When booking a seat on an airplane, you have a few options: economy, premium economy, business, and first class. With these options, different features are included with your ticket purchase. You might get priority seating, meal service, or even free checked luggage. If seated in business or first class, your whole perspective on having to catch a flight may be different due to the sense of exclusivity that comes with premium seating.
Now, imagine that same level of desire, exclusivity, and urgency for corporate event registration. There’s only a set number of open seats available, and they’re quickly running out as more people register for your event. You’ve created fear of missing out (FOMO), and demand goes up as more people flock to register for your event. This kind of pricing and ticketing strategy might be the key to increased attendance at your next event.
Quick Links
- How Event Registration Contributes to Event Success
- The Problem with Standard Event Registration
- Pricing Strategy and Tiered Ticketing Basics
- Four Ticketing Tiers to Include in Your Pricing Strategy
- Streamlining Ticketing with Event Technology
How Event Registration Contributes to Event Success
Oftentimes, event registration is used as a metric when calculating event success, and registration numbers helps event organizers better understand interest, engagement, and, most importantly, potential attendance. Due to this, you may be looking at ways to boost registration numbers.
Registration metrics do more than just provide insights into the number of attendees. In fact, event registration provides organizers with essential event data for resource planning, including important venue features, catering requirements, staffing needs, and other logistics. With this information, event organizers can make informed decisions to ensure the event runs smoothly and meets attendee expectations.
The registration process allows organizers to collect information about attendees, such as demographics, preferences, and interests. Plus, online registration technology allows event organizers to easily gather this data as cookies begin to be phased out. This data can then be used to tailor the event experience, customize content, and engage attendees before, during, and after the event. And, higher levels of engagement lead to greater satisfaction, which is another positive indicator of overall event success.
We know effective registration is closely tied to event success. The challenge, however, is getting people to register. Depending on the nature of your meeting, traditional sign-ups might not cut it anymore.
The Problem with Standard Event Registration
Let’s say you invite 500 guests to your corporate event, and all they need to do is sign up online and check in at the registration desk on the day of the event. However, only 200 people checked in. What happened? Perhaps these no-shows are due to a misalignment with your audience or a lack of urgency around your event.
It’s common for events to have free registration, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But without any true commitment, you may have more no-shows than anticipated. Moving away from free registration and instead charging for entry means attendees will be far more likely to attend your event because they have paid to do so.
Additionally, different groups of people may have different preferences regarding corporate events, and registration can reflect that. So, make sure to segment your audience into different categories, determine what each wants from the event, and create tiers that cater to these categories.
Pricing Strategy and Tiered Ticketing Basics
Registration numbers directly impact the overall attendance at the event. Higher registration numbers indicate greater interest and potential turnout, especially if it's a paid event where ticket sales revenue is essential.
If you plan on hosting an event that requires paid entry, then you might also want to consider multi-tiered pricing. Tiered ticketing involves offering different pricing levels or tiers for tickets to an event, with each tier typically offering different benefits or restrictions.
If you’re looking to increase ROI, then tiered ticketing may be the way to go. Making tickets available for purchase adds revenue and allows you to create events that resonate with your audience segments. Tiered ticketing also does a great job of creating FOMO and exclusivity, both of which become motivation to register for your event.
Plus, tiered ticketing can make your events more accessible. For instance, you may plan to sell tickets for $100, but not everyone can afford your ticket price. The solution? Offer another tier at a lower price, such as $50 or $25. Or, consider a sliding pay-what-you-can (PWYC) scale. This opens up attendance as a possibility to a wider audience if price is a factor for them.
Ultimately, tiered ticketing is a win-win. Attendees have flexibility and options when it comes to attending events, while businesses profit from expanded reach and opportunities for increased revenue.
Four Ticketing Tiers to Include in Your Pricing Strategy
To implement a pricing strategy for your next event, there are a handful of ways to go about designing your tiers. Whether you choose two, four, or six tiers, feel free to select elements that work for your event goals.
To get started, here are a few common ticketing tiers you might already be familiar with. For corporate events these tiers are great ways to boost registration and get more people in seats.
1. Early Bird
To promote more attendance, it may be valuable to provide discounted tickets if purchased far enough in advance. One method within this tier of pricing allows for the first batch of tickets released to be sold at a discounted price before standard pricing begins. For example, the first 500 tickets sold might be available for $50. Then, the next 500 tickets can be purchased for $75.
Early Bird ticketing can also be executed on a time-bound schedule, such as any tickets purchased within the first month of availability are set at $500. Each month afterward would increase the price until Early Bird sales are over.
Alternatively, if you have a community of people or contacts who have attended your past events, you may choose to open Early Bird ticketing up to these select groups. This again offers a sense of exclusivity, and many of your attendees won’t want to pass up a good deal.
2. Standard
The bulk of your attendees are likely going to fall under the standard ticketing tier. Think of this tier as a general admission ticket to a concert – it’s the basic package. This type of ticket often grants entry into an event, but extra features (food, drinks, activities, etc.) might cost extra.
However, standard ticketing gets attendees through the door, which is important for meeting your event goals, especially if increased event registration is at the top of that list.
3. VIP
Extra features might be must-haves for some attendees, so they may opt for a VIP ticket. This tier of ticketing purchases features included in the standard pricing model, but also covers extra features that are built into the price of the VIP ticket.
VIP features will be different for every event, but you might consider including food, drinks, parking, activity entry, or access to certain areas within the venue.
Remember the FOMO we discussed earlier? VIP tickets do a great job at targeting that urgency to register for an event. In fact, VIP ticketing might be a better deal than upgrading tickets at a later date or purchasing added features during the event. So, VIP as an option in your tiered ticketing strategy might get you those extra registrations, which then boosts your event success and ROI.
4. Day Passes
Depending on your event, you might choose to offer multi-day or single-day tickets. This is great if your multi-day event has different themes or focuses each day. For instance, day 1 might be catered to leadership teams, day 2 may have a focus on sales, and day 3 could be a recognition event. With day passes, attendees can purchase tickets for the days that are applicable to them.
Additionally, day passes help make large corporate events accessible. Some attendees might not be able to purchase tickets for the whole event, but single-day passes mean they can still attend some events, sessions, and activities that they’re interested in.
Streamlining Ticketing with Event Technology
You’ve decided on your pricing strategy and are excited to get attendees in the door. Now what? How do you execute your pricing strategy and manage attendees of different tier levels? That’s where event technology comes in.
The latest event tech helps organizers create ticketing tiers that track attendee information and get people through the doors. The right tools can make registration a breeze for attendees, which contributes to a positive experience before the event has even started.
If you’re looking for ways to create a carefully crafted pricing strategy, then Bishop-McCann is the team of event planners for you. Please reach out to one of our expert event planners to learn more about pricing strategies before your next corporate event!
