PromoTix University

William Royall (00:00)
If you host events and are looking for ways to sell more tickets and host better events, this podcast is for you. In this episode of PromoTix University, we're going to dive into three marketing tools that you probably didn't know existed that you can start using today to drive ticket sales right now. So stick around.

William Royall (00:39)
Hi, welcome to PromoTix University. I'm your host, Will Royall and this is our second episode of PromoTix University's podcast where we explore all facets of how to run a successful events-based company that relies on selling tickets or registrations. Now, I've sold more than $75 million in total ticket sales across my companies, and now I'm passing on a world of information that's helped me to event creators like you around the globe, as well as the mistakes that I've made that you can prevent.

So if that sounds of interest, be sure to hit the subscribe or follow button or the notifications button to be notified when new episodes are released and go ahead and hit that like button or that heart button or you get the idea all the things while you're at it. All right, so as promised, here is the first of three tools that we're going to cover today that you can use right now to start selling more tickets to your events. First, let's talk about one of the most powerful and often underused ticket sales strategies in the event world.

Influencer marketing now before you tune out thinking that's just for fashion brands or beauty products. Let me stop you right there Influencer marketing works incredibly well for events. Why? because people trust people not brands, and when someone's favorite creator says hey I'm going to this event. You should come with me" that message hits way differently than an ad. So how do you tap into that power without spending months manually scrolling Instagram or TikTok? Let me introduce you to a platform our first tool on today's show called

Influencity.

William Royall (02:05)
So what is Influencity? Influencity is an online tool that helps you search for, evaluate, and hire influencers who already speak to your ideal ticket buyers. You can search by industry or niche, like fitness, parenting, business, or music. You can search by location, which is great for local events, follower count, and engagement rate. You can search for audience demographics, such as age, gender, interests.

And you're not just looking for influencers with the biggest following, you're looking for the right ones that have your target audience following them. Sometimes that's a local micro influencer with a highly engaged community, and sometimes it's someone bigger who's worked with events before. With Influensity, you can create full campaigns. You can manage multiple influencers all in one place. You can track all of the outreach, the performance, and the analytics.

It basically saves you from DM chaos and influencer tracking spreadsheets.

William Royall (03:02)
Okay, so you've found the right influencers. Now what do you do? Well, finding the right people is just the first step. So let's talk about how to activate them and turn their attention into ticket sales. The first thing you want to do is create personalized campaign briefs for each one of them. You want to equip the influencers with clear messaging. So, you know, what is this event that you're actually selling tickets to? Why is their specific audience interested? Why should they care? What's the vibe?

the date, course, ticket link if you want to drive sales, any perks that they can offer, maybe a discount code or giveaway, et cetera. Just be sure not to over-script it. Let them speak in their own voice, but give them enough direction to be effective. The second thing you really want to do is to make sure that you're giving them unique affiliate links. Now this is very much key to your success because you're going to track results so that you can improve the campaign over time.

creating custom tracking links or promo codes for each influencer so that you can track ticket sales tied to each of them. You can use Google UTM links, for example, to create custom tracking links that will tie sales back into your Google Analytics for you. That way you can see exactly who drove the sales. You'll wanna measure things like click-throughs, so who's driving the most traffic to your event pages. You're going to wanna measure conversions, so who's driving the most sales or orders overall.

And you'll also want to track revenue per influencer so that you know exactly who's driving the most revenue. That way you can actually prove the ROI and decide who to reinvest in for future events. Now finally, you'll want to offer incentives and commissions to drive performance. So don't just pay for posts. Consider offering a performance-based incentive as well. So what works best is like a flat fee with a percentage of ticket sales.

Free tickets or VIP perks can be a bonus and it can make the campaign super successful if their following feels that they have a chance to actually meet the influencer at the event. Merch bundles or backstage passes, especially those physical lanyards, is something that you can offer for them to show off on camera or to wear. The goal is to make them feel like a partner, not just a promoter of the event.

William Royall (05:13)
how you can turn these influencers into a full blown ambassador program. If you really want to scale this strategy, this is where it gets exciting. You can take those influencers and invite them into a more structured ambassador program. This is also where a tool like PromoTix's ambassador platform comes into play. So recruit the influencers, super fans and micro promoters into your events street team as an ambassador.

Everyone's automatically assigned an affiliate tracking link so you don't need to worry about Google UTM links. You can set up rewards that ambassadors can earn including commissions, merchandise, and free tickets for completing tasks. You'll want to set up tasks for them to promote on social media, sell tickets, and even hand out flyers and posters possibly in their local market. You can then easily see them on leaderboards, issue rewards, and gamify sales amongst the team with a little bit of competition.

