The Best Strategies for Selling Tickets to Your Event Fast

Jul 06 2023 Updated Feb 21 2024

You need to sell tickets—fast.

Whether you’ve planned your event at the last minute or you’re striving to hit a revenue goal, selling a large number of tickets quickly can be a challenge. But it’s far from impossible.

Below, we’ll share a few of the best strategies to help you quickly sell tickets to your next event.

1. Offer early-bird discounts.

Early-bird discounts are a tried-and-true way to entice attendees with steep discounts when they purchase tickets in advance. This approach can also help event planners get an early attendance estimate for an upcoming event.

Remember, early-bird pricing only works when you create urgency around purchasing early. In addition to offering tickets at a discount, make sure you set a deadline for when ticket prices will go up. You can also limit the number of early-bird tickets to encourage attendees to make a move instead of waiting until the last minute to buy.

Pro tip: Use Event Tickets Plus with WooCommerce for access to extra extensions that assist with creating discounts.

2. Create a loyalty program.

If you aren’t already using a loyalty program to reward repeat attendees, now is the time to create one—especially if you’re trying to sell tickets fast.

Loyalty programs can help you sell tickets by extending perks and discounts to your biggest fans. Here are a few ways to sweeten the deal for loyal attendees and quickly sell tickets:

Offer members-only discounts.
Provide members-only presales and early ticket access.
Add in VIP perks like swag or behind-the-scenes access for loyalty program members.
Encourage word-of-mouth marketing and incentivize loyalty program members to spread the word (i.e., offer BOGO ticket pricing if they bring a friend to your event).

Go directly to your attendees by reaching them on social media and in their inboxes.

An email list of your past attendees can be a goldmine for quickly selling tickets to your next event (especially if you offer some of the special discounts and incentives outlined above). With a tool like Promoter, it’s easy to create targeted email campaigns and reach potential attendees.

Sharing your event from your social media page is also a quick way to spread the word. For an extra boost, support your social posts with an advertising budget—more on that below. You can also automate your social media event postings with Event Automator and Zapier, which helps you save time updating your various social media channels.

4. Tap into influencer marketing.

Look beyond your current network and tap influencers to help extend the reach of your event and sell more tickets. Influencers in your local community or niche can help boost your event and ticket sales by sharing with their own audiences. Once you’ve identified potential influencers, reach out to learn about their pricing and parameters for paid content.

Pro tip: Don’t overlook hyperlocal and nano- or micro-influencers; for small business owners, these influencers can provide more bang for your buck as you seek to sell tickets fast.

5. Invest in paid advertising.

If you have an advertising budget, look into creative ways to invest in promoting your event. Consider boosting your social media posts or purchasing ad spots in popular email newsletters or podcasts that reach your target audience. You might also consider purchasing ads on Google to reach potential attendees based on the keywords they’re searching.

Bonus: It’s often easy to track return on investment (ROI) on paid ads, so you can keep tabs on this metric and decide if it’s a worthwhile investment for future events.

Start selling fast

When you need to move tickets quickly, try a combination of the strategies above to boost sales and learn which approaches work best for your events. When you’re ready to take your ticket sales and event management to the next level, our free and premium WordPress plugins are here to help.