add ons, membership renewals, and so much more.
ACME gives you the power of timed ticketing, offline ticketing, cloud-based ticketing, contactless payment, and seamless membership marketing features so you can cater and customize your online ticketing strategy to your specific needs.
Sign up for a free demo today to see how ACME can help revitalize your online ticketing strategy.