How to Sell More Tickets with a Successful Referral Rewards Program

Your digital marketing plan of email, ads, social media, website, and content gets people talking about and signing up for your event. Ready to accelerate ticket sales at a very low cost? Incentivize your attendees to refer their friends and family to also buy tickets to your event by rewarding attendees with automated refunds when people sign up using their unique referral links. Why does the Referral Rewards program work so well? Because there is no better advocate for your event than your attendees.

Last year, events with a Referral Rewards program generated 482,587 referral codes that attendees shared with friends and family to sell an additional 165,991 tickets, equivalent to $8.32 million in ticket sales. Because many people share their codes and do not reach the threshold to receive a refund, the total cost of ticket sales generated through the Referral Rewards program was just $231,603. This works out to an average cost per acquisition of $1.40 – much cheaper and more effective than cold digital marketing like paid ads.

There are several ways you can make your Referral Rewards program successful and sell more tickets.

1. Set up the right incentives.

The most successful Referral Rewards programs implement a high threshold, high rewards program. The sweet spot for a Referral Rewards program is somewhere in the middle: a high enough reward to motivate sharing the event ($15 or more), and a threshold that is difficult, but not impossible, to attain (3-5 referrals).

Set up your rewards by navigating to Promotion >> Referral Tracking >> Referral Tracking Setup.

2. Leverage the ticket purchase confirmation screen to promote Referral Rewards program.

You can promote your Referral Rewards program on the ticket purchase confirmation page by giving the ticket purchaser their unique referral link, along with a short description of your referral rewards program. This is the best place to promote your referral program: your ticket purchasers have just bought their tickets so getting their friends and family to join them is top of mind, and featuring their unique referral link makes that easy to share.

You can enable the social sharing pop-up and customize the content by navigating to Promotions >> Social Sharing. Enable the pop-up and add custom text with the Referral Link replacement tag.

Here is some sample text; be sure to update the rewards text based on what your referral program offers!

You’ve got your tickets for Halloween Haunt Fest! Now share your unique referral link:
%REFERRAL_LINK%
When 5 friends purchase tickets to Halloween Haunt Fest using your link, you’ll automatically get a $20 refund!

3. Schedule a follow-up email to ticket purchasers to remind them to share their referral link for rewards.

Make sure your ticket purchasers remember to share their referral code throughout your ticket sales. Schedule emails to send throughout your ticket sales reminding attendees to bring their friends and family. Include their unique Referral Link and a reminder of the rewards to incentivize sharing.

TicketSignup’s free email marketing makes it seamless to set up a Referral Rewards email, with an easy email builder, data replacement tags, and active system recipient lists so your ticket purchasers list is up to date in real time. Learn more about setting up a Referral Rewards email here.

4. Add a page about your Referral Rewards program to your website.

Featuring your Referral Rewards program on your website is a great way to make sure ticket purchasers understand how the program works. It’s easy to add a new menu item to feature your Referral Rewards program by navigating to Website >> Website Builder.

Referral Rewards are one of the most powerful (and free!) ways you can grow your event. Events are social experiences, and you can incentivize your attendees to bring their family and friends with automated refund rewards. These tips help to make sure you maximize the potential of your Referral Rewards program.

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