Saffire Blog

Are Boosted Posts Worth It? The Difference Between Boosted Posts and Facebook Ads

If you’re new to Facebook advertising, you might be wondering about boosted posts – like what they’re used for, how to set them up and whether they’re the same as Facebook ads (spoiler alert: they’re not!) While boosted posts sometimes get a bad rap, they can still be useful in your social media strategy. … Continue reading “Are Boosted Posts Worth It? The Difference Between Boosted Posts and Facebook Ads”

In this guide, we’ll explain the ins-and-outs of boosted posts, what they’re used for and how to set them up.

Boosted Post Vs. Facebook Ad: What’s the difference?

Boosted posts are the most simple way to run an ad on Facebook. They don’t have the same types of targeting, features and power you can expect from a full Facebook ad, but they are a great option for anyone who is new to the ad world.

People love boosted posts because you can quickly and easily create them from content you already have on your feed! Just post your content, click “boost this post” and boom – you’re pretty much done. Once started, boosted posts allow you to target for engagement (more likes or comments), traffic (more clicks to your website), or messages. With as little as a few clicks and $10, you can reach more people and increase your engagement with a boost!

Facebook ads are a little more tricky, but in turn they offer you much more power. To get started you’ll have to create an Ads Manager account and take some time to learn the ins-and-outs of the Facebook Ads world.

Anyone that’s ever been in the Facebook Ads Manager knows that it can be a long confusing process. Unlike boosted posts, Facebook ads open up a whole world of possibility when it comes to targeting. While you may target people who have been to your website with a boosted post, with Facebook ads you can get even deeper – like targeting people who have been to your website, are also moms with young children and who live in Texas. Plus, you’ll get many more ad objectives like conversions (getting people to take a specific action on your website like buying tickets or signing up for a newsletter), event responses and video views. And don’t even get us started on all the different templates you can choose to show content in!

Just remember that Facebook ads won’t show up on your regular feed. Instead, they’ll be shown only to a specific audience that you select through targeting.

Should I Create a Boosted Post?

While full Facebook ads are always a good idea for organizations looking for more than just engagement, like merch or ticket sales, boosted posts still have their uses. They’re a great way to increase engagement on content already posted to your page in an algorithm that makes it hard for businesses to get noticed. Plus, they are cheaper and easier to use.

We recommend boosted posts to anyone who is just starting out. They’re a great way to get familiar with Facebook targeting and optimization, and it’s better to run boosted posts than no ads at all. Use boosted posts as a stepping stone until you’re ready to run full-blown Facebook ads. They will help you get comfortable with the ins-and-outs when you’re ready to take the leap!

If you find you’re still scared of setting foot inside the Facebook Ads Manager, there are tons of resources to help you get started with full Facebook ads (and Saffire is always here to help!)

So, I’ve Decided to Boost A Post. What Now?

Boosting a post is easy! Just follow these simple steps.

Post your content. Include your photo or video and some fun, interesting text!
Click the bright blue “Boost Post” button.
Select your objective: Do you want to send people to your website, get more engagement on your post, or encourage people to send you messages?
Choose your audience. Choose between targeting specific demographics, people who like your page or people who like your page and their friends.
Select your budget. The minimum is $1 a day and at least $10. After you select your budget Facebook will give you an estimate of how many people they expect your post to reach.
Set your post duration. This is how many days you want your post to run.
Click boost.
Congrats! You have a boosted post.

In the end, boosted posts are a great starting place, but we don’t recommend sticking with boosted posts forever. When you are ready to start creating full ads, reach out to Saffire or read more about getting started.

Using the Facebook Events Feature

As we all know, Facebook is the biggest social networking platform in the world with over a billion users. Since its launch, Facebook has evolved and brought new features for users as well as businesses. One of their most improved features are Events, which give an opportunity to individuals as well as organizations to promote … Continue reading “Using the Facebook Events Feature”

As we all know, Facebook is the biggest social networking platform in the world with over a billion users. Since its launch, Facebook has evolved and brought new features for users as well as businesses. One of their most improved features are Events, which give an opportunity to individuals as well as organizations to promote their events on Facebook. Before this change, the Events
feature didn’t work very well for organizations and was a much better tool to invite friends to events such as your backyard barbecue.

