How Members-Only Tickets Can Grow Your Member Community
This post originally appeared on RestrictContentPro.com
We know that restricting content to members only is a great idea. It gives users a reason to engage with your pages, creates community, and builds your income.
But there’s more than content that you can restrict with your membership plugin. You can also restrict event tickets to members. A members-only tickets extension on your site allows you to create tickets that only members can see and/or purchase.
It might seem counter-intuitive at first to allow only members to purchase tickets. After all, if you’re trying to drum up event-goers, the last thing you might want to do is make it more difficult to get tickets.
However, if implemented correctly, members-only tickets can not only boost ticket sales but grow your community, too. Let’s take a look at how members-only tickets can increase your member community.
Members-only tickets can justify the membership fee
One of the biggest roadblocks to signing up and retaining members is the price. Many people are hesitant to add another expense, especially if it’s a recurring payment.
The best way to overcome this is to show the value a membership brings. For ticket sales, this could be as simple as showing the member cost of a ticket on your checkout page. You could cross out a full ticket value and show the member cost. If the discount is bigger than the cost of one month of membership, it’s a no-brainer. For example, if a ticket is valued at $50, you could cross it out and show $40 as the price, especially if membership is only $5 a month.
You can also tier your membership to make the opt-in easier. Perhaps users can enter at a lower tier and pay a few dollars a month, or a one-time fee, to gain access to a members-only store. It’s all about getting in members first with the appeal of a low price and the ability to buy a ticket. The goal then becomes to keep these new members after ticket purchase.
Retain memberships by keeping an active calendar of events, as well as pre-sale opportunities for future events. Also, consider a variety of events (at least monthly) to justify the membership price. This can work for virtual events, workshops, seminars, Q&As, and more.
Non-members will fear missing out
Most people have a natural fear of missing out. In fact, 60% of millennials in a focus group claimed to experience “FOMO” frequently.
If folks land on a ticket page that prevents them from adding to cart because they’re not a member, the fear of missing out is instantly activated.
In addition, keeping ticket availability low will persuade those who were hesitant to take the chance to secure their ticket – and their membership. Scarcity is one of the most important tactics you can use to fuel sales. As long as you’re truthful about your claims (like truly only having 10 tickets left) and use it sparingly, scarcity marketing has real potential to boost sales.
Also consider adding a countdown clock to your checkout experience, in addition to the number of tickets left. By using scarcity and urgency, on top of a natural fear of missing out, you can persuade members to sign up.
It aids in ticket distribution
If you’re lucky enough, you might find yourself in a situation where too many people are trying to buy tickets at once. For example, let’s say you run a yearly conference that draws a sizeable crowd in your community. If your website can’t handle the traffic when tickets go on sale, you can distribute tickets through a membership option.
For example, separate tiers of members (even beginning with a free option) can grant access to tickets in different waves. With an option like this in place, you can make sure interested folks aren’t hung up on browsers that don’t load. Plus, you’ve just created a bunch of new members to expose to your marketing efforts!
Add perks to ticket purchases
Make the experience about more than buying a ticket. Perhaps a ticket purchase comes with an exclusive download or exclusive merch item.
You can also fill a members-only store with more than tickets to justify a membership fee. If there’s a limited release of a certain piece of swag or product you offer, it’s perfect to add to a member’s store. As e-commerce sales are expected to hit over $6 trillion by 2024, there’s no slowing down in online purchasing power. Give members a reason to keep filling those shopping carts.
You can also partner with other businesses to offer exclusive discounts. For example, after a ticket purchase, you can redirect a customer to an affiliate or a member deals page. By making these perks tied to buying a ticket – and in turn, becoming a member – you’re both selling tickets and growing your community. What a win!
Restrict Tickets with Event Tickets + Restrict Content Pro
By combining Restrict Content Pro with Event Tickets Plus, you can create exclusive tickets for your site members. Here are the plugins needed to make this happen:
- The Events Calendar with the Members Only Tickets extension. The extension adds the ability to limit access to view or purchase tickets by membership level.
- Event Tickets Plus to allow you to sell tickets and collect RSVPs for events.
- Restrict Content Pro to give access to members in a lightweight ecommerce solution at an affordable price.
- WooCommerce to sell tickets and memberships in your store.
Here’s our video walkthrough of how to pair Event Tickets and Restrict Content Pro for a member’s only ticket option:
Explore the Restrict Content Pro demo site to see how a gated membership works. Then, try the Event Tickets demo to see a live preview of how to add ticket functionality to your site.
This post originally appeared on RestrictContentPro.com