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Maximizing the Value of Season Passes
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If you run a recurring event or attraction, offering season passes can be a game changer for your business. Not only can you encourage repeat customers, you can target them with higher-tier offers that drive even more revenue for your operation. With the right event ticketing system, offering tickets within the platform should be easy for both you and your customers. What are the benefits of offering a season pass? While season passes allow frequent visitors to save money on multiple visits, selling season passes also adds many benefits to your venue. Season passes: Incentivize repeat visits Encourage attendance. Increase opportunities to strengthen relations with guests. Provide more chances to sell concessions or merchandise. Season passes provide great peace of mind to your venues. Since the price is usually the cost of several single-day tickets, you can count on that revenue immediately. Adding season passes to your ticket offerings also increases revenue for your facility in multiple ways. Pass holders will usually buy concessions, merchandise, or gifts once in the venue. Also, since pass holders are not buying a ticket at the venue, they can feel as if they have gotten in for free, encouraging them to spend more money at your facility. Season pass holders often want to bring friends along who will most likely need to purchase their own ticket. Owning a season pass encourages these guests to visit your facility as frequently as they can, which provides extra opportunities for you to cash in on these opportunities. Unfortunately, sometimes guests try to exploit the freedom of their season pass by sharing with friends and family members, allowing non-pass holders to attend for free. If this allowance is not explicitly outlined in your terms and conditions, offering a season pass can backfire as you lose revenue to visitors...
This Alternative to Eventbrite Can Boost Sales for Your Drive-in Theater
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There is comfort in taking a drive at night, maybe even in your PJs, windows down, letting the night air in, then rolling into a corner of a lot, leaning your seat back, and settling into a movie. The drive-in theater is making a comeback, and for good reason. With the last two years of Covid-19 and social distancing, many Americans have felt starved for getting out of the house while remaining relatively safe. Our cars are an extension of our home. Why not get out of the house and catch a flick? Demand for the drive-in experience is up. There are currently 10 drive-in theaters around the state of Florida with another 21 proposed. Drive-in theaters have traditionally been cash-only for tickets and concessions. But with rising costs of land and changes in the film industry concerning licensing and distribution potentially lowering the overall profits of the rebounding drive-in, there are new requirements for digital ticketing systems. Learn how to bring the drive-in experience to more guests while boosting sales at your drive-in theater by using an Eventbrite alternative, below. A Fistful of Dollars? Drive-in theaters have come a long way since Richard Hollingshead of Camden, N.J., put a projector on the top of his car and hung sheets from trees in the 1930s. Cars became indispensable in the 1950s, and the drive-in boomed. Warm, temperate nights made drive-in theaters a summer staple. Another staple of the drive-in was a manager handling cash as viewers paid by the carload. This previous peak may have passed, but the use of cash at the gate seemingly stuck around—until now. Cash can be a lot to keep up with, and carrying large amounts of it can present a host of problems. Modern society demands the option to pay without cash. No one...
Use Festival Software to Upsell Like a Pro
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When you’re running a festival or other event, using your festival software to sell tickets is only half the battle. Ticket sales cover critical costs and contribute to the overall profitability of your festival. But the fact is that a significant amount of revenue can come from upselling ticket purchasers with merchandise, concessions, multi-day ticket packages, and more. In eCommerce, effective upselling has been shown to make a significant positive impact on revenue. It’s also easier to upsell to customers already purchasing event tickets than to find brand new customers. In fact, upselling can increase your revenue by 30%. Upselling doesn’t have to mean aggressively trying to sell to customers. Rather, the right approach to upselling is more about offering the right choices at the right time, giving event-goers access to additional purchases they’re likely to be interested in. You need festival software that provides a more dynamic approach to selling. A software platform that combines different types of transactions from a single point-of-sale, offering a streamlined purchasing experience, will lead to satisfied, empowered customers who’re more likely to buy additional goods and services. Event software like SimpleTix offers functionality beyond selling tickets, with the ability to upsell to your customers, giving them what they want and increasing your event revenue at the same time. Here’s what you need to know about using your festival software to upsell like a pro. Table of Contents: Bundling Merch with Ticket Sales Online Streamlining On-Site Merch Sales Simplifying Redemption with Festival Software Bundling Merch with Ticket Sales Online When people attend events, they’re paying for a memorable experience. Mementos like hats, stickers, T-shirts, and posters can commemorate those memories. Pre-purchasing concessions and other upsells lets customers know they’re getting the most out of their time at your venue, and they’re doing it based...
