Sold-out events are the result of careful ticket pricing strategies and strategic marketing rather than chance. With a detailed ticketing strategy designed for your target audience, you’ll be better positioned to generate awareness, accelerate your ticket sales, and sell out your events every time.
Looking for different pricing strategies? Checkout our other articles:
- Pricing Strategies to Increase Your Activity Bookings
- Pricing Strategies to Increase Your Product Sales
In a hurry, jump to the section you’re most interested in:
- CHARM PRICING VS. ROUNDED PRICING
- SEASONAL PRICING STRATEGY FOR EVENT TICKETS
- BUNDLED TICKET PRICING STRATEGY FOR EVENT TICKETS
- TOP-TIER TICKET PRICING STRATEGY FOR EVENT TICKETS
- TIMED BATCH PRICING STRATEGY FOR EVENT TICKETS
- PRICE DISCOUNT STRATEGY FOR EVENT TICKETS
- HOW TO SELL OUT YOUR EVENTS ON EXPLORINGNOTBORING.COM
What is Strategic Pricing?
Strategic pricing for your event is a marketing decision.
If you want to catch more fish in an ocean swarming with other fisherman boasting big fat squirmy worms, you need to analyze the landscape, test the waters, and strategize the sweet spot to throw your line with the right bait at the right time for the hook and sinker.
In other words, your ticket prices are informed by your market research, customer research, and real-world data (Are tickets selling fast? If not, it might be your pricing strategy, marketing strategy, or both).
As we learned in our article, “Understanding Strategic Pricing“:
Strategic pricing is finding that sweet spot where you make a good profit, people want to buy, and everyone goes home happy.
Once you’ve aligned your price with the value delivered (while minimizing the cost-to-serve), then you can strategize ways to sell more of it—Using ticket bundles, creating urgency, and communicating value.
FYI: Event creators, much like travelers and consumers in general, are favoring unique, authentic local experiences and the venues that can provide them. Knowing this, you can tailor your offer to be more unique and grassroots, build strategic pricing and messaging that communicates the value you deliver, and increase the number of conversions you receive at the desired price you want to earn.
Know Your “Break Even” Milestone
Before you set your price, first, you need to know your overhead. How much do you need to bring home to cover expenses? Stakeholders? Etc.
This is your “break-even” milestone.
You should calculate incurred expenses and projected expenses.
Next, research your market to understand your competitors’ pricing.
Conduct Market Research for Competitive Pricing
Look around and see what other people with similar events are charging. You want your price to be competitive, which means it’s similar to what others are charging for a similar experience.
Keep in mind, 82% of consumers compare prices before making an online purchase. Don’t you?
Also, researching consumer behavior and market conditions can help you adapt your pricing strategies to align with the latest trends.
How to Sell More Event Tickets in 2023 & Beyond!
Okay, it’s time to get down to business. Now that you’ve laid the groundwork, here are a few pricing strategies to increase online ticket sales for any event in 2023 and beyond:
CHARM PRICING VS. ROUNDED PRICING STRATEGY
Have you considered the perception consumers have of the numbers in your pricing? Depending on your offer, the type of customers you’re looking to attract, and your marketing goals, you may want to use charm pricing or rounded pricing together or exclusively.
Charm pricing, also known as psychological pricing due to the psychological influence it has to sway customers to buy, is a pricing and marketing strategy based on prices expressed as “just-below numbers”—a little less than a round number or whole number, like $9.99 instead of $10. By dropping the price by one cent, the customer associates the cost closer to $9 than $10 and creates the impression of a bargain.
Rounded pricing, on the other hand, involves pricing a product at a whole number, often ending in 0 or 5. This can create the impression of quality, exclusivity, and luxury.
PRO TIP: Round prices for high-quality offers 👍
To communicate that your offer is a high-end experience, choose a premium pricing strategy that uses rounded pricing with whole numbers.
EXAMPLE:
- Half-Day Circus Festival: $150
- VIP 3-Day Pass: $500
- +Bottle of Champagne Add-On: $80
PRO TIP: If using charm pricing, end prices with the number 9. According to research from the journal Quantitative Marketing and Economics, prices ending in 9 were able to outsell even lower prices for the same product by an average 24%. This is an old trick, but it’s still effective.
PRO TIP: While we’re on the topic of numbers, it’s worth adding here that you should keep your prices simple. In a paper published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, researchers found that prices containing more syllables seemed drastically higher to consumers.
Here are the pricing structures that were tested:
- $1,499.00
- $1,499
- $1499
The top two prices seemed far higher than the third price. This effect occurs because of the way one would say the numbers out loud or evaluated internally: “One thousand four hundred and ninety-nine,” versus “fourteen ninety-nine.” Case and point: avoid all unnecessary additions for the simplest price possible.
SEASONAL PRICING STRATEGY FOR EVENT TICKETS
Seasonal pricing means charging higher prices during peak seasons when demand is high and lower prices during off-peak seasons when demand is low. But it’s not limited to summer, spring, fall, or winter pricing, holidays are a great opportunity to capture short-term increased demand.
PRO TIP: Father’s Day typically sees a spike in bookings, and obviously Christmas hits the list, but also, Labor Day Weekend and Valentine’s Day.
Especially during the times of the year when people are looking for gift ideas and inspiration, promote your offer and encourage giving someone the gift of experience—62% of U.S. adults now prefer to receive an experience gift over a material gift—or collecting experiences rather than possessions.
A study by Harris Group found that 72% of millennials prefer to spend more money on experiences than on material things.