After years of research and design, Facebook has improved upon their Events feature and made it a great tool for marketers. Today, over 500 million people search Facebook Events each month to find local events to attend, making the Events feature an important marketing tool to increase attendees.

During a recent presentation by the Facebook Events team, Facebook talked about the new success of the Events Feature with a case study on the event “Water Fight New York NYC.” In 2014, before Facebook started focusing on Events, the Water Fight NYC only had 1,400 attendees showing on their Facebook Event. Then, in 2015, after more features were put in place, the event skyrocketed to 64,000 attendees.

How to Market your Event

For a more guerrilla marketing approach, you can invite your friends list and ask your friends, relatives and event staff to invite their friends and share the event on their personal pages. You are also able to use the Facebook ads to target your desired audience. When someone says they’re “Going” to your event, it creates a story that may appear in other’s News Feed so that their friends and followers can see they’re going and then decide to attend too.

To grow your attendee list using ads, you’re able to specifically advertise your event. This has a different mission than normal facebook ads, which is to get more attendees and ticket sales.

Event promoters often get better results when they:

Set up a lookalike audience to show ads to people similar to your followers
Use a CPM bidding strategy to get more people to respond to your event and buy tickets
Create a conversion pixel to see which ads worked well and they can also measure performance
Create an ad with using the “Ticket Link” which will allow you to create ads that are optimized to drive ticket sales

What do I do after my event?

So you just finished your event and can finally relax, right? Not exactly. People have connected because they truly care about your event and what you share about it. Facebook’s research has shown that event attendees are wanting the following:

Professional pictures of the event action
Final scores for competitions
To be thanked for attending
To know about future events from your organization

We hope that this has inspired you to add Facebook Events into your marketing efforts. You can also explore some great Facebook resources by reading through Facebook’s Guide to Getting the Most Out of Facebook Events.

Events are about community, culture, experiences and fun and Facebook is the avenue most people choose to share this experience. One inspiring statistic is that within one week of the event, each event attendee, on average, befriends another event attendee on Facebook. Events bring people together!

Promo Code Palooza

Promo codes:Customers love them, so using promo codes as a part of your marketing strategy can be very lucrative! With technology, media and entertainment fighting for everyone’s attention, sometimes a small discount is the necessary push to seal the deal. In the event, venue, and destination industries, the product is all about the experience. We know that everyone loves a deal, but many are reluctant to discount tickets. Using promo codes as part of your marketing strategy is actually very lucrative and allows you to sell more advanced tickets. Below are a few of the strategies that you can implement.

Social Media:

Using social media outlets is a great way to push out your marketing message and your promo code. Make sure to post visually-appealing graphics to ALL of your social media outlets. Remember, in order to reach your audience on social media most effectively, you will need to pay for social media advertising. (See our article: All Gain, No Pain: Eliminate Guesswork on Facebook Ads)

Traditional Media Outlets:

Many events have partnerships with local radio stations, television stations, and newspapers. Make sure and use the “old-school” but still very successful forms of advertising to push your promo code.

Email Blasts:

Reward your fans that have subscribed to your email marketing by offering them an exclusive discount. This is a great place to promote advanced ticket sales. Email marketing is actually one of the quickest and cheapest ways to provoke online purchasing. In fact, when customers were asked what factors lead to mobile purchases, 56% said email. Not to mention, there are three times more email accounts than Facebook and Twitter accounts combined. (See our article: Email Marketing (Still) isn’t Dead! )

The Sponsored Promo Code:

This is a great way to still receive full price for your tickets if you’re worried about giving a discount with a promo code! Try to get someone to sponsor any promo codes that you offer. Reach out to local retailers, restaurants, and even big companies (i.e. Coca-Cola) and have them sponsor the discounted amount.

