by Have an upcoming event? Need to make it as seamless as possible?
Use one of the top-notch online ticketing solutions in the market today. This can help you plan, manage, market, invite attendees, and sell your event well ahead of time.
You can find a solution for any type of event you may have in mind, from music to food to business to charity events.
Finding an online ticketing solution is not a challenge. There are dozens of options online. But how do you find the most suitable online ticketing service for your specific event?
Is there a checklist or some criteria to apply when evaluating them?
In this quick guide, you’ll find 10 aspects to consider before signing up with a specific online ticketing solution.
Here we go.
1. What type of event are you hosting?
Say you want to hold a charity or crowdfunding event.
You’ll need a way to help attendees make anonymous and secure donations.
Planning on hosting a paid event?
You’ll need an online ticketing platform that supports:
- Ticket price setting
- Online ticket pre-sale
- Ticketing options
- Accepts offline payments
- Control over fees
What if you need attendees to produce a ticket on entry? You might also want a platform that can print tickets and wristbands, for example.
Decide on the type of event you want to host and the rest of these tips will come in handy.
Your next event could break records
Create an event
2. Easy-to-use online ticketing solutions
Go for an intuitive ticketing platform.
You’ll want a simple system you can set up and start using in a few minutes.
If you can’t figure it out, you are likely to miss out on the event organising, promoting, and selling features it has to offer. A waste of your time.
Ease of use includes the solution’s speed. Keep in mind that a sluggish platform can cost you as many as 7% of attendees.
A heart-wrenching 23% will give up on your event if the ticketing service requires them to first sign up for an account before buying a ticket online.
As many as 10% of searchers will quit at every additional step a platform requires them to take.
Create an experience that inspires, connects and is remembered forever
Create event
3. Event management and planning tools
You’ve been sprucing up your event management skills. You have some of the best event apps handy.
Next: Check out what tools an online ticketing solution offers.
Some tools include:
- Seating arrangement organisers
- Contact list
- Calendar
- Segmentation of attendees
- Ability to send invitations
- Processing of credit card payments
- Ability to notify attendees of new information
4. Communication channels
Email is the most prevalent communication channel you can expect in most programs.
But a couple of online ticketing services now support social media and push notifications. Those two can help speed up communications with both potential attendees and staff.
Whichever one you choose will depend on how fast you need to relay information and which communication channel the largest chunk of your target prefers.
5. How stable is the platform?
Some online ticketing platforms have crashed under the weight of heavy traffic before.
Use a site such as Currently Down to establish a particular ticketing management service’s uptime reliability and how recurrent the issue is.
You do not want to lose a mob of willing and able attendees because your vendor can’t handle a wave of last-minute subscriptions, ticket purchases, or donation transactions.
6. Customer service
What kind of help is available to event organisers in case the ticketing solution flares up an issue?
Seek answers from your select solutions to:
- How available, fast, and responsive is the platform’s customer service?
- Can they help you solve attendees’ issues quickly and thoroughly?
- Do you have to pay for extra help?
- Is that help available around the clock and throughout weekends?
7. Getting paid
This applies to paid events or donations.
Perhaps you want to use pre-sale funds to finance the event. If that’s your case, you’ll want to choose an online ticketing solution that allows you to make same-day payouts.
That way, you can receive funds paid today on the following day, as opposed to waiting until after the event.
8. Special event ticketing solutions
Depending on the event type and desired goals, you might want specialised online ticketing software. This may include:
Hosted or cloud-based solutions?
Great thing about cloud-based ticketing solutions is you, your event organisers, and target audience can access your event details online from multiple devices, wherever they are.
Website integration
An online ticketing solution such as Billetto offers a ticketing widget you can embed on your website to provide more exposure to your event.
From there, you can pre-book, pre-sell tickets, and link curious event goers to your dedicated event page.
Event marketing tools
One of the most powerful marketing aids to look out for is what the service promises to offer in terms of local search engine optimisation (SEO).
You want locals to find your events when they Google “events near me”.
Can the platform help you create ads, too?
Branding options
Yes, the ticketing service may offer the ability to create an event page and provide you with handy tips to create a killer page.
But do they offer a number of customisation options or compatibility with graphic design tools such as Canva and Infogr.am?
Auctioning tools
Auctioning events will require tools for managing contacts, online bidding, auction items, inventory management, live auctions, fast notifications, and leaderboard.
Interactive event maps
One way to apply interactive maps is to help potential attendees get a 3D view of various seating positions so they can decide which seat to book.
Neighbourhood guides
Seek this feature when you want to offer a local guide of the event venue.
You can use neighbourhood map displays to notify attendees of parking spaces and local eateries near the venue, as well as traffic-less routes to get there without stress.
9. Social media integration
You’ll want a platform that supports sharing an event to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or another social media channel where your target attendees spend a lot of social or professional time.
10. Reporting tools
You want to keep track of various event logistics and actionable event performance metrics.
You want to know how many invites you sent out, how many people showed up, and how much you made, for example.
With a solid analytics tool, you can compare how your events have been performing so far. So you know whether you are improving your event planning, marketing, and management skills.
11. Fees (or lack thereof)
You’ll typically find two ticketing solutions pricing models:
- Paid: Most ticketing services only require you to pay up if you are hosting a paid event. Prices vary. So you might want to make a few comparisons to find the best value for your money.
- Free: Paid ticketing platforms offer free online ticketing services for free events. But some premium ticketing solutions are completely free (whether you are hosting a paid or free event).
Over to you. Now you know how to create a checklist for evaluating the best online ticketing solutions for your event.
Need more help getting the right online ticketing solution? Chat with us in the comments section. We always get back.