Social media industry events are popping up all over the world as platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter continue to revolutionize how organizations grow their business. Because of this, every business owner wants to attend so they can learn the most cutting edge strategies from the popular marketing speakers.
If you plan on throwing your hat in the ring and want to create your own conference or seminar, there is one valuable data point that you should use for future events: ticket sales.
Your ticketing platform is going to be one of the best ways you can gather data about your customers that can help you sell tickets in the future. Not only can you learn about their demographics, but you can get a deeper understanding as to why they decided to come to your event and how they discovered it. Here are some things to keep in mind before you sell tickets so you can gather better marketing data for future events:
Keeping Good Records
Record keeping in the events industry is not just about keeping receipts and paying accounts. Records are used for research and the success of an event lies on the keeping good records and using them properly.
Track Your Sales
Before a ticket is sold, make sure each ticket is tracked. Know who the ticket was sold to, how they found out about the event, which payment method they used to pay for the ticket, and whether the event lived up to their expectations. A big ask for one little ticket! But it can be done.
How to Make Your Tickets Work as Marketing Tools
Every ticket (whether physical, online or complimentary) needs to be numbered. Each ticket should be assigned a name and if necessary, a code, depending on where it was sold and how it was paid for. Make sure a committee member is assigned to keep records. It is then their job to record and report on all this information.
Use Every Sales Point as a Way of Marketing Your Event
If your event has a website – post an ‘expression of interest’ form. Be cheeky and ask a few questions like ‘how did you hear about this event?’, ‘what topics are you interested in?’ and ‘have you attended this event before,’ prior to asking their name and email address. Wherever possible, use drop down menus – this helps standardize answers and will prompt the responder for an ‘appropriate’ answer.
Use Every Opportunity to Get More Information About Your Customer
“The more data you have about your customer, the better you will be able to guess what they want in the future” says Alex Robbins of the Coaching Institute. “We try and gather as much data which not only helps us sell tickets to our coaching conferences, but it helps us save money by making better decisions.”
When the tickets go on sale, email your potential attendee and ask a few more questions; “Do you want SMS updates of whose on the bill?’, “What payment method will you be using?”, “Do you need more information on travel to and from the event?” “What types of public speakers would you like to see at future events?” These questions are asked so you can get to know your attendees. This will help you tailor your event.
Keep Marketing Right Through the Event
During the event, have volunteers or committee members walk through the crowd and engage in conversation with attendees – what they like about the event, what they don’t, what has disappointed them and what they were pleasantly surprised with. Perhaps this research will find that that it wasn’t the event that disappointed people, but perhaps it was the weather or the fact that they couldn’t get a taxi home after the event.
Follow Your Sale Through After the Event
It’s also important to follow the ticket holder through. Give them a reason to get back to engage in feedback. Make the ticket a ‘lucky door prize’ or encourage attendees to log back onto the event website after the event. Treat the ticket holder like gold – keep talking to them and keep them engaged so they will revisit the event next time.
Keeping Good Records is Important to Your Event
Records such as attendee numbers, financial information and media mentions are useful not only for developing and evolving your event, but are also used to apply for future event funding and grants.
Think of Your Attendees as Real People
Every single person that thinks about attending an event, attends an event or leaves in disgust is important. Make sure every opportunity is used to engage in conversation with them so events can can be improved each time.
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