Planning an event, such as a music concert or festival, can be extremely tough. Not only do you need to find the perfect date and time for your event, but you also need to decide how much tickets will cost and where people will buy them from. You then need to choose an event ticketing software that carries out all of these tasks; it’s no easy task given the amount of choice out there.
But to start with, what is an event ticketing system exactly?
An event ticketing software enables you to take online bookings for events, whether that’s a show by Beyonce or a football match. It makes it easy to sell tickets and offers several powerful analytics tools for keeping track of bookings, plus the ability to market your event through social media.
The best event ticketing software provides a one-stop-shop where you can sell tickets online and through social media, receive automatic notifications of anyone who books or cancels a ticket and promote your event through email campaigns.
There’s so much to consider though when choosing an event ticketing software – do you go for the simplest solution that will only get the job done but won’t provide you with any additional benefits, or do you want a package that will give your event the edge by providing detailed analytics and the ability to sell tickets wherever you are?
Here are 10 things to consider when choosing an event ticketing software:
1. Reliability
When you’re planning an event, there’s nothing worse than knowing that your ticketing system will go down when hundreds of people are trying to buy tickets. If the software suddenly stops working, you’ll lose all sellable space and no one will want to attend. You need your ticketing software to be completely reliable so that everyone trusts it with their payment information.
2. Features
If you want to promote your event in a unique way, it makes sense to choose an event ticketing system with advanced features that allow you to do this. You might also benefit from being able to buy tickets via text messages or social media, which can help boost sales and extend your target audience.
Some important features should include;
– Multi-language support –
The software that you choose should be multilingual so that you can attract customers from across the world.
– Social media integration –
You might want to promote your event on social media, which means it’s an advantage for the ticketing system you choose to have this feature. This will allow you to upload your event information onto social media websites, allowing people who are browsing through these sites to see it.
3. Ticket printing
When choosing an event ticketing system, one important thing that you have to consider is whether the software allows you to print tickets. This comes in really useful if there are certain restrictions involved with attending your event, such as bringing an ID.
4. Analytics
If you’re planning on keeping your ticket price at a certain amount for each event, it’s vital that you make the most out of your profits by using analytics to monitor which events are selling well and at what point in time. This way, you can repeat successful events or make changes to ones that aren’t selling as well as you’d like.
5. Ease of use
This may seem obvious, but it’s important to ensure that the software is easy to use so that your team can work with it without any hassle or frustration. You also want to be able to upload information onto the system quickly and do everything within a standard timeframe.
6. Mobile ticketing
If your event is somewhere that isn’t accessible to everyone, such as a football stadium or theatre, you might want to take advantage of mobile ticketing so that people can access the event even if they arrive late. It’s completely secure and works on any smartphone device, allowing customers to have their tickets on them wherever they are.
7. Ability to promote
Depending on where your event will be held, it might be difficult for potential customers to find out about it. This is why it’s important that your ticketing system has the ability to promote the event through email campaigns to further boost sales, especially if you’re selling tickets at a certain price range.
8. Security
When planning an event, one of your biggest priorities is ensuring the security of everyone involved and that includes your customers. You don’t want to risk having their credit card information stolen online or even worse; paying for a ticket and never receiving it! With world-class security features such as SSL certification along with fraud protection measures, you can rest assured that your customers’ details are completely safe.
9. 24/7 Support
When you’re organizing an event, it’s likely that you’ll have a lot more questions to ask than usual. When this happens, the best thing to do is get in touch with the ticketing system’s support team as soon as possible so that they can help you solve your issue. Therefore, it’s important for them to be available via various channels such as online chat, email, and phone (landline or mobile).
10. Upgrades
Most event ticketing software will include a number of upgrades each year, which can be useful if you want to improve your system and keep your team up-to-date with the latest features and improvements that have been added since purchase. You can also look at industry stats and trends so that you know what sort of ticketing system you should be using.
Wrapping up
These are just some of the things you should consider when choosing an event ticketing system, along with specific questions that you might like to ask each provider about their product. This is especially important if your event is on a larger scale and involves more people than usual; for example; sporting events or concerts.
Another thing to be aware of is that the event ticketing system may be owned by a larger company that specializes in other forms of software. This means you’ll have to consider their other products and what they can do for your business, such as app creation or website development.