It’s the biggest event night of the year. People come out in droves looking for the sort of experience that will result in a story told for years to come, and there’s no shortage of options to choose from. But with a New Year’s Eve party on every corner, how do you make yours stand out?
The implications are clear. New Year’s Eve celebrates not just the end of one year, but the beginning of another. Making an impression on your guests can have a ripple effect – give them a night to remember, and your attendees might be seeking out your events all year. So attracting as many party-goers as possible can have a big impact on your success in the coming year. While you may have your event all planned out, marketing and promotions are a whole different animal.
So what are the best New Year’s Eve event promotion ideas? Are you up to date on how to promote a party on social media? Should you think about hiring a party promoter? You’ve got questions – and we’ve got answers, so read on.
10. Start your New Year’s Eve marketing sooner
The most successful New Year’s parties start by promoting months in advance with a website, social media presence, and online ticketing options. Planning ahead allows time for organic buzz to spread and gives you ample time to track your data on ticket sales.
Using Eventbrite Boost puts an array of tools at your fingertips to help you spread the word across social media channels and by direct email. Send customizable emails across your contact list, create branded event pages, get personalised marketing plans, and more, all aimed toward facilitating your NYE party marketing and promotion efforts. If the tools are available, it’s a smart choice to put them to work for you.
9. Motivate the early birds with multiple NYE party ticket options
To snag those looking for an NYE deal or special access, you should be leveraging different ticket choices. You can set up multiple ticket types within your ticketing platform to help you roll out a sound pricing strategy. Get your initial buyers excited, and they’re more likely to spread the word to their friends and family.
There are typically two general strategies with respect to ticketing. Offering an elevated tier of tickets, such as higher-priced VIP tickets that provide increased access or special deals and treats, can help create the impression that your event offers more than a competing New Year’s Eve event. It’s all about creating FOMO (fear of missing out) on the most exclusive New Year’s Eve parties.
Alternatively, discounts can motivate those who are interested but uncommitted to actually make the ticket purchase. For example, an early bird discount can woo back past attendees and put pressure on recipients to act by a certain date. You get to decide how long the early bird lasts and how much of a discount you want to offer attendees. Then, advertise this ticket type to loyal fans or “on-the-fence” wafflers. An early bird ticket will often provide enough of a discount to convince them to save their spot before general admission opens up.
Another discount option is the coded discount. Targeted discounts give specific groups of attendees the option to purchase reduced-price tickets with a special promotional code. Use it to kick off a pre-sale for return event-goers, offer last-minute discounts, or extend your marketing efforts via exclusive partner discounts.
8. Make your NYE party worth splurging on
New Year’s only happens once a year, and people love to splash out. Many people are willing to pay a higher ticket price if they’re guaranteed a glamorous evening.
Offer VIP experiences can also help reduce no-shows at free events. If you have the resources to provide a premium experience, this is the second most important ticket type after GA for driving revenue. Not sure what to offer? Revellers are happy to pay more for things like:
- Open bars
- Free Champagne
- Artist lounge access
- Premium restrooms
- Fast, private entry (a killer perk in chilly December)
- The option to reserve front-row seats
What sets this year apart, however, is the ongoing COVID pandemic. While the desire to celebrate and spend time with friends after over a year of social distancing is high, there remains a continuing unease that may affect in-person attendance. How this concern will ultimately affect ticket sales is up in the air, but it likely will increase interest in hybrid and virtual celebrations, so be sure to consider ways of including an online element to your NYE party.
7. Reward your event promotion specialists
For your party to attract the numbers you want, you should enlist a network of promoters. Fans, performers, sponsors, vendors, social media celebrities – all can contribute to spreading the word. Eventbrite Boost makes it easy to post across social media, which can make it even easier to enlist promotion support.
Show your gratitude and inspire attendee enthusiasm by giving them custom discount codes they can distribute or by offering special access to VIP ticket holders. This lets you track which promoters drive the most ticket sales and reward them in kind.
