Selling tickets for an event is the main avenue for event organizers to earn money from events. There is not one event that does not require an event ticketing platform. From small events to large events attended by thousands of people, event planners must choose the most value-for-money event ticketing platform. In this article, we will discuss what you must look for in a platform and why Event Smart is the best ticket-selling platform for your events.
What is a Ticket Selling Platform
A ticket-selling platform is what organizations or event planners use to sell tickets to their events online. It is a crucial element in events because this determines event attendance, captures attendee information, and displays event information like event date, time, and event registration process.
In recent years, ticket-selling platforms have evolved to incorporate advanced features such as dynamic pricing, mobile ticketing, social media integration, and data analytics. Additionally, there is a growing trend towards integrated event management platforms that combine ticketing with other event-related services, such as registration, marketing, and attendee engagement.
With the rise of virtual and hybrid events, ticket-selling platforms are also adapting to support online ticketing and live-streaming capabilities, catering to the changing needs of event organizers and attendees in an increasingly digital world.
What To Look For in a Ticket Selling Platform
Low/ No fees
Most online ticketing platforms charge different types of fees. Some of the fees you need to look out for are commission fees, admin fees, maintenance, security, and service fees. If you don’t anticipate this, you might be shocked with the amount of fees you need to pay for your ticket sales.
Furthermore, if an online ticketing platform does not publish their prices and requires you to attend a demo before disclosing their prices, it is most likely that their fees are very high.
Event Smart is a ticketing platform that charges zero commission fees for an unlimited number of tickets sold. Selling tickets for an event using Event Smart can increase your event revenue and profit compared to when you use per-ticket fees from other platforms.
Integration with Tools
Ticketing platforms have features that can embed on websites or blogs to attract more event attendees. Event Smart has different integration options like embedding your event site on your Facebook page, Wix, Square, GoDaddy, or WordPress site.
Integrations with marketing tools and social media platforms empower organizers to amplify their event reach, engage their audience, and drive ticket sales more effectively. By syncing attendee data and ticket purchase information with email lists, social media campaigns, and advertising platforms, organizers can target their marketing efforts more precisely, personalize their messaging, and maximize the impact of their promotional activities.
Customer Support
Nothing is more frustrating than encountering a problem and waiting two to three days to get a response. This is a usual problem that a lot of event planners encounter with other ticket-selling platforms.
Event Smart has countless reviews from customers about the prompt and helpful support they receive. Here’s a positive review from a customer named David,
“We at Maggie’s Be Café have been very pleased with Eventsmart. We have run multiple different events on the platform using significantly different setups and they have run flawlessly. On the rare occasion that I am struggling with a setup issue, their customer support has been extremely responsive in resolving the issue. We couldn’t be happier.”
Customization
Your event website is where you will display and put all the information about your events. It is important to be able to customize and optimize your site for optimum performance. Check if the event ticket-selling platform you are eyeing has the convenient option to move things around and be optimized for search engine optimization. Event Smart has all these options for your event.
Easy to use
Choose a ticket-selling platform with an easy-to-use and navigate interface to avoid confusion from potential event attendees. When a potential attendee visits your event site, you want them to have a smooth ticketing process to check out and avail of their tickets.
Look for features such as customizable event pages, simple ticket creation tools, and seamless checkout processes to ensure a smooth and hassle-free experience for all users.
Security
Your event platform holds valuable attendee data. Therefore, it is important to make security a top priority, especially for ticket selling online. Without proactive measures, online ticket sales can expose you to significant risks. It’s crucial to thoroughly assess your ticket platform’s security features, ensuring it employs advanced security measures like encryption and secure payment processing.
Additionally, proactive monitoring for suspicious activities offers peace of mind to both event organizers and ticket buyers, safeguarding sensitive information and maintaining trust in the ticketing process.
