Let’s be real, small venues are often neglected and fail to spark excitement among the audience. In addition, small venue ticketing must be cost-effective, simple, and effective. This might be difficult to maintain with a small budget and staff shortage.
This article provides a step-by-step process for efficient ticketing for a small venue, with challenges and solutions.
How to Do Ticketing for Small Venues? 7 Best Ways to Know
The best way to do ticketing for small venues includes choosing a free or low-priced platform, setting the ticket price, tiering tickets, and lastly promoting the ticketing via social media integration.
1. Choose the Right Ticketing Platform
Generally, small venue events don’t have high budgets. So it is wiser to select a ticketing platform that offers substantial features in a free or low-priced option. The basic features include customizing tickets and prices, ease of use, showing a data analytics dashboard, and most importantly, mobile compatibility.
TicketsCandy, TicketTailor, Ticketspice, Eventbrite, and Ticketbud are popular and mostly free or low-priced ticketing platforms to check out for small venues. Among them, TicketsCandy is highly recommended, as it is completely free, without hidden charges, and offers premium features.
2. Set Ticket Prices
Ticket price setting mainly depends on what the event goal is and who the attendees are. For small venue ticket pricing, it is crucial to research past event cases. If the price is too high, there will be fewer sales. And if the price is too low, the event cost will exceed the revenue earned.
Tiered ticket pricing can be done, where a flat fee for students and higher-priced tickets with extra features for VIP attendees. The pricing can also be grouped depending on seating areas. In the case of hybrid events, physical ticket prices should be more than virtual ones.
3. Create Your Event Page
A custom event page or website shows dedication and authenticity of the event. For small venue events, there are multiple free event website makers, such as RSVPify, Eventcreate, Eventbrite, Renderforest, and so on.
On the website or social media page, add the contact number and details of the event. This will create interest and solve any confusion among the attendees or interested people.
4. Set Event Reminders and Updates
Event reminders make attendees and participants excited for the event. Most of the ticketing platforms or event management software provides custom reminder emails to the guest list. If the feature is not available, switching to Mailchimp and other manual email marketing tools is the solution.
Often, young people don’t open their mail frequently. If your targeted audience is young students, then SMS reminders work better. Include the event date and time, with proper instructions on what to bring and what not to bring to the event.
In addition, sending several reminders at some days’ interval makes sure no one misses out on the event. The organizers can add a Google Calendar invite link in the mail or SMS.
5. Offer Discounts and Early Bird Pricing
Including early bird pricing and discounts will dramatically increase ticket sales. For example, if the ticket price is $50 each, then the early bird price would be $35 for the first 50 people registered or $40 if registered two weeks prior to the event. This will create a sense of urgency and generate more ticket sales.
Moreover, adding discount codes for students or for returning customers and followers of certain influencers or organizations can increase the sales and draw more attendees into the venue.
6. Offer Refunds and Transfers
The dedicated event website must have the refund policy stated clearly, without any hidden meaning. The ticket confirmation mail should have a link that directs to the refund policy page or have it written directly on the ticket.
Incorporating a ticketing platform saves time and energy for your staff, as it contains a refund request link that is automated in the platform. Offer the refund to be directly deposited into the attendee’s account, or go to the donation.
Also, it is necessary to maintain communication with attendees to know the reasons regarding cancellation. If there are any queries, solve them as soon as possible.
7. Integrate Social Media for Promotion
Nowadays, everyone, from elders to children, is addicted to their social media accounts. So, it is the best way to promote the event. In addition to creating an event page, frequently post on that account. The post must be relevant to the event’s importance, such as a countdown timer post or introduction of speakers and guests.
Present all the information in an exciting way. Hiring a social media marketer for promoting the event is helpful too.
8. Streamline the Check-In Process
Make the check-in process smooth by including QR scanning, shorter waiting lines, multiple check-in lines, and separate lines for VIP, general admission, and walk-in attendees. This will make the check-in process fast and avoid any frustration among attendees.
In smaller venues, as the space is limited, it is better to switch to e-tickets and analyze the real-time data on guest numbers so the organizers will know when the venue reaches maximum capacity.
Common Challenges in Small Venue Ticketing and How to Overcome
Small venues, in other words, compact venue ticketing faces some serious challenges that destroy the reputation of the event. Here are some common issues faced by small venues and the solutions:
- Overcrowding
If the venue capacity is not maintained while registration or selling tickets, it causes overcrowding inside the venue. As a result, a suffocating environment occurs, making attendees uncomfortable. So, real-time ticketing data must be analyzed carefully to avoid this issue.
- Crossing the budget limit
While managing an event at a small venue, the budget is usually low. It may cross due to improper planning using premium ticketing platforms. The solution is to use a free or low-cost ticketing platform and plan the budget a month prior to the event.
- Staff shortage
In a small venue, hiring staff is often overlooked. It creates mismanagement and an overall bad impression of the event. To avoid this situation, hire sufficient and well-trained staff (at least one staff member per 50 attendees)
- Lack of promotion
Small venues are not known by everyone. So it needs proper promotion and social media marketing to improve visibility. Hire a social media marketer and contact local influencers to promote the event.
In Closing
To summarize, a successful small venue event relies on an efficient ticketing system. The key is to choose a budget-friendly platform with great features and to engage the audience through social media and email marketing. The discounted ticket price also helps to engage the people more.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best and cheapest event ticketing solution?
TicketCandy, TicketTailor, and AllEvents are some of the cheapest and free event ticketing solutions, perfect for tight-budget small venue events.
Should small venue events sell free tickets?
Free event tickets or very low-priced tickets often cause no-shows at the events. So, a moderate price is good for both the event organizer and audience credibility.