So You Had to Cancel Your Event. What Are Your Options?
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Ticketed outdoor experiences have the potential to create special memories for people of all ages and interests. From music festivals to pumpkin picking to ski jumping, these events often make a meaningful impact on ticket holders. For these outdoor ticketed events to occur, however, a variety of elements need to cooperate. Perhaps the most crucial of these elements is the weather. Bad weather can be an event organizer’s worst nightmare—cancellations mean refunds, and refunds mean lost revenue. For ticket holders, too, cancellations can be a huge disappointment. After all, they’ve arranged the details of their lives to attend these events. But SimpleTix can provide a positive customer service experience for these ticket holders despite event cancellations. Our event ticketing platform provides a variety of tools that allow organizers to retain much of the cost of previously purchased tickets while also ensuring flexibility for ticket holders. As event organizers are well aware, in-person events are back! Outdoor venues large and small are welcoming visitors again after an extended hiatus due to COVID-19. Marquee events like SXSW and Coachella kicked off the concert season, and city orchestras and other arts organizations are bringing patrons back under new COVID-19 mitigation and safety guidelines. Smaller scale, local tourist attractions, too, are open for in-person business. This includes one-off events and ongoing activities such as agritourism and outdoor recreation. SimpleTix offers bulk cancellation features that allow organizers to offer great customer service to those who bought high-dollar tickets to specific events and to people who purchased tickets to attend attractions such as parks and agritourism sites. Organizers of events like these—at every scale—are familiar with the complicated logistics associated with holding outdoor events, from restroom rentals to providing shade, to ensuring access to emergency services. But the weather is perhaps the most unpredictable—and sometimes disastrous—element....
4 Steps to Build an Effective Event Marketing Strategy
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Events are used for all sorts of purposes, whether nonprofits are trying to raise money to fund their missions, associations are creating networking opportunities for their members, or businesses are cultivating social opportunities for their members. The event must be done well for organizations to see these types of benefits, though. This means it must be an engaging concept that your audience wants to get involved with. Furthermore, the hosting organization has to get the word out there effectively to attract enough registrations. In this guide, we’ll be covering the latter of those two necessities. Your organization needs to have an effective marketing strategy to raise awareness about your engaging event offerings and encourage your audience to get involved. We’ll cover the following steps to create an effective event marketing strategy: Set your goals and marketing budget. Choose your marketing channels. Create engaging marketing content. Ask your event speakers to help. In particular, we’ll zero in on how nonprofit organizations can create a powerful marketing strategy. As these nonprofit organizations tend to have the most limited budgets and the greatest need, the strategies featured will apply to them as well as other organizations with fewer restrictions. 1. Set your goals and marketing budget The first step to creating an effective marketing strategy is to define the goals of your marketing campaign in relation to your event. Nonprofit marketing strategies must be built on these goals and objectives, with your organization prioritizing them to determine the most important goals for the organization. For a nonprofit, these goals may include the following: Attract high-value donors to raise money at the event. Nonprofits may choose to reach out to major supporters with personalized invitations to a gala or another high-value fundraising event. Acquire and engage brand new donors. In this case, nonprofits may...
5 Ways Hosting an Event Can Benefit Your Organization
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As a nonprofit professional, one of your main tasks is to generate ideas for unique and creative ways to engage your audience more effectively. You may feel as if you’ve tried everything to engage your audience, from social media campaigns to videos and direct mail flyers, but your engagement rates are still waning. If you’re wondering what you should do next to boost engagement, why not try hosting an event? From fundraising to improving audience engagement, there are plenty of benefits that events can offer your organization. Hosting an event gives your organization the opportunity to: Raise brand and mission awareness. Engage volunteers. Gather audience data through ticketing. Raise funds. Thank supporters. As you’re planning your next nonprofit event, keep in mind how you can optimize everything from the ticketing process to your marketing campaign in order to take better advantage of the various benefits and opportunities your event will provide. Let’s dive in to learn more! 1. Raise brand and mission awareness. An event can engage a larger audience and help spread awareness of your mission and brand. This is because people want to buy an experience, and offering them a high-quality experience will leave a positive impression of your brand. There are plenty of considerations involved with raising brand and mission awareness for maximum exposure. Incorporate these tasks into your event planning process: Create a powerful, memorable event brand. Define your brand and determine your color scheme, font style, persona, and tone of voice. Your event brand should convey information about your organization’s history, mission, and vision while also speaking to your event’s purpose. Optimize your event marketing. Make sure your event marketing accurately reflects your event’s brand and purpose while encouraging supporters to attend. You might choose to create an event hashtag or share a countdown clock...
