How to sell event tickets online in 5 steps

It takes a Herculean effort to organize a great event, and the last thing you want to do is surrender your hard-earned profits to expensive and bloated event management websites just so attendees can buy and download tickets.

The good news? You don’t have to! With the right know-how and digital tools, it’s easy to learn how to sell event tickets online.

Here are five steps to get started.

1. Create your online ticket form

Before promoting your event online, you first need to design the ticket. Don’t make the mistake of rushing this crucial step. Your event ticket is more than a method of entry. It also serves as a reminder for attendees and a piece of marketing collateral to help advertise your event.

Though an on-brand, eye-catching ticket design is essential, so too is a clear layout of all of the event’s information. If ticket holders can’t see the time, date, and location of the event at a glance, you’ll need to go back to the drawing board.

There are plenty of online design tools you can use to create your masterpiece — or you can save yourself the hard work and use a template instead. Jotform offers a Ticket Maker that provides a suite of customizable ticket templates to help you create an eye-catching and on-brand ticket design effortlessly. Personalize them with collected registration data to enhance your attendee experience.

2. Launch an event registration page

Next on the “how to sell event tickets online” checklist is creating a web page where guests can register for the event and buy a ticket. Ideally, this will be on your website, but a third-party provider can host it if needed.

On the event registration page — which typically doubles as the event’s sales page — make sure you promote the event with bold colors, live countdowns, and interactive messaging as well as collect registration data. Use your event registration page to gather relevant information about your potential guests, including their names, how many are attending, and their contact information.

It’s also a good idea to include an outbound link to your cancellation policy on your registration page. This added touch reassures consumers that they’re covered if something comes up and you have to cancel the event.

That said, you don’t have to go overboard with your registration page. The simpler your design, the better, so as not to distract guests with irrelevant information. By giving potential registrants only the information they need, they’ll be able to focus all their attention on the event itself and, ideally, increase their chances of attending.

Remember Jotform’s ticket order form templates from the previous section? They can be embedded into a website, which makes them perfect for collecting ticket orders online — especially since you can customize them with event details and branding.

3. Set up and integrate online payment capabilities

To properly sell event tickets online, you need to integrate at least one online payment method into your event registration page or company website.

Many event attendees will expect to be able to purchase tickets online — after all, you should be able to learn about an event, register for it, and buy tickets for it all in one place. Accepting online payments can also help you sell more tickets. In addition, online payment processing capabilities are less expensive, wasteful, and time-consuming than printing and selling physical tickets.

For optimal online ticket sales, offer attendees a wide range of payment options while keeping fees at a minimum. In this regard, Jotform is in a league of its own. While event management software like Eventbrite usually offer a limited number of payment options and charge a fee for every ticket you sell, Jotform allows you to choose from more than 30 trusted payment gateways and doesn’t charge per-ticket fees.

4. Promote your event online and in person

At the end of the day, no matter how stunning your ticket design or the number of online payment gateways you offer, you can’t sell tickets if no one knows about your event. This means it’s time to find fun, creative ways to market your event.

If you have your own audience — whether in the form of an email list, social media following, or church congregation — make sure to promote your event to them early and often.

Advertising in local newspapers, trade magazines, flyers, and niche blogs can also help spread the word about your event and drive traffic to your registration page.

Finally, don’t forget to ask everyone involved with the event — like event speakers, panelists, and fellow colleagues — to promote it as well. The more people talk about and support an event, the more you’ll be able to expand your reach.

5. Bring it all together with Jotform Store Builder

Now that you know a bit more about how to sell event tickets online, it sure would be nice to do it all from one user-friendly, powerful system, right?

With Jotform Store Builder, you can implement everything you just learned — from creating online store templates to accepting online payments — in one centralized location. This comprehensive platform is fully customizable, intuitive, and completely code free, helping you organize a beautiful event from beginning to end, no matter your programming expertise.

Using Jotform Store Builder, you can track and manage all aspects of your event, including what the tickets look like and how many tickets have been sold. You can even use Jotform Store Builder to add QR codes to your event flyers for additional ticket sales. With one scan, prospective event attendees will be directed to your event site to learn more about the event and purchase tickets with ease.

As you can see, learning how to sell event tickets online is easy — especially if you have the right tools. Software like Jotform has all the features you need to create professional-looking, informative tickets and promotional collateral, ensure a smooth registration process, and set up online payment capabilities to sell tickets in seconds. So, next time you need to host an event, remember to use software like Jotform Store Builder to knock it out of the park.

Images by: Edwin Andrade, Benjamin Sharpe, Mika Baumeister