We organise more Events than most Organisers so when it comes to reaching a quota on selling tickets we like to think we know how it’s done.
Step 1: The Event Concept – The Good and the Bad
First you need to understand the concept for your event. Ask yourself: What type of event is this? Who is my audience? What are the elements of the event? What differentiates my event concept from other events? Write all of this down in quick bullet points. Make sure you play ‘devil’s advocate’ and be critical of your ideas and what you are planning. Otherwise when you get told no for such and such reason you won’t be prepared to combat it.
Step 2: Choose Your Channels
As the event organiser you need to know your potential audience. Whether this is based on robust research or on ‘gut’ feel, you need to know who they are and how they are segmented. When choosing the communications channels you will use for your social media content marketing campaign consider what kind of visual images will suit a particular channel. LinkedIn is more formal whereas Instagram and Facebook are way more casual.
Looking at social media feeds for similar events will inform which channels are most used by your potential audience and at what time of day that audience is speaking on social channels. Remember social media feeds are timeline based and you don’t want to be sending out communications that are not going to be seen because it involves lots of scrolling through the feeds. Twitter isn’t great for this reason unless you’re willing to repost every 45 minutes or so
Step 3: Create Content and Share It!
You have your event plan. You have chosen suitable channels. Now create you content. Content has be engaging and relevant to your audience. The little stories about how the day is going to go need to be visualised. This can be done by employing photographers and videographers, buying images on line or creating your own.
Make sure the visuals convey one of your stories based on an element of the event. For example, you could visit the venue where you are holding your event. A video of our CEO visiting Megabooth got over 500 views and multiple likes and shares. The content has to have either a theme you know people will react to (food, appealing cinematography) or the fun factor. Timing is important so share at about midday. Having someone react emotively to your content at the right time is going to promote ‘Likes’ and ‘Shares’.
Remember that when visualising your stories it’s always a good idea to use some sort of branding where possible. Also make sure that the style of language you use is suitable to our audience and the channel you are using. These content tips should evoke an emotional and sensory response by the viewer.
Step 4: Link Back
All communications must have a link back to the event website or ticketing platform, and this needs to be a seamless and easy process. If you are short on characters, use Tiny URL’s, but always link back. Lastly, don’t try to gather mounds of data in this process. Make registration as simple as possible as you may lose out to competing events or people’s attention spans.
In Conclusion
The success of this strategy to sell more event tickets is bound up in a comprehensive understanding of your event concept and audience, the elements of your event, choice of social media channels and how to create unified content. Once you have mastered this make it easy for people to interact ‘Share’ and ‘Like’ your posts and include a simple link back to the registration process. If you can master this, you can master the art of selling out an event!
