Spring break is a time of rest and relaxation for many, while others want to hit the open road or seek out new adventures. You, the theatremaker, deserve a break and some fun, too… but you should also be using this time to maximize your theatre’s revenue and boost your ticket sales.
You might be thinking, “But why now? Everyone’s on vacation!” Well, industry reports confirm that online shopping sees a substantial uptick during this specific holiday break. In fact, in 2022, e-commerce sales during spring break increased by 20% – meaning you can unlock immense revenue potential by targeting online shoppers in the coming weeks.
Although spring break is fast approaching, you still have time to implement strategies to assist in selling more tickets and maximizing your revenue. On The Stage presents a variety of ways to boost your sales during spring break.
The research has confirmed that consumers are more likely to make impulse buys during spring break. So why not appeal to that sense of spontaneity and adventure through your marketing efforts?
Make sure you’re boosting your brand awareness during this time, strategically curating product offerings and marketing campaigns that appeal to a spring break mindset. Insert vacation graphics and lines like, ‘You deserve to treat yourself!’ In short, validate your patrons and let them know it’s OK to splurge! Both you and your patrons will benefit.
You can also appeal to the spring break mindset by offering short-term promo codes to your patrons. The key here is to create urgency through scarcity marketing.
What is scarcity marketing, you may ask? In short, it’s a technique where an entity encourages patrons to make a purchase before an item sells out or a discount goes away. Through the creation of urgency, your patrons will be more likely to purchase what you want them to purchase – and do it quickly.
You can enact your spring break promo codes utilizing either a quantity or time restraint. For example, only a select number of VIP tickets, discounted tickets, or first row tickets are available for an upcoming show. Or, let people know a ticket discount is only good through the weekend or through spring break itself.
Ways to emphasize the point include running timers or ticket counters on your website and social media pages. For ticket counters, you can either flash how many tickets are left or how many have been purchased – both of which will evoke an emotional response from patrons on the fence about buying. Research also shows that sales will increase by simply signifying how much time is left on a deal – urgency!
The best marketing decisions you can make are informed decisions – so make sure you’re leveraging data analytics tools to track consumer behavior, monitor website traffic, and analyze your sales.
By looking at your ticket-buyer and patron data, you can understand what marketing tactics, products, and shows are resonating best with your audiences. Afterward, you can identify areas of improvement and optimize those renewed strategies in real time. This will boost ticket sales during your spring break period and beyond.
We’ve already established that people will be in a jolly mood during spring break, so make sure you’re maximizing e-commerce returns by cross-selling and upselling your products. This time of impulse shopping is the perfect opportunity to attempt to increase your Average Order Value.
Ways to cross-sell and upsell include:
Creating more buzz during spring break won’t amount to much if your ticketing portal and theatre website aren’t up-to-date and optimized for high traffic and mobile sales. In short, it’s crucial for sellers of all kinds to optimize their website and mobile experience.
Before the chaos of spring break sales begins, make sure your website and ticketing portals are intuitive, easy to navigate, quick and streamlined, and mobile-friendly. After all, statistics show that 67% of online shoppers are more likely to make a purchase from a mobile-friendly site.
This week, of all weeks, is the time when people will be scrolling all over social media, looking to be entertained. Make sure you have a bevy of dynamic posts and stories going up this week, all with interesting premises that will draw in more viewers and more likes.
If you really want to increase engagement, consider sponsored posts – or partnering up with influencers. Even setting aside a small budget for social media marketing can make a huge difference.
Going hand-in-hand with social media marketing, hosting contests during the week of spring break will bring about excitement about your theatre and its offerings to those who follow you – and those who see shared posts.
The idea of a ‘contest’ can mean many things. Consider a spring break ticket-selling competition for your cast and crew, where the person who sells the most during that week wins a reward. Other lower-stakes options include social media giveaways where a patron must share your post and make a ticket purchase to be entered to win. Incentivize sharing your posts. We’ve already established that people will be on social media a lot this week, so why not use that to your advantage?
Whether it’s spring break or the dead of winter, one thing remains true: theatremakers are always looking to sell more tickets. If you’re not sure how to jump that hurdle, it’s time to partner with On The Stage.
With On The Stage’s Booking and Box Office Suite, theatres of all sizes can elevate their patron experiences, streamline their box office processes, and simplify ticket sales. In fact, those who partner with On The Stage can increase ticket sales by 20-25% – just by utilizing our all-in-one ticketing platform that is free to your organization.
With OTS ticketing, you can:
So, what are you waiting for? Book a personalized demo with On The Stage today to get started.