Getting people interested in your event is just the start of the event ticket sales funnel. Next, you have to turn their interest into ticket sales, and that’s where things get more challenging.
Someone might see your event on social media, visit your website, check ticket prices, and leave without purchasing. Maybe they’re comparing weekend plans, waiting for friends to commit, or wondering whether the event is worth the price.
That doesn’t mean you’ve lost the sale. With the right event ticket sales funnel, you can stay connected with potential buyers, answer their questions, and give them compelling reasons to purchase.
Email marketing and SMS marketing make this process easier by helping you reach people with relevant messages throughout their decision-making journey. Keep reading to learn how to create an event ticket sales funnel that moves more people from initial interest to completed purchases.
Key Takeaways
- An event ticket sales funnel guides potential attendees from discovering your event to purchasing tickets and becoming repeat customers.
- Email marketing helps build interest, communicate value, answer questions, and encourage purchases throughout the funnel.
- SMS marketing is particularly useful for time-sensitive ticket offers, presale announcements, and deadline reminders.
- Audience segmentation and automated follow-ups help you reach potential buyers with relevant messages based on their interests and behaviors.
- Ticket sales conversion rates, campaign revenue, and purchase behavior are the most meaningful measures of funnel performance.
Table of Contents
What Is an Event Ticket Sales Funnel?
An event ticket sales funnel is a marketing process designed to turn potential attendees into ticket buyers. It follows the stages people move through as they discover an event, become interested, consider attending, and decide to purchase tickets.
A typical event ticket sales funnel has five stages.
- Awareness: Potential attendees discover your event.
- Interest: They learn about the experience and consider attending.
- Consideration: They evaluate ticket options, pricing, schedules, and other details.
- Purchase: They make the decision to buy tickets.
- Retention: You keep buyers engaged and encourage attendance at future events.
The goal is to make each stage easier for potential buyers while creating opportunities to reconnect with people throughout your event marketing timeline who haven’t purchased yet.
For a comprehensive look at event ticket sales marketing, read The Complete Guide to Selling More Tickets.
Step 1. Attract Potential Ticket Buyers
Your funnel begins when someone discovers your event.
Social media, online advertising, search engines, community partnerships, and word-of-mouth recommendations can introduce your event to new audiences. Your existing email subscribers and past ticket buyers are another valuable source of potential sales.
At this stage, focus on helping people understand what makes your event worth attending.
For example, if you’re promoting a motorsports event, show exciting footage from previous races. For a food festival, highlight participating restaurants and the experiences attendees can expect.
Your initial marketing should create enough interest to encourage someone to visit your event website, explore ticket options, or subscribe for updates.
Email Marketing Opportunity
Invite interested visitors to subscribe for event announcements, ticket presales, or schedule updates.
A simple message such as “Get early access to tickets and event announcements” gives interested visitors a reason to share their email addresses.
Step 2. Build Interest Through Email Marketing
Once someone expresses interest in your event, your job is to help them imagine attending. Email marketing is particularly effective at this stage of the buyer journey.
Instead of sending generic ticket sales announcements again and again, create emails that help potential buyers understand the experience.
Depending on your event, you could highlight:
- Featured performers, attractions, or activities
- Photos and videos from previous events
- Experiences for families or groups
- Event schedules and entertainment options
- Special attractions or exclusive experiences
For example, a county fair could send an email highlighting its concerts, followed several days later by an email featuring family activities.
Each message taps into recipients’ emotions and gives them another reason to consider attending.
Email Campaign Example
Subject Line: See What’s Happening at This Year’s Festival
Email Content: Highlight three popular attractions, include engaging photos, and end with a clear “Explore Tickets” button.
You can also direct readers to event-specific website pages, so they can find more information.
Step 3. Help Interested People Make a Purchase Decision
When potential buyers start to compare ticket options, they’re moving closer to purchasing. However, uncertainty can prevent them from taking the next step.
Imagine a parent considering taking four children to an air show. Ticket prices matter, but so do parking arrangements, food availability, seating options, and whether younger children will enjoy the experience. If your marketing answers those questions, you’ve removed a potential barrier to purchasing for that parent.
Therefore, create targeted email campaigns that help interested people make a purchase decision by explaining:
- Ticket types and what each includes
- Early-bird pricing and purchase deadlines
- Group or family ticket options
- VIP experiences and upgrades
- Parking, accessibility, and event logistics
You can also segment your email audience based on previous purchases or demonstrated interests.
For example, someone who previously purchased VIP tickets might appreciate details about premium seating. A past family-ticket buyer would probably prefer to receive information about children’s activities.
The more relevant your message is to the recipient, the more useful it becomes.
Learn more about creating these campaigns in the Complete Guide to Event Email Marketing.
Step 4. Convert Interested Prospects into Ticket Buyers
By this stage of the ticket sales funnel, potential attendees understand your event and have developed reasons to attend. Your next job is to encourage them to complete their purchases sooner rather than later.
Email and SMS campaigns are very effective at converting interested prospects into ticket buyers when the messages are tied to specific reasons to act.
Consider the campaigns discussed below to boost conversions.