Using Event Management Software to Run Your Spring Event
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Winter events keep guests huddled inside. By contrast, spring events bring people out, and your spring event can host huge numbers with the right event ticketing and event management software. No matter if it finds you thirsty for hosting a drinks-themed party like the Georgia Food and Wine Festival or if it's another spring event, as you prepare, event management software can save time and energy better devoted to hosting your event. Spring often finds volunteers wanting to get out and be engaged, and your spring event can find you with a wealth of help. Managing volunteers and staff can turn into a full-time job in itself. As the organizer, your time is valuable. You have a host of duties, one of which is delegating tasks to your staff and volunteers. By using event management software, you can take many of the manual, administrative tasks off of your plate, and consolidate the promotion of your event, ticketing, and the ultimate execution of your big day into one streamlined app. Promoting your event For many organizations, spring is an exceptionally busy time. You may be hosting a flower show like the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s annual Philadelphia Flower Show and an annual fundraiser for your organization in the span of a couple of short months. Do yourself a favor, and ditch the Excel document and the cash box. The less you have to manage personally, the better. A better way of organizing multiple events is through the use of event management software. With event management software, you can sell tickets through your custom website at any time of day, without the face-to-face sale. Your potential festival-goer can learn about your beer festival while purchasing tickets to your flower show. The best part is, you don’t have to be there to take their...
4 Things to Look For in an Event Registration Tool
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Your festival will be the most talked about event this spring. Don’t let a clunky event registration tool, high costs, and unnecessarily challenging event ticketing slow down your guests’ path toward enjoyment. Events like Charlotte Beer Collective’s The Beer Event are coming up on the calendar. How will you plan your event? Once planned, how will you get your coveted tickets out to your intended crowd? And how much will it cost you? If you choose the right event registration tool, you can streamline your organizational process and save money along the way, while putting an amazing event on the calendar. As you organize your event, be on the lookout for the 4 things below in an event registration tool: Low price, instant payouts A straightforward event page to sell tickets A smooth user experience Human support 1. Low price, instant payouts. You’ve invested your time and energy into planning an awesome event, now how will you bring a crowd to your event? Keeping the price of your festival tickets in your intended range is essential to bringing out your targeted audience to enjoy the event. Make sure that your event registration tool doesn’t force your ticket price to go up, making the event cost-prohibitive for some of your potential attendees. Your event registration tool should offer a low price per ticket, while offering all of the features you need in order to pull off a successful event. Instant Payouts Pre-sales of tickets are crucial for building the revenue needed to cover your initial expenses. Many event registration tool apps hang onto your proceeds for a period of time after the sale. This can hold you back as you attempt to schedule and pay for entertainment and vendors. Digital payments happen in an instant, why don’t you receive the money...
Stop Paying Exorbitant Fees with Apps Like Eventbrite
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Your events keep getting bigger and better. The crowds are growing, and customers are buying merchandise as quickly as you can make it. But why does it feel like your profits aren’t growing along with your sales? The problem could be your event management software app. Apps like Eventbrite take a huge bite out of your profit potential while offering festival organizers far fewer benefits. It’s time to find an Eventbrite alternative and stop paying exorbitant fees with apps like Eventbrite. A lower per-ticket price You’ve done the work. You’ve booked great music and created an amazing event. Don’t let Eventbrite’s Professional package charge you nearly double the amount of an Eventbrite alternative. Apps like Eventbrite gobble up profits and drive up the per-ticket price for events while leaving out a host of benefits that an Eventbrite alternative offers. Eventbrite alternative apps offer lower fees and these better features: Square payments Square card reader support Stripe payments Instant payout Custom service fees Why pay additional fees for less benefit? You want crowds to attend your events, and you shouldn’t have to pass along higher fees to attendees in exchange for less flexibility. If you’ve found that your crowd will pay $100 for the weekend festival, you shouldn’t have to charge more in order to make your profit. Apps like Eventbrite charge service fees of $1.59 plus 3.5% of the total ticket price. Out of that $100 sale, you lose $5.09 or over 5% of the total sale to service fees. With an Eventbrite alternative, you could pay far less for each ticket sale. For example, with SimpleTix you get all of the benefits of apps like Eventbrite, and more, while only paying $.79 plus 2% of the total ticket price. This Eventbrite alternative offers a flat-rate fee for each...
