Capturing Holiday Magic: Event Marketing Strategies for the Holidays in the Experience Economy
October 1, 2024
The holiday season brings families and friends together, providing a perfect opportunity for attractions, theatres, and events to capture the attention of people seeking meaningful ways to connect. During a season where memories often hold more value than material gifts, providing exceptional experiences is key to building your brand equity. But how can you captivate imaginations and convert those moments into direct ticket sales?
By combining a seamless purchase experience, targeted marketing strategies, with actionable insights, you can not only expand holiday audiences but also turn those interactions into measurable revenue. From the first touchpoint to the final sale, each step of the journey should be designed to create a memorable experience that drives results.
Expand Existing Audiences with Tailored Marketing Tools
Before you can convert holiday shoppers, you need to get in front of them. Capturing attention during the festive season requires a thoughtful approach to stand out in a very crowded market. Tailored marketing tools allow you to create meaningful touchpoints that nurture potential customers and guide them toward action.
Timely, personalized communication
A great starting point is any CRM of past attendees, visitors, or customers. Using marketing automation tools to send event-specific emails or SMS messages can be a great way to activate a high-intent ticket purchasing group. Pre-event messages can build anticipation, while post-event follow-ups provide an opportunity to gather feedback and drive repeat sales.
It’s time to advertise
Leverage your existing customer data to build highly targeted advertising campaigns, especially across social media platforms. Having a strong understanding of demographics, geographic, buying behaviour, and attendee make up can help you sharpen your targeting. This not only helps you reach people who have already shown interest but also enables you to create lookalike audiences for broader reach. With active buying audiences, your targeting becomes even more precise, ensuring you make the most of your advertising spend.
Keep visitors coming back
Add interactive features like countdown timers, special offers, pre-sale signups to reduce bounce rates and increase conversions. The goal is to create dynamic moments that keep potential buyers connected to your brand and ready to act, not just this season, but the next as well.
Leverage Social Media to Create Holiday Buzz
Social media is the perfect platform to build excitement and anticipation for holiday events. People love sharing their holiday plans, so it’s an ideal time to share festive content and offers that encourage participation and sharing.
Get festive and visual
Share behind-the-scenes preparations or holiday-themed content to foster a sense of community and anticipation. The more you show, the more excitement you can build. Use this opportunity to showcase your brand through special events or promotions that your target market and potential ticket buyers will want to talk about.
Run contests and influencer campaigns
Contests, giveaways, and influencer partnerships can extend your reach. You can even encourage customers and ticket buyers to share the experiences to amplify your brand’s message. This creates organic buzz and drives interest to your site.
Capture event interest early with sign-ups and presales
Use a signup tool to capture early interest before your holiday event officially goes live. This not only helps you build a list of potential ticket buyers but also allows you to offer exclusive deals to your most active customers. By engaging people early, you create excitement and secure early conversions before the holiday rush begins.
Bonus: if you have a CRM and automation tool in place you can easily re-connect with these contacts when the timing is right, even offering discounts to increase the probability of conversion without eating into your margins.
Optimize the Ticket Buying Experience from Browsing to Checkout
Once you’ve captured attention, it’s crucial to make the buying experience as seamless as possible. In the experience economy, customers expect intuitive, stress-free purchasing. This is especially important during the busy holiday season when competition is high, and you’re vying for attention. An optimized checkout flow can make all the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart (good news: there are tools to help with this too).
Make it seamless
Ensure your purchase flow is branded, easy to navigate, and user-friendly. Incorporate features like dynamic filtering for event times and ticket types, and real-time availability so customers can make quick, informed decisions. Additionally, offer attractive upgrades or add-ons, such as flexible entry, concessions, or VIP experiences, directly within the flow. These options, tested for high conversion and attachment rates, can boost average order value while enhancing the customer experience.
Communicate availability and options clearly
During the holiday rush, clear communication is essential. Use messaging throughout the customer journey to keep your audience informed about ticket availability, different price points, and seating or experience options. This helps your customers find what fits their needs best and can reduce drop-offs. Ensuring customers feel well-informed and confident about their purchase decisions will reduce abandonment and increase conversions.