You and the sponsor can decide what outlets this code will be advertised through (social media, television, print, etc.) The selling point to your sponsor is that they can set the promo code as anything they want, in order to drive brand and product recognition (i.e. Promo code = Coca-Cola). You can also advertise for a sponsor by placing a custom description in the purchaser’s cart (i.e. Enjoy a Coke at the Fair!) after the promo code has been added to an online order. Finally, after the ticket has been purchased, you can even place sponsor branding on print at home tickets (i.e. Coca-Cola logo) where a promo code was applied.

Measuring success:

We often say, “If you’re not measuring your marketing, you’re not marketing!” A great way to measure the success of your promo code marketing efforts is to use different codes on different outlets. Slightly change the code that will identify where that code was advertised. For example:

Embrace the promo code! We hope this has given you some great ideas to start a promo code campaign along with how to get someone else to pay for the offered discount!

Online Marketing Trends to Prevent the Budgeting Blues

For many organizations, September 30th marked the day that the 2014 fiscal year rolled over; whether you are new to the industry or a seasoned professional, planning your budget for the new fiscal year can be rather stressful! As an event, venue or destination, (DMO) it is your responsibility to bring in visitors to your local … Continue reading “Online Marketing Trends to Prevent the Budgeting Blues”

For many organizations, September 30^th marked the day that the 2014 fiscal year rolled over; whether you are new to the industry or a seasoned professional, planning your budget for the new fiscal year can be rather stressful! As an event, venue or destination, (DMO) it is your responsibility to bring in visitors to your local community by successfully marketing your brand and product. Knowing where to effectively place budget dollars can be challenging with all the new platforms and technology available today. We all know that a strong online marketing mix is a must but with new technology being introduced daily, how do you know where to focus your efforts and invest? Have no fear: Saffire is here to provide a closer look into what marketers are focusing on in 2014 – 2015!

Website, website, website. We cannot stress the importance of this enough. In today’s technology-driven environment, it is crucial to carry a strong online presence to keep your clients informed, entertained and engaged. Bottom line: the lack of a beautiful, interactive website results in lost revenue for your organization (through ticket sales or tax revenue). If you have an inadequate presence, people quickly move on to the next organization with a website that can easily close the sale. These sites have to be easily accessible on all platforms (mobile and web) and must be dynamic sites. DMO’s have spent more than $39 million on website and mobile app development in the last three years and that number continues to grow on an annual basis (The Destination Marketing Landscape: The Role of DMOs). Along with increased presence usually comes increased staff as more than three-quarters of DMO’s use a Content Management System (CMS) and almost half have at least one staff person devoted to website content management (abouttourism.wordpress.com). Here at Saffire, we know that content management can be time consuming and that is why we created a CMS system that cuts down the time devoted to editing on other CMS platforms.

#socialmedia. Social media websites continue to implement new and innovative advertising strategies that organizations can utilize to reach their audiences. With these new strategies comes an increase of the “pay to play” marketing style that many social media sites have adopted. It is now estimated that only 3% of your Facebook followers will see your posts if you do not pay for advertising. As the social media marketing game changes and grows more complex for marketers, many organizations plan to increase their social media efforts in 2015. Many of these organizations have at least one full-time employee dedicated to creating an existence through platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. In 2014, it was forecasted that 40% of DMO’s in the $10-25K budget level plan on expanding their social media team (Destinationmarketing.org).

Below is a detailed breakdown from fredericogonzalo.com presenting how a social media budget is allocated in a typical DMO. As you can see, paid promotion through tweets and Facebook ads is highly important to leaders in this industry.

Social media has also been proven to drive sales and attendance for all types of events that your organization might plan or host. Your social media presence allows attendees or visitors to bond before, during and after an event of vacation by connecting with others who have the same interests in your product. Music festival attendees are a prime example, as 65% tweet or post to their social networks during a live concert, 56% upload photos of the event and 31% write reviews of their experience (New Trends Impacting Festivals and Consumer Events).

The social media marketing game is not rigged and research shows that it is worth the investment. As part of the Social Commerce Report for Festivals and Consumer Conventions, Eventbrite calculated the value of social media sharing in terms of awareness and ticket sales. The study found that Facebook shares were worth about $4.15 in future ticket sales and generated 15 views of the event’s ticketing page. Twitter drives nearly 28 event page views, or almost 2 times the number of views than Facebook and $2.18 per tweeted share (eventbrite.com/festivals).

