Outdoor Events & Advance Ticket Sales

"Chaotic, dramatic, and stressful" during your event

You know what it's like ... those days leading up to and through your event. My guess is that you would NOT use words like "relaxing, stress-free, or pleasant." Chances are it's a little more chaotic, dramatic, and stressful. What probably ends up happening is you get into execution mode.

And because you're in execution mode, you have to prioritize your time and energy against other efforts. What often gets neglected when prioritizing are your advertising and marketing efforts. It's the nature of the beast.

My question for you today is this:

"What's your marketing plan for the final days leading up to and through your event? And how are you going to execute on that plan?"

Being able to confidently answer both questions above is essential for maximizing your event attendance and ticket revenue. And it's rarely an easy answer. So, here are two simple strategies which all my clients use.

With clients, their marketing and advertising plans are usually discussed and finalized six to nine months in advance. There are even a few contingencies thrown in the mix for outdoor events (weather being the most common curve ball). If something unexpected comes up during a client's event, there are a series of standard operating procedures. Little is left to chance.

Now for the second critical cog! You might have a great plan, but who's going to execute it?

Because you know how busy things get leading into your event, you must have a dedicated team or person to implement your marketing plan. That's key! It needs to be someone you trust implicitly. That individual or group should have full authority to "do what it takes." And it's something missing for many events.

Make sure you have a marketing execution team leading into your event. By doing so, you'll sell more tickets and be able to focus your efforts on ensuring a great event!

Want to get more event planning / promotion advice? Check out the articles below:

Posted at 08:51 in Event Planning, Event Promotion and Marketing | Permalink

The Lost Art of "Breaking Bread"

Here's a recurring theme that bears re-emphasis.

Today, I received a telephone call from a client "needing to vent." Long story condensed, two primary groups responsible for producing an outdoor event are now feuding. It's a combination of hurt feelings, opinions, and politics.

To date, almost all the useless drama has come in the form of third-party messengers, text messages, and short but heated telephone conversations.

What's worse is that the two decision-makers upon which the entire event hinges have yet to speak to one another. An executive assistant insists upon trying to convey and communicate between the two decision-makers.

My word of advice to my client, "Go and 'break bread.' Sit down and have a face-to-face in-person meeting." Regardless of best intentions, the executive assistant is simply getting in the way.

To the best of my knowledge, there isn't a single serious issue that clients have ever resolved using text messages, email, or telephone calls. (Not to say it's never happened).

There is no guarantee that a face-to-face meeting will save the event described above. That said, I guarantee that meeting anyone in person will outperform telephone conversations, text messages, or email. It's important to remember that most humans can't read body language or tone via some digital message.

If you find yourself wrestling with a bout of useless event drama on a critical decision, please consider the breaking bread option.

Want to get more event planning advice? Be sure to check out the links below:

Posted at 14:04 in Event Planning | Permalink

Is it time to take your event outside?

A year later, there is a decent amount of COVID data for us to consider. One data point of near-universal agreement is that COVID transmission outdoors is very low. Consider this recent headline from the United Kingdom.

"Beach trips safe and 'have never been linked to Covid outbreaks', says government adviser."

Source:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-beach-holidays-safe-sage-uk-b1803367.html

Recently, I surveyed a few North American outdoor event organizers. With attendance of over 150,000 people across multiple 2020 events, there were zero contract traces back to any of the events. That said, when you get 150,000 people together, someone is going to have COVID.

As the world recovers, I believe that outdoor events will be some of the first to recover.

So my question for you today:

Would you be able to move your indoor event outside?

In some cases, there could be massive logistical considerations, and moving outside would not work.

Mash the reply button and let me know if moving your event outside is even feasible. And if not, feel free to share.

Get more outdoor event ideas, advice, and strategies here:

Posted at 18:57 in Event Planning, Event Promotion and Marketing | Permalink

"Good cause" fundraising rarely works

In the fall of 2020, an event organizer reached out to their 10K+ Facebook followers and database of over 30,000 supporters. At the time, the idea was, "since we're not having an event, let's try to raise scholarship funds online." That previous thought seems perfectly logical.

During a "normal" year, youth programs and scholarships are almost wholly funded by an annual event. Obviously, with a global pandemic, that was not possible.

