Profiting from events takes more than just selling tickets to event attendees. In fact, there are many other event ideas to raise money that event organizers and hosts should think about implementing in their event planning strategies to increase event revenue. With more consideration regarding today’s economic situation and inflation, consumers are being more careful about what they spend their money on.
Unfortunately, it affects event revenue when consumers decide to cut back on spending on entertainment and focus on spending on necessities. But there are certain tactics that event planners can use to make up for the loss, including hosting popular events that make money.
How Profitable Can Events Be?
If you’re wondering how to make money hosting events, it’s important to keep in mind there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to hosting profitable events. The profitability of an event can vary based on the type of event, how complex it is, who is hosting, how many guests are involved, and any additional features you may want to include, such as VIP attendance and booths that sell merchandise.
The Top 7 Event Ideas To Make Money
While ticket sales make up the majority of the profit for events, there are many other tactics you can use to help increase revenue as a whole. For example, you should start planning your event at least four months ahead of time to allow your marketing team to effectively campaign through social posts and email funnels. You could also host special events, such as fundraising events.
Here are seven more event ideas to raise money.
1. Use Proven Tactics To Increase Ticket Sales
As an event organizer, your top priority should be to get as many guests attending your event as possible, but sometimes tickets don’t sell well. Luckily, there are some tried-and-true methods you can implement to increase your ticket sales.
- Price your tickets accordingly: It can be tricky to come up with an appropriate charge for your tickets. After all, pricing them too high might deter people from purchasing them, but pricing them too low may not even give you enough money to cover your overhead costs. Calculate the cost of your event with the expected number of attendees to reach a middle ground. You can also look into competitor pricing to get an idea of what they charge for admission. One thing to note is that virtual events, hybrid events, and in-person events may differ in terms of pricing.
- Pay attention to peak times: The peak times for ticket sales are usually when the tickets first go on sale and two weeks before the event begins. However, there are a few other peak times you can include in your ticket sales, such as early access tickets geared toward email list subscribers, early bird tickets for people who purchase tickets on specific days or at specific times, and special giveaways and promotions that occur throughout the sale period.
- Offer different pricing: Offering different pricing options can help boost ticket sales and cater to a wider audience by allowing people to pay what they’re comfortable paying. You can offer a tiered pricing system, with tickets ranging from a standard price to more expensive. The more expensive tickets should include bonuses, such as front-row seats, free refreshments, or a free piece of limited edition merch. You could also offer discounts, such as the first 10 people to purchase a ticket getting 10% off of the entry fee.
- Sell tickets across all devices: With more people using tablets and mobile devices, it’s crucial that you give them the opportunity to purchase tickets using their preferred method. Additionally, it might be a good idea to sell tickets across different ticket-selling platforms, so you can reach a more diverse audience who may not be on a specific platform. You can reach more communities this way too by piggybacking off of a ticketing site’s community.
2. Offer Sponsorship Packages
Sponsorship can help generate revenue for events. Not only does it help improve brand awareness, generate leads, and help reach new audiences, but sponsors can also help fund the event. Besides just having well-known brands sponsor your event, you should also offer your attendees a comprehensive sponsorship package. For example, some tickets can include sponsorship packages as an add-on where they obtain physical or virtual swag, sweepstakes, product experiences, and special activities for those who purchased specific packages.
But don’t forget to include incentives for your sponsors too. Sponsorship can’t be a one-sided relationship — both parties should get something out of it. For sponsors, this can look like giving your sponsor a free booth at your event, placing your sponsor’s name or logo throughout your venue, or crediting your sponsor’s company across your blog, email newsletters, and social posts.
3. Provide a VIP Experience
People like being recognized as extraordinary and receiving special treatment, so offering a VIP experience to guests who purchase VIP tickets can definitely help generate positive revenue. You could offer a VIP membership to encourage your audience to sign up for exclusive newsletters, deals, and tickets to future events. Or you could offer VIP tickets tailored toward singular events. Offering a VIP membership could help provide consistent revenue, but not everyone may want to join a membership, which is where offering a singular VIP experience can come in handy.
Whichever route you take, it’s important that you offer specialized VIP treatment. This could include increased appreciation, special care, personal engagement, or even rewards and incentives.
4. Sell Brand Merchandise
People love merchandise. Offering merchandise at your event can help increase revenue and improve brand awareness. Whether you’re selling your own organization’s merchandise, helping your client with theirs, or offering a sponsor’s merchandise throughout your event, having these options available will entice your attendees to make purchases. Some ideas for what to sell at an event include shirts, coffee mugs, posters, and keychains.
5. Host an Online Auction
Online auctions can be a great way to increase engagement. You could auction items such as brand merchandise, sponsorship packages, or VIP tickets. Auctions can also be a great way to raise funds for an event. To successfully host an online auction, you’ll need to choose your platform, market the event and items you’ll be auctioning off, and then host the auction on a specified day and time.
6. Sell Ad Space on Your Event Website
Another tried-and-true method to increase event revenue is to sell ad space on your event website. However, for this to work, your website needs to have a significant amount of traffic and high-quality content. You can sell ad space directly or through methods such as affiliate marketing and programmatic advertising.
If you plan on going the direct route, you’ll need to find industry-relevant brands that want to work with you, then conduct cold calling and email campaigns to introduce yourself to them and form a relationship.
7. Gamify Your Event
Games are more popular now than ever, especially since COVID-19 happened. With most of the world having access to a smartphone, businesses that gamify their services and events often see an increase in revenue. With that said, you might be wondering what gamifying means and how you can apply it to your event.
Simply put, gamifying means taking an event or service outside of the gaming world and turning it into a competition or similar structure. Often, gamifying something means offering rewards in exchange for the completion of certain tasks. For an event, this could mean having a gaming corner where short-form games such as foosball or virtual reality games can be set up, with winners receiving small prizes.
Other ideas include ice-breaker games where attendees can network and get to know each other more, trivia and polls, and event applications that allow attendees to engage in games through special apps.
Tips for Making Your Event as Profitable as Possible
Now that you’ve got some good ideas to implement to increase revenue, let’s look over some tips on the best way to collect money for an event.
Hone in on Your Target Audience
The first step is to figure out your target audience and offer special services and merchandise aimed at them. For example, if you’re dealing with a demographic that’s invested in pop culture, you might host a trivia night related to popular fandoms such as Star Wars or Doctor Who. On the other hand, if you’re dealing with a more professional crowd, you might host a conference that’s geared toward networking.
Plan Out an Event Budget
It’s important to create a budget and stick to it. Overhead costs can quickly deflate your profit, so it’s vital to have a set budget in mind so you can weigh how much you’re spending against potential profits. You can do this by figuring out any overhead costs that go into planning your event including the admission fee, paying sponsors, paying for the venue, and obtaining equipment, how many attendees are expected, any special offerings and incentives that will be sold, and how much tickets are priced for.
Add Value to the Event
Money-making events often have incentives. This can include having noteworthy guest speakers set to attend, planning on handing out freebies or merchandise, and ensuring that your event is going to have a catering program that will offer a variety of foods and drinks.
Sell More Event Tickets With Our Event Management Software
Planning your event can be challenging. And selling tickets and increasing your revenue can be even more difficult. Fortunately, you don’t have to do these things alone. Investing in the right event management software, such as Events.com, can help you navigate the ins and outs of event planning and marketing while ensuring you sell more tickets than ever before. Our app comes with all the services you need to plan your event accordingly, giving you access to custom landing pages that will convert your audiences and insights to reveal things like data and analytics.
Events.com has a simple fee structure, easy onboarding, and 24/7 support. Interested in learning more? Check out our software for more information.
