Over the last month we have been putting the final touches on a host of features that help you sell more tickets. A few software features but mainly PROMOTIONAL features to help you succeed at event promotion.

Features like, email marketing, text messaging, post card mailings, a cool rewards card feature and automatic posting on event sites like zvent, eventful and many others.

The new features are on top of ones like social marketing, social discounts and all the ones we currently have. Stay tuned as the features above start rolling out this week!

• Make sure that you have all of the ticket types that you want to sell on your page, along with the correct prices. If it may not be clear what a “VIP” or “BOGO” ticket consists of, put it in the ticket description!

• Double check to make sure that the date and time of your event are correct. Also specify what time doors open. You would not believe the amount of phone calls we will get if you do not!

• Be sure to put all of the pertinent venue information on your page. Include the venue name, address, phone number and any other information that will help attendee’s locate the event.

• Contact information is a must! Many ticket buyers will call us with questions, however sometimes there are questions we will not be able to answer. If you put your contact information on your ticket sales page, we will be able to help the ticket buyers to the best of our ability and refer them to you.

• FAQs, FAQs, FAQs! Most ticket buyers will have questions about your event, such as if cameras are allowed, how old you have to be to need a ticket, or if food or drinks will be sold at the show. Put all those little details, and answers to all the crazy questions you may get in that section. It helps cut down on the confusion, calls, and emails that you may get.

• Last, but not least, make sure to add an awesome event description of your event! Include what the event is, who is going to be at the event, and any other interesting information that ticket buyers will want to know.

Now that you have double-checked to make sure you have the best ticket sales page that you can have, go promote your event! Share your ticket sales page URL with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, and anywhere you can. Also – if you are hosting a Christian event, visit Christian Concert Alerts and post your event for free!

Proofread

Remember in school when your teacher would tell you to always re-read your report
before you turn it in? You did that to check for and correct any spelling and grammatical mistakes you may have made. So why not do the same thing for something not just one person will see, but thousands of people will see? Trust us, people notice.

Add images

People enjoy looking at nice things and it will help you brand your ticket sales page to your event, providing a consistent experience for your ticket buyers.

Double check dates, times and addresses

You would be surprised as to how easily confused people get about when the event
starts, when the doors/gates open, and the exact location of an event (most people rely
on their GPS for directions, and the GPS may not know exactly where Central Park is without an exact address). Make this information as clear and as accurate as possible.
Your ticket buyers will thank you.

Provide a FAQ

There’s no such thing as a stupid question. What’s stupid is not giving ticket buyers the answers they need in order to help them make a more informed decision about their ticket purchase.

Pinterest is useful in many ways for small businesses. It is not just for those bored housewives looking for something crafty to do, the wedding-crazed woman in her 20′s, or the wanna-be Betty Crockers out there. Pinterest is a great way to connect with people of all backgrounds across the globe. With that being said, why wouldn’t you want to let Pinterest help your business?

I am sure some of you are asking “What is Pinterest?” Pinterest is a virtual “pinboard.” People use it for a variety of things from planning their wedding, keeping track of their favorite recipes, fitness goals, or even for pictures they find funny. It is a great way to share ideas, loves, wants, and dislikes with friends, family or complete strangers.

You can also surf pins created by other people with similar or varied interests. In short it is a platform for those who like to be inspired visually and those wanting to share inspiration with people on the web.

Here are some ways to utilize Pinterest for your small business:

Share your product or service – You can pin pictures with links of your product or service to share with other users. You can create multiple pin-boards based on the product or service that you provide.

Drive more traffic to your site – When you pin your products or services, you construct back-links whenever you or other users link to your products/services. Also, it is important to use keywords to attract target customers and encourage them to visit your site and also, to be more searchable. In addition, you can share your pins on other social networks, like Facbeook and Twitter. This will boost more links to you products and in turn, generate more traffic to your website!

Increase engagement with customers – In order to use social networks effectively for your business, you need to engage with potential and current customers. The same concept is applicable to Pinterest. You want to like others’ pins as well as comment on pins that align with your business’s interests and your products or services. Also, make sure to follow boards of others who share your interests. This will in turn encourage them to follow your boards. This will increase the audience of your pins as well as drive more traffic to your site as explained above.

Users have grown over 4000% on Pinterest over the last 6-9 months. Pinterest now has over 16 million users worldwide. Why would you not want to use such a readily available tool to help your business’s marketing campaign?

