previous icon Back to blog
May 10, 2023
9 minutes read

11 Ways to Make Your Event Stand Out With Mobile Marketing

Festivals are bigger than ever; the market is thriving, and people love listening to live music in a space where they feel free to let go and enjoy the atmosphere with like-minded people. While this is undoubtedly a good thing for organizers, with this popularity comes much competition. Organizers, therefore, need to think of creative ways to stand out. One way is by boosting their mobile marketing offering. CM.com offers the solution; discover here 11 examples of how you can apply this to your event.

Esmee Spaan
Esmee Spaan,
Product Marketer Ticketing

Most festival organizers focus their energy on the offline experience. Elevating your digital offering can give you a fighting chance and help you shift those extra tickets to sell out your event.

To elevate your digital offering, you should engage your visitors throughout the year digitally, so they become dedicated followers of your brand - ensuring they never skip any of your events. Even better, they will spread the love and bring onboard new visitors.

Here are 11 of the most successful mobile marketing ideas for your event to ensure you stand out in a crowded market.

1. Pre-register for Exclusive Access

By offering pre-registration, you can gain valuable insights, such as how popular your event is and how many people will buy a ticket once the ticket shop is live. You can easily activate a custom queue to avoid overloading the store if there is high demand.

Pre-registration also offers a more positive experience for attendees because they don’t have to commit themselves yet. Still, they will receive relevant updates, including exclusive access to the ticket shop. Creating a pre-registration form can be done quickly via Pages, which you can even brand in your style. A drag-and-drop editor lets you drag and drop fields visitors must fill out, such as their contact details. These data can be collected in your Customer Data Platform (CDP).

Pre-register for Exclusive Access

2. Promote Your Event Offline and Online

Of course, your visitors will not by chance land on this form; you need to promote this. The most logical first step is sending it via SMS or email to your current database. Perhaps you do not have a database yet. Then you can easily promote your form with a social media campaign. The added value of having your database in a CDP is that after converting, you have the contact details of your fans, and you are no longer dependent on Mark Zuckerberg.

Probably not all your visitors are active social media users (anymore), so you must be creative to catch their attention. A good way is to bridge the gap between offline and online by using print ads at bus stops or restrooms with a QR code or an SMS code (e.g., text EVENT to 4004). This QR code or SMS leads to your desired page, such as the pre-registration.Promote Your Event Offline and Online

3. Kick off Your Ticket Sales

Once you’ve gathered all the data of potentially interested visitors, you can kick off your ticket sales by sending them a personalized message, via their preferred channel, such as WhatsApp or SMS, with the initiation of your sales. A bonus is that SMS campaigns have an average open rate of 98%.

To increase your conversion even further, you can send a reminder after a certain period. By using marketing automation, you ensure that this message is only sent to the segment that hasn’t bought a ticket yet because it’s quite a doodler when you receive a reminder while you’ve already bought your ticket.

Kick off Your Ticket Sales

4. Let Your Visitors Share With Friends

Going to a festival with your friends is, of course, more fun than by yourself. So, sharing the link to the ticket shop with others should not be a hurdle. You can even convince your visitors to share it by using a simple ‘Share with friends’ WhatsApp button on the thank-you page. When clicking the button, your visitor will be redirected to WhatsApp with a pre-written message and a link to your shop. This possibility immediately broadens your target group, a win-win.

Let Your Visitors Share With Friends

5. Create a Pre-event Buzz

Another sure-fire way of providing a great event experience while collecting visitor data is warming them up in the lead-up to your event, for example, with a win action by sharing their preferences, such as their favorite artist, to win a meet and greet.

In addition, you could offer them a reminder to download the event app so they have everything in one place during the event, such as their wallet, a site map, and any important updates. In the meantime, you immediately know who has downloaded this and who hasn’t.

Finally, it’s a perfect upsell opportunity. You could send a quick reminder to buy tokens, so they don’t have to wait in line or for the merchandise to show up in style. Upselling becomes a piece of cake with our Mobile Order solution.

