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Ticket types can be used to create interest, increase demand and sell you more tickets. Timing, allocations and language can all be implemented to improve the way you promote your events and manage your door entry.

1. Reward those who buy first.

A great way to launch an event is to set a limited amount of reduced price tickets. This is common practice but the biggest sin promoters can do is not regularly communicating this with your data base, fans and followers.  Really make sure they know how many available and how long till they are going to run out , this will create an urgency and panic among the most bank balance conscious of customers.

“It’s selling fast; only 20 early bird tickets left price will be going up £3 tonight, be there or be square”

• Early Bird -£3 (only 75 available)

• Advanced -£5

• Standard- £7

• Last minute- £10

Another big benefit of selling early bird tickets is word of mouth. The people who bought their ticket are going to tell all their friends networks that they are going to your event, and if they don’t have their tickets they might not be getting in.

Possible ticket type names

Super early bird, early bird, Advanced, Standard, Last minute, Q Jump, Discounted online

2. Stagger your prices, create demand

You can tease your customers, with staggered price bands. Get them excited by releasing different ticket prices with limited allocations, wait for them to sell out, wait for a time period then releasing the next band of tickets.

£3 tickets (50 available)

£3 tickets sold out, £5 tickets coming soon watch this space

People will be excited about being the first to buy tickets at the cheaper rate, and word of your event will travel even quicker than if you just released a normal ticket. People will be urgently trying to buy the cheapest tickets before anybody else.

3.  Very Important People

People want to feel special, and are willing to pay for it. Create special packages that give your customer a bit more than the standard ticket, this is a great way to sell extra tickets but also increase your revenue. Things like tables, free drinks and meet and great with the acts are all things that can add that VIP stamp to a ticket type and make your customer feel like that very special person.

• VIP Ticket (VIP entry, free shot, free cocktail)

4.  Lessen the load on the door with time slots and Q jump tickets

Provide options for time slots and reward the people who come earlier with cheaper tickets and offer Q jump tickets for those people who don’t like being left out in the cold.

• 9.30-10.30 Tickets = £5

• 10.30-11.30 tickets = £7

• 11.30 onwards tickets =£9

• 11.30pm Q-Jump ENTRY=£10

Not only does it mean you can control the door better on the night,  by people turning up throughout the event at regular intervals you can also increase revenue from premium ticket types and increased bar take.

5. Group discounts

Group tickets that work out less per person than a normal ticket are very effective, for example £10 per person or  £80 for 10 people. This way you have the influencers in a group pushing to get all their mates with them, this means you have people going to your event who might of stayed at home had they not been bullied by their flat mate to get out of the house.

• Booth ticket 8 people – £40

• Group ticket 8 people or more £5 per person

For any help implementing these ticket strategies on fatsoma please don’t hesitate to get in touch

Ollie.taylor@fatsoma.com

Now is a great time to reflect on the year that’s passed and look forward to the year in front of us. 2011 has been an incredibly successful year at Fatsoma. We’ve seen accelerated growth in ticket sales, sold tickets for well over double the amount of promoters than in 2010, and most importantly almost all of the promoters that use Fatsoma have experienced year-on-year growth.

In a year that has been difficult for some of the industry’s giants as well as being a year where retail has really suffered with closures and falling profits on the high streets, 2011 will be remembered as the year where social commerce and social ticketing has really started to take hold. Reps and friend recommendations are now generating 33% of all sales on Fatsoma, an incredible leap from just 2% 18 months ago. People are starting to realise the power of social commerce, and this is why in 2011 we’ve seen many promoters and venues join Fatsoma to harness this.

Despite this success our job is far from complete. Since the start of 2011 we’ve developed and launched our branded box office feature, our full WordPress website option, and the rapid and robust barcode entry system. Most pertinent, for the past six months we’ve been working on our new social system that we expect to be launching in the next 6 weeks, with a brand new mobile application following shortly after. This is a social platform allowing customers to organise a night out with their friends through instant notifications, with our ticketing inbuilt.

It is now widely predicted that by 2015, 15% of all UK transactions across the entire economy will be done through social commerce sites, validating our efforts and vision. It’s an exciting time and we’re glad to be leading the way in this field, and we’re privileged to have you on board. As always, if you’d like any more info then please do email me personally at ray.boggiano@fatsoma.com.

Here’s to a great 2012 all round!