Scalability
Every organization’s goal is to grow its events business and its community. Think long-term and see if the ticketing platform of your choice is sustainable and can grow with you. One thing to note is that for ticketing platforms that offer a per-ticket commission fee, it might be very costly for you in the long run as your event ticket sales grow.
Refund and Cancellation Policies and Fees
Transparent refund and cancellation policies are important things to consider for both planners and attendees. A good ticket-selling platform should offer flexible refund options and clearly communicate any cancellation fees or penalties upfront.
Customers want to feel secure when they purchase tickets. For example, Event Espresso offers a 30-day money-back guarantee with no questions asked if that is not what you’re looking for.
Contracts
When choosing a ticket-selling platform, it’s important to review the terms of service and contractual agreements carefully. Pay attention to any contractual obligations, fees, or commitments associated with using the platform, and ensure that the terms are fair and transparent.
Look out for ticket-selling platforms that lock you in for years or ask you to pre-pay for credits even before your event has started. Event Smart has no lock-ins with their customers and they can cancel anytime.
Analytics and support
Finally, event analytics are very important to indicate the trends and interests of your target customers. Ticket-selling platforms like Event Smart are integrated with Google Analytics so it is easier to track ticket sales. Organizers can see analytics such as visits and conversions on your event website.
This add-on is very helpful to keep you on track of your event goals. For example, you can track completions of registrations through registration checkout by creating a new goal with these conditions: “starts with” and “/thank-you” and then save changes.
Best Practices for Selling Tickets Online
User-friendly interface
When people visit your website, you don’t want them to exert a lot of brain power just to understand your site. Be strategic about your event landing page’s layout and make sure to include buttons for call-to-actions.
Offer competitive pricing
As an event planner, you want to maximize your event profit and event revenue. Your pricing can influence your audience’s perception of your event and can impact customer behavior.
In setting your prices, offer more value in exchange for your set price to make customers easily decide about attending your event.
Create compelling offers and hooks
People’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. You only have a few seconds to retain your audience’s attention before you lose them. Think of selling event tickets as selling products for your business.
Tips from marketing experts share how you need to appeal to your audience’s emotions or inject an element of surprise to trigger your audience’s curiosity. This can be achieved through thorough research and understanding of your target audience.
Give discounts and packages
Ticket selling online means you are competing with thousands of other offers online. Urge your audience to take action by using flash sales or time-based discounts for your tickets. Furthermore, you can also add bundles for group discounts or early bird special prices.
Optimize your event page
Search engine optimization can help reach your target audience around the clock. Optimize your website by adding helpful content, creating keyword-specific content, and optimizing your site speed.
Case Study
Event planner, John is organizing a nationwide corporate event about the hospitality industry. After a discussion with his team, he plans to create a ticket pricing strategy with standard and premium pricing starting at $15 for standard and $20 for premium pricing.
The goal of this corporate event is to increase brand awareness for his company and establish relationships with people from their industry. He plans to create multi-day events to target different niches within the industry.
The most important aspects for him when searching for an event ticketing platform are that he is able to sell tickets seamlessly, take custom registration questions for attendees, have a customizable landing page where he can input the details of his event, ability for attendees to choose among his multi-day events and different tickets.
He searches for a platform for selling event tickets. Based on his starting ticket price of $15, these are the fees and potential earnings he can expect from the different event ticketing platforms:
Chart Comparison of Best Online Ticketing Platforms and Fees
The computation here is for the per-ticket fees based on the ticket price of $15 with 100 tickets sold as of April 2024.
Conclusion: The Best Ticket Selling Platform For All Types of Events
The reason why Event Smart is the best ticket-selling platform for all types of events is because of its affordable and value-for-money features compared to the other platforms. Based on the different ticket-selling platforms presented, Event Smart has the lowest fees for an unlimited number of tickets sold.
Aside from this, the features are not compromised because event planners can still get everything they need for their events. Their customer service is also reliable so you can be sure that you will be taken care of even after you set up your event page.
Check out the positive feedback about Event Smart and try the 14-day free trial now.
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