For more information about Facebook Advertising, please see our blog post: 5 Steps to Help Your Event, Venue or Destination Take Off With Facebook Advertising.

Get your name out there. Online advertising is an excellent way to reach your audience on both a local and international level. In fact, more and more organizations are beginning to market to local, national, and international visitors, primarily using online advertising campaigns. Online advertising produces immediate and traceable results, allowing organizations to save time and cut costs in comparison to traditional marketing (radio, TV and print), which tends to be more expensive. Banner ads, e-blasts, newsletters and digital campaigns through third party agencies are examples of popular ways to gain exposure and generate your brand to possible attendees or visitors.

Of the online marketing tools, email marketing is one of the quickest and cheapest ways to get attendees to purchase tickets and travelers to book hotel rooms. Using a mass email marketing tool like Saffire Mail or Constant Contact is an easy, low cost way to send an email blast! For a more in depth look at email marketing, please see our previous blog post, Email Marketing (Still) Isn’t Dead.

All Gain, No Pain: Eliminate Guesswork on Facebook Ads

Living in a digital world that requires you to “pay to play” usually isn’t as wallet-friendly as we’d all like. Most of us are on a tight budget, which doesn’t always go well with our online marketing goals. The good news is, we’ve got a bullet proof plan to help you decide where your money … Continue reading “All Gain, No Pain: Eliminate Guesswork on Facebook Ads”

Living in a digital world that requires you to “pay to play” usually isn’t as wallet-friendly as we’d all like. Most of us are on a tight budget, which doesn’t always go well with our online marketing goals. The good news is, we’ve got a bullet proof plan to help you decide where your money is best spent. After all, we want you to have the biggest bang for your buck.

Where to spend money:

Offer ads. Whether you’re an event, venue, or destination, your main source of revenue is butts in seats. This means that your online ticket sales should be a main priority for your online marketing. The good news is, Facebook advertising has evolved to such an advanced level that you can actually drive traffic straight from Facebook to the page that you sell tickets. Hello, cash flow!

By clicking the “get offer” button, your page visitors are instantly directed to a revenue-generating place. When the average cost of a Facebook ad is somewhere around $0.25, you’re basically paying a quarter to get someone to make a purchase. That’s a pretty big return on investment compared to the cost of your tickets.

Posts that get visitors thinking about themselves. Posts like this tend to create more of relationship between viewers and your brand because they appeal to emotion. The more attached a consumer is to a brand, the more trusting they are of the brand and the more likely they are to spend money on that brand. For example:

Wording like this gets parents thinking about their kids as well as their own inner-child, thus tugging at their heart strings.

Posts that involve your partners and sponsors. This shows that you’re “bigger than yourself” and also helps to pull in from the fan base of the partner you’ve tagged. Your partners and sponsors are always going to have loyal followers, and if those followers see your affiliation, then you’ve already got your foot in the door!
Posts that are fun. First and foremost, you want to be a resource for entertainment. After all, people are coming to social media as an escape from boredom. So why not make your page one of the most fun to interact with? It’s okay to do a business plug every now and then, but remember the 80/20 rule. About 80% of your posts should be fun, and 20% should be promotional.

Where not to spend money:

Getting page likes. This is a “vanity statistic,” and it’s more valuable to spend money where you will make money. Unless you’re starting from scratch, chances are that you already have a large fan-base that you can use as an audience—this will only continue to grow as you post. When you create offer ads and link posts, there is a “like page” button built in, thus making it unnecessary to also spend money on page promotion ads. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t spend a little here and there, but you definitely shouldn’t put all your eggs (money) in this basket.

From our experience, spending (or not spending) money in these places has proved to give us the biggest bang for our buck. The most important thing is to pay attention to your fans and what they interact most with, and focus your dollars there. After all, if you’re not watching and listening, you’re not learning about your audience’s behavior. Facebook advertising involves quite a bit of trial and error, so we want to make sure that you had our inside scoop to help you stay ahead of the curve!

