Early bird ticket sales are a fantastic idea for event planning. By offering a discount of between 20–40%, you can really promote your event for attendees and significantly boost your ticket sales. Our event ticketing software will help you on your way to selling more tickets for events with early bird options.
Why early bird tickets are important for your event tickets sales
Early bird tickets include limited-time discounts from 20% to 50% for these so-called early birds, the very first users (the most loyal), who are eager to register for the event in advance. Purchasing a ticket as an early bird has a huge number of advantages for both the guests and the event planners:
- Why wait if you’ll save money on your ticket now?
- You’re guaranteed entry.
- You take the risk, which is already an adventure.
- It’s ideal for group ticketing.
- You can plan your trip in advance.
- You’ll increase event ticket sales and pay for the bulk of the event ahead of time.
- Selling out quickly indicates that planners managed things well.
- You’ll avoid the queues.
In addition, buying early bird tickets at an early bird discount helps out the current and future events. It also allows the continuation of fundraising and other support or sponsorship activities.
Creating an early bird ticket sales strategy
We realize that you may put off buying a ticket and take the risk of purchasing sometime in the near future instead. However, the fact is that early bird tickets have tons of advantages. We’re giving you knowledge into what that means and how you can boost ticket sales for your event. Here are some ideas and useful tips.
- Get your ticket price right.
Before you do anything else, set a realistic price for each event ticket type. Use this formula to keep things simple:
Minimum ticket price = total event costs / expected number of attendees
- Apply tiered pricing.
In a nutshell, this means offering a range of differently priced ticket types based on what people are willing to pay. The benefits of tiered pricing should be well documented for both you and your customers.
- Keep a sales peak.
Here are some go-to ways to create “mini-peaks”:
Early access tickets: Tickets with bonuses or discounts available exclusively to past attendees or your marketing list subscribers
Early bird tickets: Discounted tickets for people who buy within a short time of your event going live
Deal of the day: Special giveaways and promotions stretching throughout the sales period
The key here is to keep the momentum going and to make sure your event stays at the top of people’s minds. When it’s done well, your business cycle will be successful.
- Create a perfect event page with a killer CTA.
For the most part, your event page should:
- Blueprint the essential details of the event.
- Utilise an appealing header picture and other significant media, such as video cuts and photographs.
- Incorporate data for individuals to get in touch with you.
- Have a reasonable invitation to take action (Purchase Tickets, Start Purchase, etc.).
- Be incredibly easy to share.
Not sure what to start with? Look at our itemised manual for making an exceptional event registration page.
When to start selling early bird tickets
To make your event a success, start selling early bird tickets as soon as possible. No matter the date you start selling normal tickets, you may also arrange pre-sale tickets.
In fact, it is better to announce two separate dates when the tickets will be going on sale, based on their type. The first will be an early bird special, followed by the other types, if any. Early bird tickets should be exclusive to all subscribers or customers with a membership. Make it a priority for them, and you will boost your ticket sales.
When to close early bird ticket sales
Early bird ticket sales should be limited in time and have a clear deadline set and written in the terms and conditions in advance before the event ticketing starts. This promotion may also require a deadline or a limited number of tickets. You need to choose which limitation to set up. Traditionally, some large-scale event organisers may offer a very successful “Super Early Bird” discount at the end of the financial year but before the next event so that early bird tickets are still useful. In a week or two, after the early tickets are sold out, officially announce about ticket sales closing.
How to set up early bird ticket pricing
The success of your early bird pricing strategy is also a good indicator of how you should set up your prices. To set up early bird pricing, you should contact us first, set up your account, and sign up for the Gevme system to create an event. After that, you may:
- Go to your Edit page.
- Go to the next step: Create Tickets.
- Create your early bird ticket type.
- Update the Ticket Settings for your early bird ticketing type.
- Create your standard price ticket type.
- Update the Ticket Settings for your standard price ticket type.
- Provide a group registration option, etc.
- Save your changes.
A reliable online event management platform and event technology team will always help to optimise your registration and ticketing processes as well as give some assistance concerning how to sell early bird tickets via your blog, newsletters, whitepapers, or other provided materials.