Check out the full stats for Pinterest here!

First, try to keep in mind that just because you like an artist and know their music well doesn’t necessarily mean that others do. While we would like to believe that everyone likes the artists we like, this is not always the case. It is always a good idea to research a few things before contractually obligating yourself to working with an artist.

When researching an artist with whom you would like to work, the first place to go is the artist’s website. There is a lot of very useful information on an artist’s website that can be used to help book the artist and even determine the probability of a successful event.

Most artist’s websites will have a contact page or an information page. This is where you can obtain contact information for the artist’s management or booking agent. If the artist has a booking agent, then the agent’s website can also be very useful. Booking agents often have the most up to date tour schedule for an artist and usually have information about the promoters who are currently working with the artist. Most booking agencies even allow you to submit offers to artists online by filling out a simple form.

While you’re on these websites, you may want to ask a few questions:

How many tickets does this artist usually sell?

You can usually get this information from the booking agent. However, you might find it more useful to speak with the promoters currently working with the artists. A booking agent’s website may provide you with contact information for these promoters or the agent themselves can provide this information.

What cities are on the artist’s schedule?

Answering this question gives you a rough idea of how much demand there is for an artist. If they have a lot of dates and are routinely in major markets, then the artist is in demand. You can also compare your market area to other similar market areas. You may also want to see how often the artist has been in your area. This will allow you to avoid bringing an artist into an area where they have played a number of times and potentially over saturated the market.

What is the artist currently working on?

Usually artists will post information on their website about album releases, video releases and so on. This information is useful because such releases create a spike in interest in the artist, which can play nicely in your favor and result in a large crowd.

You may also want to visit sites like Christian Concert Alerts and Eventful that list many events in your area. This will help you see what events are coming to your area before and after your event, which can help you avoid scheduling your event too close to another event and essentially competing for ticket buyers. If an artist is part of a larger concert tour such as Winter Jam or the Rock and Worship Road Show, then there may be a radius clause the prohibits the artist from being booked in specific markets.

Another factor to consider is radio play. If you are working with a Christian artist, you should try to determine how often the artist is played on the radio stations in your prospective market. By calling the radio station directly, you can usually determine whether or not the artist is played and how often they are played on a station or network. Radio stations are also good sources for information about other events in your area and can help you avoid competitive scenarios.

You may also want to do a bit of research as to how many fans the artist has in your prospective market. One great way to determine this is through Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads allows you to create an advertisement that reaches a very specific demographic. For instance, if I wanted to see how many people in my region have listed Christian Music, Casting Crowns, or a notable artist or Christian Festival, I could create an ad that is tailored to reach those who listed these items in their interests. Believe it or not, you can find out the exact number of people the ad would reach without actually going through with purchasing the ad. It’s good research, and costs nothing!

Lastly, talk to a knowledgeable ticket company. AttendStar tickets a lot of events and we can provide a lot of information about ticket sales figures, successful markets, valuable promotional tools and even setting a ticket price that is right for buyers in your market. We are here to help. So, put us to work for you!

An event manager’s best resource for ticket sales, information and
promotion comes from their roots. Tapping into these roots will open
avenues and build relationships that would otherwise be overlooked.
Getting your community involved with your event will create a sense of
brotherhood within your event, creating memorable experiences for attendees and investing them more into the success of the event itself.

1. First, figure out the roots of your target community. Is it based online? Or is it more regionally centered? How did you get involved in it? Understanding your community is the first step in better connecting your event with it.

 

2. Connect with those who are active in the community. Get to know them and why they take the stand they do. This could be as easy as connecting with someone over similar tastes in music, volunteering for an event that may have similar goals, or chatting with someone over a cup of coffee.

 

3. Next, figure out who the major players are within that community. Approach them. Tell them what you’re doing, what you hope to achieve with your event, and how it could benefit the community. Don’t make it a sales pitch, just join in on the conversation.

 

4. Give the community a reason to want to help within that community. Will the proceeds benefit a local charity? Will it feature one of the major players that everyone wants to support Will it bring media attention to a proud landmark? Help build a sense of pride for the community with what you’re doing.

 

5. Find sponsors whose missions are congruent with those of the culture and community. Sometimes brands are easier to trust and people are more likely to get involved if something they’re familiar with is on board with it too.