Email Marketing (still) Isn’t Dead!

So you’ve probably heard us say something about the importance of email marketing—and we promise it’s not dead! Email marketing is actually one of the quickest and cheapest ways to provoke online purchasing. In fact, when customers were asked what factors lead to mobile purchases, 56% said email. Not to mention, there are three times more email accounts than Facebook and Twitter accounts combined. Some of you might be thinking “okay we get it, but what now?” Whether you’re a pro or starting from square one, here are some guidelines that will help you come up with killer campaigns!

Look into a mass marketing tool. Seriously, it helps. Some of you have tens of thousands of contacts and no easy way to reach them. That’s where mass marketing tools like SaffireMail or Constant Contact come in handy. They allow you to market to your audience in a creative, efficient way while also allowing you to track the results of your campaigns. While we’re on the subject, tracking results is HUGELY important because it lets you know what’s working and with whom. Your customers’ behavior is telling you something–make sure you’re listening!
Come up with a plan. “Email marketing plan” might sound intimidating, but it actually has some very simple steps that can fuel your online success.
- Step 1: Define your purpose. Do you want to increase attendance at a concert? Cool! Do you want to make sure everyone’s aware of a date change? That’s cool too! Whatever your purpose may be, go into your email marketing with clear goals in mind so that you can minimize confusion and maximize results.
- Step 2: Define your readers. Come up with a target audience–a group that you really want to reach out to. This might change depending on the type of event or the time of year, but by targeting your content to a certain audience, you increase your chances of engagement.
- Step 3: Determine your content. Think about what you want your readers to get out of what they’re reading and the action you want them to take because of your email. Focus on making sure that your content stays on track with provoking that action. Business Consultant, Faith Popcorn, said it best when she said “consumers crave recognition of their individuality.” Your content needs to speak to the individual in order to increase your chances of getting results, so do your best to make each person in that audience feel as though the message was tailor-made for them.
- Step 4: Determine your frequency. This is another thing that might change depending on the nature of your event or the time of year. For example, some fairs or rodeos have one major event for the entire year. Their email marketing frequency would obviously increase as their event date approaches, we would even go so far as to recommend a Daily Highlights Email. The important thing to remember here is that you have to be aware of what works best for you and your audience by paying attention to results. And remember, NEVER sacrifice quality for quantity.
Treat your readers like VIPs. There’s a reason that we put an email sign up option on every page of our sites, because we want to entice those visitors who are willing to trust us with their email address. Don’t break that trust by spamming them with non-stop promo emails or irrelevant information. You want to make your readers feel like they’re benefiting from being a subscriber. This means providing them with exclusive new deals or info, things that will keep them happy and loyal.

When it comes to email marketing, keep yourself in mind. What do you hate seeing in your own inbox? What entices you enough to make you click? Chances are that if you hate something, so will your audience. So in order to break through all of the marketing and ad clutter that consumers are bombarded with everyday, you need to show them that you understand them as a consumer and as a fan. Your audience wants to hear from you, so give them something worth reading!

Key Elements of a Daily Highlights Email

Do you email your customers? If you don’t, but want a simple “how to” to get you started, just follow the example of our very first Saffire client, Rodeo Austin. Rodeo Austin sends out emails before their event (which of course, we highly recommend!), but this example is a “daily highlights” email. It has 5 … Continue reading “Key Elements of a Daily Highlights Email”

Do you email your customers? If you don’t, but want a simple “how to” to get you started, just follow the example of our very first Saffire client, Rodeo Austin.

Rodeo Austin sends out emails before their event (which of course, we highly recommend!), but this example is a “daily highlights” email. It has 5 key elements, which we outline below.

The good news? You can schedule these emails months in advance to go out during your event! So put it on your calendar, and we promise you’ll see your revenue and attendance increase!

Web Design-on-a-Dime

We all know the importance of having a great online presence, but now with so many websites and apps out there it’s easy to get lost in all the online “noise.” The good news is you can break through the clutter with standout design, and there are so many inexpensive ways to create unique images … Continue reading “Web Design-on-a-Dime”

We all know the importance of having a great online presence, but now with so many websites and apps out there it’s easy to get lost in all the online “noise.”