The best ways to increase your ticket sales with early bird tickets
You shouldn’t underestimate early bird tickets, so include this ticket type in your strategy. For this, you will need some useful ideas, such as those provided below!
Creating urgency around your event tickets
By giving our tickets exclusivity and building a sense of urgency in the sale, you create a shortage effect. To create such a psychological effect, use marketing tricks, proper timing, and good event planning tools. Your attendees will make faster decisions and buy tickets in the best category ASAP.
Using event ticketing software
Using event management software provides an extra advantage. It is better to use professional event registration software to speed up the process and achieve better results from ticket sales. Don’t forget to use a landing page builder for your registration form or event ticket design templates to perfect the ticketing process and to increase your conversion rate with a bright, engaging CTA.
Defining a time period for the early bird sales
Early bird pricing requires a deadline or a limited number of tickets to be indicated:
- Early Bird tickets
- Super Early Bird tickets
- VIP pass
- Virtual pass, etc.
Set up ticket discounts based on a deadline date, or limit them to a certain number. Besides, make early bird tickets exclusive to all subscribers, customers with a membership, or some other privilege.
Adding words like “sold out”
Once people see that your early bird tickets are snatched up, they’ll rush in to grab the remaining ticket types before they’re gone. Indicate any “sold out” tiers with the appropriate words. Take a look at the other sites bringing you the most referrals by setting up a report in Google Analytics, etc. Use Gevme to track your sales in real life.
Using email marketing
You should apply email marketing as another way to send emails to subscribers of the event as well as members and attendees of past events; this will give you a chance to offer a discount/promo code or inform them about your next event and early-bird sales, etc. In addition, this will allow you to collect essential attendee information, including food preferences, awards nominations, company names, etc. During the registration process, every detail should be recorded to use in a special offer for the next event. Some platforms for promotion provide excellent features to maximise your event sales.
An awesome and mobile-friendly event registration website
You should also come up with a mobile-friendly registration form. Provide a fast, light, and well-optimised page to collect the details you really need, and also provide easy, logical registration for your event with a short form to fill in that is well adapted for mobile device usage. Use GEVME platform to support your ticketing process.
Offering group registration with discounts
Group registrations save time for registering corporate attendees and allows you to optimise the processing flow for planners. Gevme tools will come in very handy while you set up your online event registration for groups and initiate ticket sales.
Using social media
Feel free to use social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or LinkedIn to boost your advertising and broaden the area of coverage. You may also come up with ideas for contests that include early bird tickets as the prize, etc. Tell stories, but also create a sense of competition. Use storytelling or use cases to form a loyal user community via social media.
Advertising an event
To pick the right content type and platform for promotion, contact Gevme event tech specialists. Gevme provides both planners and users with the top tools for email marketing. Basically, it’s all about timing and targeted messaging. You may also use discounts and promotions via coupons, sales banners, or promo codes to advertise your registration and boost early bird sales.
Pre-sale of the next event’s tickets
Use your contacts from previous events, and offer them pre-sale tickets to the next events. Provide reasons and a strong incentive to buy your event tickets. Tell attendees why they should attend your event, and explain the advantages your visitors get when they acquire early bird tickets. Reward early registrants with priority seating and accommodations, or motivate them in other ways. The incentive doesn’t always have to be an immediate discount—it can be a free drink, an event swag, an online swag bag, access to a VIP experience, etc.
How to increase ticket sales for an event with Gevme
How can you use Gevme to boost your ticket sales? A classic way to increase your ticket sales is to contact our event technology experts and get a full picture of your ticket sale potential from people with extensive experience in this field.
You are welcome to read about ticketing events on our blog and use our marketing tips to increase event ticket sales. What is usually missing after the registration is over and all the early bird tickets are sold out? You may lack a good tool to analyse your sales campaign’s effectiveness and define other parameters that are needed for further event improvement. Use our universal analytics tools or check out our creative ways to increase ticket sales.
Drive your ticket sales with early bird tickets
Top event registration software is critical to building a powerful event and a flawless sales process. Gevme is aimed at simplifying and optimising the registration and ticketing processes by providing useful, simple, and ready-to-use event registration apps, tips, and tools.
Feel free to leave your comments below. Discover more about how to get people buying your event tickets online and boosting your early bird sales.