Send Early-Bird Deadline Reminders
If advance ticket prices increase on a specific date, remind subscribers before the deadline.
Email Subject Line: Last Chance for Early-Bird Festival Tickets
SMS Example: Early-bird pricing ends tonight! Get your festival tickets before prices increase. [Ticket link]
Follow Up with People Who Clicked but Didn’t Purchase
When your marketing software integrates with your ticketing platform using ticket-buyer data sync, you can identify subscribers who clicked a ticket link but haven’t purchased and create a follow-up campaign.
This is a perfect message to answer common questions, highlight a popular attraction, or remind them about an upcoming pricing deadline. As a result, you’ll reduce confusion, remove barriers, increase interest, and create a sense of urgency to act now.
For example, the content of an email message could say:
“Still planning your weekend? Here’s everything you need to know about parking, admission, and reserved seating.”
In this example, you should include a direct link to the appropriate ticket page with information people need to make their final purchase decision.
Recover Incomplete Ticket Purchases
If your ticketing platform supports abandoned checkout tracking, use it to identify people who started buying tickets but didn’t finish. A timely event email reminder can help bring those potential buyers back.
Keep the message concise and include a link that makes completing the purchase as easy as possible.
Importantly, make sure you segment the recipient audience and exclude people who’ve already purchased tickets. You don’t want them to continue receiving sales reminders for tickets they own because it could hurt your email deliverability in the future.
Make Buying Tickets Simple
Marketing can bring interested people to your ticket sales page, but the purchasing experience they find when they get there also affects conversion rates.
With that in mind, confirm that your ticket sales pages work perfectly on desktop and mobile devices, ticket options are understandable, and fees are communicated clearly.
Every unnecessary obstacle increases the chance that someone will abandon the purchase, so remove those barriers!
Step 5. Turn Ticket Buyers into Repeat Attendees
Your sales funnel shouldn’t end when someone purchases a ticket. After buying, attendees still need information that helps them prepare for the event. Useful communication can also create opportunities for additional revenue.
Send confirmation and planning emails that include important event details. For example, you can introduce parking passes, camping reservations, merchandise, or VIP upgrades depending on what your event offers.
As event day approaches, use email and SMS reminders to communicate schedules, entrances, parking instructions, and other information that improves the attendee experience.
After the event, send a thank you email, request feedback, and invite attendees to subscribe for future event announcements. That way, when your next event goes on sale, you’ll have an established subscriber list of people who’ve expressed interest and are already at step 2 of the ticket sales funnel.
How to Measure Event Ticket Sales Funnel Performance
Understanding where potential buyers drop out of your funnel can help you fill up those holes and improve your marketing. Therefore, track metrics using your ticketing software and event marketing platform that reveal how effectively people move toward purchasing.
The table below provides key performance indicators (KPIs) you should track and analyze in order to boost your ongoing results.
| Metric | What It Tells You |
| Email click-through rate | Whether your messages encourage recipients to explore ticket options |
| Ticket page conversion rate | What percentage of ticket page visitors purchase |
| Email-to-purchase conversion rate | How effectively email traffic generates sales |
| Revenue by campaign | Which campaigns contribute the most ticket revenue |
| Abandoned checkout rate | How many started purchases remain incomplete |
| Repeat purchase rate | How successfully you bring previous buyers back |
Suppose 500 people click a ticket link in an email and 25 complete a purchase. Your email-to-purchase conversion rate is 5%.
If another campaign sends 300 visitors to the ticket page and generates 30 purchases, its conversion rate is 10%.
The second campaign converts a higher percentage of visitors, even though it generated fewer clicks. Use these insights to test different messages, audience segments, ticket offers, and calls to action.
Start with a Simple Event Ticket Sales Funnel
You don’t need a huge marketing team or an elaborate marketing program to create an effective ticket sales funnel.
Start by attracting interested people, capturing permission to communicate with them, and creating a short email sequence that builds excitement and answers common questions.
Add targeted purchase reminders and follow-up campaigns as you learn more about your audience.
With consistent communication and a clear understanding of how people make ticket purchasing decisions, you can turn more event interest into ticket sales while building an audience that wants to hear about your future events.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best marketing funnel for selling event tickets?
An effective event ticket sales funnel includes awareness, interest, consideration, purchase, and retention stages. Email and SMS campaigns help move potential attendees between stages using relevant information, timely reminders, and clear ticket purchase links.
How can email marketing increase event ticket sales conversions?
Email marketing can increase conversions by building interest, answering purchase-related questions, promoting relevant ticket options, and following up with people who haven’t purchased. Audience segmentation helps ensure subscribers receive messages that are most relevant to their interests and buying behaviors.
How many emails should you send in an event ticket sales funnel?
There isn’t one ideal number. A basic funnel might include an event announcement, two interest-building emails, a ticket information email, and a purchase deadline reminder. Adjust the frequency based on your event timeline, audience engagement, and ticket sales performance.
Should you use SMS in an event ticket sales funnel?
Yes, when recipients have provided the necessary consent. SMS works well for presale alerts, approaching ticket deadline reminders, and other timely updates. Email is better suited to messages requiring detailed explanations, images, and multiple event details.
