Top 7 Event Marketing Mistakes

We could spend a long time writing about event marketing mistakes. Mainly because these mistakes are made by everyone–including those of us that do event marketing for a living. We’ve spent a long time in the event marketing business and made a lot of mistakes! We thought we would share some of the top event marketing mistakes with you. It’s a short and not so sweet list of common pitfalls, road bumps, and hurdles that most event managers struggle with at some point.

Common Event Marketing Mistakes

  1. Failing to realize it takes work. Yes, number one.  Of all the event marketing mistakes, this is the one we see the most. Posting your event with any ticketing company simply is not enough. Over the years we have heard many ticketing company websites advertise they will “sell out your event”; “sell out automation”; and many other nonsense claims. Not so. In fact it takes a great deal of work and attention to detail to sell out an event.
  2. Not creating a reason to buy tickets early. This common with 99.9% of our events and all the others I see too.  If you place tickets on sale 60-90 days out and get nervous about your ticket sales at 45 days out–you just made ticket selling mistake #2. Remember that people who buy tickets early are your event’s biggest fans! Give them $3.00 off if they buy more than 45 days out. If you cannot sell a ticket for $3.00 less, then raise the price of your tickets to make the discount possible.
  3. Not actually selling your event. Simply listing the artist name as the event title is not enough for most events. Use any description areas on the ticket sales website to embed videos and write sales copy.
  4. Help people buy. Did you know 70% of people that start to make a purchase never complete it? That’s according to the pros at the largest and smallest websites on the internet. The reasons are many but include: lack of ticket descriptions, lack of frequently asked questions, lack of any reason to buy early, lack of actually trying to SELL your prospect.
  5. Poorly designed website. Mostly what I am talking about here about poorly placed ticket buying links. You should have what marketers call a clear call to action. For the most part, words like BUY TICKETS, BUY EARLY AND SAVE are the phrases you need to use and make sure people see those buttons.|
  6. Not charging enough. I see this for most events. Mainly events where people are trying to make the event as low cost to attend as possible. By and large, your main goal should be to increase your sales. The reason I say this is because you need the money for advertising and marketing.  However, price is generally NOT the reason people do not buy tickets. The real reason is they do not see the value in buying.  It is ALWAYS better to use many different price points and offer premium seating options to increase revenue.  Start high as you can always discount. Even for general admission events, you can have the first three rows at $40, the next three rows and $30 and remaining at $25. While your focus may be doing your event as a ministry, you still need to cover your cost and make money for your next event.
  7. Waiting too long to ask for help. This is something we see this ALL THE TIME. Don’t wait to the week of the event and call your ticketing company and say “what can we do?” Try and call three weeks out or more if you have any reason to think the event is not doing well. Most artists work with managers, booking agents or others on the team that can help you.  After all, most artists benefit when the room is full. We always tell our clients “call early and often”. In fact, we would rather hear from you too much versus not enough.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comment section below.