Online event planners may face an uphill battle in reaching and recruiting event attendees, as well as dispelling preconceived notions that online events lack both entertainment and engagement. To help organizers work through these challenges, we offer the following advice:

Set up online registration for your virtual event

To sell tickets to any event, you need an eye-catching event website and a ticketing platform with trusted payment processing capabilities. Even if the event is free, a ticketing platform can help ease registration and manage attendee communications.

Fortunately, Ticketbud makes it easy and affordable to create both. That way your audience can learn about and register for your event all in one place, eliminating any barriers to completing registration. 

And, setting up an event with Ticketbud does not require any knowledge of html or design. Use the intuitive page editor to plug in relevant event information. Then browse through the site’s all-inclusive toolkit to create unique ticket types, set timelines for registration, and link to your preferred payment processor (if paid event). 

Once the event is live, use your Ticketbud URL to promote your event across your marketing channels. If you’re hosting a series or multiple events, consider creating an organization landing page through Ticketbud that directs others to your entire event calendar. 

Promote across all communications channels

It’s not enough to have an event website. You also have to market and promote it in order for the world to see. 

These days, the average person uses more than six social media platforms. So, being present on social media and keeping your messaging and marketing consistent across your channels will make it more likely that your audience will recognize and respond to your branding. 

As you work to promote on social media, it’s important to tap into the network and followers held by any of your event partners, speakers, or sponsors. Use these connections and their channels to help elevate and expand your marketing efforts. You can do this by tagging them in relevant posts or by providing them with visual and written content to post organically. 

Remember, the purpose of social media is to engage. So, be creative in ways that you can get people to interact with your content. The more people who interact with it, the wider your potential reach.

To tap into audiences who already know and trust you, it’s also important to build robust newsletter and email campaigns. These folks may be helpful in referring others to your event. 

Offer incentives to sell more tickets

One of the most influential tactics to promoting sales is creating the idea of scarcity, or the idea that time or quantity is limited. According to Cornell psychology expert Michael Lynn, this tactic increases desirability in the product by making it feel more exclusive and valuable to the consumer. 

Consider ways you can easily induce a sense of scarcity within your ticket sales or registration:

• Setting time limits on registration – Create a registration deadline and communicate it often across your channels to remind your audiences that time is running out. 
• Offering discounts – Reward your loyal customers with exclusive savings, or entice newcomers to engage with you by providing discounts. Discounts may give people the push they need to complete their ticket sale. 

You can manage both tactics with Ticketbud’s ticket editor, which allows you to create multiple ticket types, set and automate sales and registration timelines, and create discount codes and timed promotions for running exclusive sales. 

Additionally, the tool also enables you to track the success of your sales tactics and marketing promotions through referral codes. These codes generate special links to your website so you can monitor what posts or campaigns are generating the most traffic to your site. 

Research and select a ticketing software that makes sense for you

When choosing an event ticketing system, look for one that makes selling tickets as easy and secure as possible. A reliable event ticketing platform should provide useful tools such as: 

• Event page builder and editor
• Online payment processing
• Customizable digital tickets
• Social media and advertising options
• Communication and messaging 
• Detailed sales and customer reports 
• Mobile friendly interface and check-in options

The post How to Sell Tickets for an Online Event appeared first on Ticketbud.

This feature is ideal for organizations running multiple events (and those spanning multiple days), allowing ticket buyers to view all events quickly and easily. Perfect for multi-day festivals, venues, a large multi-location brand, or organizations holding multiple events per year. 

The page includes an interactive calendar view feature, which can also be embedded on an organizers website. Links have been added at key points in the customer journey to increase cross promotional opportunities.

The Organization Landing Page includes:

• A branded landing page with your images, description, social media links and contact details.
• Highlights of all current and upcoming events for your organization or group.
• Customized branded link for your organization (vanity URL).
• Ability to toggle between an interactive calendar view and event list. The calendar can also be embedded on your website.

Landing page for Multi-day Event (live preview)

Customer Feedback

The cross promotion between festival events is invaluable, and the interactive calendar view provides a user-friendly option for ticket buyers to see the events on each day.

Alaska World Arts Festival runs 100 events across 50 venues in Homer Alaska, over two weeks in September. The festival features music, dance, theater, film, visual arts, literature, and comedy events. We needed a solution that enabled us to profile the festival, it’s wide range of events across multiple days, and sell tickets easily. Ticketbud’s new showcase page allows us to promote all our shows and events on one festival page.  Having no prior experience with a ticketing platform, the customer support I received getting set up with our showcase page and ticketing was greatly appreciated

Organizer of Alaska World Arts Festival

The post What are Organization Landing Pages on Ticketbud? appeared first on Ticketbud.

According to Bizzabo, most marketing professionals (95%) recognize the value events hold for creating in-person connections. An Eventtrack industry study also found that 74% of attendees had a more positive opinion about a company, brand or product after a great event. 

“Event marketing facilitates customer engagement with brands in a meaningful and multi-sensory way, building a strong, memorable emotional connection between brands and audiences,” says Gabrielle Mratinez, Managing Partner of the agencyEA. “Additionally, live experiences are invaluable opportunities for content generation and data collection to inform future campaigns.”

To help stay engaged with your audiences this autumn, consider the hosting a fall-inspired event like those outlined below:

Community Events

Tis the season for gathering. So consider hosting family-friendly events that bring together the community, such as a pumpkin carving contest or a movie night. 

A pumpkin carving contest could offer a range of prizes – think, “most creative,” “funniest,” “scariest” or “best overall.” Just be sure to come prepared with carving tools or paint, stencils, and trash cans for all the pumpkin guts. 

A movie night also offers a fun and relaxing way for families to get out of the house and meet each other. To really get into the fall spirit, consider hosting the event in a park with a projector screen and offering popcorn or even hot chocolate if it’s a little chilly outside. But have a back-up plan in case the weather doesn’t cooperate with your event. 

Get Started

Create a free event website with Ticketbud and upload your entire community contact list. Then, send invitations to your contacts directly from the site. 

