Week 3: Maximizing Your Event Page ROI

(Author's Note: This is part of a 5 email mini-course for planning a New Years Eve party. If you'd like more actionable tactics for throwing an NYE event, click here.) In case you missed previous emails, we've gone over choosing a theme and locking down your venue. Now we're ready to start selling tickets. Ideally, you'll want to use event registration software to kickstart your sales. This is especially true for NYE events. While some party goers procrastinate and make a last minute decision, many are ready to nail down their plans and buy tickets in advance. Through using an event registration system, you'll build an event page for online ticket purchasing. Not only does your event page facilitate ticket sales but it also presents a great marketing opportunity for you as well. Think of your event page as a flyer on steroids. Bear with me here... An event flyer done well has attractive design elements, basic information about the event, and possibly a web address for more information. Here's a decent example:

The problem with a regular event flyer is that you don't have a lot of space to work with and it's difficult to track the success of posting a flyer around town. An event page empowers you to go beyond the limited market value of a regular flyer. Not only can you add in all your basic event info but you can upload video from previous NYE events or type out a detailed timeline of all the cool stuff that will take place throughout the night. The point is that building a sexy event page increases your ability to 'pitch' potential attendees and draw them into your event. More importantly, your event page's reach isn't limited to just a street corner. The rise of social networks and sharing of stuff via the Internet increases the chances of your event page being seen. Before we work on leveraging the Internet to fuel ticket sales, let's focus on building a kick-ass event page first. Week 3 Task: Build Your Event Page Start by finding a registration solution that meets your needs.  There's a number of options out there to use. I'll be using Ticketbud in my examples which you can find links to at the end. 1. Add in basic event information This includes the event title, start & end time, venue address, and ticket types. Ticket types might be something you haven't completely decided on at this point.  If this is the case, here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Do I want to sell VIP tickets along with General Admission?
• Do I want to offer early bird pricing and increase price as time goes by?
• Do I want to offer group ticketing or the ability to purchase tables?

Generally, you'll want to offer early bird pricing for a NYE event. This helps jumpstart ticket sales and can be used as a marketing tactic throughout your sales cycle. We'll touch on that more in the next email. 2. Put on your best salesman impression Next, you'll want to write up a detailed event description. This is your opportunity to convince event page visitors why they should attend.  Include all the benefits that come with purchasing tickets and highlight unique aspects of your party. This means that if you plan on popping 100 bottles of champagne at midnight, make sure that it is noted in your description! Obligatory champagne popping gif The more interesting details, the better. It will raise expectations and get people excited. Uploading images or video content to your description works great too. A lot of people relate more with visuals and it'll help establishing your overall theme. 3. Design a page that blows them away To give your event page a little more oomph, I recommend uploading a slick background image.  Ticketbud has some great default options and I've also attached some pre-made templates made specifically for NYE. If you have web design skills or know a co-worker that does, you can get even more customized with Ticketbud's CSS editor.  This functionality gives you complete control over your event page's identity. Just remember to stick to your theme and use that for your design inspiration. Relevant Links: NYE example page w/ ticket and description Pre-made Ticketbud design templates How to create an event page on Ticketbud Cheers, Jack]]]]> ]]>