As an event organizer, you probably already know the benefits of early birds. No, not the pre-dawn risers who wake up at 5:00 am for pushups, green juice, and proverbial worms…
We’re talking about the early birds who can’t wait to snag tickets to your event before everyone else.
When event attendees purchase tickets in advance, not only does it make your planning process easier, it builds sales momentum and gives you the bonus of early cash flow!
You don’t even have to wake up at 5:00 am to fly to victory with the early birds. If you use these expert tips, you’ll be selling tickets while you sleep.
1. Build Pre-Sale Hype
Whether it’s for Christmas, your birthday, or that Summer blockbuster movie, we’ve all experienced how a good, old-fashioned countdown can fill us with positive anticipation.
Use our countdown clock to create a sense of urgency and excitement for your event.
Then, a couple of weeks before your sales go live, start building hype on social media. We recommend that you create a batch of five to six posts ahead of time and spread out the content in the two weeks leading up to the sales launch. Emphasize the incentive to register early, and countdown to the date of the sale in each post.
2. Capture Pre-Sale Attendee Emails
No matter how hyped your customer feels, don’t rely on their memory to close the sale for you.
Use your pre-sale graphics to direct leads and interested customers to a landing page where they can enter their email addresses. That way, the moment the registration opens, everyone on the email list will receive an alert encouraging them to jump on the opportunity.
3. When Sales Begin, Blast The News!!
Five, four, three, two, one, LIVE! The moment the clock strikes zero, and you go live, shout it from the rooftops.
Blast your social media platforms; email past customer bases, and alert your pre-sale interested attendees. Going live is a big deal—make sure the world knows!
4. Offer an Early Bird Incentive
To turn the average, procrastinating attendee into an early bird, you need to offer something far more enticing than a worm, such as a sweet deal.
You can discount the price, the VIP experience, the swag, or all of the above. Whatever the incentive, make sure to treat these early-bird buyers like royalty.
5. Automatically Apply The Incentive
While scavenger hunts are fun for Easter eggs, they’re a guaranteed way to annoy your customers. Don’t make the early bird customers open three browsers to search for coupon codes.
Apply the incentive automatically, so they receive an instant reward for being on your page and supporting your event.
6. Use Scarcity as Motivation
When attendees believe there is unlimited inventory and unlimited time to register for your event, they will procrastinate. If there are less than 15 discounted tickets—or 15 discounted days—remaining, let people know!
Use the countdown on the event purchasing page to show the dwindling seconds and the seats. Even just a hint of scarcity can serve as a catalyst for people to grab their tickets before the early bird perks run out.
7. Don’t Bum Out the Latecomers
Just for a moment, imagine taking a kid past a candy store window—the sticky, caramel apples and gummy sour patch kids on display in all their glory—and then telling the kid that the store is closed until next Monday. Obviously, they would feel disappointed.
Likewise, if you keep your early bird prices plastered all over your website, your customers will feel the same way. Lingering evidence of expired deals can come back to haunt you.
When latecomers are painfully aware of what they missed, they’ll often delay purchasing in hopes that another promotion will come along. They might reach out to you, pleading for an exception.
Make it easier on everyone involved. Once the registration period has passed, bury the evidence of early bird prices and point the attendees to their existing opportunities.
8. Offer Several Sales Windows
The one-chance early bird experience is a myth. The most successful promoters offer limited-time sales windows several times throughout the months leading up to the event.
If your attendees hit snooze for the first promotion, give them a chance to jump at the alarm for the next one.
9: Offer Last Chance Extension on Early Bird
When offering a early bird discount, consider offering a 12 hour extension to promotion of your early bird deal to catch those who might have just missed it.
No one likes missing out, so extending the early bird unexpectedly might shake out some of those who were on the fence and barely missed the promotion.
Here to help you host your most successful event ever!
