How You Can Use Eventbrite To Supercharge Your Events

Today, we’re going to be putting together a tutorial for Eventbrite, one of the most powerful ticketing and registration management applications in the world. By using it, you can essentially make event registration a cakewalk for your guests from beginning to end – in addition to getting an awesome-looking event page and formidable marketing campaign on its feet.

Let’s dive right in – how can you use Eventbrite to make your events better than ever?

The Setup Process

One of the greatest things about Eventbrite – and perhaps the thing that’s made it so popular as an event management tool – is how easy it is to use. To get started, all you need to do is sign up for a free account then create an event through the website or application. Once you’ve done that, the process is as follows:

• Choose your ticket type: There are three basic options – free, paid, and donation – but you can also create custom ticket types after you’ve gotten your event page set up. Details that you can customize about each different type of ticket includes price, availability, discounts/codes, when they’ll be on sale, who they’re visible to, tickets allowed per order, and descriptions for attendees. You can read more about ticket types here. Note that Eventbrite charges 2.5% of the ticket plus $0.99 per ticket, plus a 3.5% payment processing fee.
• Customize your event page: Eventbrite is packaged with powerful site creation software that allows you to either select a customizable page template from a list or create your own page with HTML. You can include options such as reserved seating, special perks, and questionnaires that help you get to know your guests.
• Publish your event page: This is when you should start sharing it on social media. Let people know all the details about the upcoming event, and instruct them on the details of the registration process.
• Track your sales: You will be able to do this easily through Eventbrite’s analytics tools.

Easy, right? You can see why we haven’t really devoted much time to teaching the basics of how to use the platform. Instead, we’re going to focus on a few specific factors – a few sticking points which, if you can overcome them, will make your experience with Eventbrite that much better.

Make Sure You Have a Mailing List

If you’re going to be sending out invitations via email, you first need to make sure you have a group of people you can send it to. You also need to be absolutely certain that those people actually want to receive information about your event, and won’t simply mark anything they receive from you as spam. Eventbrite allows you to upload contacts from a number of different email clients, as well as .cv and .txt files. Put together a comprehensive list of leads that you feel likely to be interested in attending your event, and upload them into Eventbrite.

If you have a good mailing list, using the email function will help net you registrations to boost sales and attendance. Even better, Eventbrite will tell you exactly how successful your efforts were – it’ll track how many users registered as a result of the invitation you sent out. That way, you know whether or not you chose your mailing list wisely; if no one you emailed bothered to register, you probably need to take another look at it.

Don’t Be Afraid To Collect Custom Information

Certain events require more information than simply name and email. You should never be afraid to implement custom fields into your event registration process that ask for pertinent details. A banquet, for example, may include meal choice options, while a fundraiser could collect data such as T-shirt size and a gated event could require information like registrant name and business name.

Eventbrite actually makes the process of inserting custom fields incredibly easy – you can attach certain fields to certain ticket types on your registration page, meaning that guests who choose one type of ticket will see a different set of questions from guests who choose another. That allows you to create VIP passes, for example; or to sell different tickets for different areas of a conference.

Use Eventbrite’s Public Directory – And Make Sure Your Event Has A Classification

While most advice pertaining to event marketing concerns social media,  you shouldn’t underestimate how much traffic you could bring in simply by making use of Eventbrite’s public directory. Classify your event under the appropriate categories, and set up a blurb for the public directory listing. Appearance is everything here – the more professional your listing looks; the better.

Not only that, Eventbrite actually does a fairly decent job of SEO. What that means for you is that by submitting your event to Eventbrite’s public directory, you’re making it easier to locate through Google (and a host of other search engines, as well). Again, more discoverability is always a good thing. 

Use Google’s Suite Of Tools For Promotion And Tracking

Speaking of search engines, you’re going to want to make full use of Google analytics in order to track your event – everything from visitors to bounce rate to the origin of your traffic. This will go a long way towards helping with your marketing and promotion efforts, and best of all, it’s entirely free to use. Analytics isn’t the only tool you’ll want to implement, either.

You’ll also want to display your event Venue on Google Maps. Not only will this make it easier for people to find your event, but it’ll also help improve your rankings in search.

Design Your Website And Event Pages Properly

Eventbrite makes it easy to set up a professional-looking registration page, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have an event page in addition to that. Having an additional landing page for your event can allow you to provide guests with more details about what you aim to do, while at the same time allowing for more traffic to reach you. Just make sure you design it well. 

Especially now that so much of the world is connected, it’s imperative that event management professionals understand something about web design – or at the very least, hire someone who does. An event page that’s inviting, easily navigable, and pleasing to the eye is sure to attract more registrations than one that’s obtuse, ugly as sin, or simply doesn’t play nice on all platforms.

The Eventbrite Blog actually has a pretty decent set of guidelines that you should follow when setting up both your registration page and the website to which it’s connected. Mind you, their article is a bit dated – it’s almost four years old now – so we’ve added a few entries of our own to the list. Here are a few best practices for your event page’s design:

• Keep It Simple: Make use of attention-grabbing teasers that consist of no more than one or two sentences, and keep whatever descriptive copy you put on your event page brief. People don’t want to read through a wall of text for the details of your event – they want the information as fast as you can possibly deliver it.
• Make Sure You Get The Details Right: Before publishing your event page; I urge you to double, triple, and quadruple check that all the information you’ve presented there is accurate. Few things will deter potential guests more quickly than inconsistent information. It also helps to have someone else take a look at it who is aware of the details to make sure that you didn’t miss anything.
• Freebies Are Important: There are few things people enjoy more than free stuff –and emphasizing that you’re going to have a bunch of free stuff at your event is a great way to up your attendance.
• It Needs To Work Well On Mobile: With 60% of Internet access taking place primarily on mobile devices, there’s no longer any legitimate excuse for neglecting mobile as a platform. If your event page doesn’t work on mobile devices, then you’re probably going to lose out on attendees. 
• Link to Your Business’s Main Website: Plenty of your prospective attendees are probably going to want to read a bit more information about your brand or firm before they commit to going to one of your events. Accommodate them. Provide a link on your events page that takes people back to your main website.
• The Better It Looks, The Better Off You’ll Be: For both your registration page and your event page, appearances are everything. An attractive, professional page is naturally going to sell more tickets than one that looks frumpy, poorly-conceived, or just plain boring. Don’t scare off people with too many frills, simple and sleep is usually the way to go.
• Make Use Of The Event Details Page: Although you should definitely keep it as concise as possible; the more information you can offer your guests, the better. Details such as parking, refund policy, appropriate dress, and contact numbers for major event staff are all extremely important, and should not be neglected.

Remember That You’ve Got a Team

One last piece of advice before we wrap things up – as an event organizer, you’ve presumably got a team of passionate, hard-working individuals at your command. Make use of them. Eventbrite allows you to create multiple users, each with its own set of permissions and privileges. Use this to equip your team with the capacity to help you better plan your event.

Closing Thoughts

Most of the best event planners understand that, skills aside, they’re only as good as the tools they use. As one of the most effective ticketing and registration platforms on the market, Eventbrite can go a long way towards improving your conference, trade show, or fundraiser. Hopefully now, you’ve a better idea of how to use it – and how it can enrich your event by making registration simpler, more streamlined, and more accessible for everyone.