How To Boost Ticket Sales With Broader Distribution

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Guest post by Katie Sawyer of Eventbrite

Thirty years ago, buying tickets was a real pain for attendees. In fact, tickets were only available at brick and mortar stores. That meant attendees had to first discover the event, then go to the venue, and finally wait in line to buy tickets. It was frustrating — and inefficient.

Now, there’s no excuse for making it tough for attendees to buy tickets. With the evolution of cell phones and ecommerce, you’re able to provide attendees a way to purchase tickets instantly.

The modern-day equivalent of forcing attendees to come to your venue to buy tickets is making people come to your website to make their purchase. You need to widen your reach online.

Distribution is the selling of your event’s tickets on sites across the web. And it’s one of the most effective — and most overlooked — ways to boost ticket sales. And compared to 2016, the percentage of tickets bought on these distributed commerce sites has more than doubled.

Here’s what you need to know to boost your sales with distribution.

What is distribution?

Distribution is a form of marketing that pushes your event directly into the news feeds and apps of your potential attendees. What’s more, distribution can allow attendees to buy tickets from within the online experience that surfaced the event — without any redirect back to the ticketing site.

One in four online buyers won’t complete a purchase that requires them to make an account. One in ten buyers drops off for every extra field in the purchase form. By reducing friction in the buying process, distribution helps drive more ticket revenue to event creators.

The data behind distribution

Don’t underestimate the drastic effect this can have on your sales. Because buyers aren’t redirected to a ticketing page, you’ll convert more attendees faster. Need proof? Here are some stats you can’t ignore:

• Events with tickets available directly on Facebook drive 2x more ticket sales and free registrations on average than events that redirect to a ticketing page. If you’re not using distribution, you’re missing out on the chance to sell out your event.
• On Eventbrite, ticket purchases on distribution sites (like Facebook and Spotify) have more than doubled since 2016. That’s because it’s one of the most effective ways to sell tickets.
• Food & drink, festival, and fair attendees are the fastest-growing segment of “distributed commerce” purchasers. If you’re hosting this type of event, you need to be using distribution — or risk losing to your competition.

The distribution partners you should be using

Your event should be on the sites event-goers rely on to make plans. That way you can engage likely buyers on their favorite sites and apps. If you sell tickets on sites where your target audience already spends time online — and convert them faster with a seamless checkout — you’ll multiply your ticket sales or registrations.

Here are the most important places for consumer events to start:

• Facebook: 550M people use Facebook Events every month — that’s nearly half of all Facebook users. So it’s no surprise that Eventbrite organizers sell 10-20% of their tickets on average through social media, primarily driven through Facebook.
• Google: Search can be expected to drive between 5-10% of your ticket purchases or registrations. Google’s new Events listings highlight your event’s name, date, location, and — most importantly — a link to your ticketing or registration page for speedy purchase.
• Goldstar: Goldstar is an event discovery app focused on concerts, comedy, theater, and nightlife that is perfect for reaching a new audience of active event-goers. 91% of Goldstar’s 7 million members say they were unaware of an event or not planning to attend before buying a ticket on Goldstar.

Of course, distribution is just one (very important) way you can generate interest and sell more tickets for your event. For other ways you can pack the house, check out these 10 Best Ways to Sell Out Your Event.