The good news is you can break through the clutter with standout design, and there are so many inexpensive ways to create unique images and looks that will make your site pop. Here are some of our favorite tools for designing on a dime.

Try Canva. Www.canva.com is a new, free online tool that we love! You can create anything from online graphics to posters to business cards using their library of graphics and fonts. They make it easy to turn a blank canvas into something awesome. It’s easy to be bogged down with complicated software like Photoshop or Illustrator, but Canva has simplified graphic design in a way that makes it really fun.
Good photography goes a long way. One of the most important parts of your online marketing is photography. You definitely don’t have to hire a professional (although we’d never argue against it), but there are simple things you can do to make your pictures pop. Using the rule of thirds and making sure you have good lighting can make a huge difference in the quality of your photos. After all, sharing photos is one of the most popular activities on social media, so it’s best to provide great photos!
Use Designspiration. Www.designspiration.net is a great place to help you find and share design ideas. You can create an account and save your favorite illustrations, typography, graphics, and anything that inspires you so that you can reference it later. Another cool feature of this site is that you can pick up to five specific colors and Designspiration will filter its archive so that you can see how other people have used those colors in their own designs.
Find a standout color palette. Www.colourlovers.com is an online resource that offers over a million different color palettes and all of their details. Using the right colors in your designs is important because they can actually effect how people think of your brand. You don’t want to turn people off by having colors that clash or send the wrong message, and COLOURlovers offers you a way to find palettes that just work together. (Hint: this is a great tool to use when you’re about to create something on Canva.)
Just say “no” to clipart. Yes, it’s free, but it’s a thing of the past. Clipart has a way of making a website look generic and outdated, which is the opposite of what you want visitors to think of when they come to your site.

Getting inspired and finding easy, free online tools can really change designing graphics from a daunting task into something fun and rewarding. You don’t have to be an artist or a designer to be able to create something awesome for you site, but trying out these five things can help you feel like a pro!

Increase Revenue with Online Ticket Sales & Registrations

We all know that we should be selling online, and if we already are, we know it could be better. We’ve come up with the 3 key places you need to post your tickets and registration forms on your website to increase incremental and advanced revenue. Let’s kick off this discussion with the #1 most important place to … Continue reading “Increase Revenue with Online Ticket Sales & Registrations”

We all know that we should be selling online, and if we already are, we know it could be better. We’ve come up with the 3 key places you need to post your tickets and registration forms on your website to increase incremental and advanced revenue.

Let’s kick off this discussion with the #1 most important place to let people know you have something for sale-your HOMEPAGE:

A BUY NOW button on your homepage is the #1 way to get those hot leads to add a ticket to their shopping cart when they first land on your website! Don’t let a customer who is your strongest lead in the sales cycle get lost because they can’t purchase the first thing they like. For example, you can hover over any of the Delaware State Fair’s off season “Get It Now!” items to “Buy Now!”

A Ticket Mall on your website is another great way to capture those strong leads that know they’re ready to purchase and attend but aren’t quite sure what event or date they want to buy just yet. A call-to-action link or icon on your homepage to access every item available for sale online is the best way to capture someone who brought their pocket book to your virtual front door. For example, Greeley Stampede has 1 rollover but 2 call-to-action links to get customers to click to their ticket gateway!

An image on your homepage that links to a more detailed page of the item you’re selling. (Saffire Tip: Putting plenty of clickable features on your homepage will allow your customer to get more comfortable with your site. Getting them to click anything once increases their likelihood of purchasing!) If your customer is set on attending a specific event, or wants to purchase a specific piece of merchandise that they see on your homepage, then let them get the details by clicking that image.

An interactive EVENT SCHEDULE is the next best place to make your items for sale, because one of the top reasons customers come to your website is actually to find out “what’s going on, when is it going on, and how can I be a part of it?”

