Outdoor Events & Advance Ticket Sales

by Eugene Loj

The notion of selling additional tickets to your event is hard to resist. Wanting to sell more tickets is great, but many event organizers struggle just to sell enough tickets.

What follows are  ideas for maximizing your ticket sales (including the strategy of selling fewer tickets to make more money). Each point is supported by additional article links expanding on the subject area. 

You might be just a click away from an idea that will make your event extra money.  Here we go …

by Eugene Loj

Today, it's difficult not to find a good reason to sell event tickets online. While most event organizers tend to focus on the convenience factors, there is one significant advantage of online ticket sales. Hint … it has nothing to do with advance ticket sales or fraud prevention (but those are both very good reasons to sell tickets online). Any guesses?

Your Customer’s Data
What's the most important reason to sell tickets online? Customer data. When your event attendees purchase tickets online they need to fill in their contact information. It's part of the transaction processs ... and it's a HUGE marketing resource for you!

The above billboard can be found on 490 East (headed toward Downtown) in Rochester, New York. The billboard location hasn't changed in years. Probably because it works so well. It's also a great example of a super-effective billboard.

Why is it so effective? Because it presents a compelling message, that drives people to action ... "Spend a few bucks on lotto tickets for your (minuscule) chance to win $290,000,000." In this case, the event is the giveaway of $290 MM. The bigger the jacket, the more demand.

Recently, I was interviewed by my friends Roman Jakubowycz and Eugene Shatsman of National Strategic. Their company consults with small businesses on integrating successful strategies of Fortune 500 companies.  During the interview we talked about the role of the Internet (as a tool) and some simple marketing strategies any business can start using today.

As Roman put it (sarcastically) … today we’re going to talk about the Internet, “that Utopian existence that’s going to make every business grow JUST by simply putting on a web site and a Facebook page.”
It was a fun interview ... it's not every day you get to sit down with your friends to talk business shop.

My recommendation is to watch the interview above, first. Then, click on the articles below to expand on the topics discussed.

 

The image above is from a Lumber Liquidators marketing post card that arrived today. What does it have to do with marketing your event? Not much at first glance. But,once you start to dig beyond the words ... there is deep marketing psychology at work. What most people consider junk mail, can be a gold mine of marketing ideas. You can reverse engineer the post card above for your event flyers, billboards, poster, and print ads. You just need to know what to look for ... 

Yesterday, I ventured out to the St. Patrick's Day Parade in warm and sunny Rochester, New York. It was a pretty big deal ... Traditionally warm & sunny and Rochester, New York in mid-March, almost NEVER go together. We'll take it where we can get it!

During the parade there were floats/displays from various local businesses and a few upcoming events. As the parade went on, people everywhere had their cell phones in hand and were texting, talking, Facebooking, Tweeting, etc. That got me thinking ... Almost everyone today has a cell phone that's capable of at least text messaging. Is there a way to use one event and a bunch of semi-attentive people with cell phones to market your event?

Here's an event marketing idea you should consider ...

by Eugene Loj

It’s Friday, so I’m going to keep things light or at least funny. Here goes …



The video above is a great example of an edgy publicity stunt that generates MASSIVE publicity.  (P.T. Barnum would be gushing with admiration!) The “Dictator” is played by edgy, often controversial, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen is well known for his over-the-top movie characters such as Borat, Bruno, Ali G, and now the Dictator.

This publicity stunt (meticulously planned weeks in advance) happened on the Oscar's "Red Carpet" ...

How can publicity help my event marketing and promotion?