Pull Off the Perfect Event with This Alternative to Eventbrite
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A great event requires lots of planning and hard work. From coordinating vendors and locking down a venue to creating the perfect atmosphere, there are many pieces to fit together and prepare before the big day. Arguably, one of the most important aspects of planning an event is figuring out how to sell tickets. Ticketing platform giant Eventbrite usually comes to mind first, but just because they’re everywhere doesn’t mean they’re the best ticketing platform to use for your event. Using an Eventbrite alternative instead allows you to sell tickets faster, easier, and at a fraction of the cost. An alternative to Eventbrite like SimpleTix helps you to pull off the perfect event on your own terms. With more control over your ticketing platform and cash flow, you’ll create the best impression for your event’s guests. Sell tickets 24/7 Providing the most accessible method to sell tickets to your potential guests will lead to higher ticket sales. Buying a ticket is also their first introduction to your event, so you want it to be an inviting and easy-to-use method. If buying tickets proves to be an unpleasant experience, guests could walk into the event with a negative bias or be deterred from buying tickets at all. Event goers overwhelmingly prefer online ticket sales to buying tickets in person. Buying tickets from the comfort of your own home is convenient and quick. The traditional box office breeds long lines and, if tickets sell out, frustration. With online ticket sales, guests can secure their spot and peace of mind with just a few clicks. Eventbrite’s user experience is catered more towards their interests than yours. It’s a clunky interface that makes it difficult to navigate related events by the same host. Eventbrite also advertises events unrelated to yours, including those hosted by...
6 Things to Look For in Online Festival and Event Management Software
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As in-person festivals resume, many have realized that they need a better way to organize and manage their events. Figuring out how to manage your festival can be overwhelming. Whether you’re wondering how to start a new festival, are already in the stages of planning it, or are just looking for a better way to bring back the fun of your annual event, online festival and event management software can help you bring your plans to life. Festival Software can help you easily plan and execute a fun and successful festival. Below we break down 6 things to Look For in Online Festival and Event Management Software. The Big 6: Instant Payouts Mobile Ticketing Flexibility Square Integration A Clean Event Website Email and Text Capabilities 1. Instant Payouts Your Sales Your Money You’ve booked your date and time and have developed your vision for the big event, but how will you pay for the show while having cash on hand for incidentals? Instantly having the money from your tickets sold is essential to being able to execute your big plans. Your festival software should offer instant payouts. Traditional online festival and event management software like Eventbrite can hold the money from your ticket sales, forcing you to pay out of pocket for your event. 2. Mobile Ticketing Stay Mobile You’ve made an amazing event, and everyone is anxious to get inside. No one likes waiting in line. Don’t make your patrons wait any longer than necessary. Your festival software should offer quick entry at the gate with the ability to scan tickets. Software should offer QR codes for quick and contactless mobile entry, the ability to host timed-entry ticketing, and attendance tracking. Transfers Sometimes the unavoidable circumstance comes up. Your online festival and event management software should allow the quick...
Sell Merchandise Online with SimpleTix
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As you work out event ticketing, you should consider a platform that can handle multiple types of sales seamlessly. Event ticketing software like SimpleTix allows you to streamline merchandise, concessions, and ticketing sales in one centrally located and easy to use platform. While ticket sales will fund most of your event, offering merchandise and concessions helps generate revenue and cover expenses. Regardless of your event’s size, selling branded merchandise presents an incredible opportunity to make some extra money, offer your guests mementos, and advertise for your group’s next venture. Table of Contents: Facilitate Versatile Transactions with Event Ticketing Software Choosing Merchandise for Your Event Learn from Your Attendees Facilitate Versatile Transactions with Event Ticketing Software Since not all event ticketing software facilitates merchandise or concessions sales, event organizers often have to implement several different point-of-sale systems to complete these various transactions. This can be difficult and frustrating to manage, as attendees must visit different areas to complete separate transactions or staff must cycle through various programs with one customer. With a platform that can sell tickets, merchandise, and concessions, both attendees and staff can easily complete multiple types of transactions at once. This provides a better experience for attendees and makes them more likely to spend more money. Staff will only have to learn one system and have more flexibility throughout the event to perform different types of transactions. SimpleTix also offers a partnership with Square, which means event staff and attendees won’t have to contend with the complications of cash transactions. Square also facilitates various payment types, such as ApplePay, AndroidPay, and contactless payments. More flexibility means you can accommodate more customers. With event ticketing software like SimpleTix, you can even sell merchandise online when attendees buy their tickets. This is beneficial as attendees can wear their merchandise at...