Paperless ticketing remains big news in the events industry, with firms of all sizes keen to reduce their carbon footprint and make attending conferences and other gatherings as convenient as possible.
Issuing tickets that are emailed out to smartphones as opposed to being posted or print off a PC is a great way of addressing both of these concerns – the environment benefits from fewer resources being used up, while attendees don’t have to worry about carrying pieces of paper around.
However, some errors tend to be made when issuing them. If you can avoid these using our guidance, you should ensure the whole e-ticketing process goes as smoothly as possible.
1. Ensure the ticket is self-contained
Some event organizers send out an e-ticket but require it to be linked up to a credit card. For example, the attendee shows the ticket on their phone but must then have the card on which they paid for it swiped to ensure entry. This creates inconvenience if the card is forgotten, plus it means people can’t buy entry to an event as a gift or on behalf of employees. If you’re sending out tickets, make sure they are self-contained.
2. Send separate tickets out for group bookings
Group bookings with a discount can be a great incentive to encourage more registrations, but that doesn’t mean every member will be arriving together. Use your event management software to ensure each person gets their own e-ticket so they can enter the venue whenever they like.
3. Add the registrant’s name to the e-ticket
Your event management software will collect information about each registrant at the booking stage, so use this to add each person’s name to their ticket. This will prevent touts buying multiple e-tickets and emailing them on for an inflated price.
4. Keep hold of the registration information carefully
Some e-ticket issuers have fallen foul to computer crashes that resulted in all their registration information getting lost. To ensure you know how many people will be attending and have their details so you can target them with marketing information for your next event, always store your data using cloud-based software with auto-back-up facility.
5. Continue to target past attendees
If an attendee to a past show has bought e-tickets before, the chances are they will be open to doing so again. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to sell to them, even if they don’t register again for another event immediately after the one they previously enjoyed. Eventually, persistence in regularly sending out your listings and accompanying information should pay off – and you could find this is a quick way of filling your venues to capacity.
Follow these tips and issuing your next e-tickets should go swimmingly.
