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People go to an event website to get information from a trusted source. It means they must trust your website before they visit it, especially as they are likely to be more familiar with other ticketing websites out there. Building that trust is vital to take unfamiliar site visitors to committed attendees, so how can we make people trust our website enough to purchase tickets for an event?
Filip Matous, a renowned Digital Strategist and author of How to Get Your Website Noticed, made a webinar on how to add trust signals to your website to make people visit more. Here are the key pointers to have successful event websites that sells tickets:
Begin by getting people to visit your event website. To maximize the budget for marketing the event, make sure to target those who are sure to be interested. Keep in mind though that everyone who visits your site is a potential buyer. Successful event websites have high amounts of traffic. The higher the traffic to your site, the higher the chance to sell tickets to your event. Matous categorizes traffic as cold, warm, and hot. Cold traffic comes from people who click on an ad on a website like Facebook or Instagram. Warm traffic comes from visitors who see upon visiting that their favorite band or vendor is featured at your event. Hot traffic comes from people who were contacted by the bands or vendors you are featuring. Matous says that hot traffic is the easiest to convert so make sure to tell your featured guests to spread the word about the event.
Kaboompics/ 2017
Now that you’ve drawn attention to your event website, you must make people stay. If people stay on the site to browse, there is a high chance they will purchase a ticket to your event. To do this, be clear about the event. Successful event websites know how to show the event details in 10 seconds or less. Remember to outline the 5 Ws: Who, What, When, Where and Why. Matous says that “there are basically no purchases on the first visit,” but you can make sure that your website will be on the opposite end of that spectrum. Grate advises having a clear “unique selling proposition”. This is to show why people should attend your event and why it is different from other events.
Website design is also important. The layout, the images used, the style or theme should be pleasing to the eye and related to the event. First-time visitors may stay or leave on a page just because of the page’s design. Matous says “The first time they come to your site you’re going to want to make sure that it’s not boring.” He advises against using stock pictures and suggests using past event photos of your featured guests.
Negative Space/2017
Each visit to your site should tempt people to buy an event ticket. Keep them interested in your website by retargeting. Maggie Jones of Eventbrite describes retargeting as using “pixels and cookies to target event-goers who have already checked out your page. It’s a great way to catch people at the right time: when they’re actually ready to buy.” This helps reach those site visitors who were already interested and turns event page visits into actual ticket sales. Another way to influence people would be to send them newsletters or personalized e-mails. Add vouchers or coupons to entice them to buy or other attractive gimmicks. Site visitors tend to gravitate to websites with good deals.
Negative Space/2017
These tips can be helpful to new advertisers or event promoters. Veteran event promoters will probably agree to the pointers from experts like Matous that are featured here. It is best to remember that the success of an event depends on the careful planning before the event itself.
For more information about online promotion check out our Industry Resource section here.
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