Event Promotion : Use SMS Marketing to Fill Empty Seats

Event promotion can be a mystifying activity. It happens more than you might think. You have unsold seats for even some of your best shows. You’ve advertised in all the usual ways, you’ve emailed your customer list, but still the seats sit empty. With the event date closing in, what else can you do? What remains to be tried? SMS messaging, that’s what.
Let’s turn the question around for a moment and look at an example of the person you’re trying to reach.
It’s a Friday night and a man just got off work. He’s looking for something exciting to do with his girlfriend. He starts searching on his mobile, maybe with an app or just Google. He finds a few possibilities, but nothing that seems quite right.
Just then, he gets a text message about seats available for a show that night. He replies to the number in the text message (via phone or a redirect to a website), purchases two tickets, and calls his girlfriend with the good news. He’s the hero of the night.
And your unsold seats are now filling up as others reply to the same text message sent out as part of your standard last minute marketing plan.
SMS marketing is a great, and fast, way to connect with existing customers. These are customers that have already purchased from you in the past, or signed up for notifications based on their interests. You may already be reaching out to them using email or print advertising, but neither is as targeted or timely as a text message.
Timing Is Everything
I’ll share an example from my own experience. I’m on a list for my local music hall. The other day I found an email from them for a “super date night package”. It was an amazing offer with tickets to a show, a late night romantic dinner and one night in a historic hotel. But by the time I read the email (I get lots of emails), the event had passed and the offer was no longer valid.
I wonder how many other people had the same experience, or never saw the email at all.
Email certainly is a key part of marketing, but SMS is a better alternative in some circumstances. And there are many different ways to use it for event promotion and marketing:
- Announce new events and VIP early ticket purchase dates
- Event updates in case of delays, changes, or added dates
- Offer chances to win tickets, backstage passes, or meet and greets with a reply code
- Send coupons or discount codes to your best customers
- And, of course, last minute pushes to sell seats for an event
SMS messages work well, because your audience is primed. They already like your events (since they’ve signed up on your list and gave you permission to text them) so they are your exact target market.
When used correctly (i.e. not over used), SMS messages are a great way to connect and keep customers engaged. Will SMS message marketing work for your events? We think so. Contact us today and we’ll answer your questions and help you get started.
Related Articles
Creative SMS Crowdfunding Campaigns for Independent Film Productions
No matter what the task is, any campaign can be boosted by SMS marketing. It's great for businesses and charities but could be especially utilised for the creative industry. From the largest scale (mainstream TV shows, Hollywood blockbusters) to low budget independents, there is an SMS campaign to fit all needs and perform a vital profile-boosting function.
5 Reasons You Want to Use SMS Messaging in Your Business
Are you looking to grow your business? Get more customers? Have larger profits? Of course you are. Isn't every business looking to improve, grow and generate more sales? More and more businesses are realising how SMS messaging can help them do all those things. But it's nice to have some facts to back up what most people seem to assume is true.
Why SMS and Mass Participation Sports Events are Made for Each Other
Most major sports teams in the UK and US already know the power of SMS for engaging fans via scores, stats and other data. But the power of SMS can extend far beyond the world of the major leagues. SMS is ideal, not only for communicating with participants but to coordinate teams of volunteers across the event.
Why SMS is the Biggest Missed Opportunity for Marketing to Millennials
With the continued rise of different and more diverse technologies in the social and mobile web, it would be easy to dismiss the potential benefits of SMS marketing - and that’s exactly the reason you shouldn’t. An SMS is the unexpected visit of a familiar friend, and there’s one demographic that embraces an old trusted ally in this new, noisy digital world more than anyone else: the millennials.
8 Key Reasons SMS Marketing is So Effective
You might not have run an SMS marketing campaign yourself, but you are likely to have received some form of SMS communication from a business. Whether that's a commercial brand running a competition or a healthcare provider, such as your GP or dental practice, sending you an appointment reminder. If you have run an SMS marketing campaign before, you're likely to already be aware of the effectiveness of the platform for communicating with customers, but might need help justifying your use of SMS messaging to other people or departments in your business. Here, we've listed out the key reasons SMS marketing is so effective.
How Entertainment Venues Can Use SMS Marketing
Whether it's a cinema, theatre or concert hall, your entertainment venue is missing a trick if it's not utilising SMS marketing to get those bums on seats. We take an in-depth look at how all kinds of entertainment venues can really make the most of SMS marketing.
How Sports Clubs and Fitness Centres are Using SMS Marketing to Their Advantage
Statistics show that a huge 98% of text messages are opened within the first fifteen minutes of being received, so it's little wonder that sports organisations and fitness centres have been looking to take advantage of a potentially lucrative market.
SMS Marketing for Independent Art Galleries
Do Cinemas Need to Use SMS Messaging?
Every cinema experiences ups and downs in admissions. But do they have to wait for the next blockbuster to come along before seeing more ticket sales? Not if they use SMS messaging to connect with customers. Find out how in this blog.
One Great SMS Marketing Opt In Campaign Example
In a previous blog post I shared how getting my movie tickets delivered to me via SMS made going to the cinema with my family easier than it’s ever been. I signed up to the company’s SMS marketing list too and I want to share the process with you because it was so easy, so seamless for me as a consumer, that it makes a great example for others to follow.