School Events

With school back in session, fall is buzzing with dozens of exciting social and sporting events. So consider ways you can enhance regularly scheduled events with fall touches. 

Turn your homecoming game day into a fall festival, with a parade, games, booths, and more. Make it an event alumni and families will want to flock to by getting the entire school involved. Student organizations can be in charge of creating their own parade floats or game-day activities to raise funds for their organizations. 

Get Started

With a day or a weekend full of events, it’s expected that some people may not be able to attend every activity you put on. So use the breakdown of events as an opportunity to raise more money. With the Ticketbud ticket editor, create multiple ticket types so people can purchase festival, game or homecoming dance tickets all in one spot.  

Fundraiser Events

The holidays always bring about a giving spirit. So, consider hosting a fundraising event to round out the year. How about a Thanksgiving Turkey trot? Or a pumpkin-spiced bake sale? 

When hosting a fundraising event, make sure your audience knows who the benefactors will be. Include any sponsoring or partnering organizations within the branding and descriptions of the event and offer a brief background on any organizations receiving funds from the ticket sales. These details help influence people to buy. 

Get Started

Create a free event registration page using Ticketbud. In addition to allowing users to set up multiple ticket types, event organizer’s can also create a donation button for the registration page. This will allow those who want to give a little extra or donate in lieu of their participation a chance to do so. Ticketbud can also help organizers manage any race day needs with easy mobile check-in and race bib assignments. 

Pop-up Events

Pop-up events are an exciting way to draw in new audience members and get a brand in front of new customers. If you’re thinking about hosting a fall pop-up, why not stick to the theme?

Host a haunted house. These events are temporary in nature and always hosted in a unique location. To make it a success, recruit some helping hands. Consider hiring theater actors from a local high school or university to play the scary parts and get ideas from your contacts on their best haunted house experiences. 

Get Started

Set-up an account page for your organization using Ticketbud to keep track and showcase multiple events to the public. Customize each individual event page’s set-up so that other events in the series are promoted on each event’s page. 

Conferences and Trade Shows

Spruce up your conference or expo with fall-centric foods, activities, swag and recommendations. 

If people are traveling from out of town to your conference, provide a list of area recommendations of where they could find fun fall activities or good eats outside of conference times within your printed or online program. Hosting a day-long or multi-day event? Pick a fall harvest inspired menu to make your attendees feel at home during their visit. 

Get Started

Since conferences and trade shows draw in attendees from around the world, get ahead of event marketing. Create a cohesive brand for your event that is recognizable across all the platforms your audience might learn about your event – website, social media, email. Use the design to develop your own custom banner for your event ticketing page. Here’s a template to help get started. 

Chamber of Commerce

As businesses wrap up and evaluate the activities of the entire year, their leaders must use that data to prospect for the year ahead. Give local businesses the resources they need to be successful in the year ahead by introducing them to others leaders in the area through a fall mixer. 

Networking events provide ample opportunities for people to make meaningful connections with others who can support their business pursuits. Plus, the event itself makes for a great opportunity for a chamber of commerce to get the word out about the organization and recruit new members. 

Get Started

Utilize the power and influence of your current audience to create buzz, excitement and ticket sales for your event. Set up special promotions for event registration, offering discounts to members of your organizations or special discount codes they can pass on to their contacts who they’d like to join the networking event.

Virtual Events

Stay engaged with audiences throughout the busiest travel season by hosting virtual events, such as a series of mixology, baking or cooking events. 

Mix up the next online event with some audience participation and invite guests to recreate a drink or food recipe together from the comfort of their own home or travel destination. The recipes could be suited for fall, such as mulled wine or pumpkin pie. Just make sure the guests are prepared with the appropriate ingredients ahead of time. 

Get Started

Build the cost of the ingredients and shipping into your budget, and plan out how to get the recipe packages to the audience ahead of time. If using Ticketbud, utilize the custom questions tool to ask audiences for their shipping address. That way, everyone is ready to make the recipe as soon as they click “join meeting.”

Private Events

Get into the Halloween spirit at your next private event. 

Hosting a costume party? Special themes have a way of getting people excited and talking about an event as they plan out how they’re going to dress the part. Give guests ideas for how to dress the part or offer prizes for those who go above and beyond. 

Or, lean into the spooky season by planning a murder mystery party designed around the interests of your entire group, such as the Roaring 20s, the Wild West, or Harry Potter. Take extra time to plan out the details so the decor, food and even your guest’s characters are all on theme. 

Get Started

The devil is in the details when hosting themed events. To ensure your guests are in the know about what to expect and how to prepare, create an event website with a detailed description of contests or game play. Ticketbud makes creating and editing an event website easy with its intuitive page editor, which allows you to customize your event details and see how they appear to your guests in real time. 

The post Ideas for Fall Festivals and Events appeared first on Ticketbud.

To get started, sign-up for Canva, a free online design tool. All you need is an email and a password to start creating on the site. 

Once registered, use Ticketbud’s banner template to begin designing your event banner within the proper size specifications (1024 x 512 pixels). The design toolbar, to the left of your template, hosts a range of options to add images, graphics and text to your design. 

Need inspiration? Keep scrolling through Ticketbud’s design starter kit for eye-catching templates. Or, check out explore Canva’s templates by searching through the “Design” tab in the top left of the design toolbar. Once selected, elements within template designs can be easily transformed to suit your branding needs.

Upload Your Image

Aligning your event branding across platforms will help build recognition of your event. So, if you already have an image you are using to promote your event, we highly recommend repurposing on your Ticketbud page. 

To add your own image to the banner template, click “Uploads” from the left edge of the screen and select the desired image from your computer files. This will add the image to your “Uploads” collection within the toolbar and make it available to drag and drop on the template. 

Once you add the image to your design, pull on the corners and edges to fit it to scale. Be sure your adjustments don’t harm the integrity of the image by cropping off letters or distorting images.

Adding Text 

Beyond branding, your banner also offers the opportunity to communicate important details about your event, such as registration deadlines or headliner announcements. To add this information, select “Text” from the left-side toolbar, and click “Add a text box.” 

