Discount codes are a great way to incentivise a purchase! Offer discounts for attendees registering early, use as a means to track the effectiveness of promotional efforts, or even provide to specific customer groups in order to get a comprehensive view of your event’s reach.
Katie Finnigan, Account Manager at Eventbrite, talks us through some of the different discount codes you can set-up on Eventbrite.
Flash sale
Flash sales are a great way to create awareness and buzz about your event. By creating a flash sale for a limited time only, you can control how many of these discounted tickets are purchased. A flash sale is a great way to increase ticket sales during low ticket buying times, for example a week before payday, or after Christmas. They can also be used to link to certain events, for example, why not do seasonal flash sales, such as discounts for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day for example?
The discount code tool allows you to create your code, select which ticket type it is applied to and how long the code is valid for.
You can then track the success of the offer in the Promo Code Usage Event Report.
Below we see the Discount Codes tab, with the code FLASH added. You’ll also see you can choose which ticket types the code can work on, as well as setting a time period that allows the discount code to work.
Once this is live, an attendee can click on the ‘Enter Promotional Code’ link as seen below.
Below we see the FLASH code has been entered, letting the attendee know 10% discount is available.
The attendee can then choose the right ticket type for them and the discount is taken off of the amount, showing them the total to pay.
Early bird offer
We all know from personal experience, that ticket buying is often left to the last minute. This creates a lot of stress for event organisers that need to know how many people are attending for numerous reasons, such as how many drinks to buy etc.
To incentivise people to buy their ticket early, offer an exclusive limited discount on tickets for early bird purchasers. Not only does this encourage attendees to register early, it helps create hype around the event (really handy if you don’t have the line-up finalised for your event). People will often share the fact they are attending the event via social, so an early bird offer could really drive awareness to your event.
The more tickets sold way ahead of the event, the more you are able to be better prepared for the number of attendees coming to your event.
Access codes
Whether it’s for your super fans, VIPs, or any other group, you can use access codes to offer unique special offers for a select number of ticket buyers. Don’t worry about other potential attendees finding out about this super-duper offer, as you can hide that ticket type and assign an access code, allowing that selct group to access their unique ticket.
In the same Discounts Code tab, change the promotion type to ‘access’ and create a code. Below the code ‘SECRET’ has been used.
Below, you can see only two ticket types available; ‘Weekend Ticket’ and ‘VIP Weekend Ticket’.
Once the attendee enters the code SECRET in the Promotional Code tab, they will now have access to the unique ticket type. As you can see below, this has now opened the ticket type ‘Secret After Party Ticket’.
Top Tip: After creating a promotional or access code you can embed that code in a link to publish on your website, blog, email, etc. By using the format below.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ga-test-tickets-23235762792?discount=FLASH
This addition to your URL will allow the registrant to see the discounted prices or hidden tickets on the event page without having to enter the code. Click on the above link and see the discount automatically added for yourself!
Public discounts
Whereas with the access codes different ticket types were hidden, public discount codes can be seen by anyone. This type of discount is a great way to offer lower price tickets for customer segments/specific audience type. This could mean giving a specific discount to students, for specific ticket types.
Public discounts apply to the ticket types you choose and don’t require a promo code, which means attendees can go through a seamless registration process.
An attendee can click on the drop-down box of the ticket type they wish to purchase.
They are then able to click the discount that applies to them, so if you were a student, you would be able to select the ‘Concession Ticket’ below.
Conclusion
Eventbrite offers a number of different ways you can apply discounts to your tickets. Each discount type has its own function, allowing you to offer the right discount, to the right person, at the right time. Discount codes allow you to take control of your ticket sales and adapt the pricing of your tickets depending on the demand.
Click here for more information on how to use discount codes on Eventbrite!
