There’s only one way to get customers to pull out their credit cards: price your event at the level they’re willing to pay.
What’s the secret to knowing this magical ticket price? Well, it turns out a one-size-fits-all approach to pricing isn’t the best way to maximise ticket sales.
The most successful events on Eventbrite in terms of total sales all have one thing in common:
They sell multiple ticket types, the average being 2.7 per event.
Why do multiple ticket types work?
It’s all about the perceived value of your ticket. Multiple ticket types make cheaper tickets look like a better deal, and more expensive tickets look VIP – all in a way that reinforces the benefits of value-based pricing.
Download How To Price Your Event: The Value Based Pricing Guide.
The ticket types you offer are completely up to your imagination (we’ll go into that later!). Although, most ticket types can be bucketed into four groups:
- Regular Tickets – A standard ticket, for example General Admission. This is your bread and butter.
- Special Access – This ticket type gives attendees a little something extra for a higher price, such as VIP, early access or a backstage pass.
- Targeted Discounts – Gives discounts to all groups that can ‘prove’ membership, like students, children and seniors.
- Group Discounts – Offers discounts for bulk purchases, for example a 15% discount for 4 tickets bought at once.
Making it work for YOUR event – 5 Real Life Examples
While these are the most common among the most successful organisers at Eventbrite, they’re far from the only options. Depending on the content, audience and speakers at your event, you can create ticket types that deliver the value YOUR attendees are hungry for.
Here are some of my favourite examples:
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Session Entry
Break up an all-day event with cheaper ticket types for entry at different times. Particularly if your event is broken up into sessions, this allows people who are only coming for 1 session to justify their purchase.
See how a music festival does this below:
2. Reserved Seating
Reserved seating options work particularly well for events where attendees compete to see the stage.
See how a dance showcase gala does this below:
3. Bundled consumables
These ticket types work well for food & drink festivals where guests pay for entry and consumables on the day.
See how a cheese & wine event below has cleverly increased the perceived value of their 10-token ticket. For an additional $5 you get $10 more value in tokens.
4. Artist-focused extras
These value-adds work well for events where attendees have come purely to see an artist or entertainer.
See how the networking event below charges extra for a special ‘meet & greet’ and photo with the guest presenter.
5. Membership discount
Communicate the value of a membership to your organisation with a discounted ticket.
See how a business seminar does this below:
Making it profitable
Creating higher value for the customer is the aim, but it doesn’t make business sense if the extra sales are barely offsetting the additional cost.
It’s also a smart idea to tap into ticket types that communicate lower perceived value, but in a way that reduces your costs. A no gift-bag ticket could be sold for $10 less than a standard ticket, without harming your margin.
Ready to learn how to increase your ticket price after making your event page live? Download the Value-Based Pricing Guide to get started.
