How to Price Event Tickets to Maximise Return on Investment (ROI)?

 

Pricing event tickets is a tricky affair. Tremendous thought, research and number crunching goes into finding a price that gets people from all economic strata to see value in your ticket. On the flipside, the price you choose must also help you cover costs and attain the profit margins you are aiming at. Some useful tactics for achieving this pricing equilibrium are:

☑ Adopt The Right Pricing Strategy
There are usually two kinds of pricing methods for event tickets. The first, value-based pricing, involves ascertaining the price based on the perceived value of the ticket. For example, if there is an extremely anticipated and famous speaker addressing the crowd, you could increase the ticket prices to leverage this exclusivity to the maximum.

Cost-based pricing involves working backwards from the profit level you aim to achieve to derive the revenue to be earned and estimated operating costs involved. From this, you ascertain the proceeds you need to garner from ticket sales in order to achieve those profit levels and hence price the tickets accordingly. Choose the right strategy between these two that is cohesive to the other factors of your event.

☑ Maximise Sale Through Inexpensive Channels
Aside from major operating costs for planning and executing an event, different sales channels deployed to sell tickets also come at a cost. Each channel has its own pricing structure and can greatly influence your ROI.
Try to push maximum ticket sales through online portals and third-party websites which are quite cost-effective, as opposed to physical kiosks. Kiosks demand rentals as well as manpower.

☑ Ditch All-Inclusive Pricing
Most events run on tickets as their sole source of revenue generation. A great way to work around this limitation is to bundle a few experiences that are covered by ticket costs and some that aren’t.
For example, complete arena access, high tea and other such add-ons could be bundled as part of the ticket cost, while backstage access or lunch coupons could be payable. This way, you widen your spectrum of revenue generation and thus increase ROI.

☑ Introduce Tiered Pricing & VIP Tickets
For some attendees, front row seats are a deal breaker while some others would prefer access to some exclusive merchandise and kiosks as the USP they’re paying for. Leverage this variation to price your tickets accordingly and enjoy higher margins.
Put on sale different ticket categories and a few added experiences for each higher grade. Needless to say, you could stretch your margins in the higher categories as these are buyers with higher purchasing power.

☑ Don’t Have Sales Closedowns
A great way to increase revenue and hence ROI is to keep the ticket sales going till the very end. Even till a few minutes before the start of the event, set up a facility at the entrance of the event location to sell tickets to last-minute converts.
Shut off tickets sales and you will lose out on those last minute sales that come in with no added effort.

☑ Offer Bundled Discounts
A great way to sell more tickets and push your revenue higher is by putting the idea of economies of scale into play. If you offer inviting discounts for bundled tickets of multiples of five or ten, chances are you are going to have higher sales. Wondering how?
Well, its human tendency to inch towards a sweet deal, even if that means including more people in the mix and purchasing a few more tickets to derive a shared benefit. Bundle discounts are effective mechanisms to push sales hence boost ROI.

☑ Keep The Option of Upgrades Open
Until the beginning of your event, push and aggressively advertise ticket upgrades to those who have purchased the lower tier tickets. Often times people are tempted at the spur of the moment to opt for an upgrade, especially if the benefits are before their eyes. Set up kiosks at your event entrance to engage attendees on the benefits of an upgrade.

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Aside from the above hacks, ensure to study the pricing model of various events similar to yours to draw from their pricing methods. Lastly, don’t forget to maintain a strong level of realism in all your assumptions and aggregations. Follow these thumb rules and you’re sure to have a scaling ROI.

References:
https://www.eventbookings.com/event-ticket-pricing-strategy/
https://www.eventmanagerblog.com/event-pricing-strategy#bonuses

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