P.S. Millennials are America’s largest generation by population, they command an estimated $1.3 trillion in annual consumer spending, and they’re increasingly spending their time and money on experiences.
For Millennials, happiness isn’t as focused on possessions or career status. Living a meaningful, happy life is about creating, sharing and capturing memories earned through experiences that span the spectrum of life’s opportunities.
P.S.S. We’re releasing digital gift cards on exploringnotboring.com soon, so giving the gift of experience is easy (and ready for the Holiday season).
BUNDLED TICKET PRICING STRATEGY FOR EVENT TICKETS
Whether you provide murder mystery dinner theater, circus festivals, dance mob events, fitness bootcamps, stand-up comedy nights, craft fairs, trivia at the local brewery, or neighborhood yoga at the park, you can create perceived value by adding multiple items into one bundle at a reduced price compared to having all items purchased separately. This is also a good way to motivate the purchase of add-on items, such as meals, transportation, accommodation, exclusive access, extracurricular activities, and more.
PRO TIP: Ticket bundles incentivize more sales with group discounts and upsells that help enhance your customer experience, and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty:
- Date Night (2 tickets included)
- Double Date (4 tickets included)
- Fam Bam (up to 5 tickets included)
- Birthday Party (Private Group up to 20)
- Buy 2 Get 1 FREE! (3 tickets included)
- Group up to 4 (4 tickets included)
- Bounce Back (2 events included)
- Annual Pass (4 events included)
We make ticket bundles super easy on exploringnotboring.com, check it:
Learn how to add Pricing and Advanced Ticketing Options to Events.
TOP-TIER TICKET PRICING STRATEGY FOR EVENT TICKETS
Having a premium ticket alongside other cheaper ticket options often makes lower price tickets seem more attractive, therefore increasing demand and pushing sales. Even if you don’t sell many of the higher ticket prices (though some customers are always going to want the most expensive option), it helps set a price anchor to influence sales for your regular-priced tickets.
This is also called Price Anchoring. Think of it this way, the best way to sell a $2,000 event ticket is to put it right next to a $10,000 event ticket. How does that work? Cognitive bias called anchoring is our human tendency to heavily rely on the first piece of information offered when making decisions and allowing that number to influence how we think about the prices that come after it. Since our brain gets stuck on that first number, it can make us think something is a better deal than it really is.
EXAMPLE:
Imagine you’re shopping for tickets to a private island circus festival, and you see two price options. The first one says, “Original Price: $500, Now $350!” The second one just says, “Price: $350.”
Anchoring is when your brain gets “anchored” or stuck on the first number you see, which is the original price of $500. Even though tickets are now selling for $350, your brain might think, “Wow, tickets used to be $500, so $350 is a great deal!” And you might be more likely to buy tickets because you feel like you’re getting a big discount.
Psychological or behavioral biases, like anchoring, affect all buyers and vary depending on the person’s nature. According to Michael M. Pompian, author of Behavioral Finance and Wealth Management, people can be cognitive or emotional. Cognitive bias include: overconfidence, representativeness, anchoring, framing, cognitive conflict, availability, mental accounting etc. Emotional prejudices include: loss aversion, optimism and status quo bias.
PRO TIP: Try adding a high-value VIP ticket, which may include exclusive access perks, to appeal to the segment of your attendees who are looking for the best experience. This also establishes price anchoring.
TIMED BATCH PRICING STRATEGY FOR EVENT TICKETS
Similarly to tiered early bird pricing, you can create pricing tiers based on milestone dates. You can create as many tiers as you wish, adding price increases as it gets closer to the event date. Make sure the increases are significant enough to make people want to purchase early. An increase of at least 10% is recommended.
Here is an example of a timed event ticket pricing strategy:
| Purchase by September 1st @ $275 |
| Purchase by September 14 @ $315 |
| After September 14, regular price @ $375 |
PRICE DISCOUNT STRATEGY FOR EVENT TICKETS
Whether you give a percentage discount of a fixed dollar amount, a discount can make all the difference based on the perceived value of the discount. Follow the “Rule of 100”, which uses percentage discounts for ticket prices under $100, and dollar amounts for prices over $100.
Here are some examples:
| Ticket price | Discount (%) | Discount ($) | Best Option |
| $10 | 20% | $2.00 | 20% |
| $20 | 20% | $4.00 | 20% |
| $100 | 20% | $20 | $20 |
| $500 | 20% | $100 | $100 |
How to sell out your events on exploringnotboring.com
As a double-sided community marketplace: we help anyone to have more fun, uniquely local experiences; while helping local entrepreneurs grow their unique activities, events and products that encourage self-growth, well-being, and life satisfaction. Did you know there’s a powerful connection between new & diverse experiences, happiness, and increased brain activity?
Your events can help open the door to new & diverse experiences for visitors of exploringnotboring.com, leading to lifelong memories ✨
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As mentioned, sold-out events are the result of careful ticket pricing strategies and strategic marketing rather than chance.
Design your ticketing strategy for your target audience, then generate awareness to accelerate your ticket sales and sell out your events every time.
This is easy to do with exploringnotboring.com 👇
Learn how to add Pricing and Advanced Ticketing Options to Events
Learn how to add Pricing and Advanced Ticketing Options to Activities
Add Pricing Options to Products—Coming soon!
Over to You!
Every business needs great pricing strategies to keep their profit margins high without reducing demand. When you have a solid process for how you price each of your products or services, you can captivate your customers and make them loyal to your brand with every new idea you launch.
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