We talk about pre-sales often here at BookBottles. After all, it’s one of the easiest ways to not only make revenue from your event, but also guarantee it.
Most venues generate pre-sales by having an online event page from which guests buy their tickets. Others couple this with having on-the-street promoters selling tickets directly to guests. Both are great ways to guarantee pre-sales. But the one thing we see many venues do that actually inhibits pre ticket sales is having too many calls to action (CTA) during the whole process.
CTAs are the words and buttons that drive a guest to do the action you want them to do. In this situation, the CTA is for users to purchase a ticket to your event. Your “buy now” or “purchase ticket” buttons are good examples of your CTA.
However, we see many venues group all possible CTAs on one page. This ends up confusing your guest more than it helps them. The below screenshot is an example of this no-no:
What is the guest supposed to do? Buy a ticket to the event? Reserve a table for that day? Request to get on the guestlist? By having all three CTAs on one line, you’re derailing your guest from doing the action you actually want them to do: buy a ticket. Instead, use the single CTA for the guest to buy a ticket. Getting a VIP table for that night is an upsell and should be done either as a ticket option or after the guest purchases a ticket (it depends on your goal and processes), but it should not sidetrack a guest from attending your event at all. And requesting to get on the guestlist should never be on your event management page. You don’t earn pre-sale revenue by a guest requesting to be on a guestlist; plus, your ticket purchases should be automatically integrated with your guestlist (if they’re not, you’re missing a big opportunity).
Make sure your CTAs are clear. Start by identifying your goal (ex: to pre-sell tickets to your event). Make your CTA direct (ex: buy your ticket now). And upsell guests when appropriate (ex: book a VIP table for the event you’re attending). This ensures you’re guaranteeing and increasing your revenue.
Whitney Johnson is the global director of marketing for BookBottles. Contact her at whitney.johnson@bookbottles.com.