Once inserted, click the text box to edit the copy. And, use the top menu to change the font, color and style.   

Adding Details & Graphics

Under “Elements,” you can search and add specific shapes and images to your design. Options range from simple lines to videos. However, avoid adding any audio or video elements to your banner design as the space only supports image files for now. 

The post Create Custom Event Page Banners appeared first on Ticketbud.

Getting people to attend an event requires eye-catching, multi-channel marketing, but not all event planners have the time or resources to produce attractive promotional materials across their platforms. 

Enter Canva, a free and widely used online graphic design service that provides users with a suite of tools to design engaging graphics and video for social media, email, posters, and more. Trusted by many, the online platform generates more than 3,000 designs a minute. And it’s easy to get started. 

Sign up at canva.com

All you need is an email address, or other online account, and a password. 

Once you verify your account through email, every tool and resource for both individuals and teams is easily accessible through the homepage, including design templates, educational resources, as well as your soon-to-be saved projects. 

Once logged in, use Canva to create a banner for your Ticketbud event page that sets the tone for your entire event marketing strategy. 

Click “Custom size” in the top right corner of the page below the “Create a design” button, and input the dimensions for the banner (1024 width x 512 px height). 

Select “Create new design.”

Once in your design, you can use the design dashboard to search thousands of free and customizable templates, source free-use graphics and media, upload photos, and add text. When placed in the design, each element can be easily transformed and edited to reflect your event and brand. 

Once finished, share or download your design by clicking “Share” in the top right corner of your screen. You can generate a share link for your team to access and edit, or download the file and upload your design as a photo onto your Ticketbud event page. 

As you work, Canva automatically saves your progress. You can access previous and in-progress projects anytime through the “Projects” tab on your Canva homepage. 

Modify your banner design to promote your event consistently across your channels. 

On average, your audience will need to receive your message 5-7 times before making their purchase decision, so publishing graphics with a similar look and feel across email, social media, and other platforms will help build interest and recognition of your event.

Upgrading to Canva Pro, Teams, Education and Non-profit plans enables you to easily “copy & resize” designs. But with Canva’s free account, you can create new sizes for your design by simply starting a new design project from your homescreen..

Canva has thousands of pre-formatted designs for Facebook posts and covers; Instagram posts, stories and reels; printed invitations and posters; and more. Simply select your desired template from its menu of options to begin creating your next piece of content.  

Once in your design, you can easily transfer all of the elements from your banner design to the new layout by selecting the design from your “Projects” folder in the design dashboard, then modifying to fit. Or, you can utilize the design tools to create a new design, borrowing similar fronts, colors and elements from the banner design to create a consistent look.

With Canva, you can directly post your designs to social media and messaging apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and more. 

By upgrading to a premium plan, event organizers can streamline their workflow by scheduling and auto-posting to social media with Canva’s Content Planner. 

For more on how to use Canva to promote your event, check out Canva’s 20 tips on spreading the word on social media. 

Canva is always free for every individual and team. 
To unlock premium features, individuals can upgrade to Canva Pro to easily create professional designs and content for free for 30 days. More info here.

The post Create Eye-Catching Event Marketing with Free Design Help from Canva appeared first on Ticketbud.

Promoting your event on social media significantly increases discoverability. Generating opportunities for your event to be searched and seen allows you to create awareness, sell more tickets and build loyalty for your brand or organization. 

More than a quarter of traffic to ticketing and registration pages comes from social media. And according to Google’s internal research, 40% percent of 18 to 24 year olds are now using social media as their primary search engine, making your presence and engagement online pivotal to event success. 

Social media promotion is a key part of your overall online marketing strategy. Below I will walk you through the seven tips you need to know to build a social media marketing strategy for your event: 

1. Know your audience and where to find them

Social media can be exhaustive in time and resources and yield little success if you don’t understand who your followers are, which platform they are on, and how you can best reach them. 

Establish who your designing your event for, and then evaluate how you might best reach them using key social platforms: 

• Facebook: With nearly 3 billion users, Facebook remains the largest social media platform. Though, people seem to be spending less time on it as younger users gravitate towards channels like Snapchat and TikTok. That being said, ad revenues continue to climb and could be a valuable and low-cost investment in your event. Plus – with Facebook event pages, you can easily communicate and spread event information that links directly to your Ticketbud registration page.
• Instagram: The platform’s popularity has doubled in the last two years, with Gen Z and Millenials comprising two thirds of the platform’s user base. If you venture in this highly visual territory, come prepared with engaging videos, images and designs. 91% of users watch videos weekly. 
• Twitter: While Twitter is losing traction as a favored platform, it remains a top platform for communicating breaking news and events. It is powerful in generating buzz, engaging with internal and external audiences live, and creating a digital experience for your event. 
• LinkedIn: According to the platform’s internal research, LinkedIn is a top-rated social network for B2B marketing. It’s currently being dominated by a wave of millennials exploring career opportunities, but has useful tools to create event pages and lead discussions, especially concerning industry specific events. 
• TikTok: The platform’s current growth surpasses all other social media channels, and its young-user base is heavily influenced by the brands and products they’ve viewed in its videos. Like Instagram, videos are king. Consider creating content that conveys your event experience in compelling and engaging ways. 
• YouTube: The go-to streaming service is accessed by nearly two thirds of its user base every day. Whether you’re hosting live-streamed events or posting full videos and clips after your event to share with stakeholders, YouTube makes it easy to archive and share your event moments. Because YouTube is a search engine it means your content is easily found long after it’s shared. If you run annual events, people can view last year’s event experience videos on your channel before deciding to attend this year’s event. You can also use paid promotion to tease this year’s event with video and image from a previous event. When it comes to events, people love to see the experience visually.   

Keep in mind that the average social media user engages on at least six different platforms. So, a multi-channel marketing strategy is pivotal to your event’s success.

2. Optimize your online presence

To help develop recognition across platforms, adhere to your organization’s brand guidelines and consistent messaging throughout event promotion. Optimize bio and about us sections across online channels with keywords and engaging descriptions about the organization and event, and provide links to all pages and profiles so users can easily navigate between platforms. 