6. Make purchasing tickets for your NYE party as easy as possible
Make it easy for people to buy tickets right when and where they find out about your New Year’s Eve party. If you use Eventbrite, you can place “buy now” buttons directly on Facebook, as well as on apps and sites where potential attendees search for cool events: Google, Spotify, Bandsintown, Songkick, and SeatGeek. Leverage these platforms the right way and watch your ticket sales soar.
5. Drive organic online searches for exclusive New Year’s Eve parties
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is how you get your event to rank higher on a search results page like Google. If someone Googles “New Year’s Eve party in Dublin”, your nearby event should pop right up. Ignore these techniques and your event might end up lost on page seven in the Google search results, cutting awareness of your event significantly.
The first step is to invest in writing your online event descriptions. Use keywords you know people will search for, and use a ticketing platform (hello, Eventbrite!) that Google trusts to help your chances. Repeating keywords in online descriptions and headings can improve search response as well, so make sure you understand how search engines work – and put them to work for you.
4. Curate your party theme
You might have an idea of a theme for your New Year’s party, but the devil, as they say, is in the details. Start brainstorming now to create a purposeful experience for your attendees, all the way down to the signature cocktails, lobby music, and décor. A Twenties jazz-and-flappers theme suits the occasion, but as long as it’s in good fun and harmless, pretty much any theme can be made to work. Be sure to check out our Ultimate Guide to Planning a New Year’s Eve party for a range of smart tips and insightful advice.
3. Know that people often have last-minute NYE party ideas
Yes, it’s important to promote your event early to get it on the radar of search engines and real people. But you also have to be realistic about the last-minute buyers.
Here are some expert ideas from our NYE party planning checklist to win over last-minute buyers:
- Make sure your event is listed on social discovery sites like Facebook Events, Bandinstown, and Eventbrite to get in front of local people looking for something to do.
- Use your own social media platforms to your advantage by posting FOMO-inducing photos that show happy people having a blast.
- Retarget! Use your email list to remind busy folks that your event is still an option for their NYE celebration.
- Let them know tickets are more expensive at the door – but they still have time to buy online at the cheaper price!
2. Avoid hectic last-minute cancellations
Avoid last-minute cancellations with a firm return policy that’s clear up front. Your policy should be easy to find on your website, event listings, and email marketing. After all, you’ve spent time and money preparing the event, so it’s fair to expect your guests to respect policies that protect your investment. While you may know how to throw a last-minute New Year’s Eve party, you made the effort instead to plan ahead, and your guests can do the same – so long as they know the deal going in.
Before sales launch, choose whether or not your ticket buyers can transfer their purchase to someone else. You can also define which tickets are transferable – for instance, making VIP tickets transferable might make people less hesitant to buy them in the first place.
These policies can be especially important while COVID remains a concern. Is proof of vaccination required for admittance? It can quickly get confusing as to who has been approved for entry and who has not if ticket transfers complicate the issue.
1. Make entry to your NYE party easy
Your marketing efforts have all paid off. Now it’s time to prove that choosing your New Year’s party was the right decision.
Use a mobile app like Eventbrite Organiser to help your staff check in party-goers quickly at multiple entrances. Avoid annoying lines and entry turmoil with a smooth, efficient entry operation that can quickly verify identity, giving attendees more time to spend revelling at the bar! Make it contactless to avoid unnecessary spreading of germs and assure your guests you have their health top of mind.
Boost your event promotion and boost your growth
Using a few simple tricks like these can elevate your New Year’s Eve marketing and help make your event the place to be. It might be surprising how simple some of these ideas really are at their root. When you over-complicate your messaging, your themes, your processes, or the event itself, you risk confusing your guests and blurring your messaging.
Using intuitive marketing tools like Eventbrite Boost helps keep things simple by being straightforward to use. But don’t let that ease-of-use fool you. It gives you powerful data and technology that gets your messaging out in ways you maybe never thought possible. Explore how Boost can help you – and do it soon. The New Year is right around the corner.
