Businesses looking for maximum reach and audience engagement should consider SMS event marketing before their next event.
By using text messaging services, you can spread the word, sell more tickets, send event reminders to attendees and more.
Using SMS for events is one way to ensure that your marketing content reaches as many potential attendees as possible. But which strategies work best for boosting ticket sales and increasing turnout?
In this guide, we’re breaking down three best practices for event organizers looking to draw a crowd. We’ll also explore some of the benefits of using SMS to market special events.
#1 Craft Compelling Messages
First, let’s focus on the content of SMS event marketing materials. Text messages sent to potential attendees can achieve their maximum potential with:
- Personalization – In today’s marketing landscape, consumers care deeply about personalized content, and they’re more likely to engage with content that uses their name or shared data to provide a tailored experience. If your brand has sold tickets to a customer before, consider using their previous seating preferences to recommend similar tickets for your next event.
- Brevity – Text messages are designed to be short-form. Take care not to overwhelm your recipients with walls of text. Instead, consider incorporating images or shortened links that feature key details about the event such as the date, time and location.
- Built-in ticket purchase options – Event organizers should make ticketing as simple as possible for potential attendees. Instead of assuming recipients will find and visit your ticketing website on their own, consider using a transactional call to action text that includes a link: “Purchase tickets here: [Link].”
#2 Build Targeted Subscriber Lists
Event organizers with lengthy subscriber lists should consider segmentation and targeting tactics before designing their next SMS campaign.
- Segmentation describes grouping consumers in your target audience (or SMS recipient list) based on common characteristics like demographics, item preferences and purchase frequency.
- Targeting efforts are marketing strategies designed to reach a specific market segment. One example of targeting would be primarily advertising VIP packages to your high-income segment.
Segmentation and targeting can:
- Enhance your personalization efforts – By segmenting customers who typically purchase tickets for rock shows (but not jazz performances), for instance, you can send this segment marketing messages that more accurately reflect their entertainment preferences.
- Support upselling – While your high-income segment might be your primary target for VIP packages, you could also incorporate upselling language in messages aimed at segments that usually buy the cheapest tickets.
- Market events and products to your highest-intent recipients – If you segment your past customers based on the type of event they attended, you can promote specific events to people whose interest you've already confirmed. This strategy of marketing specific events to the most likely buyers among your customers can improve your SMS marketing ROI.
#3 Measure ROI to Tweak Your Strategy
Return on investment (ROI) is one metric you can use to evaluate how well your SMS marketing efforts are attracting attendees. If ticket revenue doesn’t eclipse the money you spent on marketing, you’re not making a profit, and it’s time to reconsider your strategy.
You can take one of two approaches to ROI during an SMS marketing campaign:
- The long game – If you’re relatively confident that your event will be profitable, you could wait until after the campaign (and the event) are over before calculating your ROI. If you choose to play the long game, your tactical changes will only impact future campaigns.
- Incremental monitoring – Monitoring your ROI throughout the life of your campaign will allow you to adjust your strategy before the event. Since event tickets are generally on sale for extended periods, an incremental approach can increase your marketing profits.
Benefits of Using SMS for Ticket Sales
Why use SMS for events? Text message marketing provides opportunities for:
- Improved reach – SMS open rates are impressive! Approximately nine out of ten people open nearly all of their text messages, and more than six out of ten read their texts within five minutes of receiving them.
- Digital ticket management – If you expect most attendees to purchase tickets digitally and present them on their phones for admission, you can make the process simpler by sending purchase links, digital ticket links, or even the tickets themselves via SMS.
- Targeted marketing efforts – Using SMS with segmentation and personalization tactics makes it easier to target high-intent buyers (which will increase your ROI). A digital ad, by comparison, will reach a more general audience of people with varying interest levels or purchase intentions.
Simply put, SMS marketing can assist you in promoting your event to a greater number of relevant recipients, i.e., individuals who are most likely to buy tickets to your event.
Leverage SMS for Event Marketing with Texting Base
An event text messaging service can increase your marketing ROI and help your ads reach recipients with the highest possible purchase intent. Plus, leveraging event texting can simplify both the purchase and admissions process for attendees.
Getting started with SMS marketing is easier than ever before. Event organizers and businesses that partner with Texting Base gain access to our proprietary texting platform designed to reduce costs and optimize campaigns. Our tools make sending personalized messages, payment links and alerts to your valued customers easier than ever.
Start texting for free with Texting Base.
Sources:
Forbes. 50 Stats Showing the Power of Personalization. https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2020/02/18/50-stats-showing-the-power-of-personalization/?sh=1af1245e2a94
Corporate Finance Institute. Market Segmentation and Targeting. https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/management/market-segmentation-and-targeting/
Investopedia. How to Calculate Return on Investment (ROI). https://www.investopedia.com/articles/basics/10/guide-to-calculating-roi.asp
TechJury. 35+ Must-Know SMS Marketing Statistics in 2023. https://techjury.net/blog/sms-marketing-statistics/#gref
