(Hypebot) — After you’ve listed your shows on Bandsintown and adding them your website, how do sell as many tickets as possible? From exclusive offers to hidden event pages, we’ve got five creative ways to boost ticket sales.
How To Sell More Tickets To Your Next Show
by Julia Kater from Bandzoogle
Whether you’re playing for a crowd once a month or once a year, it’s sure to be an event your fans won’t want to miss. While there are tons of ways for musicians to make money, live streams, outdoor gigs, and indoor concerts are some of the best ways to showcase your music to friends and industry professionals.
The effort you’ve put into crafting and practicing your music can feel misspent if your crowd is limited to the sound tech and the bartender. A guest list full of presale ticket purchasers can help give you the motivation to give it your all on stage and continue doing what you love—making music!
With a return to live events, music fans are back to buying tickets for their favorite acts ahead of time. To get in on the excitement, start selling tickets a few weeks before your big show—share that news through your mailing list and on your social channels, directing people back to your website for the ticket purchases.
Here are some great ways to stoke the crowd and sell event tickets from your music website:
1. Give your calendar a makeover
2. Offer a limited number of tickets for a special event
3. Sell a ticket with merch
4. Sell tickets at a discount to your fan subscribers
5. Make a secret event page
1. Give your calendar a makeover
With a dedicated music website you can create a page to highlight your upcoming events and sell tickets. Event pages usually have a straightforward setup—with a list of dates, details for the venues, the event names, and links to purchase tickets—but you can give your calendar a boost with memorable imagery, links to bands you’re playing with, and other details that make your calendar of events stand out..
Artist: Jont
Including a gig poster in your event description adds visual interest to your calendar. Especially helpful and engaging, visitors can click on the poster thumbnail to see the full image, as in the example below. But if you don’t have access to a gig poster file, pop in some images of your band playing live or use stock imagery as a placeholder.
Artist: Avro
Another awesome way to attract fans is to add video of you playing live, or a gallery of images featuring stage antics, backstage fun, and meet-and-greets.
Artist: Sister Suzie
It’s also great to add a few press quotes and a mailing list sign-up form to your events page—these encourage engagement from your site visitors, inspiring them to follow your career and join your mailing list to receive updates.
Artist: Kaia Kater
Once you’ve given your events page a makeover, sell tickets directly from your calendar so you can arrive at the gig prepared with a great guest list. Selling tickets through your website means more money in your pocket, as there are no commission fees. Plus, your fans would rather send you the purchase money directly through your website and not have to pay third-party service fees.
2. Offer a limited number of tickets for a special event
Offering a limited number of tickets encourages fans to get in on the ground floor. You can highlight that attendance at your event is limited by calling attention to that aspect in your event title or description.
Above your calendar, add a standalone ‘Image and Text’ feature with a professional shot of you on stage and some text about why space is limited. This will help boost the transaction and let your fans know what they’ll get to enjoy if they take advantage of the online sale.
You can also create a Landing page specifically to drive ticket sales for a special event, and link that to specific marketing campaigns on social media.
3. Sell a ticket with merch
Another way to incentivize your fans to get their ticket early is to offer a unique gift with their ticket. In your website’s Store feature, create a product that contains both the event ticket and a special item, like a signed gig poster, an exclusive meet-and-greet, a tour t-shirt, or a booklet with the set list and lyrics to the songs they’ll hear at the show. You can send these items before or after the show, as souvenirs for fans in the crowd.
Another similar idea is to run a special raffle item to be drawn live at the show. In the example below, the band Enter The Haggis has set up a special raffle to raise funds for a pediatric charity, and fans are free to purchase as many tickets as they would like. If you’re considering this model, you could announce the ticket draw at your live show, and bundle the tickets and raffles together, with additional raffle ticket options for those excited to buy more entries to the draw.
Artist: Enter The Haggis
4. Sell tickets at a discount to your fan subscribers
Fans appreciate special attention from their favourite artists. With a fan subscription setup, you can feature a special event calendar on your subscriber pages to hype up your next event. Offer a VIP-style ticket, with a backstage meet-and-greet, or even a full musical off-site retreat with the band!
If you’re testing the waters with a new music style or new songs, it may be beneficial for you to try out VIP treatment with your top supporters. Set up tickets for an exclusive live stream and engage them in an intimate performance of your new work. You can also add a virtual tip jar to your page so fans can give you extra kudos during the live stream.
5. Make a secret event page
Adding a mailing list sign-up form to your website is a great way to ramp up your marketing potential. Once you have a nice list of contacts, you can send newsletters directly to a fans’ inboxes to keep them up to date with your latest news and offerings.
With your mailing list established, consider setting up a secret password-protected page on your website. You can add a separate event calendar to that page and send a mailout to your fans and let them know how to access the exclusive page. Your mailing list members will have special access to this calendar page, and will be able to purchase tickets securely in advance of regular ticket sales. This is a nice reward for your dedicated fans!
Performing outdoors, playing local venues, and refining your live stream performances is a major part of a musician’s work, reinforcing both career and audience development. With these unique ways to sell tickets through your website, we hope you can continue playing to crowds of dedicated fans , new friends, and industry professionals alike!
