Want some background info first to fully grasp their impact? Black Friday is a tradition that comes from the U.S. and always takes place on the Friday after Thanksgiving Thursday. In other words, Black Friday is the Friday after the fourth Thursday of November. Therefore, in 2019, Black Friday is Friday, November 29th.
Black Friday is the day with the highest sales volume throughout the year, both for traditional shops as for e-commerce platforms. According to Marketing 4 eCommerce, in 2018 sales revenue increased by about 663% worldwide around Black Friday.
Wakey, wakey! Missing out on Black Friday simply isn't an option. A 50% discount on any ordinary day smells like failure, but 50% on Black Friday is not, because it is justified.
As an example, in 2017 and 2018, 84 event organizers from 27 different cities published a total of 266 offers for a total of 224 events, generating a total sale of more than 80,000 tickets.
Boost the ticket sales of your (customer's) events on one of the weekends with the highest online transaction volume of the year. Here are our top 5 tips:
1. Do not promote the events of the same weekend
Some people have made the same mistake in the last two years: they thought they had to promote Black Friday’s weekend events. That’s not the way it should be. Such events are about to happen, and the sense of urgency already accelerates the pace of sales organically.
So, promotion of events that are happening on the same night as Black Friday or on the next day will make you lose margin on tickets that–very possibly–you were going to sell anyway.
2. Make offers on events on the eve of imminent holidays
Instead of betting on events close to or on Black Friday, aim to accelerate the sales of all future dates for which the critical mass is still far away. It’s the ideal weekend to target them without any fear of being judged. It is an excellent chance to promote future events, festivals, exhibitions, sports events, holiday specials, etc.
Between 2017 and 2018 more than 25% of ticket sales were about events on 6 specific dates: 05/12, 07/12, 24/12, 31/12 and 05/1.
3. Focus on percentage discounts & always explain the offer clearly
In these past two years of Black Friday we observed mainly three types of offers:
- Discounted tickets: typically discounts of 20%, 30%, 50% (or whatever you wish) on the initial ticket price.
- Group ticket discount: the classical 2×1, 3×2, etc.
- Tickets with a freebie: undiscounted tickets but that have a gift included, such as a drink or free access to a future event.
Unsurprisingly, discounted tickets are the ones that sold the most. Group tickets and Tickets with a freebie followed suit, but not that closely. In other words, applying a discount almost doubles the probability of selling compared to offering a group ticket discount.
4. Don’t forget the VIP areas
Why not applying Black Friday discounts on the price of VIP Tickets or the premium experience? Initial VIP prices are much higher and the higher the prices, the higher the rebate, resulting in a much more positive perception among the buyers.
In addition, occasional customers in VIP zones might be enticed to try the experience more often, and thus become more frequent VIP customers, so Black Friday can also play a role in customer acquisition.
5. Announce your offers on time and to your most loyal costumers
Different studies have demonstrated that, during Black Friday, peak sales are reached even before midday. Therefore we recommend that you activate your offers as soon as possible. Doing it around midnight between Thursday and Friday is a very good choice.
Once you or your customer have decided what offer to make on which events, how to apply it, and when to activate it, you still need to announce it. Do this well in advance. Announcing an offer several days or even weeks in advance, followed by a reminder about the day and time on which it starts and ends will generate a lot of engagement. MailerLite, one of the largest email marketing platforms in the world epitomises this in their article with a countdown checklist.
While the strategy is now clear, you still need to decide on the channels. Our advice is to ignore Google AdWords. Although paid ads offers the highest ROI, the keywords “Black Friday” suffer from a very high level of competition, and your campaign costs will soar.
Instead we advise you to focus on your most loyal audience, which you will reach with a specific Black Friday newsletter and through your social networks. And yes, the marketing tools that are included in our platform can be utilised for precisely this type of marketing communication as well.
Conclusion: turn Black Friday into a terrific success
Although the life entertainment/ticket industry is not yet used to experience a steep increase in sales on Black Friday as the retail industry, it's high time to change the way of thinking. Don't fear the inevitable temporary scaling. Our platform will handle this with ease. Black Friday, as well as Cyber Monday, is an ideal opportunity to promote your event, venue, festival, e.g. in an aggressive but also lucrative way, without appearing too hawkish to the final user. Thus, with two years of experience selling a significantly higher number of tickets on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, here is the roundup of our top 5 tips:
1. Do not discount events that take place on the Black Friday weekend of November. The sense of urgency will make these tickets sell anyway.
2. Focus on promoting events on 05/12, 07/12, 24/12, 31/12, and 05/1 (throughout Europe).
3. Apply a discount percentage on the initial price of the ticket. 55% of sales were made with this type of offer.
4. Apply offers on VIP areas. Being sold at a higher price, the final user perceives the discount better, and your opportunity cost will be much lower.
5. Communicate these offers days or even weeks in advance, announcing date and time in which they will start and end, creating a sense of urgency among your audience. Use mailings and social networks to achieve this.
Ready to learn more?
Register for the 28 November 2019 UX UI Heaven | Online Flows for optimised ticket sales webinar.
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