After a few days of the online scholarship drive, the event organizer had raised a few hundred dollars. Unfortunately, the final result wasn't much better and horribly short of the scholarship fund.

What you've just read happens far too often. You might have had a similar experience.

With just a few exceptions, an event that's financially well managed is the best fundraiser for any cause.

Think of your event as a conduit to raising funds.

Asking people to give to a good cause rarely works. Juxtapose that against an event that people can't stop talking about and will provide you with their hard-earned money.

If you want to give mountains of money to a good cause, a phenomenal event is the way to go.

Want to get more event promotion advice? Check out the articles below:

Posted at 21:32 in Event Planning | Permalink

What are your alternative event revenue sources?

In 1736, this well-known polymath said the following:

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" -Benjamin Franklin

Ben said the quote above regarding the fires in Philadelphia (USA) some 285 years ago.

Fast forward to 2021, and too many events are in serious trouble. The reasons are far-reaching. If you're local, provincial, or federal government won't allow you to have an event, there's not much you can do.

With that said, here's a simple question for today:

"If you can't hold an event, how is your organization generating revenue?"

Yes, every event should have a substantial cash reserve. In some cases, depending on where you are in the world, there is government assistance.

But if all your options for assistance are exhausted, where does that leave you and your event?

Alternative revenue sources are your "ounce of prevention!"

If you don't have alternative revenue options, now is a great time to start! There is a multitude of avenues, from collecting donations to online paid events. Those revenue options should be explored now and in place for the next global catastrophe.

Want to get more event marketing advice? Check out the articles below:

Posted at 16:16 in Event Planning | Permalink

Sharing this critical cog with your event vendors

After each event, clients execute a Customer Experience Assessment (CEA). In short, a CEA is a specialized process used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of marketing, logistics, operations, and customer experience. Think of it as a super-survey.

While conducting my own data crunching for a Platinum client, the client's CEA identified "parking" as one of the most significant customer issues at their latest event.

During a recent review of my CEA findings with my Platinum client, I asked "Do you share your redacted CEA info with your vendors?"

Their reply, "no, we always keep it internal."

I assumed that event feedback would be shared with vendors by the client. Per the above, that wasn't the case. Shame on me for not recognizing the opportunity earlier.

After that, I inquired "if I redact all the personal/customer data, can I share the data with your parking vendor?" The client replied, "yes, absolutely!"

The parking vendor my client uses is one of the best in the event business. Even better, the parking vendor is insatiable about getting any feedback they can improve their level of service.

My question to you, "are you sharing critical feedback with on-site vendors about your event?" Yes, it's extra work. Especially the scrubbing of personal and customer data.

If you aren't already, be sure to consider the above. By sharing redacted patron feedback with your on-site vendors such as parking, food, concessions, novelties, etc. You're able to raise the bar on customer experience.

If you have a personal story related to the above topic, please feel free to hit reply and let me know.

Here are some additional articles on planning a successful event:

Posted at 04:31 in Event Planning | Permalink

Tags: advertising, customer experience, event vendors, marketing, promotion

The "X" factor of a great event ticketing company

"Your patron's event experience does not start when they walk in the front gate of your event. Their event experience starts the moment they use their hard-earned money to buy a ticket to your event. In some cases, months before your event begins."

For almost twenty years, I've been on a quest to find a truly excellent event ticketing company. The adventure has left me with a litany of lessons learned and chronic disappointment.

There was even a time when I thought all I had to do was form my own ticketing company. That didn't work out well, but I did learn a lot.

Here's one of the biggest lessons learned about selecting a superior event ticketing company. It applies to every event organizer on planet Earth.

Ironically, my strong recommendation has nothing to do with technological bells and whistles. It even ignores seemingly essential items like how much you pay in ticket fees.

(As an aside: Ticketmaster is the largest ticketing company in the world. Ask any event organizer or ticket buyer and they'll probably say, "Ticketmaster's fees are absolutely ridiculous!" Yet, Ticketmaster is the biggest ticketing company in the world.)

If the ticketing company can provide you with the following "X" factor, make them your ticket company! That "X" factor is proving extraordinary customer service to your ticket buyers (and you!), from start to finish.

Here are some key factors ...

Great ticketing companies make it easy to buy a ticket on desktop or mobile. After a person purchases a ticket, their personal and financial information are stored in a safe secure spot.