You can also supplement Influencity recruitment by tapping into the 7,000 plus ambassadors that are already in PromoTix's network. If you've ever said, man, I wish I had a small army out there selling tickets for me, this is how you build one. Influencity and PromoTix creates a winning strategy to run an effective ambassador program. So you use Influencity to find the right influencers, and then you use PromoTix to manage and scale their performance over time. Here's a pro tip.

Make it easy for influencers to succeed. No matter what platform you use to manage your program, I don't care if it's PromoTix, your job is to make promoting easy and exciting for them. Here's how you can do that. You need to provide graphics, photos, and event video clips that they can repost. Give them as much as you possibly can. Give them sample captions or stories that they can tweak, turn into their own, and distribute. Keep communication clear and positive for them.

Put them in a group together for collaboration, maybe a Facebook group or WhatsApp group. Shout them out on your event social channels and show them some love back. And of course, pay them on time.

William Royall (07:17)
Now influencer marketing isn't just a trend. It's one of the fastest, most effective ways to drive authentic buzz online and of course ticket sales. And now tools like Influensity and PromoTix Ambassador, with them being out there, there's no excuse strategically why you're not doing this. So whether you're hosting a comedy night or a festival or a small business summit, don't just post about it yourself. Partner with people who already have your audience's attention and let them sell it for you. Okay.

So onto our second featured tool today, Manychat. All right, let's talk about your DMs for a second, because if you're like most event creators, your inbox is either blowing up or it's a ghost town and you're not sure how to get any traction. Either way, you probably don't have the time or the desire to sit there and manually reply to every Instagram comment, story mention, or message just to move someone towards buying a ticket. So let me introduce you to a seriously powerful automation tool that can save your sanity.

and convert more sales right inside your social media platform.

William Royall (08:18)
is a tool that lets you automate direct messages, replies, and comments, and even Instagram story mentions. It turns your Instagram, Facebook, and even WhatsApp into a smart, scalable communication channel for your event. So instead of you replying to the same question over and over and over again, or trying to manually move people to a sales page through individual chats, Manychat lets you auto-reply to your DMs,

comments and story mentions. It also delivers personalized messages at scale. It answers FAQs like pricing, event times or locations, drop ticket links into conversations automatically, and even builds a subscriber list inside of Instagram and Facebook so that you can notify people through their DMs when new events drop, for example.

William Royall (09:06)
So why does it work so well for events? Let's break this down some. Say someone comments on your post, how much are tickets or is this event 21 and up? With ManyChat, you can automatically DM them a personalized message, answer their question and include a link to buy. So it feels super personal. It looks like you messaged them, but it's 100 % automated, which I of course love for scaling businesses.

Even better, if someone mentions your event in their story, ManyChat can instantly DM them with a thank you, a VIP code, or an invite to join your inner circle. This keeps you in their feed, in their inbox, and on their mind without burning yourself out.

William Royall (09:49)
So now you can turn your DMs into a notification channel with Manychat as well. And this is where it gets next level. Manychat lets you build a DM subscriber list, kind of like an email list, but more engaging because it's in their social media accounts. So when you launch a new event, add a surprise guest, release a lineup or limited VIP tickets, you can send out a mass direct message blast that feels like a private one-to-one message straight from you. And guess what? People actually read their DMs.

So the open rates on these things crush traditional email marketing. Instead of relying on a post to maybe hit the algorithm, you're reaching fans directly in their inbox with a message that gets seen, read, and clicked. This is why I like ManyChat

William Royall (10:34)
So what can you automate with Manychat? Well, here are a few ideas that you can set up in under an hour. Auto-reply to how much are tickets. You can message someone after they comment VIP to send them exclusive access. You can send a thank you message to anyone who tags your event in one of their stories. You can build a wait list through DMs for your next event. Maybe you wanna drop a discount code 24 hours before your event to help.

reengage people or drive last-minute sales. You can even set up a decision tree in Manychat where you ask them a question in their DMs such as, are you looking for GA or VIP tickets? And then you can reply accordingly. Or is this your first time attending and send info or maybe upsell them? It's like having a friendly, always-on sales assistant in your DMs. So real talk, this is about engaging people where they really are. And here's the big idea, don't.

pull people off the platforms they're already on. Engage them right there in their flow, in their DMs. So someone's already scrolling on Instagram. Don't send them a random link. DM them a fast answer and a clear call to action. This keeps you top of mind, keeps the conversation moving, and keeps the friction low, which is going to increase your sales. So if you're tired of losing leads in the comments or feeling like you need to hire a full-time social media assistant,

just to keep up with the DMs or the comment replies, Manychat is clearly a no-brainer. It's one of the easiest ways to scale your message, drive conversions, and build deeper relationships with your audience. Now, I've used it for many years to scale my social media accounts for several events that I've run, including the venue. I'll drop the link in the show notes so you can check it out. And if you're already using something like this, props to you, you're ahead of the game. If you're not, give it a try before your next big announcement. I think you're gonna be surprised

at how many people actually engage back when it feels like a real conversation.

