Takeaways from “Throw a Bitchin’ Event”

I recently read the Picatic ebook “Throw a Bitchin’ Event” (if you haven’t already, you really should). It’s a quick 15 minute read with some great pointers and tips about event marketing and ticket sales. While there were a ton of takeaways, I thought I would recap the 3 top lessons I learned here and hopefully you can download the book yourself to read through. (It’s free. And no, this is not a paid endorsement). I just thought I would share since it was interesting and inspiring and I thought there were some good takeaways that should be shared more widely.

PRE-MARKETING
Ever come up with an amazing event idea, put together all the pieces and then just sat there waiting for a single ticket to sell? What are you doing wrong? Perhaps you aren’t doing enough to engage your warm market – your pre-market. Those who’ve attended your events in the past, the influencers in your network, even family and friends. Always start with this group of people to get your tickets sold right up front. Offer incentives and engage this group early and often.

MINIMIZE YOUR BOUNCE RATE
The most painful part of any event marketing strategy is seeing that people actually land on the ticketing page … and then leave without buying a ticket. What a waste!! Make sure that your event website and ticketing pages are engaging, show lots of images and great testimonials. Make it so they will buy on the spot and not leave to “think about it”. Getting a new user to your site is the biggest challenge – getting them to buy is your responsibility so you can optimize those leads.

CROWDFUND
Of course, Picatic is a crowdfunding platform so they spend some time talking about their platform. However, I don’t hold it against them since it’s a really great way to test an event concept before you get it off the ground. The basic concept of event crowdfunding is that you set tickets on sale and set a goal. Let’s say that the first 50 tickets sold with be discounted by 40%. If you sell those tickets in the first 3 weeks of marketing, you’ll hold the event. If not, you cancel it. This helps you see whether or not you will be able to get the crowd you need. If not, you can cancel without any fees or penalties. If so, you’ve rewarded your loyal warm market and are set up for a successful event.

Liz King Caruso

Liz King Caruso is an Event Strategist, Consultant and Speaker. As CEO of Liz King Events and techsytalk, she has helped countless thought leaders grow their audience and sell their products through in-person, virtual & hybrid events. Liz is a big-picture person – passionate about tying events into an overall sales and marketing strategy and being efficient at every point of the process. Technology is her niche and she’s obsessed with helping organizations of every size leverage technology to produce more engaging and seamless event experiences. In addition to her client work, Liz connects & educates her industry colleagues through platforms she has built – techsytalk GLOBAL, the techsytalk community & IGNITE Consulting program. Liz has been featured as Eventex’s 50 Most Innovative Virtual Meeting Planners, Successful Meetings list of 25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry, Top 5 Women in Event Tech, amongst other awards.