Recover abandoned carts with personalized follow-ups
Just because a customer doesn’t convert the first time doesn’t mean the sale is lost. Sometimes all it takes is a nudge. Adaptive cart recovery tools can help by sending tailored, fully branded emails to remind customers of the tickets they were interested in. By linking them directly back to their unfinished order or offering a limited-time discount, you can make it easier for them to complete their purchase and feel like they’re getting great value.
Capitalize on Mobile-Driven Purchasers
Holiday shoppers are often on the move, so your site must offer a seamless mobile experience. According to The Pew Research Center, 49% of online purchases made by those aged 30-49 in 2022 were done using a smartphone. If your mobile purchase flow isn’t optimized, you risk losing customers who might otherwise have converted.
Track and Analyze for Continuous Improvement
The holiday season offers a wealth of data to help you refine your marketing strategies. Tracking key metrics will not only help you gauge the success of your holiday campaigns but also provide insights and customer data that can be applied to future events.
Use real-time analytics
Monitor important metrics like conversion rates, ticket sales, and high-performant channels. Real-time insights will allow you to make adjustments to your campaigns on the fly, ensuring you’re getting the most out of your efforts and helping you make your marketing budget go further.
Gather feedback and build your CRM for future success
Post-event surveys are invaluable for understanding what worked and what didn’t. Use these surveys not only to refine your marketing strategies but also to capture valuable customer data such as offline attribution. Opt-ins through post-purchase surveys, sign-up forms, or subscriber lists offer an excellent opportunity to grow your CRM. Collecting this data now will allow you to build a more active audience for your next seasonal campaign.
Unifying Marketing Operations for Successful Holiday Ticket Sales
The holidays are not just about entertainment—they’re an opportunity to create lasting memories that people cherish for years to come. In the fast-paced holiday season, the right platform can make all the difference. An end-to-end solution that integrates seamlessly with your existing ticketing system will not only optimize the purchase flow but also empower you to leverage real-time data, reach customers, and unify your revenue operations without disrupting your processes. At TickX, we are dedicated to helping our customers enhance every aspect of ticket sales and revenue growth with a unified platform that empowers marketers with everything from personalized communication tools and hyper targeted advertising integration, to data-driven decision-making.
The holiday season brings families and friends together, providing a perfect opportunity for attractions, theatres, and events to capture the attention of people seeking meaningful ways to connect. During a season where memories often hold more value than material gifts, providing exceptional experiences is key to building your brand equity. But how can you captivate imaginations and convert those moments into direct ticket sales?
By combining a seamless purchase experience, targeted marketing strategies, with actionable insights, you can not only expand holiday audiences but also turn those interactions into measurable revenue. From the first touchpoint to the final sale, each step of the journey should be designed to create a memorable experience that drives results.
Expand Existing Audiences with Tailored Marketing Tools
Before you can convert holiday shoppers, you need to get in front of them. Capturing attention during the festive season requires a thoughtful approach to stand out in a very crowded market. Tailored marketing tools allow you to create meaningful touchpoints that nurture potential customers and guide them toward action.
Timely, personalized communication
A great starting point is any CRM of past attendees, visitors, or customers. Using marketing automation tools to send event-specific emails or SMS messages can be a great way to activate a high-intent ticket purchasing group. Pre-event messages can build anticipation, while post-event follow-ups provide an opportunity to gather feedback and drive repeat sales.
It’s time to advertise
Leverage your existing customer data to build highly targeted advertising campaigns, especially across social media platforms. Having a strong understanding of demographics, geographic, buying behaviour, and attendee make up can help you sharpen your targeting. This not only helps you reach people who have already shown interest but also enables you to create lookalike audiences for broader reach. With active buying audiences, your targeting becomes even more precise, ensuring you make the most of your advertising spend.
Keep visitors coming back
Add interactive features like countdown timers, special offers, pre-sale signups to reduce bounce rates and increase conversions. The goal is to create dynamic moments that keep potential buyers connected to your brand and ready to act, not just this season, but the next as well.
Leverage Social Media to Create Holiday Buzz
Social media is the perfect platform to build excitement and anticipation for holiday events. People love sharing their holiday plans, so it’s an ideal time to share festive content and offers that encourage participation and sharing.
Get festive and visual
Share behind-the-scenes preparations or holiday-themed content to foster a sense of community and anticipation. The more you show, the more excitement you can build. Use this opportunity to showcase your brand through special events or promotions that your target market and potential ticket buyers will want to talk about.