In spiring 2022, Instagram’s CEO revealed that hashtags were losing their luster in terms of helping posts gain traction and visibility. Instead, social media algorithms tend to favor searchable keywords and phrases. In fact, keyword-optimized captions were found to increase reach by 30% and double engagement.

To increase visibility of content, strategize to include text-based features like alt-text and captions that include phrases your target audience would use when conducting a Google search for your type of organization or event. 

3. Create an event website and amplify social advertising

Create a landing page for your event that you can link to across your social media platforms. Check out this how-to article if you need help getting started creating your free event website with Ticketbud. Using plug-ins like Linktree on your Instagram, can help you easily direct people to your landing page, when hyperlinking is not available. 

Ticketbud also offers tools to help you sell more tickets and boost promotion with paid ads. Ticketbud’s Ad Engine is designed for event organizers to get the best results from paid Facebook and Instagram Advertising. Ad Engine makes it easier to create targeted ads for the right audience, as well as help you manage your budget and provide a greater return on investment.

While Facebook Ads manager can tell you how many people clicked on your ad, it’s harder to track which ads are performing better in terms of converting sales. Ad Engine is designed to automatically optimize ads that sell the most tickets, by harnessing the influence of Facebook advertising to increase sales or registration on Ticketbud. Learn more about why Ad Engine is the cheat code to social advertising for busy event organizers. 

4. Strategize to reach your goals

Determine your desired outcomes from your social media efforts and outline how you might plan for and reach them through your online marketing efforts. To do so, consider using the S.M.A.R.T. goal principle: 

• Specific: Be clear about how you define your event’s success and identify objectives. 
• Measurable: Assign metrics and KPIs to measure your progress, such as aiming for a total number of registrations or total amount garnered through ticket sales. 
• Attainable: Be realistic to maintain your and your team’s morale
• Relevant: Align your event goals with your organization’s goals
• Time-bound: Attach a timeline to certain objectives or goals

Remember to track your progress and evaluate your results. The insights you gain from this campaign will inform social media strategies for future events

5. Build anticipation with creative engaging content

Nearly just as many people post about an event leading up to it as they do at the event itself, according to Buffer. So, create a content calendar that gets people interested and talking about your event: 

• Share press releases
• Tease and announce speaker line ups, special guests or attractive sessions with quotes and videos
• Issue “save the dates” and “last calls” to communicate deadlines for early bird and general registrations. Check out Instagram’s Countdown Sticker as a great way to create urgency.
• Administer ticket giveaways that require user engagement to help spread the word and generate interest in your event 
• Partner with influencers popular with your target market to help reach your audience through someone they already trust
• Repurpose content and testimonials from similar past events to convey event experience 

6. Inspire and encourage user-generated content (UGC)

Every social media algorithm favors engagement. Brainstorm ways to motivate your audience to do the heavy lifting and spread the word for you. Above, we suggested how hosting an online giveaway might inspire users to share and engage with posts, but what other opportunities can you create with your audiences leading up to, during and after your event?

Before the event, organizers can engage audiences by taking them behind-the-scenes on event preparations. Consider posing questions through posts and polls that ask audiences about speakers and sessions they’d like to see. 

Also, it’s becoming more common for organizations to work with UGC creators to produce content that looks like organic UGC but actually derives from an independent contractor who specializes in promoting products and brands. If you don’t have the budget to contract that type of work, consider approaching past attendees or event partners who might help produce authentic content related to their experiences or their anticipation for your event. 

Fun and easy ways to get people to post and share about your event live and on the scene include hosting photo-booths and LIVE tweeting and streaming features. Re-sharing the user-generated content on your channels or on display at the event itself can encourage more engagement. 

These on-site endorsements stir up a healthy sense of FOMO, ensuring those who missed your event won’t want to make the mistake next time. 

7. Gain insights through post event coverage

According to Buffer, nearly 1 out of every 5 social posts related to an event were posted after it. These types of posts are more reflective and can be used to garner feedback about the event. 

Videos generate high engagement rates across platforms, so share clips from special moments at the event. Continually engage with and re-share user-generated content from the event and after it, to boost the post’s visibility. Connect with those who attended the event to get feedback and encourage them to stay in touch by following other social media channels. 

When planned and executed well, the insights and content acquired post-event will inspire marketing strategies for future events. 

The post Social Media Marketing for Events appeared first on Ticketbud.

A recent survey, commissioned by Wildfire, found that 90% of people are more interested than ever in getting discounts, using coupons and earning rewards when shopping online; and that businesses that offer incentives are more attractive to customers. In fact, the Department of Commerce reported a 1.3% growth in retail sales in October, driven largely by marketing efforts of retailers like Amazon, Target and Khol’s, which rolled out pre-season savings to boost shopper spending ahead of Thanksgiving. 

“Economic pressures are driving the broad adoption of shopping rewards programs, which are ‘crossing the chasm’ from coupon clippers and early adopters to mainstream consumers seeking to cut costs any way they can,” writes Jordan Glazier, CEO of Wildfire, in a recent article published by Entrepreneur. 

Below, learn how you can harness the spirit of holiday savings by creating your own ticket discounts with Ticketbud, and explore resources to develop a marketing campaign for your sale that taps deep into the psyche of buyer behavior.

Easily Create an Event PROMO Code with Ticketbud

According to the Wildfire survey, people also seek ease of use when accessing or redeeming rewards and discounts online. Ticketbud’s promotional tools are designed to help you offer discounts your customers can access without any detours or hurdles. 

After creating an event in Ticketbud, follow these steps to create a unique promo code and discounted link to share with your customers for instant access to exclusive savings. 

Step 1 – Event Dashboard
After creating your event page and setting-up ticket types in the Ticket Editor, you’ll be ready to create your first promotion.
To do so, navigate to the Promotion drop-down menu in your event dashboard, and select “Promotion Codes”

Step 2 – Promotion Codes
Here, you’ll have the option to add a discount code.

