Event Ticketing - How it Works and Why You Need It
Some events like conferences, festivals, and career fairs depend on the number of attendees to mark success. For these kinds of events, ticket purchases are important and event ticketing systems usually save you stress when it comes to this.
It is also a great tool for knowing your customers because it provides you with crucial information about their identity which can help grow your business or events.
What is an event ticketing platform?
An event ticketing platform is a cloud-based software that allows you to manage ticket purchases, attendee registration, customer service, data collection and analysis, and marketing. In simple words, this platform provides a single ground to contribute to your event's success.
Ticketing systems are not just for one-time use. You can use this game changer to manage events like concerts, community events, sports tournaments, and even theatre performances. It goes all the way to do the work for you and it's a handy tool to have as an event planner.
What are the benefits of an event ticketing platform?
Imagine having different software for tracking ticket purchases and attendee registration, as well as sending engaging content like reminders and newsletters to your attendees. A situation like this makes you divide your attention between software and makes you spend more time and money. An event ticketing platform gives an all-in-one solution for all this and even more.
Your attendees get an easy registration process that comes with seamless and secured payment processes. Event tickets and registrations become convenient for both your guests and event planners as activities can happen anytime and anywhere and your guests get 24/7 customer support from the platform.
Reaching a broader audience is also one of the benefits you enjoy from using a ticketing system. You get marketing efforts that stretch across your expectations while you get to save time and cost. Built-in analytics on this event tickets platform help you make data-driven decisions for improved performance at your next event.
Key features of an event ticketing platform
Before considering a ticketing system, you'll want to know about the necessary features, what they do, and their benefits to know if you need them and if they are worth it.
Customization with the event page
A great event ticketing platform will give you the option to customize the event page to fit your brand guidelines. You should be able to attach your logo, use your desired font and colors, and design your event tickets. This enhances brand consistency and helps your marketing efforts.
Scanning systems
Your desired platform should be able to generate unique QR codes for each event for maximum event security. This works because each attendee who has bought tickets online should receive a QR code that can be scanned in person to confirm their registration at entry points.
Having diverse and secure payment gateways
An ideal ticketing platform should integrate with diverse payment methods like bank transfers, Apple Wallet, PayPal, and Stripe to give your attendees many options during ticket sales. This feature ensures seamless online ticket sales eliminating the need for manual purchases.
Attendee management tools
You want to see necessary information about your attendees and this tool should help you make useful searches and filters. Beyond sourcing information about your event guests, this tool can help event planners organize the registration process.
Reporting and smart analytics
Analytics is important to measure the success of your event as it gives you real-time reports on almost all activities related to event ticketing. Some activities that can be tracked on this platform include revenue generation across different events, results from customer reviews, social media engagement rates, and distribution of your guests across the globe among other other information.
Factors to consider when choosing an event ticketing platform
If you are considering a ticketing platform, you should know that there are several products in the market that have similarities and differences. At this point, you want to look beyond the features to consider making an investment on a ticketing system.
Here are other factors you should consider if you want to choose a ticketing platform for your vents.
Consider user experience
Your event guests make up most of the people using the online ticketing platform for your business so you want to ensure that the platform you have your eyes on offers great customer experience in terms of navigation, ease of use, and customer service.
You can determine this factor by looking at the reviews of these products on review platforms like Trust Pilot or G2 or you can seek out active customers and ask them questions related to your desired product.
Flexibility
You may not be holding the same kind of events all the time. Some events may be larger and others smaller and some may have a less complicated registration process. You want to get a platform that is flexible enough to meet event needs like these. It should also be able to handle diverse demands when it comes to event tickets.
Marketing services
Ticketing systems can offer basic email marketing services that allow you to send reminders and other promotional materials to your attendees. You could also have platforms that integrate with marketing software like Mailchimp and Hubspot. This ensures that you have all the tools you need in one place.
Attendee engagement tools
Your event registration can be open for months, and to ensure that you keep the hype going, engagement tools are helpful. Beyond promotional emails, you need community discussion sessions, lives, and polls to keep your audience interested and engaged in your events.
Mobile-friendliness
About 70% of the world's population has a phone and your attendees are more likely to register for your event with their mobile phones. You want to ensure that the software you are choosing works seamlessly for mobile devices especially when it comes to navigation, functionality, and payments.
Cost
The affordability of the platform is another factor you want to consider. You should look at the software ticketing fees which is how much they charge per ticket sale, you also want to consider if a third-party payment processor is involved when selling tickets, as this can lead to additional costs.
Conclusion
With the world moving of advanced technology, leveraging this opportunity presents a way to save time and cost while improving productivity and convenience. An event ticketing platform helps event planners and event creators skip manual ticket sales.
With features like analytics, attendee management, marketing services, and customization, you can make a successful event as these features are crucial for better event management.
For event creators, you get the benefit of reaching a broad audience for your event and boosting ticket sales.