Create a Pre-event Buzz

6. Personalize Your Messages

No one feels special receiving an email with a generic “hi there” greeting. Personalizing your messaging can help here. It offers a nice touch and will strengthen your relationship with your visitors, in the long run, keeping them coming back time and time again. You can automatically send personalized messages by using dynamic variables from the data collected in your CDP. See the example below:

Personalize Your Messages

7. Surprise Visitors With a Voice Message

Another unique way to amaze your visitors is to have one of the artists call them. But how does that work? Of course, an artist cannot reach everyone himself; that would be very time-consuming, not to mention costly. No, a message is recorded in advance that starts after a visitor takes the call from an unknown number. A fun way to use this is to announce the festival’s headline or to use the CDP and send everyone a voice message from their favorite artists. You want the visitors to pick up the phone call, so it is wise to send an announcement earlier in the day, e.g., “Today you will receive an anonymous phone call with a nice surprise, believe us - you don’t want to miss this.”Surprise Visitors With a Voice Message

8. Stay in Touch During the Event With an App

It’s rare for festivalgoers to read their emails during the event they’re attending. So, to stay in touch with them now, you must ensure that the information they receive is super relevant and arrives through the most appropriate channels. An app is a great way to go here - because you can send push notifications that appear immediately on your visitor’s screen. When you link this to the CDP, for example, you can send out a message when their favorite artist is about to play. Another way to ensure your messages are relevant is by applying geofencing technology, which uses the visitor’s location to send messages. For example, they might receive a push notification when they walk past a specific restaurant offering them a discount coupon.

Stay in Touch During the Event With an App9. Send Welcome Message Immediately After Ticket Scan

Another cool way to engage with your visitors during the event is by immediately sending them a mobile welcome message (e.g., with WhatsApp, Push, or SMS) when their ticket is scanned. This is easily done via marketing automation. In this message, you can link to a Page with all the necessary information, such as the event map or a link to a mobile order environment to buy food, drinks, or merchandise. An excellent opportunity for you to upsell/cross-sell, too! If they did not download the app yet, this would also be the perfect opportunity to let them know they can access a plethora of other helpful information if they download your event app.

Send Welcome Message Immediately After Ticket Scan

10. Post-event Sweep Up

It’s not just about before or during the event. You’ll want to keep your attendees engaged afterward, too, by staying in touch and thus making sure your next event is just as successful. You can do this by asking for feedback via a survey on a Page after the event to ensure the next one is even better. You can make this happen by sending a trigger 24 hours after their ticket is scanned, while you’re still at the top of their minds and they’re still buzzing from the event. Other messages you can send throughout the year include an exclusive look at the next event line-up or behind-the-scenes videos, which will get them excited, wanting more, and thus more likely to pre-register for your next event.

Post-event Sweep Up

11. Congratulate Your Fanbase on Their Birthday

To make your messaging super personal, it’s always a great idea to send personalized messages, such as a birthday message offering a surprise discount. This will help with year-round engagement and help improve your relationships, bolstering fan loyalty. Don’t worry; you don’t need to create thousands of birthday reminders to make this happen; it can all be done automatically via our nifty software.Congratulate Your Fanbase on Their Birthday

Tip of the Iceberg

While there are many ways to improve and make more of a success of your event with mobile marketing, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more possibilities, all of which can be personalized to you, depending on your goals.

Our team at CM.com is ready to think along and take the mobile experience to the next level.

Was this article interesting?
Share it!
Esmee Spaan
Esmee Spaan,
Product Marketer Ticketing

Focuses on understanding the needs and behavior of target groups and trends within the market to ensure that our story and solutions are optimally aligned.

Latest Articles

whatsapp-business-blog_image-deals-offers
Sep 11, 2024 • WhatsApp

Increase Conversion With Promotional Messages on WhatsApp

In an age of mass marketing, as well as constant TV, internet and email advertising, it’s safe to say that peak sales periods like Black Friday and the Holiday Season can be something of an overwhelming experience for consumers around the world. Feeling overwhelmed by irrelevant information from companies that doesn't match their personal needs and desires, it's no surprise people might want to switch off their phones, radios, and televisions, tuning out all forms of marketing until the sales peak season is over. As an eCommerce player, you should always be looking to avoid this by diversifying and personalizing your marketing strategy in a way that suits your customers needs and sensibilities.