Step 3 – New Discount Code

Creating your promo code is simple with this short form.

First, pick a unique code, and remember that it is case-sensitive.

Then, choose if you’d like the savings to be in a percentage or dollar-amount (50% off vs. $50 off), and select the ticket types you’d like to make the promotion available for.

To make your deal even more exclusive and enticing, you may set quantity or time limits.

Step 4 – Promotion Codes
Once you’ve created your discount, it will be listed under Promotion Codes, with information on how many times it’s been used, as well as tools to edit and share.

The share button will generate a link that allows people to access the discount seamlessly, without having to type in the specific code at check-out. Share it on social media, or use it to offer exclusive savings to important stakeholders.

Promote Your Holiday Sale 

Let your savings shine through a thoughtful marketing campaign that gets people excited about scoring discount tickets to your can’t-miss event. 

The fear of missing out, FOMO, can influence people to commit to an event, as well as drive people to act impulsively when faced with a good deal. Shopping incentives trigger a buyer’s sense of scarcity, a fixation on the limit of time or quantity of something. Here’s how emphasizing both in your marketing campaign might help push people to check-out:

• Time: The holiday sale and the event itself are limited by time. Use this to your advantage when planning and creating your content. Schedule announcements for flash sales and deadlines, promote limited-time savings and build anticipation for the event.
• Quantity: Your ticket sales may be limited by the venue capacity or the number of discounts you’re willing to offer. Alert people when tickets are selling fast or running low, or consider limiting quantities to offer exclusive savings to key stakeholders as part of your strategy. 

To spread the news of your sale fast and far, utilize social media and amplify your reach to the right audience with low-cost targeted ads. Ticketbud’s Ad Engine can be a great tool for this.

To build loyalty with current customers or stakeholders, pass along exclusive savings to your channel’s subscribers or mailing lists. Use Ticketbud’s promo code sharing options to create personalized email invitations that link directly to your discounts, or design printed materials with QR codes that link people directly to the savings, using this free online tool. 

Design content across all your marketing channels with help from Canva, a free and easy to use design tool which offers a great range of holiday sale templates for various online and print channels.

Check out their free templates including these Black Friday Sale templates, Christmas Sale Templates and countless other resources for designing any online, video and print materials you might need for your next event:

• Sale templates
• Event templates
• Holiday templates
• New Years templates
• Presidents Day templates 
• Easter templates
• Memorial Day templates
• Fourth of July templates
• Back to school savings
• Labor Day templates
• Halloween templates

The post Tis the Season to Save: Hosting Holiday Sales to Sell More Tickets to Your Events appeared first on Ticketbud.

To accommodate the new format, Austin Trail of Lights will extend from a two-week opening to a five-week event, running from November 28 until Jan 3. Attendees can purchase entry passes online through Ticketbud, with an allocated hourly time slot for a designated evening. The timed entry restricts the number of vehicles entering the experience, facilitating a smoother flow of traffic. 

“Ticketbud has been the trusted ticketing partner of Austin’s Trail of Lights for the last few years, and in 2020 we’ve relied on Ticketbud to help switch our walk-through holiday light show experience into a socially distanced drive-thru event”.

“The Ticketbud team has been a great support helping us create timed access ticket programming with scheduled drive-thru times. By limiting the number of vehicles able to enter each hour, attendees can secure their time and plan their evening without everyone turning up at once. This new programming will help us distribute and maximize tickets over our now five-week event.”

Teri Smart, VP of Marketing, Forefront Networks.
Forefront Networks produces the Austin Trail of Lights on behalf of the Trail of Lights Foundation.

Like so many other events and festivals, this local favorite has had to adapt, but it’s set to be an exciting new experience.

“We’re all doing our part to ensure this local holiday tradition continues to shine. The Ticketbud team is really proud of the support we’ve been able to provide so many event organizers this year, helping them navigate significant changes to how they run their events.”

Kayhan Ahmadi, Ticketbud CEO.

Ticketbud’s great features make managing large events easy with flexible ticket programming, promotion, communication and sponsorship tools. We’ve also extended our Event Protect and Refund Protect coverage, providing extra peace of mind for event organizers and ticket buyers.

Our event page calendar feature makes multi-day timed entry ticketing much easier for ticket buyers to navigate to find the convenient date and time they need.

The Trail of Lights Experience 2020

Now celebrating it’s 56th year, Austin Trail of Lights actually began as a drive-thru light show experience, evolving into a walk through event over the years. It’s now going back to its drive-thru origins due to the current need for social distancing to maintain a safe family friendly environment.

The trail’s themed light displays include over 2 million lights illuminating Austin’s Zilker Park. Visitors will be able to tune in via their radio for the Trail of Lights holiday music, highlights, history and more as they drive through the park. 

The Trail will host private nights allowing limited free entry through the STARS at the Trail program for over 30 non-profit community partners. As well as providing vehicle passes to eligible families throughout the Austin Independent School District.

The Trail will be open to guests from November 28, 2020 – January 3, 2021. There are two ways to attend: 

General Admission

Prices range from $25-$35 per vehicle depending on entry time and night with timed access each hour starting at 7pm.

Dash Pass

$60 per vehicle, dash passes allow for early entry between 5:45-7:00pm. Guests will receive a box of holiday cookies and the ATX Lights Savings Card. (Presented by Northern Trust)

All Dash Pass, Fun Run & Premiere Night ticket holders will receive the ATX Lights Savings Card to use at some of the best restaurants, food trucks and shops in Austin. Your card will provide 20% off or BUY ONE, GET ONE.

Tickets On Sale NOW!

The post Ticketbud Helps Convert 400,000 Attendee Holiday Festival into a Timed Access Drive-thru Experience appeared first on Ticketbud.

This is an optional feature that gives you greater flexibility in your ticketing experience, as well as an additional branding opportunity.

Watch more Ticketbud Tutorials to get the most out of the platform.

WATCH NEXT – How to Create Custom Questions

The post How to Create Custom Ticket Layouts appeared first on Ticketbud.

