How to Sell Online Tickets to Your Show

Next time you’re ready to promote your event online, follow these 5 steps to ensure a packed house! Get started by publicizing your brand and utilizing social media. Don’t be afraid to get creative, and attract new attendees! And above all, your tickets should be easy to purchase and track. Follow the outline below, and start engaging your audience!

Make sure your event is well-publicized in advance.

If you have a clear vision for your production’s brand, you’re ready to start attracting attention! To attract talent for an improv show, film festival, or other artful displays, there needs to be a clear brand people can get behind. This is why it’s important to publicize that brand and gain a following. You’ll want your talent and audience to anticipate your event with excitement, or else no one will be ready to buy tickets when they’re released. The first step in gaining pre-sale attention includes radio announcements, email campaigns, eye-catching flyers in walkable areas, or self-promotion when you attend other related shows. Then, social media is the next and most powerful way to gain and retain attention.

Use social media to reach potential attendees.

When creating a brand to attract others, you need to make that brand accessible by creating a social media page. Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook all allow you to easily post announcements and updates about your event. By creating these pages, you lay a foundation for how you want your event to be perceived. There should be posts about your group’s vision and mission, and a call to action for your attendees. Once your social media is ready to share, ask your talent to help promote the event by sharing your accounts and interacting with your posts. You can also follow pages of similar events or brands and then follow their individual followers. For those of you that are unfamiliar with apps like Instagram, users receive notifications each time they gain a new follower. From there, they’ll most likely visit your page, and then decide to follow back depending on the information your page has already shared through posts. This is why it’s important for your page to already have prior interactions with your talent or other brands! Likes, follows, comments, and tags are all like mini endorsements for the legitimacy of your event!

Use creative marketing techniques to sell tickets.

Don’t be afraid to step outside of the blueprint we’ve laid out. If you believe your event has the potential to drum up attention with something new, try it! Perhaps this isn’t your first rodeo, and you know that an announcement for another festival or production will immediately go viral. Linger in anticipation by drawing attention to cryptic posts or slowly announcing new details. You could plaster stickers around town with label-less QR codes (leading to your social media), and coordinate performance art that leaves passers-by wanting more…there are so many ways to get creative and drum up the attention! As long as you leave a positive impact, don’t be afraid to try something different.

Offer discounts or promotions to encourage ticket sales.

Offering early bird tickets at lower pricing than general admission, discounted group tickets, or promo codes is a great way to build a sense of community among your attendees. It’s important to reward early followers, so they will engage even earlier next time! Sharing promo codes with students is also a great way to acknowledge their classwork and help them feel like a part of the community.

Make it easy for potential attendees to purchase tickets.

Buying tickets should be the easiest step! Fourth Wall Tickets can accommodate your needs with specific features that have been curated by theatre producers and attendees. Apps like Improv Tonight are used by theatergoers across the U.S., and promoting your show in those spaces will put your poster right in the hands of your intended audience. Share your ticket link on your social media pages, newsletters, and flyers to reach your intended audience where they are– don’t make them hunt it down!

Following these 5 steps will guarantee a packed house at your next production! By harnessing the power of branding and social media, your event will be a success. Online ticketing platforms, like Fourth Wall Tickets, are making the process of buying tickets easier and easier. The dashboard features are easy to navigate and keep you focused on the task at hand, creating art with your community!