Buying tickets is a personal experience. It should be easy, intuitive and straight-forward. In every culture and every country they have their own specific customs, even in the habit of purchasing a ticket. Therefore, a lot of the organisers out there expect a solution tailored to these regional quirks. Apply a regional ticketing strategy and offer an answer to their needs.
When 'being regional' is a valuable key component for your business plan, you want to make sure this regional ticketing strategy is in fact represented in your ticketing solution.
Here're some vital tips for your regional ticketing strategy:
- Use the regional slang
Even in a world dominated by English as the default language, each country has its own preferred vocabulary. Sometimes this might just be the use of particular words like whether to say 'promotion' rather than 'coupons'. In other cases having a website in English is one of the reasons ticket buyers would click away immediately. Overall, people like to be addressed on a personal level, and one way to accomplish this is by using their own native language or maybe even local dialect.
- Work with regional distribution partners
In Estonia for example, buying tickets at the local gas station, while filling up your tank, is a normal practice. While it's something you couldn't imagine happening in the Netherlands. Make sure your ticketing solution can handle this kind of 'unusual' distributions.
- Adapt to regional habits
Did you know that in Germany it's common to first pick your seat at the beginning of the purchase flow. It's key for German ticket buyers to have a look at the seat map, while in Belgium having 'best available seats' is standard. These details can really make the difference between a 'regional' solution and a standardised global approach.
- Connect with regional media partners
Partnering with the traditional media channels like the national newspapers or television is off course pretty straight forward. But think even more locally. Doesn't the region has his own paper? Perhaps there is a local app connecting neighborhoods or a popular regional blog written to a specific audience that can do some advertisement?
- Comply with regional regulation
Every country has his own legislation concerning online payment, ticketing and e-commerce in general. Make sure your ticketing platform is in fact aligned with the rules. In France, for example, all ticket revenue is controlled by a centralised institution to make sure the organisers or ticket buyers are protected in case of malpractice. In Italy on the other hand, all technology should be investigated by an Italian University Institution and all the ticket payments have to be scanned by the tax authorities every 24h.
- Offer other regional solutions
You can make a difference by generating your upsell using regional solutions. Connect to national payment providers, check-out systems or scanning companies. This way you're sure they are adapted to the regional needs as well. And more importantly, they also follow the national regulation. According to Belgian law, every cash register in the hotel and catering industry has to be connected to a registered checkout system, for example. You have to be sure this is dealt with by your connected solution.
- Be able to support regional sponsor deals
Your organisers will probably have agreements with regional sponsors. This will result in the need for personalised tickets, specific pre- and after sales communication for the ticket buyers, a branded shop,... Your ticketing platform should be able to make all of this possible.
Ready to kick it up a notch? Read our tips on how to get noticed by the big players and move from a local to an international approach.
Looking for a solution that's up for the challenge of a complete regional ticketing strategy? Guess what! Our platform can let you do all of the above and our team will share more of their valuable insights. Curious? Get your personalised demo now.
This article was written by Hannah Coekaerts. Photographs courtesy of unsplash.