A place on your schedule where every event has a BUY NOW button is a great way to secure your customers cash early. Don’t let them get lost in your list of events happening, or space available for rent. Instead, make it easy for them to be confident in the purchase they’re making. Black Hills Stock Show has really put their best foot forward as far as their events schedule goes, and it’s easy for their customers to get what they want from an expanded view of events

Have too much going on? Have a ROLLOVER on events with items for sale. If your customer is interested in the name of an event or item, they’ll get more information as well as the chance to purchase right from your schedule.

Finally, does your customer still have access to that all encompassing Ticket Mall? Don’t allow them to get lost in the midst of the many events on your schedule, if they’re a medium lead we still want them to have access to a page on your website or a page with every item available on your ticket provider’s website.

#3 would be EVENT DETAILS or REGISTRATION PAGE. We have a lot of ideas of how to “close the sale” when even your weakest of leads (with the lowest tendency to purchase) gets to the last page where they can make a purchase.

Keep the event-specific page clean. You want the content or text of that page to be short and to the point. A brief bio of your performer or the type of tour that you have will keep your customer interested without overwhelming them with too much reading.
Be sure that every type of ticket (or registration) you have for sale is available on this details page.
Use imagery and photography to make the page appealing. Action shots, people looking into the camera, or images of iconic symbols from your event will help your customer maintain their confidence as they go through the purchasing cycle on your website.

Final thoughts:

Whether you’re selling tickets, memberships or registrations directly from your website, or you are using a ticketing or merchant services provider, we believe making a “BUY NOW” button available to your customer is a call to action for purchase! Using the right verbiage can give you a better shot of capturing revenue in advance.
If your customer has to leave your website to complete their purchase, be sure your branding is carried across all the way through the buying process. Also, check that any instructions or directions important to the purchase are clearly stated at the point of sale.
Sell packages in advance of your event. Maybe you can’t offer huge discounts for early buyers, but remember they’re more willing to commit to a larger sale when your event is more than a few weeks out. Use this opportunity to increase incremental revenue as your customer’s ticket cost won’t be spent at the gate.

We believe a quick clean up and audit of how your customer goes through the sales cycle is something every event or venue needs to evaluate each year. Now is the time to get your buttons, schedule(s), and pages in order so that you can focus your marketing efforts on getting your audience back to your website where they can have the confidence to purchase from you online!

Ecommerce Tips For Your Event

It’s no secret that we are BIG proponents of having ecommerce on your event or venue website. It increases opportunities for incremental revenue from your customers, vendors and sponsors; and pre-sold tickets guarantee revenue before your event even starts (regardless of weather conditions). But once you get ecommerce tied to your website, it’s sometimes difficult … Continue reading “Ecommerce Tips For Your Event”

It’s no secret that we are BIG proponents of having ecommerce on your event or venue website. It increases opportunities for incremental revenue from your customers, vendors and sponsors; and pre-sold tickets guarantee revenue before your event even starts (regardless of weather conditions). But once you get ecommerce tied to your website, it’s sometimes difficult to know how to drive traffic to complete a purchase. Here are some tips for increasing your revenue online.

Create Great Packages – Bundling, or grouping items together and offering them at a slightly reduced price will often result in a customer spending more than if they were purchasing items individually. Tickets, parking, concessions and rides are just a few things to consider offering as a bundle pack.

Create a Sense of Urgency – Setting a time limit on discounts is a great way to encourage customers to purchase tickets prior to the event. It’s hard to let a good deal pass by, so customers are inclined to secure their tickets well in advance of the event.

Create a Sense of Exclusivity – Announce special ticket offers via email to your most loyal fans before posting the announcements on Facebook and Twitter. Let them know they are getting first dibs on exclusive offers, and consider offering special promo codes to email fans only. They will feel rewarded for their loyalty and will be more diligent about not missing your next email.

Cover All Media Outlets – Be sure to include your URL on all types of marketing materials to drive traffic to your site, and then repeat your marketing messaging on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. With visual and textual repetition helping to familiarize your audience, customers will feel comfortable going to your site to complete a purchase.

Online sales are on the rise and the event industry is well-positioned to benefit from this trend. By implementing just a few simple tactics, you too can increase revenue for your event or venue.