For driving ticket sales, it’s hard for event marketers to go past video. You’re selling an experience, so video is one of the few ways to truly capture the vibe of your event and get potential attendees to picture themselves there (and fear missing out if they’re not).
Many video platforms have been hyped and quickly lost their spark (Vine, Meerkat, Periscope), but there are two powerhouse video channels that are undoubtedly the best places on the web to promote events: YouTube and Instagram.
Using YouTube To Promote Events and Sell Tickets
YouTube has mammoth reach in Australia, with 16.5M Aussie viewers watching hours of video content in 2019. Best of all, if you’re a music promoter, you can sell tickets directly to gigs and concerts from artist channels and official videos.
If you’ve never created a channel or used YouTube to promote an event before, get started by checking out the YouTube Creator Academy. It’s full of helpful explainer videos like this quick start guide.
Once you have a channel established for your event, there are lots of ways to draw attention to it. Here are a few pointers for event creators and marketers:
- Remember that YouTube is an incredibly effective search engine (second in the world behind Google!), so be sure to complete all the fields of your profile and optimise them for search. This goes for every video you upload too: be explicit with details like your event name, location, date, and keywords that people might be searching for.
- Customise your channel homepage design so it highlights the best content and points people to easy registration. Take advantage of the page real estate known as the “channel art” spot (sort of like a header image on Facebook or Twitter). The ideal image size is 2560×1440 pixels, but put any crucial information in the “safe zone” of 1545×423.
- Highlight a “trailer video” that will stay anchored just below your YouTube channel’s navigation bar. This video is only available to subscribers to your channel — a great instigation for people to subscribe.
- If you want to sell tickets to a concert or show on YouTube, your performing artist will need to be eligible for an Official Artist Channel. If the event is ticketed by a supported partner, such as Eventbrite, tour dates can be linked to the artist page to sell tickets on artist videos. Learn more about concert tickets on YouTube here.
- Once you have a video uploaded to YouTube, you can also embed it on your event ticketing page on Eventbrite.
- Don’t forget to share other YouTube content from your lineup. If guest speakers, performers, or other creative thought leaders are attending your event, seeing them in action could spur on ticket sales.
Using Instagram Video To Promote Events and Sell Tickets
Once upon a time, you couldn’t upload a video longer than 10 seconds on Instagram. Today, video has exploded on the platform with everything from 60-second video posts, Instagram Stories, Live Video, and the newer IGTV feature for long-form creators. With 80% of accounts following a business on Instagram, it’s become the place to be for promotion of every kind.
Here are some pointers for using Instagram’s video features to promote events:
- Grab attention within the first five seconds. Lead with show-stopping content to hook your audience and avoid boring potential ticket buyers.
- If you’re using a smartphone to shoot video at your event, use a tripod or stablise your phone to avoid blurry or shaky video that is hard to watch.
- Link your Instagram account with Facebook and Twitter for simple video-sharing.
- Remember that the default viewing option for videos is to have the sound off. If the soundtrack is important, say ‘sound on’ or use a speaker emoji 🔊 in the caption to let people know they should tap to tune in.
- Use a sponsored video post (up to 60 seconds) to share your video far and wide, reaching a targeted audience.
- Use Instagram Stories for behind-the-scenes video content, competitions, teasers, and engagement with your audience.
- Use Live Video to capture big announcements, interviews with top talent, or even live stream your event to create some serious FOMO for your next big event.
- IGTV is for long-form creative, up to an hour-long. This is more like TV viewing, so if you’re looking to use this style of video to capture attention for your events, plan ahead. Create a content series like talks or Q&A with guest speakers, or a series of unplugged music events in the lead up to your main event.
Sell tickets everywhere with Eventbrite
To find out how to supercharge your event marketing with Eventbrite, including embedded ticketing checkouts on platforms like YouTube and Facebook, contact us here or create your next event today.