Event organizers worldwide are facing a tough period of uncertainty amid the coronavirus outbreak. Most are now making difficult decisions about postponing or cancelling live events. Many event organizers are also now exploring the option to pivot to an online virtual event. While this isn’t a viable option for everyone, it’s definitely worth consideration for those that can.

This is an unprecedented time in our history for online events, and those that move quickly will benefit the most. With more people around the world each day facing the new reality of home isolation, they are looking online to connect and engage with each other. If you’re in a position to adapt and move content online, now is the time to consider this option. You have never had a better chance to capture an online audience than now.

Types of events that can be moved online

While big conferences such as the Adobe Summit and Facebook F8 are going digital, there are plenty of other event types that can also consider this option.  The most viable event candidates for moving online are educational events and conferences, Q&A and panel sessions, speaker tours and podcasting events. There are also entertainers looking at bringing their live shows online. People are getting creative, you can too.   

If you had a live event scheduled, don’t waste all the work that went into it if that content can be repurposed and shared online. If you have an audience of people already interested, keep that interest and take your event online. You also have the potential to reach a wider audience, with attendees able to participate from anywhere.  

Benefits of online events

The usual benefits of an online event still hold true and may be particularly appealing given the current climate. 

• Online events generally cost less, both for organizers and attendees.
• Anyone with an internet connection can participate, no need to travel.
• Less scheduling factors to consider, including no need for a venue.
• Real-time engagement with an audience. An opportunity for some to ask questions and engage more confidently than they otherwise might.  
• Online registrations provide valuable contact information for you to lead nurture immediately. 

Start with value and be authentic

The emphasis should be on good content that provides value, whether that be educational or entertainment. You can live-stream or create interactive sessions from your home office and connect with people anywhere via the internet. Shift your thinking toward what will work for a virtual event. You don’t have to have polished video assets ready to go to run a successful online event. But this also isn’t a time for boring PowerPoint presentations and long speeches. This is an opportunity for authentic engagement with your audience.  

Steps to get started planning your online experience 

1. GOALS: Clearly define the goals for your event. What do you hope to achieve?
2. TARGET MARKET: Be clear about your target market. Who is the event for?
3. VALUE TO AUDIENCE: What do you want your audience to gain from this event experience?
4. TOPICS/CONTENT: What topics will appeal to this audience? Choose an overarching event topic, a content structure and schedule.  
5. FORMAT: What formats will best facilitate engagement among your target audience? (Live-stream, interactive, smaller groups or session selections). 
6. TOOLS & TECH: Identify the right tools and technology to run an online event. Simple cost effective options are available. Zoom has a great range of video conferencing options for various event types.
7. HOSTS: Depending on your event you will need to organize hosts, speakers, moderators or performers.  
8. SPONSORS: Do you have existing sponsors for which you can still offer value? How can your sponsor packages be adapted? Are there now new sponsor opportunities that would make sense for an online event?
9. EVENT LANDING PAGE: Create a landing page where you will direct all promotion and highlight all your event details. (You can create a free event landing page with Ticketbud or add our ticket widget directly onto your own website).
10. TICKETING: Set up a secure ticketing and registration option. Ticketbud offers low fees, unlimited ticket types and a range of helpful inbuilt tools for event management, communication and promotion.  
11. PROMOTION: Promote your event across digital channels and networks.     

Promoting your online event with Ticketbud

• Create a free event webpage on Ticketbud to sell tickets or take registrations. 
• Our ticketing and event calendar widgets are easy to add to your own website. 
• Advanced social advertising tools made easy for event organizers with our Ticketbud Ad Engine. Get your event in front of the right people fast, using the most powerful social advertising networks.
• Promotional tools include social share buttons, facebook pixel integration, custom link tracking, options for incentivized pricing, referral and promotional codes. 
• Inbuilt communication tools allow you to send invites to contact lists and communicate with attendees (including post-event surveys).

Benefits of event ticketing and registration with Ticketbud 

• Our mobile optimized event pages and checkouts to help you sell more tickets by ensuring a frictionless purchase process on mobile.
• All-inclusive low flat rate fees. Get started for free with no payment needed until you start selling tickets. 
• Get paid early! Flexible payout options (daily, weekly or monthly) ensure you can get paid before the event to help cover costs. If you use a service like PayPal for example, you would have to wait until after your event to access funds.
• No account needed for ticket buyers. Less barriers and steps for attendees leads to more ticket sales. 
• No additional cost for unlimited ticket types. The flexibility to create good ticket programming with various ticket offerings, packages and sale tickets. 
• Powerful built in features and real human customer support included.

Five fast tips for your online event

1. Record any live streamed sessions for later use.
2. Create an event hashtag and share this widely among participants, before, during and after your event.
3. Encourage presenters to help promote the event by discussing and sharing it online with their networks.
4. Ensure everyone understands the event format, their role and the flow of the event. Especially hosts or moderators.
5. Test, test, test! Leading up to the event, test that tools and technology are working and key players know how to use them. 

You can do it!

There is going to be a huge gap left by the immediate loss of live events. This void will need to be filled and you have a chance to create a unique online event experience that’s right for your audience. Ticketbud is here to help you set up your online event ticketing and registration for your virtual event.

The post How to Create a Virtual Event Online appeared first on Ticketbud.

In the next 5 minutes, learn the basics on how to create a facebook event and promote it. Let’s get right into it and you’ll build your attendance in no time!

What is Your Event Story?

When planning and promoting an event it helps if you can create a unique story around it, something that makes it stand out from the rest. If you have a good story angle, the media are also more likely to pick up and cover your event.

Answer these questions:

• Who is the event for?
• What makes your event special or unique? 
• What is the event experience that attendees will have?

Once you’re clear about your unique story and how you want to communicate your event experience, next you want to promote it! Although there are many tools an event organizer can choose from, one of the simplest and cheapest ways to share your event is to utilize social media platforms, like Facebook.