If an event attendee loses their ticket, that ticket can be easily retrieved, by the attendee. The ticketing company should provide telephone support with employees who truly understand customer service.

If you're paying ticket service fees, you and your team should not have to provide ticketing customer support.

When onsite, the ticketing scanning and entry should work near flawlessly.

Again, you'll notice that most of the items above have little to do with technology and everything to do with great customer service.

When people buy a ticket to your event they don't see the ticketing company, they see you or your organization. The same goes for when there are issues with ticketing, they only see you.

Choose your ticketing company wisely!

Want to get more event ticketing advice? Check out the articles below:

Posted at 20:53 in Event Planning | Permalink

Tags: advertising, event ticketing, marketing, promotion

The comfort and benefit of extra event seating

A few years ago, I engaged in a heated debate with a client's operations manager. At the time, I requested an extra 25-50 seats for a sold-out premium venue of 150 seats.

There were several useless telephone calls and email debates. "Eugene, do we really need the extra seating?" My answer was a firm, "yes, absolutely!"

The operations manager's response was, "Eugene, we sold 150 tickets and there are 150 seats. We don't need more seats and we can't get the same color seats." (Yup, you read that correctly.) Ultimately, the seating request was authorized after a discussion with the client's Chairperson. And all was well in the universe.

When event attendees paid (150-250 USD) for a ticket premium ticket, it's imperative that attendees are comfortable. And it doesn't have to be just premium venue tickets! The price of extra chairs was 1.50 USD, trivial in the grand scheme of things.

If ever you find yourself in a situation of providing extra seating, always go for the additional seating option. The easiest way to sell a ticket to your next event, is a happy customer. A few extra seats can make a significant difference in your attendee's event experience.

Want to more event planning advice? Check out the articles below:

Posted at 14:00 in Event Planning | Permalink

Tags: advertising, event seating plan, marketing, promotion

What are you putting on your ticket?

Here's a quick question to consider. It's applicable to both your online and hard stock tickets.

The question is, "what information are you putting on your event ticket?"

Most events include info such as: the name of the event, date, time, location, etc. Once in a while, you'll get an event that includes sponsor logos or a coupon/offer.

What's far less common is including information on an event ticket to improve an attendee's experience.

Ask yourself and your team, "Is there additional information that we can include that makes for a better customer experience?"

As I wrote in a recent EPR issue, don't let your attendees get to your event frustrated and get home upset. Your event ticket offers an opportunity to make sure your attendees arrive at your event happy and get home elated!

In many instances, the amount of space for information on the ticket is minimal. That means whatever information you include needs to be impactful and to the point.

Again, in what ways can you use your event ticket to improve the overall customer experience?

Your event ticket offers you a great opportunity. Make sure you make the most of it.

Here are some additional resources regarding selling event tickets online:

Posted at 14:36 in Event Planning | Permalink

Tags: advertising, event ticket, marketing, promotion

The Iowa Caucus catastrophe & your event

Monday's technology issues at the Iowa Caucuses reaffirms the following case study ...

(if you're a non-US reader, please do a quick US news search on "2020 Iowa Caucus" – you won't be able to miss it!)

Years ago, I was attempting to get a beer festival client to change over to an online ticketing system. At the time they utilized a half-online ticketing system.

What's a half-online ticketing system?

It's where you take payment online and then get one of your employees to manually snail mail hard stock tickets. The person manually fulfilling thousands of ticket orders was my client's General Manager.

When asked, the General Manager had indicated that manually fulfilling ticket orders added 30 hours of work to their already busy schedule.

So, with the General Manager's time in mind and a few other factors, I strongly recommended that the client change to a full online ticket solution. That's where tickets are purchased online and printed at home or work by the consumer.

The client was apprehensive about making a change. They wanted me to guarantee them there wouldn't be any issues with online ticketing. My guarantee to the client was this …

"I guarantee you that something is going to go wrong. That said, I also guarantee you when it goes wrong, I will be onsite to handle any issues promptly."

Sure enough, a significant issue arose onsite while scanning event attendees into the beer festival.

What happened?

A few hundred printed tickets had the same barcode. That meant that the first person scanned into the event without issue. After that, hundreds of "ticket already scanned" warning messages appeared on the ticket scanners.

Initially, the ticketing company insisted such a situation was impossible.

