How to Sell Tickets Online: The Ultimate Guide

Welcome to our ultimate, step-by-step guide on how to master the art of selling tickets online. We're here to break down the nitty-gritty of ticket-selling strategies, tactics, and tips with a sprinkle of marketing magic that will have attendees knocking down your virtual doors.

This guide is your backstage pass to becoming a virtuoso in the realm of event sales. So, if you're ready to turn your events into sell-out sensations, keep reading!

Step 1: Create an enticing page for your event

Think of your online event page as a virtual stage, set to captivate and enthrall potential ticket buyers. Just like a well-designed stage production, your event page should be visually appealing, easy to navigate, and expertly crafted to showcase the highlights and unique experiences that attendees can expect to encounter. It's your chance to create a digital presence that leaves a lasting impression and compels visitors to secure their tickets for the main event. 

To sell tickets online, you’ll need a dedicated microsite where your audience can learn more about your event and easily purchase tickets. With easy-to-use event software like Zoho Backstage, you don’t need any technical experience or coding knowledge to build a custom event microsite—all it takes is a few minutes for your brand new micro-site to go live! Get started quickly with a customizable template to create an event site that matches your brand and gives your event a spotlight.

Step 2: Be mobile-friendly

In today's digital era, mobile devices rule the shopping world. As of the first quarter of 2023, smartphones accounted for approximately 74% of retail site traffic worldwide. To seize this opportunity, provide potential attendees with a seamless and user-friendly mobile sales platform. By ensuring easy registration and ticket purchasing on their mobile devices, you'll tap into the vast market of on-the-go buyers.

Step 3: Monitor and analyze data

Regularly track and analyze your ticket sales data to identify trends, popular ticket types, and customer behavior. This information can help you make informed decisions for future events and refine your strategies.

To navigate this terrain effectively, it's crucial to have the right tech stack in place. Choose ticketing software that accurately registers sales across all channels in real time.

Step 4: Boost your event's online presence with SEO

By strategically optimizing your event listing, you'll amplify your visibility in search results and drive a flood of customers to secure tickets for your event.

Craft compelling titles and descriptions that incorporate relevant keywords, accurately capturing the essence of your event. But don't stop there! Infuse these keywords throughout your website and associated content, ensuring every page leaves an indelible mark on search engine algorithms. Just be careful to avoid keyword stuffing.

• Event Pack

Have you ever wondered how event organizers manage to appear at the top of Google searches for their events? The answer lies in the event pack, a special Google SERP feature specifically designed for event-related queries.

So what exactly is the event pack and why is it important? The event pack is powered by Google Events schema markup, which enables webpages to be structured with event information that can be displayed in the event pack. When you perform an event-related query on Google, this feature appears, providing a snapshot of upcoming events relevant to your search.

Now, how can you get your event information onto Google? There are several approaches you can take. Firstly, it's crucial to compile the right event details. From an SEO perspective, you should gather essential information such as the event title, description, start and end dates, start and end times, venue name, address, contact details, website, organizer information, event website URL, and ticket cost.

Another option is to use an event plugin that integrates with your website, such as the Events Calendar plugin for WordPress. By installing and configuring the plugin, you can easily create and publish events with all the necessary details.

Lastly, you can manually mark up the code on your website using event schema or combine multiple methods for optimal visibility.

Step 5: Use email drip campaigns

Companies that implement email drip campaigns typically experience an increase in sales. With this long-term strategy, you can effortlessly nurture leads through a series of automated and perfectly timed messages. The best part? Prospects who engage with your brand over time are a staggering 47% more likely to make larger purchases. 

Want to sell out your industry-wide conference or seminar in record time? Harness the power of email drip campaigns to skyrocket your ticket sales. Tap into the potential of past event attendees, prospects handpicked by your sales team, and industry micro-influencers to build an unstoppable email list that guarantees a full house for your next event. And with Backstage's email designer tool, creating stunning email campaigns has never been easier.

Step 6: Create scarcity

FOMO can be a powerful force that boosts your sales. By utilizing this tactic truthfully and judiciously, you can experience a staggering sales boost. When it comes to online ticket sales, there are two ways you can go about it:

• Quantity: Create a sense of urgency by limiting the availability of seats, VIP packages, or exclusive add-on experiences. Whether it's offering a limited number of early bird tickets for conferences or showcasing first-row seating at live shows, scarcity based on quantity convinces hesitant buyers to take action.
• Time: Encourage prospects to make quick decisions by imposing a sense that time is limited. Implement countdown timers on product pages, an end date is less impactful than a visual timer. The customer is literally watching the clock tick down. Do this to drive conversions.

Step 7: Get social