 

6. Encourage the community to spread the word about your event. The best form of marketing is word-of-mouth.

 

7. Have special pre-sale ticket deals that active community members can find out about. Maybe it’s something like giving away a ticket to the event with each purchase of a popular local band’s album or offering a discount to the people who purchase something from a well-known local store.

 

8. Get connected with the local media. Do your research on which writers cover which topics, and approach them with a well-though out plan, mission statement and reason for wanting to do your event. Don’t approach just anyone, make sure you’re targeting people who know the community.

The point of all this is to stress connecting with whatever your community may be, so that you can have a successful event that others can take pride in. Rely on those around you to help you produce an awesome event that you’re passionate about and that people will back you up on time and time again.

One cool feature that we have available is the Christian Concert Alerts widget for your website! The widget automatically detects where a visitor to your site lives. The widget then displays concerts that are coming to their area, even if it’s hundreds of miles away from your location! There is no cost to use this widget on your website, of course no strings attached!

If you have not added your events to Christian Concert Alerts, go ahead and do so now! If your events are already on our website, make sure you claim them and update any pertinent information!

To learn more, visit Christian Concert Alerts Widget

When promoters visit Christian Concert Alerts, they will notice at the top right corner the word “Register”. When they click “Register” they will be asked to provide a bit of information. This information will allow us to ensure that they are a legitimate promoter and that helps us to ensure the integrity of what is posted on the site.

Once a “user” account is set up, access is granted to post events, or lay claim to an already posted event. Posting an event couldn’t be easier. Simply log in and just below the the search box is the Event Management tool where the “Add Event” button is located. Once you click the “Add Event” button, you will be asked to fill in a few fields of information such as the artists’ names, date and time of the event, location and so on. You can also upload artwork and provide a link to purchase tickets, even if the tickets are being sold with a company other than AttendStar. When you submit the event, it then comes to us for approval, which typically takes less than a few hours.

Once an event is posted, it will be included in the email updates we send our subscribers. The updates are sent every other week and subscribers are provided with information about the concert events taking place within 100 miles of their zip code. The site also has a widget that is being installed on a large number of Christian Radio station websites across the nation. Anyone who sees the widget, or visits the site directly, will also see the events taking place within 100 miles of their zip code.

It’s that simple! There is no limit to the number of events a promoter can post and the site costs absolutely nothing to use. We welcome every promoter to put the site to use and take part in what we believe is going to be a very effective tool in reaching fans of Christian entertainment.

We’ve all heard the benefits of social media marketing by now; how it created consumer engagement and therefore an attachment to your product, increases speed of feedback and results, its low cost and the ability to brand your product even more. Now what if you could not only prosper from a marketing perspective through social media, but tangibly augment revenue through it as well WHILE reducing your overall marketing budget?

Enter Social Discounts.
A Social Discount encourages ticket buyers to share an event’s ticket sales page on Facebook and/or Twitter. In return, that ticket buyer will receive a discount on their ticket purchase. The discount will be automatically applied after the event is shared and the ticket buyer finishes their purchase like normal!

Now, instead of an event reaching only a select number of people through traditional means, the event has the potential to reach thousands. The average Facebook user has 135 friends and there’s a good change many of the ticket buyer’s friends and followers have similar tastes and would be interested in the event as well. Additionally, the event gains credibility since it is being recommended straight from a (hopefully) trusted source. Let’s face it, you’re more likely to go to a mechanic referred to you by a friends than one you find through Google.

One of the best parts is, the event manager enables the Social Discount and then writes the message that the ticket buyer will share. Each ticket buyer has their own unique referrer link, enabling AttendStar to generate a detailed report about the history of the messages and the effectiveness of each social network.

So login to your AttendStar account or create one here and get your ticket buyers to do your promotional legwork for you!

 
To learn more about how to use Social Discounts and other AttendStar features, check out our Support Center.

Here is why you should not waste any more time and get your tickets for this fun-filled event ASAP:

• Our featured performers this year are the world famous U.S. Navy Blue Angels! The Blue Angels are the United States NAVY Flight Demonstration Squadron, who also represent the U.S. Marine Corps.

• Other performers include: Dan Buchanan, Michael Goulian, Matt Chapman, Rob Holland, and Corkey Fornhof

• This event is family friendly! There will even be a Kid’s Zone on the grounds to keep your children entertained all day long!

The Great Tennessee Air Show is certainly guaranteed to be a great time for all who attend!

For more show and ticket information, please visit The Great Tennessee Air Show website – here!

We will see you this May at The Great Tennessee Air Show!