One poor guy who had one of the first duplicate barcodes was almost denied entry and he did nothing wrong! Add on top of that thousands of excited event patrons waiting to be scanned into the event. With the duplicate bar code issue, entry into the event slowed significantly. It was a real kick in the head!

Ultimately, I made good on my promise to my client. We created a quick on-site solution (in less than 5 minutes) and made all the affected patrons happy!

Back to the case of the Iowa caucus. It started with a simple coding issue. Usually, not a problem. That is until you add in the backup plan failing. After the backup plan failed, apparently there wasn't a well thought out plan. Then the chaos started, followed by a media firestorm!

When it comes to technology, especially with critical cogs like your event ticketing, prepare for the worst! Have a backup plan for your backup plan. Especially with onsite ticketing issues.

Do you have contingencies in place for when your on-site ticketing system goes down?

Play through a variety of scenarios. Such scenarios can be an online-only ticketing issue, ticket scanning issues, or a combination of both.

Also, have you practiced all your contingency plans?

Practice execution of all your backup plans with your team members. It's not enough to have a great backup plan or series of backup plans. I've seen some of the most magnificent backup plans fail, not because they weren't great, but because of an inability to execute the plan.

Be prepared and practice!

Check out the links below:

Posted at 06:56 in Event Planning | Permalink

Tags: advertising, event app, Iowa Caucus, marketing, promotion

Are you just jealous or really hungry to learn?

With the days that have passed, I reflect on a few nuggets of event wisdom. Specifically, last month's observations at an international conference of event organizers.

If you haven't had an opportunity, please go back and read the "Can I buy you a drink?" post or email for context.

This year was the first year I did not have a trade show booth at an industry conference. Not having an exhibit allowed me to take in the conference in a whole new way.

In short, when you're not focused on trying to book business at your booth, you are far more aware of the subtleties around you.

One of my biggest conference takeaways is a question for every event organizer, "what's your approach to other event organizers who are far more successful than you?"

My reason for bringing up how event organizers react to the success of others tends to be very telling.

There are usually two distinct responses. This isn't absolute and I'm sure there are exceptions, but for the most part... those who are jealous of the success of others aren't doing as well as they could.

On the positive side, those who recognize the success of others and carefully study event success are far more likely to have successful events. It could be as simple as ethically borrowing and implementing one great idea.

I'm curious, "what's your approach to other event organizers who are far more successful than you?" Drop me a line and let me know.

Here are some additional nuggets of event planning advice:

Posted at 06:58 in Event Planning | Permalink

Tags: event planning, marketing, promotion, success modeling

Mushy, unicorn and rainbow event questions

After every event, we send a Customer Experience Assessment (CEA) for Platinum clients. Without getting into the weeds, a CEA is basically a supercharged survey. The most significant difference between the CEA and a traditional survey are the probing questions being asked.

To date, almost a million words of event feedback have been collected with CEAs for North American and European events. And the event attendee feedback is nothing short of extraordinary.

When a CEA gets shared with new clients, it's usually followed with a very uncomfortable reaction. Some of the first phrases said by clients newly exposed to CEA questions are, "we can't ask those questions" or "those questions are very negative!" Maybe. But, if you want meaningful answers regarding your event, stop asking mushy questions.

Here's the bottom line on your post-event surveys. If you're serious about improving your event, you need to ask tough survey questions. And those tough questions are going to scare the heck out of you and your team.

If you don't ask questions tough questions, you're hurting your event. How so?

Because events that ask "positive" mushy, unicorn and rainbow questions like, "what was your favorite part of our event?" are setting themselves up for failure.

It's simple. If you never receive any negative feedback about your event, (or unwilling to do so) how are you supposed to improve your event? I don't believe you can.

After your next event, be sure to ask tough questions. The questions asked should be worded to evoke feedback that helps you improve your event. Your event experience and ticket sales will improve!

Want to get more info on event surveys? Check out the articles below:

Posted at 21:26 in Event Planning | Permalink

Tags: advertising, event survey questions, marketing, promotion

Do you know when their event experience starts?

If you were asked, "when does the customer experience for your event, start?" What would be your reply?

Many people would answer, "as soon as they walk in the gate at your event!" And an argument could certainly be made for that.

