Tickets are part of the solution for every desire for your event.
When I talk to new show producers about their tickets, they often don’t care at first. They either assume they’ll have tickets of some kind, or they’ll just let people pay a cover at the door. Mistakes.
Tickets are great, not just for making money, but for every aspect of your audience’s experience of your event. This goes for virtual stuff too.
Guarantee
Some people like to plan ahead. They want to know that they will have a seat at a show. They want to buy a ticket and know that they are in. This is I think the common purpose people have in mind with pre-show tickets. One might not want to go to the event to find out they are sold out, or canceled or some other thing.
Here are some other aspects you might not have considered…
Commitment
It’s not easy to cancel a ticket. This is good for the show producer. No matter how easy it is, it’s still work, consideration, and effort to cancel. So, once someone has a ticket, they’re likely to keep it and attend the event.
Scenario A I hear about a concert on Friday that sounds good. If I can buy a ticket then ’cause it’s maybe cheaper or likely to sell out, I’m set. I am attending. I can make that decision at any time before Friday too! The decision can happen at several times.
Scenario B The concert has no advanced tickets. I decide to go, put it on my calendar, but when Friday comes around, that’s when I make the real decision. I don’t lose any money if I don’t go. I get to stay in the tutu I wear to bed. No need to put on the clubbing tutu!
Free advanced tickets hold very little commitment. Probably not worth it.
Value
The price of the ticket is important because it tells the attendee how much the experience is worth. Value is not clear with events. Value answers some questions for the audience.
- What kind of quality can I look forward to?
- How much do I pay attention when I’m there?
- How much do I commit to to this?
- Is it worth telling a friend or bringing a date?
- Is this a throw-away fun thing or possibly the greatest night of my life?
Like would you travel across the country to go to a convention that costs $20? Probably not. You would need something to be special. Would you be pumped about a show that offers a 50% off code to everyone all the time on their website? Probably not. You would think something’s wrong with the the price. Would you be confused by an open mic night that’s $120 per ticket? Probably.
There are a lot of value signals and results of ticket value to consider.
Buy In
Kinda extra value info. If someone invests serious money to a puppet show, they’re going to try harder to enjoy it. They’re going to look for quality in things that have none and they’ll be a more active participant in making the event go well.
Sure, there’s a possibility that the event fails to live up to it’s promise, but I’m assuming you would never create a thing like that.
Call to action
Promotions need a call to action. You gotta ask the viewer to do something. You can put a little thought in their head like “This thing is coming up, we’ll remind you more later,” but maybe you won’t get to them later. Get the people moving toward the thing. “Buy a ticket” is better than “Go to the theater and wait until Friday Night”