Thanksgiving weekend is one of the most popular times for nightclubs to announce their highly anticipated New Year’s Eve parties. If you’re one of those nightclubs and are gearing up to make your grand announcement, make sure you have the following items in place. It’ll help you be organized for the big night and also ensure you maximize your revenue opportunities.
1. Build your event page
It’s important to have a website or landing page where customers can go to find information about your event. Simply having a sentence description on a third-party ticketing company’s website isn’t going to cut it. People want to know the vibe of your party, understand why they should attend, and get a gage at what they can expect by attending. Either have a designated page on your website dedicated to this event, or have a landing page that’s built out specifically for this event. Make sure you also include a call-to-acton for users to buy tickets. The best solution is for your customers to buy tickets directly on this landing page and not be redirected to another website. Redirects oftentimes leads to cart abandonment.
2. Set up your pre-sale ticketing strategy
Pre-selling tickets is more than just having a “buy now” button on your website. Customers now make purchasing decisions on multiple platforms and they expect you to be there. The best way to pre-sell revenue is to sell tickets directly on your event page, integrate the event with a mobile app for promoters to sell tickets directly from their device, and sync the events with a Facebook widget to sell tickets directly through your Facebook page and Facebook ads. Contact us if you need help with this. We have one system that handles it all from one central location that you can manage.
3. Use a yielding strategy to increase prices
Encourage people to pre-purchase their tickets by showing the price will increase on the night of the event, and then follow through with that. Have the ability to sell tickets at the door for an increased fee. You can even set tickets to increase price by the hour to encourage people to arrive early. This is your yielding strategy. As the night arrives and more people are in the party, the demand gets higher and you can charge more for your tickets.
4. Make sure money goes directly into your bank
Most ticketing sites collect your customers’ payments in their own banks and hold it until after the event is over, meaning you may not actually get your money until a week after the event has happened (and weeks since your guests even purchased a ticket). Instead, look to companies that ensure payment goes directly through your merchant services provider and into your bank account right from the get-go. That way, a guest purchasing a ticket to your event is the same process as that guest buying a drink inside your venue. With this solution, you have the money in your bank before your event, and are able to pay for your event before it even happens.
5. Get all your staff up and running
Door operations are a huge component for an enjoyable night. Get all of your staff up and running the same system and strategy. The best way is to use a system that works with your ticketing system. That way, you can scan tickets in through the device, sell tickets from that same device, and be able to track arrivals and other important guest information along the way. Whatever you chose, make sure it’s black and white with your staff on how the night is going to run for smooth operations.
6. Optimize your lines for speed night
Many events use one line for everyone, which increases wait time, puts extra stress on your staff, and ultimately boggs down the speed of the night. Instead, put a bit of strategy into your lines. Create a different line for a different type of customer, such as a line for your pre-sale customer and a line for customer paying at the door. This is another way to encourage pre-sale and allows your staff handling pre-sale checkin to only focus on that tasks and increase line speed. On the other hand, it allows your staff selling tickets at the door to only handle that task, aiding in long waits for door sales. The more organized your lines are, the faster you speed of night will be, the happier your customers will be, and the faster they’re through your door to spend money on drinks.
7. Analyze Results for a bigger return next year
Getting access to your data gives you the opportunity to truly understand how your venue and events are performing. If you get on board with the BookBottles system, you life will be significantly easier since it will all be in one spot – not to mention the data will be broken down by individual guests and referrers to truly understand areas of strength and weakness. You’re able to easily identify which marketing channels are bringing in your traffic, which promoters are bringing in your traffic, and how your venue and event performed as a whole. This information allows you to set yourself up for even more success next year.
Whitney Larson is the president and director of marketing at Vēmos. Contact her at whitney.larson@vemos.io or fill out the form below.