Facebook Pages vs Hosting Events from your Personal Account

If you’re hosting a social event or fundraiser and you don’t mind it being linked to your personal facebook account, you can easily create the event from your personal account. However if your event is for an organization, club or business, it makes sense to create the event from that facebook page. If there isn’t a facebook page already, you might want to consider creating a separate page for your organization or business. 

A Facebook Page is essentially a place for businesses, organizations and public figures to engage with their audience and customers. A Facebook page allows you to create an event that isn’t attached to your personal Facebook account. From there, you’ll be able to add your event to your Page’s calendar and post updates for all of your followers to see in their News Feed. 

Creating an Event on Facebook

Now it’s time to create your Facebook event! Facebook offers a free event creation tool that makes it easy for first time event organizers to use. 

1. From your facebook profile or facebook page, locate and select the ‘Create’ button in the top navigation bar. Then from the drop down menu click ‘event’. 
2. Decide if you want your event to be public or private and choose that option from the drop down at the top left (as below).
3.  Then add an image and your details and you’re done. Hit create event!

Find more information on how to create or edit a Facebook event here.

Tips for Promoting your Event on Facebook

Once your event and event page have been created, you can utilize Facebook’s features to promote your event across different news feeds while keeping costs down. To make your event promotion process a little smoother, we compiled a list of four free ways to promote your event on Facebook.

Share with friends

Facebook was made to connect with friends, so why not just do that? All you have to do is make your way to your event page, find the buttons labeled ‘share’ and select whether you want to invite your friends, share it in a message, or share it as a post on your timeline. This is one of the most effective ways to share your event across multiple News Feeds, as people will be more likely to click on your event if they notice their friends are interested as well.

Post about your event regularly

While this seems intuitive, you can attract more attendees by simply sharing updates, announcements, and photos leading up to your event. Encourage conversation and questions in the comment section of your posts and interact with your audience by responding and reacting to their remarks.

Add your event to your partners Facebook pages

Depending on the size of your event, often times there is more than one organization participating. For additional promotion, you can request for your event to be added to other organization’s calendars on their Facebook pages. 

To take advantage of this feature, click the three dots next to ‘share,’ and in the drop down menu click ‘add to page.’

This is a great feature, especially if your event is working with sponsors, artists, restaurants or any other partners. By adding your event to more Facebook pages, you are exposing your event to a wider audience, increasing your event discoverability.

Add external links to relevant platforms and information

If you’re using Facebook as one of the many ways to promote your event, it’s important to highlight other platforms you might be promoting on as well. Whether it’s your website, ticketing platform, or other social channels, you can make those links visible and accessible to your audience.

By simply adding your links to the details section of your event page, your audience has a quick and easy way to discover more about your event.

Other Promotion and Advertising Options

Facebook has an Ads Manager feature that enables you to create paid ads on Facebook. You can advertise to specific audiences and demographics, as well as track analytics. However some of the more advanced audience targeting tools can be challenging and time consuming, especially for a busy event organizer. 

Ticketbud offers some great solutions to help evert organizers save time and money. With Ticketbud you can:

1. Create a free event webpage customized for your event.  
2. Add unlimited ticket types to your event page (with early bird sales, flash sales, tiered pricing, family pricing and donation options).
3. Promote your event with a range of free inbuilt tools
4. Advertise your event on Facebook and Instagram with Ticketbud’s Ad Engine

Ticketbud Ad Engine

If you are selling tickets to an event with Ticketbud and want to boost promotion with some paid ads, our Ad Engine is the best way to maximize your return on investment. Designed for event organizers to get the best results from Facebook and Instagram Advertising,  Ad Engine makes it easier to create ads that are highly targeted to the right audience for your event. This might be based on their Spotify music preferences, or creating lookalike audiences from past attendee lists, or retargeting people who have visited your website. 

While Facebook Ads manager can tell you how many people clicked on your ad, it’s harder to track which ads are performing better in terms of converting sales. Ad Engine is designed to automatically optimize ads that sell the most tickets, by linking the power of Facebook advertising to your sales on Ticketbud. 

Ad Engine will save you time and increase your ticket sales by offering powerful audience targeting, automatic budget optimization, and providing a stronger call to action that isn’t available on standard Facebook ads. Get started on Ticketbud today and check out our new Ad Engine, the best social advertising option for busy event organizers. 

The post How to Promote Your Event on Facebook appeared first on Ticketbud.

Who is your target audience?

What occasions, themes and events are they most likely to relate to and want to get involved with? What new audiences could you appeal to with a themed event? 

Below are some of the occasions you could be thinking about for promotions and events for the remainder of 2019. Check your calendars and see what you might have missed. If you act now, there is still time to schedule great events for the rest of the year.

Ticketbud can help you set up an event page for registrations or ticket sales quickly and easily so you can start promoting as soon as possible. Event promotions and packages are great for you to encourage new visitors to try your business. It’s also an opportunity to build a highly valuable database from attendees, who you can then market to and develop relationships with. Lets see what the rest of the year has in store!

JUNE

June is Rose month, a number of business and organizations could organize an event around this theme, not just bars and restaurants. June is also ‘Adopt a Cat’ month, an animal shelter for example could hold an event that is both a fundraiser and a chance for people to come and meet potential cats they could adopt. June 8 is National Best Friends Day, think about hosting an event where people are encouraged to come and celebrate with their best friends. Alternatively you could hold a social networking style event where people get to meet new friends. Again for those animal shelters, what about a ‘Support Mans Best Friend’ fundraising event.

Occasions and Themes for the month of June:

• Gay Pride month
• Rose Month
• Aquarium month
• Candy month
• Dairy Month
• National Adopt a Cat Month
• National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable month
• Turkey Lovers Month
• Fishing Week and National Gardening Week – both the first week of June

Some of the special days in June:

4  National Cheese Day

5  World Environment Day

7  National Chocolate Ice Cream Day

7  National Doughnut Day

8  National Best Friends Day

15  Smile Power Day

16  Father’s Day

17  Eat Your Vegetables Day

18  International Picnic Day

18  International Sushi Day

18  National Splurge Day

19  National Kissing Day

21  International Yoga Day

JULY

July brings some great opportunities for events featuring food and drinks. Hotdogs, chicken wings, fried chicken, ice cream, chocolate and pecan pie all get their own special shout outs. Tequila and Daiquiris get there own days of celebration. If you want to infuse a bit of French culture, you have the opportunity with Bastille Day. If you want to celebrate all things Geek, take advantage of ‘Embrace Your Geekness Day’.

