Now, more than ever, charitable organizations and nonprofits need to know how to sell fundraiser tickets online because their audience of potential donors prefers quick, digital transactions. Indeed, most donors actively choose to buy fundraiser tickets online rather than handing over cash for paper tickets. Not only is it easier for them but it’s also often easier for you—the event organizer.
Some statistics suggest that between 60% and 90% of all fundraising or charitable event tickets are sold digitally—with a majority of those being purchased on mobile devices.
We’ve created an impactful list of best practices you can use when organizing your next event in order to capture this missing element of your marketing strategy. Whether it’s the first time you’ve offered digital tickets or the hundredth, below are tips on how to sell fundraiser tickets online successfully!
7 Easy Tips to Sell Fundraiser Tickets Online
1) Find the Right Online Ticketing Platform
There are several online ticketing platforms you could use to sell fundraiser tickets online, but you need to choose the platform that works for you. Not all tools, services or pricing is the same. The first thing you’ll want to do is look at the features these platforms offer.
Do they:
- Offer integrated social sharing and tracking tools?
- Give you the back-end data you need to track attendance, sales, and promotional performance?
- Let you customize the selling experience to engender trust within your attendees?
- Offer the features you need without making you choose overpriced plans?
- Process payouts in a timely fashion (not just after your event has happened)?
- Use ticket sales pages that are search engine and mobile-optimized so people can find your event whenever and wherever they are?
- Offer, on average, 50% lower ticketing fees than other ticketing platforms?
Ticketstripe is a full-service online ticketing platform that does all of this and more. We give you a host of custom ticketing options and promotional tools that lets you get started selling tickets within minutes. And, we’re always happy to help you every step of the way.
2) Stand Out with a Customized Guest Experience
Every potential donor wants a buying experience that’s fast and intuitive, but they also need to trust the event to decide to buy in the first place. Trust (or the lack thereof) is the leading reason for shopping cart abandonment in online purchases. Statistics show that if people don’t feel they can purchase securely, they’ll leave items in their online carts nearly 75% of the time.
Ticketstripe allows you to easily create a customized guest experience for your donors by placing the emphasis on your organization. Our landing pages are completely brandable so your organization’s name is placed front and center. We don’t hijack your customers information, offering them tickets to competing events like other online ticketing platforms do.
3) Offer Incentives
A certain number of your customers will support your fundraiser no matter what. These are usually your longtime supporters or close friends and family members of event staff and volunteers. But, how do you convince those people who aren’t quite convinced? Those who don’t already have a vested interest in the success of your fundraiser?
Offering incentives such as special VIP tickets or holding promotional contests are great ways to increase ticket sales. These methods not only create a sense of excitement surrounding your fundraiser, but they also add an element of fun to the ticket purchasing process. That emotional investment often tips the scales in your favor.
In short, if your donors think they’re getting something exclusive, if they are emotionally invested in getting their hands on your tickets, or if they think they might win something they’re more likely to buy.
4) Offer Upsells
Another great way to sell more fundraiser tickets online is to offer your customers the ability to pay more. It almost seems counterintuitive, but people will often choose more expensive tickets over base rate ones if you include a premium experience. These upsells don’t even have to be all that extravagant. You could offer a special VIP seating area, early access to your fundraising event, a commemorative keepsake, or even their name on a list of donors presented in a slideshow or plaque.
Ticketstripe allows you to create an unlimited number of ticket types—including VIP tickets—in order to help you generate as much excitement as possible and increase the profitability of every ticket sold.
5) Create Urgency
Urgency has long been a staple of marketing messages, simply because it works. If people know that they have to buy your tickets soon or risk missing out, that added incentive may be just what they need to complete the checkout process.
You can create urgency in a number of ways, but when selling fundraiser tickets online, it’s best to do so discreetly. Rather than splash flashy banners all over your event page, consider creating multiple ticketing tiers with timestamped deadlines. You’re essentially creating a discount for those who buy early.
Knowing how many people are actually attending your event months and weeks in advance lets you revamp your marketing if you’re underselling, or expand your event if you’re promotions have outperformed your expectations.
There’s another benefit of selling tickets sooner too. Ticketstripe pays out fast when using our default merchant option, STRIPE, usually within just 2 days of ticket purchases. That means you can use that money to reinvest in your event to make it bigger and better.
Let's Team Up
6) Use Social Integration
Social media marketing is your friend when trying to sell fundraiser tickets online. People are much more likely to buy if your event is being promoted by family or close friends. You don’t even have to buy ads on these social platforms to take advantage of this type of homegrown marketing. You just need to make it easy for your donors to share your event with their personal audiences.
Ticketstripe easily integrates social sharing on every event page. All your buyers have to do is simply click a button. You can customize a suggested message so your social sharing is even more effective. And why not include your social handles on the actual tickets? Ticketstripe lets you customize an additional message that is included on every purchased ticket.
Want to get even more creative? Create social contests! Give those who share your event with their friends the opportunity to win something special (like a VIP upgrade) and watch your event’s outreach grow!
7) Target Other Organizations
Targeting individual donors is a good way to sell fundraiser tickets online. However, if you target entire organizations, you can multiply your reach while minimizing your promotional expenses.
One easy way to do this is to look for organizations in your area which might be willing to partner with you. For example, if your fundraiser is raising money for local food banks, you might want to partner with local grocery stores and markets. They may choose to promote your event to employees or even their own customers, because combatting food insecurity is a charity most grocers support anyway.
Alternatively, you can choose to target organizations that your staff and volunteers work for. In a sense, having that person as an employee helps you get your foot in the door. Just be careful about individual company’s solicitation policies and always engage in such promotions in an open fashion.
Your Ticketing Platform Should Work for You
You need to know how to sell fundraiser tickets online and Ticketstripe is here to help. We’ve been a trusted partner for charities, nonprofits, and event organizers for years because we’re invested in your success. Indeed, we’ve created our ticketing platform so it can work for you, whether you’re an experienced organizer promoting multiple events at once or a first-time volunteer in charge of your organization’s annual fundraising event.
With powerful tools, we let experienced organizers take complete control of the process, from ticket type creation and personal branding, through affiliate promoter management and social media marketing. With a streamlined user interface, we help newcomers make the most of the tools we offer without overwhelming them with complications they don’t need.
We’re so committed to helping fundraisers succeed that we offer discounted ticket pricing for nonprofit organizations and free ticketing services for free events.
Planning your next fundraising event? Learn how to sell fundraiser tickets online with Ticketstripe and streamline your success.