unlock-communication-excellence-with-cpaas
Jun 06, 2024 • CM.com

Unlock Communication Excellence With CPaaS

Diving deeper into CM.com's CPaaS approach in empowering business users to unlock Communication Excellence - a guest article by Quadrant Knowledge Solutions, a global advisory and consulting firm focused on helping clients in achieving business transformation goals with Strategic Business and Growth advisory services.

live-event-trends
Oct 12, 2023 • Live

5 Ways to Supercharge Your Sponsor Revenue with an Event App

Many festivals and events struggle with limited budgets and view an event app as an unnecessary luxury. Nothing could be further from the truth; an event app doesn't have to be a cost but rather an additional revenue stream. It adds tremendous value as a digital assistant for your attendees, and on the other hand, you have an extra tool to provide sponsors and partners with much more exposure and 'stage time.' If you convince your sponsors of this, they will be more than happy to pay for it, and you won't have to worry about your budget anymore. 75% of organizers who use a strong app manage to make more money with the app than it costs them. In fact, some festivals do so well that app revenue can cover a significant portion of their entire technology budget.

live-boost-online
Sep 21, 2023 • Ticketing

6 Methods to Encourage Your Museum or Park Visitors to Buy Their Ticket Online

In an era where online convenience is becoming the new standard, many visitors still choose to buy their tickets at the entrance. This is unfortunate, given the many advantages of online ticketing for both visitors and the museum or park itself. Think about avoiding lines, generating extra income, and gathering more information. But how can you increase the use of online ticketing? That can still be a challenge, which is why we've compiled six ideas for you.

Jouw festival als eyecatcher
Aug 27, 2023 • Customer Experience

Your event as a showstopper: 7 futureproof trends to jump on

In the overcrowded event industry, it's getting tougher to keep your ticket sales going strong. The competition is huge, and everyone's targeting the same audiences. Chances are that a festival with empty lineups and expensive tickets won't survive five years from now. Invest in your brand, innovate, and stand out – that's the only way to build a solid foundation for the future. We've got 7 trends for you to hop onto and make sure you're ready for what's to come.

blog-email-open-rates
Aug 15, 2023 • Email

How to Skyrocket Your Email Open Rates

Email marketing has come a long way since the first campaign was sent in 1978, and it remains one of the most valuable tools in the modern marketer’s business strategy. But email marketing is sometimes dismissed as ‘spamming’ people and all your hard work crafting targeted, relevant, and timely emails to your customers or prospects will be useless if you don’t do everything you can to optimize email deliverability.

live-boost-your-ticket-sales
Jul 26, 2023 • Live

11 Ways to Boost Ticket Sales and Make Your Event a Sell-Out

It's no secret that selling tickets in today's current climate can be quite the rollercoaster ride, especially with inflation confronting event-goers with increased prices all over, making them more selective where they spend their disposable income. They also tend to make last-minute decisions making it harder to forecast event attendance well in advance. Not to mention fierce competition in the market. So, if you’re looking for fresh approaches to secure more sales, look no further. From utilizing new marketing channels to exploring creative and data-driven approaches and leveraging loyal fans and influencers, here are 11 creative ways to boost ticket sales.

live-online-ticketing-needs
Jul 24, 2023 • Ticketing

9 Essential Features for Your Museum or Park’s Online Ticketing Software

Buying a ticket at the entrance of your park or museum remains important, but an online ticketing system is indispensable nowadays. Whether you already sell tickets online or want to start doing so, choosing the right ticketing software can be complicated. Look for a partner that contributes to a smooth visitor experience, helps you work more efficiently, and perhaps even generates additional revenue. To get you started, here are the 9 features that a good online ticketing system for any museum or park should have.

live-increase-your-online-ticketing
Jul 18, 2023 • Ticketing

Get Started With Online Ticketing: 10 Reasons for Your Museum or Park

Digitization is impacting more and more industries, including the museums & parks industry. Despite this, most tickets are still sold at the box office rather than online. This is unfortunate, as there are numerous benefits to be gained. Not only does it ensure a smooth visitor experience, but it also offers interesting opportunities for your organisation. In this blog, you will discover 10 reasons why you shouldn't fall behind in this digital advancement.

Is this region a better fit for you?
Go
close icon