One could also make the case that the customer experience starts, once someone buys a ticket to your event. That ticket purchase could be days, weeks, or months, before your actual event.

A person just spent their hard-earned money to purchase a ticket to your event. What are you doing to facilitate the best customer experience possible?

On the plus side of technology (when it isn't rotting our brains) it gives us the ability to communicate with people in a multitude of inexpensive ways. You could email, voice (telephone) broadcast, or SMS Text your event attendees.

One year a military client used SMS text messages sent to VIP customers and made sure they knew exactly how to get to the VIP parking area. For the most part, it worked tremendously well. There were a few hiccups for people without mobile phones. But even then, a backup message was sent to customers via email broadcast, the day before. As a result, most of the VIP ticket holders showed up happy.

Another place to improve the customer experience is on the actual ticket itself. Many people still print their event tickets. Most online ticketing companies allow you to reserve a space on printed tickets to put a custom message.

A client from Texas used their printed ticket area to send people to a customer only web site link. And a backup customer only message was sent via email. The customer only web site link was a mobile responsive design that gave timely show and performer updates. And the total cost to implement was zero dollars and about 20 minutes of time!

Is there a process you have in place to facilitate the customer experience before, during, and after your event?

If you wait until they're in your front gate, it's too late!

My "go to" customer event experience mantra goes like this, "don't let them show up to your event upset and never allow them to get home angry." Use technology, even in its simplest form and make people happy!

Looking for more event promotion advice? Check out the articles below:

Posted at 06:45 in Event Planning | Permalink

Tags: advertising, customer event experience, marketing, promotion, ticket sales

The egomaniac's guide to event failure

Fasten your seat belts, because things are going to get blunt!

Event organizers get themselves in HUGE trouble because they're subjective in how they plan and execute their events.

According to Princeton University's WordNet definition, a subjective person uses "judgment based on individual personal impressions and feelings and opinions rather than external facts." Mix in a subjective event organizer mindset with some ego, and you have the perfect mix for disaster.

Trust me, it's not pretty, and I've seen many utterly avoidable event catastrophes, all a result of people being stupidly subjective.

Here's the typical scenario . . . An event organizer becomes hell-bent on running an event THEIR way (also known as Captain Ahab Syndrome). The end result is that the event organizer adopts a mindset of knowing better than their own event attendees. And that "I know better" will get your event a fast pass to failure.

It doesn't matter how noble or great YOU think your event is if people don't share those same beliefs – or worst, don't care – your event will flop, GUARANTEED!

Event organizers (of the subjective type) empathically state, "It's my event, and I'll run it as I please." That is true, but it's not worth trying to reason them.

My only question is, "What happens when your event crashes and burns?" Usually, it's someone else's fault, and it turns into a finger pointing contest. Even worse is the following event organizer statement (which I've had said to me by a frustrated event organizer), "People who didn't show up to our event don't know what they're missing ... they're idiots!"

Any event organizer who considers those that didn't attend their event in such poor regard is a dolt! People didn't attend because the egomaniac event organizer failed to give the consumer a compelling reason to attend.

Fear not, there is hope! Here is what you can do to prevent yourself from falling into the subjective mindset trap . . . be objective about all aspects of your event!

Being objective focus on facts, not feelings! A well thought out event survey (or pre even survey) is massively beneficial in keeping your event planning and promotions objective. The caveat is that you have to truly embrace the survey results. One of the single best event survey questions to ask your event attendees is "what DIDN'T you like about the event?"

Yet, when I propose the "what didn't you like about the event" survey question to organizers, they get upset and refuse to use it. They believe if you ask a seemingly negative question, their event will be cast in a bad light. I'd argue they don't ask the questions because their ego can't handle the feedback.

The truth is if you ask the question from above, you're going to have to put on some ego armor. BUT, if you integrate the negative attendee feedback, you're left which a significantly more marketable event. Some might ask, "why not ask what people liked about my event?"

Because if you only focus on the positive and don't correct the negative, you'll never improve your event. When you do ask the "negative" question, you'll find people are unbelievably cordial and appreciative with their feedback.

Here are some additional articles on planning a successful event:

Posted at 07:27 in Event Planning | Permalink

Tags: customer experience, event planning, marketing, promotion

The egomaniac's guide to event failure

Fasten your seatbelts, because things are going to get blunt!