Video content can directly affect whether or not people buy tickets to your events. Statistics show that one in four people who bought tickets to an event and viewed an online video as part of the decision to buy those tickets report that the video content played a part in convincing them to purchase tickets. That means if you’re not using video as part of your event marketing plan, you’re missing opportunities to motivate people to buy tickets!
The key to leveraging videos in event marketing is creating relevant and meaningful video content and effectively promoting that content to ensure potential ticket buyers actually see it. Keep reading to learn how to do both.
Creating Video Content for Event Marketing
Don’t feel overwhelmed by the idea of creating video content. Your videos don’t necessarily have to be produced by professionals to be effective event marketing tools. The trick is to match the quality with the content experience and the event’s reputation. For example, you might want to invest in a professionally produced video that highlights all of the benefits of attending your event and use that video as your primary marketing piece. Alternately, you might want to use your iPhone to capture live moments leading up to the event to create excitement.
If you’re creating video content, you need a video camera, microphone, and video editing software. An affordable option for video editing is Camtasia, but there are a variety of free tools, like Blender, that offer video editing capabilities as well.
An important thing to remember as you create video content for event marketing is to always include a call to action at the end of every video. During the production process, you can create a shot that appears at the beginning and end of the video with the name of your event, date, location, and the URL or phone number to purchase tickets.
Not sure what kind of videos to make? Here are 10 ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
- Interviews of performers or speakers
- Snippets from performers’ or speakers’ previous appearances
- Sneak peek backstage
- Sneak peek at the venue
- Event tips (e.g., travel, what to bring, when to arrive)
- Special guest reveal
- Testimonials from previous attendees
- User-generated content compilations (quotes, photos, videos)
- B-roll footage from the last time you held the event such as people having fun at the event, merchandise booths, food trucks, and any other content not related to the primary event performers, speakers, or activities
- Live videos of “pre-event” events
Once you create a video, you need to publish it online so other people can view it and share it. YouTube is the best place to do this since it’s not only the most popular video site but also the second largest search engine. In other words, YouTube is the place to be if you want people to find your videos and ultimately, your event website and ticket sales page.
Start by creating a YouTube channel for your event and publish your videos on your channel. When you upload a video, be sure to give it a title and lengthy description that includes keywords prospective ticket buyers would likely type into the YouTube search box to find content like yours. Also, make sure you configure the video settings so people can share it via social media and embed it in their own websites and blogs. Since your video includes your call to action, sharing and embedding are important forms of word-of-mouth marketing that can help you sell more tickets!
Some great features in YouTube that you should definitely consider leveraging are cards and end screens. Both give you opportunities to add interactivity to your videos by linking to a URL or other content directly from your videos.
Live videos are also important for event marketing. The key to using live videos to sell more tickets to an upcoming event is to create content that generates excitement and the fear of missing out (FOMO). Facebook Live is a great tool to create live video content. Not only can you send alerts to your followers before your Facebook Live video begins, but Facebook also prioritizes live video content above any other type of content with longer, high quality video content prioritized the highest. That means quality Facebook Live videos have a better chance of appearing at the top of your followers’ news feeds than any other type of content, including ads!
With that in mind, schedule live videos on Facebook Live before your event that will appeal to ticket buyers and prospective ticket buyers. Backstage videos, sneak peeks, special announcements, and event previews work very well to increase excitement and ticket sales.
It’s important that you continue publishing live video during your event because it helps to boost ticket sales for the same event next time you hold it. Research from Digitell found that 30% of people who see a live video that was produced at an event turn into ticket buyers of the same event the next time it’s held. In other words, the data shows that live video is critical before, during, and after your events if you want to increase ticket sales for your current event and future events.
Promoting Video Content to Sell More Tickets
Once you create and publish a video for event marketing, you need to promote it so more people see it. By publishing your video on YouTube using keywords in your title and description and producing Facebook Live videos, you’ve already made your event more discoverable. However, you need to actively promote your videos, too.
Your first step should be to embed your most compelling videos in your ticket sales page. In marketing terms, your ticket sales page is equivalent to your landing page, which means it should have one goal – to convert visitors into ticket buyers. Research conducted by Eyeview found that video content can increase landing page conversions by up to 80%, so including video on your ticket sales page should be a requirement.
Next, embed your video content on your event website and your blog. If you created multiple videos, write a blog post to go with each one. Once your blog posts are published, share them on social media, send the links to online influencers who would be interested in the content and might share the posts with their own followers, and send the links to your speakers, performers and sponsors asking them to share the posts with their followers, too. Be sure to promote the links to your videos and blog posts on all of your social media accounts multiple times leading up to your event because once is not enough.
Don’t forget to leverage the power of your team by asking employees and volunteers to share your video and blog content as well. Every share equates to another potential way for a wider audience to hear about your event, buy tickets, and share the content to their own audiences, which increases your reach exponentially.
You can also invest in Facebook Ads to promote your video content. Boost a blog post on Facebook to drive more traffic to it, but be sure to select a target audience of people who would actually be interested in attending your event. If you have an email list, share your videos through email marketing as well.
Your goal is to put your videos in front of as many people as possible with the understanding that seeing a video once might not be enough to convince someone to buy tickets to your event. Instead, you’ll need to be patient and persistent to get the true benefits of using video content for event marketing.
Your Next Steps
Now that you understand how effective video content can be to increase ticket sales for your events, it’s time to start creating! Take out a camera and record your first video. Don’t worry, you’ll get better the more you do it. You’re not trying to win an Academy Award. You just want to generate interest in your event and evoke emotions related to the fear of missing out. The sooner you get started, the sooner your ticket sales will rise.