Event promoters and event organizers in Nigeria are constantly looking for a way to connect their customers to their event tickets in order to Sell Event Tickets Online and fast. They are often looking for ways to reach out to internet users in Nigeria, a number that is increasing by the day.
From the latest statistics released by Hootsuite and We are social titled “digital in 2018 in West Africa”, page 120 – 149 which focus on Nigeria, states the following:
- Internet users 94.8 million with penetration of 49%
- Active Social media users 19.0 million with penetration of 10%
- Unique mobile users 105.0 million with penetration of 54%
- Active mobile social users 17.0 million with penetration of 9%
- Average daily time spent using the internet via any device is 4H: 05M
- Average daily time spent using social media via any device is 3H: 02M
- Total number of active internet users is 91.6 million
- Internet users as a percentage of the total population are 49.6 million
- Total number of active mobile internet users 86.2 million
- Mobile internet users as a percentage of the total population are 49.7 million
The internet users captured in the report above is a huge market potential to ignore!
However, The success of the event promotion depends on the planning structure and methodology deploy to execute the event from the beginning to the end.
There are a few things that you must consider as an Event promoter or event organizer when thinking about selling event tickets online in Nigeria.
1) Reach out to the target audience
Which audience are you targeting?
When setting up an event, you will need to define the audience the event is meant for: the age, their demography and the type of event category your audience like (Business, Festival, Private event etc). Deep understanding of the audience analysis will help in deciding the price to set for the event, the date, the location and the marketing strategy.
2) Use the right online ticketing platform
What website should you use to sell tickets for an event?
We have a few event ticketing platforms in Nigeria that sell tickets at the moment. These are online ticketing platforms that can easily handle your event ticketing from the first point of contact with a prospective buyer to the moment they purchase your ticket. But, there are few things event organiser or event promoters should access on online ticketing platform before putting their ticket there:
- Is the website a modern and user-friendly platform for both the organiser and the tickets buyers?
- Does the website have safety and data integrity?
- Does the event platform have good service for managing and selling tickets?
- Can you customise your ticket forms to reflect your product?
- Does it have ticket discounts to drive advance ticket sales?
- Does the platform allow all event categories and sizes?
- Can you check you sales summaries?
- Can you manage your customer orders?
- Does the website allow you to select specific people to register for your event with the option to choose event visibility?
- Can you brand the email messages that the services send out?
- Is your event easily shareable on their platform to other social media platforms?
- Do they have both online (on website and mail ) and offline (phone) customer support?
Most of the points raised above are very important factors to consider when dealing with event ticketing platforms for effective promotion in meeting your ticket buyers online and effect social media influencers have on event awareness in Nigeria have these features which makes them the best online event ticketing platform in Nigeria at the moment.
Here is a brief breakdown of their website:
i) Option to choose a preferred language to reach the right audience:Event organisers or promoters can select the preferred language (English or one of any of the most three popular languages in Nigeria Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba) that your audience will be comfortable with to use in buying their tickets. This reduces blocking out people that cannot communicate in the official English language.
ii) Easy to create event: Create an account through a quick setup process, then fill in the event name and information, set the start and end date and set your ticket prices.
iii) Choose your visibility: There are three options to the visibility. The event can be visible to all, a private event (only visible to those with the link to the event) or private passworded (a password is needed to access the private event)
iv) Manage your ticket: The system generates unique reference codes to automate ticket validation with barcode scanners. The attendee can print the ticket or present it on phone at the entrance. For a small-scale event, it can generate a guest list for those that signed up.
3) Start Early Ticket Sales
As an event organiser or event promoter before you start selling tickets, your focus is to create a high demand for your event early. However, starting ticket sales early does not always translate into bigger total tickets sales. The biggest factor is the level of the ticket demand which is closely knighted to the brand. Is the event High demand tickets or Low demand tickets? A high demand event at Eko Hotel like Ay Show, Ali Baba Show, Rhythm Unplug will always sell out a few days to the event compared to very low demand event which starts tickets sales early at the same venue. There are other factors to consider which affect the sales of tickets both from the sellers and buyers position which are:
- The city (where the event is taking place)
- The event type (Music, festival, Business conference)
- The ticket prices ( ordinary, VIP, VVIP)
- The Location (Event venue)
It is advisable that sales of tickets should start from 2-3 months before to paid events within Music concert, Comedy shows, business conference event. While for free events, people are more likely to respond within the last 7 days to the event.
Early bird tickets pass for a limited number of tickets are one of the best ways to create urgency. This may be through an invitation to loyal customers. The freelancer event promoters can sell passes for your event and make them talk about your event in their respective forum.
4) Use social media influencers or Bloggers in Nigeria.
The effect social media influencers have on event awareness in Nigeria cannot be underrated. They are an important sector to tap into to reach out to their loyal followers in promoting your event to them. Set aside a budget to run social media contests and challenges and let these influencers run it for you in order to get their followers interested in your event. You can also partner with some of these social media influencers or bloggers in Nigeria to help you sell event tickets online.
5) Make use of social media effectively.
One of the cost-effective ways to promote the event is through social media. From the latest research report from HootSuite and We are Social, there are over 19.0 million active social media users in Nigeria out of which 17.0 million are through mobile phones.
Connecting to some of the social media users in Nigeria to sell tickets in the most effective way requires a few tips to make the most of it:
- Use the right keywords or hashtags for your event
- Connect your event ticket to Facebook through free tools like Sell Tickets Online
- Study the latest trend and weave your event around it
- Reward your loyalists and share their stories
6) Use a ticket Widget on your registration website.
If you have a website or blog where people can register for your event, you can use a ticket widget, provided by the event ticketing platform you have partnered with, to sell event tickets online (anywhere on your website with their ticket widget). If you are bothered about redirecting people to another URL link to purchase the event ticket, this widget would be very good for prospect event attendees to remain on your website while purchasing the event ticket instantly after registering for the event.
7) Have a Dedicated Customer Care Unit
It is important to have in-house and extensive dedicated customer care to assist online buyer 24/7 whenever there is a request for it. This should include phone call centre services
In summary, selling tickets to the event is one of the most difficult jobs to do and there is no guarantee that as an event organiser or promoter that you will always experience record success. However, the guide above will help increase the success rate to sell event tickets online and fast most especially in Nigeria.
Practise what you have learnt above, improve on it, look for more resource online and we wish you happy selling online!!!
About the Author: Allevents.ng is the largest event platform in Nigeria and the only website till date that is solely dedicated to event in the three most spoken local languages in Nigeria (Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba) apart from the official English language to promote event, sell tickets buy tickets online. A platform that help your event attendee to grow. Visit Allevents.ng
