Five Secrets For Selling Out Events

Many DJs will create their own event brand to further their DJ career. Running your own events is one of the best ways to promote yourself as a DJ, provide a stage for you to showcase your skills and help you network within the music industry. However, running events can be tough and the biggest hurdle is selling the tickets. 

Here's our top five secrets to help you sell out your event.

1. USP

A USP (Unique Selling Point) is a critical requirement if you're going to sell out your event. There are many events, club nights, parties, raves and festivals happening everyday. What makes your event unique enough to compete?‍

If you don't have a USP you should go back to the drawing board and rethink your entire endeavour. Make sure your USP is attention grabbing and makes your friends excited to come.

Here are some thoughts on USPs...

• Use an unusual or special venue

One of the best ways to make your event special is to have an unusual venue, somewhere that people would not normally be able to experience. Perhaps it's a rave in a warehouse that's never been used or maybe it's an iconic building you have special access to. Try and think outside the box and find a venue no one else is using.

Once you've found it, try and secure it for future events and block other promoters from using it where possible.

Click here to find out how to write an event proposal for a venue hire

• Do something never done before

Promoters who come up with new ways to run events or new initiatives will have the upper hand. For example, a recent success story is East London's Body Movements. Body Movements was the first circuit party that brought together all the smaller LGBTQI events happening in East London within one event. This was the first time this was done and gave ravers a wrist band to access multiple venues during one special day. Body Movements are now planning their third sell-out year.

Another success story and one that LSA was involved in setting up was Flesh Festival, the UK's first queer techno festival with camping. These are both great examples of how you can position yourself and your event on the cutting edge of a scene.

‍Is there something new that no one's done yet that you can use for a USP?

‍Having this kind of USP will help because it will give you a narrative to use to attract media attention. Both Body Movements and Flesh Festival caught the attention of the electronic music press and were widely marketed online helping them sell tickets.

• Book a popular headliner

Many clubbers will attend events because they are fans of the headline act. This is a strategy employed, along with branding, by most of the big promoters. However, it's very hard for a new promoter to book a headliner because they have no track record of running sell out events and probably don't have the budget or connections.

Instead, you could find an underground headliner that is perhaps on the cusp of greatness.

Is there an up-and-coming headliner you might be able to book for an affordable price?

Click here to find out what makes a headline act

• Attract a special crowd

Sometimes the best USP is who goes to your events. Your audience can be the main attraction. The vibe at the event stems from vibe of the people. If you attract a great audience then they can become the USP of the night.

You can then communicate this USP by promoting photos and videos from prior events. Nurture the perfect crowd for your events and run a door policy to turn away undesirables that may upset the vibe. Demonstrate to your audience that they are part of an exclusive club.

• Put on a show

Events are common. If you want your event to stand out go the extra mile with production. Elrow is a great example of this. Their USP is the theme of their events and how far they push that theme. They go way beyond what other promoters do, 10x more! They make the whole thing an incredible immersive experience.

Have you got what it takes to create a show like no other?

2. FOMO Appeal

FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is a marketing technique that you can employ to help you sell out events. One of the biggest reasons people book tickets for events other than having fun is the fear of missing out. Life is short and everyone needs to enjoy themselves and no one likes to see their friends having fun while they are sitting on the couch. The pandemic really brought this home for a lot of people and FOMO is one of the main motivators for people to buy tickets to events.

You can nurture a sense of FOMO by marketing your USP successfully and directly to your desired audience. Make sure you're using video content as it's the best way to communicate on social media. You'll get more exposure for videos and reels than any other format.

It's important to create content that is high-quality, short and to the point. Make sure you are selling the full fantasy. We suggest a range of video adverts using sponsored posts on social media including Instagram, Facebook and perhaps TikTok. Make sure you get the message across that they are at risk of missing the most important party of the season!

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3. Early Promo

Successful events are planned and promoted early. You need at least three months to promote an event successfully, especially if you want to send a press release or get event listings in print magazines.

• Give yourself three months to promote
• Send a press release out pushing your USP
• Prepare all your social media channels and links before releasing the tickets
• Release tickets with a tier-based system designed to sell the first tiers quickly
• Encourage early ticket sales by marketing with the FOMO factor and early bird prices
• Pump out high-quality content every day or pay for sponsored ads
• Reach out personally to your followers and invite them to the event
• Spend time building a contact list
• Encourage others to help you promote the tickets

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4. Create Rarity

If you want to sell out the tickets fast you need to master creating rarity in the minds of your followers. A sense of rarity and urgency will encourage people to buy tickets early. This is mainly achieved using a combination of marketing your USP using the FOMO factor but it can also be achieved in other ways. Here are some tips!

• Create a ticket tier so expensive that buyers will want to buy the early bird ticket as it's a better deal
• Use a venue that is smaller than your audience, this will result in a queue around the block
• Make your event difficult to enter. Make sure people make the effort to enter your event. Turn away people who do not fit the vibe and make it exclusive
• When talking with your contacts always drop into the conversation how it's going to sell out and they should buy now.

5. The Personal Touch

By far the biggest ambassador for your event is yourself. Make sure you contact all your friends with an authentic invitation to the event, ideally in-person or by traditional letter. Offer them guest list or discounts but make sure they realise they need to arrive early to get this benefit.

Find friends who will help you reach a bigger network by inviting their friends. If you can lock into a few different circles of friends you'll have enough of a network to springboard your message. People are far more likely to buy tickets to events that their friends are already attending. Make sure that once your friend has bought a ticket you ask them to send a message to all their friends to ask them to come too, and so on and so forth. You want your event to become viral in your friends network.

If you're still struggling I suggest you work on expanding your friends network. You can do this by organising group activities like a dinner at your house or a restaurant, a cinema trip or a fun activity. If you nurture your friends relationships and foster stronger links within your circle this will help underpin your events. Many successful promoters are social butterflies and the ones that are always taking the lead in organising group activities.

Further help on running events

Click here for our top tips for new promoters

Click here to learn about the DJ Producer Promoter Triangle

Click here for how to start your own club night

Click here for our A-Z list of venues for hire

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Thanks for reading our article on how to sell out your events. We hope this information was helpful! If you would like to learn about our DJ and music production courses click here.

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