William Royall (12:32)
The third tool for the day, Spotify Artist Insights. All right, we've covered automation, we've covered influencer strategy, and one-to-one engagement, but now this is the final tool of the show today. We're diving into something very specific for those of you who run music-based events. So if you've ever been involved in talent buying, you know the struggle. It's expensive, it's risky, and it can feel like you're guessing half the time.

Are people gonna be excited? Are they gonna show up? Is this artist worth the price tag that the agent is quoting? That's where PromoTix's Artist Insights tool, which is powered by Spotify, comes into play.

William Royall (13:08)
Okay, so what is the Artist Insights tool from PromoTix? Well, PromoTix and Spotify have teamed up here and this tool taps directly into Spotify's listener data. But here's the twist. It's not just general trends. It shows you exactly what artists your audience is listening to and which artists they're following. I'm talking about your event attendees and the people registering for your contests or giveaways who haven't even bought tickets yet.

You get real first party listening data from Spotify tied to your actual audience, not guesses, not agent pitches, not poll star data or national trends.

William Royall (13:47)
All right, so how does this help you book smarter? Well, let's say you're planning a spring concert or summer music festival and you've got a list of potential artists, but you're not sure which ones are actually going to move tickets in your specific market with your specific audience and database. With PromoTix's Artist Insights tool, you can see which artists are most listened to by your own list. Compare the artists side by side based on their popularity rank.

And then spot underrated talent that's trending with your fans, but might be sort of flying under the radar. And it helps you avoid overpaying for a big name artist who doesn't actually resonate with your crowd. So let me give you an example. Maybe you're debating between artist A and artist B and artist A costs $30,000 and artist B costs $20,000. Now without any data, you might assume that artist A is the better draw because of the name recognition and because the agent is charging more. But

Inside the Artist Insights tool, see that Artist B is actually more popular with your audience and ranks higher in your market. More people are listening to them right now, and so more than likely, they want to see them right now. That means that you save $10,000 between the artists and you book one that's more likely to sell tickets. It turns that talent buying from a guessing game into a data-backed decision for your specific database.

William Royall (15:12)
Now here's a bonus use case. Another cool strategy is to use the data to build out complete lineups that complement each other. You can see artists overlap. So if your audience listens to artists C and D at similar rates, it might make sense to book both of them and stack them into one night or one festival. You can also use it to find similar artists in the same genre that seems to be resonating with your database. That synergy increases the appeal of the lineup overall.

and it will boost attendance. So if you're producing a music event, festival, or even a small showcase, PromoTix's Spotify Artist Insights tool gives you a major advantage. It helps you book smarter, spend wiser, and sell more tickets with what's hot right now with your audience. So let the data drive your decisions. It'll save you money, it'll boost your confidence, and it'll make your lineup way more attractive to the people that matter the most, which are your fans.

William Royall (16:08)
that is going to wrap up this episode of PromoTix University. Now you can check out Influencity, Manychat and the PromoTix Insights tool, as well as the other two bonus tools that I mentioned, which was Google UTM link builder and the PromoTix ambassador in the show notes. If you enjoyed it today or you learned something new, please give it a like. Be sure to comment below to help others in the community with some tools or marketing tips that are working for you and helping you to drive sales right now.

Let us know what topics you want us to cover in future episodes of the podcast and subscribe with notifications so that you can be notified when the next episode drops. Speaking of the next episode, I am really excited about this one as it's not a topic that many are talking about, but it works so incredibly well. We've got a framework for exploring brand archetypes and how to apply them to your events, marketing look, feel, and messaging to stop.

pushing sales on attendees and start attracting them instead by emotionally connecting with your audience. Because we all know that event experiences are emotional experiences, which means the sales are driven from how connected one feels to the event. So I hope to see you there. It's going to be a good one. Thanks for joining and until next time, keep selling those tickets. Take care, everyone.