Occasions and Themes for the month of July:

• National Blueberry Month
• National Anti-Boredom Month
• National Hot Dog Month
• National Ice Cream Month
• National Picnic Month

Some of the special days in July:

1  International Chicken Wing Day

1 International Joke Day

2  World UFO Day

4  Independence Day (U.S.)

4  National Country Music Day

6  International Kissing Day (apparently we have a national and international kissing day)

6  National Fried Chicken Day

7  Chocolate Day

8  Body Painting Day

10  Teddy Bear Picnic Day – hello kids events!

12  Pecan Pie Day

13  Embrace Your Geekness Day

14  Bastille Day – lets celebrate all things French!

17  National Hot Dog Day

19  National Daiquiri Day

21  National Ice Cream Day

24  National Tequila Day

27  National Day of the Cowboy

28  Parent’s Day

29  National Chicken Wing Day

30  International Day of Friendship

AUGUST

August is Family Fun Month, a great opportunity for family friendly programming and events. It is also a month with a number of days dedicated to women, with National Girlfriends Day, Sisters Day and Women’s Equality Day. If you want an opportunity to run events targeting women, August would be an ideal month for this.

Occasions and Themes for the month of August:

• Family Fun Month
• National Golf Month
• Romance Awareness Month
• Friendship Week – 3rd week of August
• Be Kind to Humankind Week – 4th week of August

Some of the special days in August:

1  National Girlfriends Day

2  International Beer Day

4  Sisters Day

9  Book Lover’s Day

18 World Daffodil Day – an important day for fundraising events dedicated to supporting finding a cure for cancer.

21 Senior Citizens Day

26 National Dog Day

26 Women’s Equality Day

31 International Bacon Day

SEPTEMBER

September brings some international themed days, with the Chinese Moon Festival, Mexican Independence Day and the popular German celebrations during Oktoberfest. (Oktoberfest carries over to October 6th).

Occasions and Themes for the month of September:

• Better Breakfast Month
• Classical Music Month
• Hispanic Heritage Month
• Self Improvement Month

Some of the special days in September:

2  Labor Day

5  Cheese Pizza Day

8  Grandparent’s Day

9  Teddy Bear Day

13  Chinese Moon Festival

13  Friday the 13th

14  International Crab Fest Day

15  National Women’s Friendship Day

15  Wife Appreciation Day

16  Mexican Independence Day

19  International Talk Like A Pirate Day

21  Oktoberfest

22  Business Women’s Day

23  Autumn Equinox – Its Fall!

OCTOBER

Coffee shops get ready. October brings you International Coffee Day! It’s also all about the Italian food! October brings us National Pizza Month, as well as National and International Pasta Day. Wait, we aren’t done yet, we also have National Dessert Day! Is October sounding amazing to you? Italian restaurants should have a field day with this. October 3 is Techies Day, so if you run a business targeting tech heads, mark this one in the calendar. October is also National Vegetarian Month, so if you want to hold a vegetarian friendly event, October is the perfect time. Two other important mentions are of course Oktoberfest and Halloween. So many event opportunities there!

Occasions and Themes for the month of October:

• Oktoberfest
• Adopt a Shelter Dog Month
• Breast Cancer Awareness Month
• Cookie Month
• National Pizza Month
• National Vegetarian Month
• National Popcorn Popping Month
• Seafood Month

Some of the special days in October:

1  International Coffee Day

1  World Vegetarian Day

3  National Boyfriends Day

3  Techies Day

4  National Golf Day

5  World Teacher’s Day

6  Mad Hatter Day

9  Curious Events Day

11  It’s My Party Day

14  Columbus Day

14  National Dessert Day

17  National Pasta Day –  Italian restaurants – here you go!

25  Frankenstein Friday

25  World Pasta Day – More pasta!

26  Make a Difference Day

31  Halloween

NOVEMBER

November brings us a lot to be thankful for with the big event being Thanksgiving. We have occasions recognizing children, veterans, and Dios Los Muertos – the day of the dead. There is also a day that throws down a bit of a challenge, Cook Something Bold Day, what can your chef come up with?

Occasions and Themes for the month of November:

• International Drum Month
• Native American Heritage Month
• Game and Puzzle Week – 3rd week of November

Some of the special days in November:

1-2  Dios Los Muertos

2  Book Lovers Day

3  Sandwich Day

6  Saxophone Day

8  Cook Something Bold Day

11  Veteran’s Day

13  Sadie Hawkins Day

20  Universal Children’s Day

23  National Espresso Day

28  Thanksgiving

DECEMBER

Finally we come to December. This is always a busy month for events, so if you want to host a holiday event you have to get in early with planning and promotion. There are plenty of opportunities for Christmas and holiday themed events, as well as New Years Eve events and parties. December is a month dedicated to eating and drinking. It is also apparently Bingo Month! Who knew?

Some of the special days in December:

2  National Fritters Day

5  Repeal Day – the end of Prohibition. Drinks anyone?

6  St. Nicholas Day

8  International Children’s Day

8  National Brownie Day

9  National Pastry Day

10  Human Rights Day

13  Ice Cream Day

16  National Chocolate Covered Anything Day

22  Winter Solstice – the shortest day of the year

23  Festivus – for the rest of us

24  National Chocolate Day

25  Christmas Day

25  National Pumpkin Pie Day

30  Bacon Day

31  New Year’s Eve

For more ideas look up DaysOfTheYear.com or Holiday Insights for a full calendar of opportunities.

Visit Ticketbud today and request a demo. It’s free to sign up and start planning your event.

The post Mark Your Calendar – Don’t Miss Another Event Opportunity appeared first on Ticketbud.