Choosing the right event pricing strategy can be a challenge for even the most seasoned event professionals. It’s vital to price the event high enough to make money and low enough to be fair and attractive to attendees. Deciding what type (or types) of ticket options to offer is equally important.
How do you strike the right balance for your event? Using our more than 20 years of experience, TCFLinen has created a comprehensive guide to event pricing. Whether you’re hosting a corporate function or a school event, the following information will teach you about event pricing strategy and how to ensure your events are priced for maximum ROI.
What Is an Event Pricing Strategy (and Why Does It Matter)?
Your event pricing strategy is the method you use to determine the right price and way to sell tickets for your event. It considers the type of event you’re hosting as well as consumer demand and your competition in the market. The goal is to attract event attendees and maximize profit.
Selecting the right pricing strategy is vital for a number of reasons:
- Attract More Attendees: When your tickets are priced right, you’ll attract more attendees to your event.
- Earn More Money: More attendees mean more ticket revenue, while more revenue helps offset your costs to give you a better return on investment (ROI).
- Gain More Market Share: When your events have more attractive ticket pricing than your competitors, you’re more likely to become the preferred event company. This results in more market share than your competition.
What Factors Affect an Event Pricing Strategy?
Deciding how to price your event and sell tickets requires you to consider several factors. Some are internal business factors, while others are external ones.
Below are examples of internal and external factors related to event pricing strategy:
Types of Ticket and Event Pricing Models
It can be overwhelming as you start to learn about all the different pricing strategies for events. However, you don’t need to consider them all for your event. All you need to do is choose from a list of tried-and-true methods.
Here are four of the most popular and profitable event pricing models:
Cost-Based Event Ticket Pricing
One of the most common models for events is cost-based pricing. It requires just a little math to set your ticket prices. You’ll consider your event’s total costs and your break-even point to determine the minimum amount you need to charge for each ticket.
After you have calculated your minimum ticket price, you don’t have to stop there. Also, think about how much profit you want to make from your event before setting your official ticket price.
Competitor-Based Event Ticket Pricing
As you might have guessed from its name, competitor-based ticket pricing involves some market analysis. It requires you to learn about the current ticket rates for similar events hosted in your market.
With this model, you can offer the same prices as your competitors. You also have the option to use data about your competition to set higher or lower prices based on the value your event brings.
Dynamic Event Ticket Pricing
You might have heard this event pricing strategy called demand or time-based pricing. It’s based on the idea that event ticket prices should fluctuate based on demand from your customers.
With this pricing strategy, algorithms are your friends. You can use them to monitor demand, competitor pricing, and other market factors that can affect pricing. Using this information, you’ll match your ticket prices to what potential attendees are currently willing to pay.
Value-Based Event Ticket Pricing
This strategy involves setting the event price based on what your attendees are willing to pay. To properly use this event pricing model, you’ll need to do a little research about your customer base’s interests and preferences.
Because your ticket price is driven by data about your target attendees, you can only set higher ticket prices if the data supports it. However, this model can increase customer loyalty and allow you to feel confident that your target audience will purchase your tickets.
Providing More Choices With Ticketing Options
The event pricing strategies listed above provide a great framework for maximizing your ROI. However, you shouldn’t stop there. Offering several types of tickets can allow more people to attend, which can bring in more revenue for your event.
Most of these event ticket options can work for in-person, virtual, and even hybrid events:
Bundled Tickets
If you want to attract groups of attendees to buy tickets in bulk, bundled ticket pricing is a great option. It’s appealing to families and groups of friends as well as school and corporate groups. It gives the group better pricing, while you get the guaranteed revenue of multiple attendees.
Donation-Based Tickets
Rather than setting a specific price, you can offer donation-based tickets. While you’ll still often list a “suggested donation” amount, you give attendees the option to pay more or less. This option can work well for charitable events.
Early-Bird Tickets
If you’ve ever purchased tickets to an event, there’s a good chance you’ve seen lower pricing offered to “early birds.” This type of pricing rewards attendees with a discount for purchasing their tickets early. This option can often result in an influx of early ticket revenue.
Pay-What-You-Can Tickets
When you want to reach as many people as possible, pay-what-you-can tickets can open the door for more potential attendees. You can choose to truly let people pay what they can or offer a sliding-scale ticket purchase system with different tiers.
VIP Tickets
If you want to bring in more revenue, VIP ticket sales can help. These tickets are available for a higher price in return for exclusive access and experiences like VIP lounges and meet-and-greets.
You can also offer add-on or tiered ticket options. These tickets allow your attendees to pay a bit extra to enjoy certain features for an enhanced experience that’s just short of the full VIP treatment.
How Do You Attract People to Your Event?
Once you know how you want to price your tickets, the final step is deciding how to market and sell them. The good news is you have several online and offline ways to market your event and sell tickets to it.
Below are proven ways to market and sell tickets both online and offline:
Website Marketing
Using your website as a tool to advertise your latest event is just good business if you already have an established web presence. You can highlight your next event on your homepage or a dedicated page. Making it a pop-up message can also help you get the message out.
Just make sure your website or third-party platform is able to handle ticket sales.
Email Marketing
Emailing previous attendees and other people who have joined your mailing list can help spread the word about your event. Don’t forget to include links that can take your readers to where they can purchase tickets online.
Social Media Marketing
Just about everyone is on some form of social media today, so you should be using it to reach your target audience. Use posts to generate excitement and sales by including engaging graphics and language, as well as links to where people can buy tickets.
Offline Marketing
Old-school forms of marketing can still generate buzz for events. Examples include billboards, radio, traditional print media, television, and even word of mouth. With these methods, it’s vital that you let people know exactly where they can buy tickets to your big event.
TCFLinen Helps You Increase Your Event’s Value
Once you understand the event pricing strategy, you need to think about the event decor. Thankfully, TCFLinen offers wow-worthy event essentials and extras for less. Our stunning selection includes linens, dinnerware, lighting, tabletop decor, artificial flowers, backdrops, and furniture that will show your event is worth the price of admission!
When you join our Preferred Partner Program, you’ll gain access to special perks:
- Expert Guidance and Support: Selecting the right event decor and placing large orders just got a lot easier with help from our experienced and friendly team!
- High Quality and Low Prices: Members enjoy our wholesale pricing model that lets them save more when they buy more.
- Speedy and Secure Shipping: Tight deadlines are no match for our fast and reliable shipping options that include overnight delivery.
Knowing how to select the right event pricing strategy (and turning to TCFLinen for gorgeous event decor) can help you enjoy the maximum ROI every time!
Sign up as a Preferred Partner today!
Sources
https://www.perfectvenue.com/post/event-pricing-strategy
https://tripleseat.com/blog/best-practices-on-setting-the-right-price-for-your-event-space/
