Ticketbud Tips and Tools*
January 29, 2014 • by Jane Carter
"6 Tricks to Kick Start Event Conversion (aka how to increase your ticket sales)
1. Make It "WIIFY" No, WIIFY is not the new YOLO. WIIFY stands for "What's In It For You" and the you in this context refers to your potential attendees. So, making something WIFFY, for the sake of this post, means focusing on giving your attendees a good reason to buy a ticket to your event. To do this, try and think about your event from the attendee's perspective. Why should they go? What does your event offer that would compel them to buy a ticket? Whether it's free food, learning a new skill, or a special appearance by Beyoncé, be sure to make it clear what your attendees will get from attending. Otherwise, from an attendee's perspective, they really have no reason to go.
2. A Picture Is Worth A Thousands WIFFY Words
Words are great but all the "WIFFY" text in the world is a waste without some strong imagery. As much as people love to read about how fun/exciting/intense/hilarious/informative/creative your event is, they love to SEE it even more. Pictures help your attendees form a better mental picture of what they stand to gain by attending and allow them to engage emotionally with your event. For one company, adding a simple image of a black lab led to "double the number of clicks on the signup button than the text only version." Moral of the story: Pictures increase conversion!3. Social Media To The Rescue
Sometimes, curious customers simply want more content than your page can possibly contain. This is where links to your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and other social media accounts come in handy.
Links to your social media add credibility to your event and give potential attendees places to go to read and see more. When attendees know more about your event they're more likely to buy tickets.
It seems like common sense but the amount of ticket and registration pages I see devoid of social media links is unnecessarily high.
4. Keep It Simple
"Michael always says, 'K-I-S-S, keep it simple, stupid.' Great advice, hurts my feelings every time." This quote by Dwight Schrute from the hit NBC show The Office, while a bit irreverent, is spot on. While you don't need to refer to yourself as stupid, the idea here is you want to remove as many barriers as possible for your visitors. To help, here's a brief list of all too common ways we see organizers overcomplicate their event page:- overly long and hard to remember event URL's
- confusing ticket titles and event descriptions
- too many questions to fill out at checkout
- unnecessarily difficult to contact the organizer
5. Discounts & Promos
The number one reason we see for attendees not attending an event is price.
Discount and promo codes counter that by convincing the attendee they are getting a ticket to the event for less than it's true value. This "steal" of a deal makes the attendee feel smart and savvy, two emotions you want associated with you and your event.
On top of spurring conversion, deals like these are also word-of-mouth gold mines. When one attendee feels clever for getting a deal on a ticket, they want to tell a friend, first, to share in the deal with them and, two, to show them how clever they were for finding the deal in the place (don't act like you haven't done this).
6. A/B Test
A/B testing is, essentially, a fancy way of saying trail and error. While it can be incredibly complex and data-intensive, A/B testing, at its core, is an experiment taking two, nearly identical versions of something (an "A" and a "B"), comparing them, and determining which of the two version converts better.
So, for example, if the "Buy Now" button on your event page is green, you can A/B Test to see if more people would click on it if it was red. In this scenario the green button is the "A" test and the red button is the "B" test.
Relating this back to your event, try A/B testing various parts of your page to see if tweaking certain aspects leads to more ticket purchases.
Some examples you could use for your event:
- Play around with your WIIFY text
- While you might think your big selling point is your event's motivational speaker, try leading with the "Cruise for 2" giveaway at the end and see if your sales increase.
- Change up the design
- If the page background is red, change it to blue. The psychology of color in the decision-making process plays a big role in the actions visitors take.
- Test multiple photos
- As I mentioned (see Step 2) ,photos & pictures can elicit an emotional response stronger than any words could. Test 2 or 3 distinctly different photos to see if engagement goes up.
- Mix up your messaging
- Test different types of marketing messages on social media and other channels. If you tweeted a "salesy" tweet with a link to buy tickets, try a clever message with a link to a funny video. Many times, conversions increase when visitors don't feel pressured or pushed.