Run contests and influencer campaigns
Contests, giveaways, and influencer partnerships can extend your reach. You can even encourage customers and ticket buyers to share the experiences to amplify your brand’s message. This creates organic buzz and drives interest to your site.
Capture event interest early with sign-ups and presales
Use a signup tool to capture early interest before your holiday event officially goes live. This not only helps you build a list of potential ticket buyers but also allows you to offer exclusive deals to your most active customers. By engaging people early, you create excitement and secure early conversions before the holiday rush begins.
Bonus: if you have a CRM and automation tool in place you can easily re-connect with these contacts when the timing is right, even offering discounts to increase the probability of conversion without eating into your margins.
Optimize the Ticket Buying Experience from Browsing to Checkout
Once you’ve captured attention, it’s crucial to make the buying experience as seamless as possible. In the experience economy, customers expect intuitive, stress-free purchasing. This is especially important during the busy holiday season when competition is high, and you’re vying for attention. An optimized checkout flow can make all the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart (good news: there are tools to help with this too).
Make it seamless
Ensure your purchase flow is branded, easy to navigate, and user-friendly. Incorporate features like dynamic filtering for event times and ticket types, and real-time availability so customers can make quick, informed decisions. Additionally, offer attractive upgrades or add-ons, such as flexible entry, concessions, or VIP experiences, directly within the flow. These options, tested for high conversion and attachment rates, can boost average order value while enhancing the customer experience.
Communicate availability and options clearly
During the holiday rush, clear communication is essential. Use messaging throughout the customer journey to keep your audience informed about ticket availability, different price points, and seating or experience options. This helps your customers find what fits their needs best and can reduce drop-offs. Ensuring customers feel well-informed and confident about their purchase decisions will reduce abandonment and increase conversions.
Recover abandoned carts with personalized follow-ups
Just because a customer doesn’t convert the first time doesn’t mean the sale is lost. Sometimes all it takes is a nudge. Adaptive cart recovery tools can help by sending tailored, fully branded emails to remind customers of the tickets they were interested in. By linking them directly back to their unfinished order or offering a limited-time discount, you can make it easier for them to complete their purchase and feel like they’re getting great value.
Capitalize on Mobile-Driven Purchasers
Holiday shoppers are often on the move, so your site must offer a seamless mobile experience. According to The Pew Research Center, 49% of online purchases made by those aged 30-49 in 2022 were done using a smartphone. If your mobile purchase flow isn’t optimized, you risk losing customers who might otherwise have converted.
Track and Analyze for Continuous Improvement
The holiday season offers a wealth of data to help you refine your marketing strategies. Tracking key metrics will not only help you gauge the success of your holiday campaigns but also provide insights and customer data that can be applied to future events.
Use real-time analytics
Monitor important metrics like conversion rates, ticket sales, and high-performant channels. Real-time insights will allow you to make adjustments to your campaigns on the fly, ensuring you’re getting the most out of your efforts and helping you make your marketing budget go further.
Gather feedback and build your CRM for future success
Post-event surveys are invaluable for understanding what worked and what didn’t. Use these surveys not only to refine your marketing strategies but also to capture valuable customer data such as offline attribution. Opt-ins through post-purchase surveys, sign-up forms, or subscriber lists offer an excellent opportunity to grow your CRM. Collecting this data now will allow you to build a more active audience for your next seasonal campaign.
Unifying Marketing Operations for Successful Holiday Ticket Sales
The holidays are not just about entertainment—they’re an opportunity to create lasting memories that people cherish for years to come. In the fast-paced holiday season, the right platform can make all the difference. An end-to-end solution that integrates seamlessly with your existing ticketing system will not only optimize the purchase flow but also empower you to leverage real-time data, reach customers, and unify your revenue operations without disrupting your processes. At TickX, we are dedicated to helping our customers enhance every aspect of ticket sales and revenue growth with a unified platform that empowers marketers with everything from personalized communication tools and hyper targeted advertising integration, to data-driven decision-making.
Ready to deliver memorable holiday experiences and boost your revenue? Our platform is designed to help you streamline your operations and expand your audience, driving both ticket sales and customer satisfaction.
Contact us today to see how we can support your holiday marketing strategy.
