How to Promote and Sell Tickets for Christmas Events in 2024

Do you have an exciting end-of-year event lined up but are worried about getting seats filled? You’re not alone.

Every year, most event organizers face the same pain: how do you cut through the noise of every other event happening and sell out those tickets fast?

40% of salespeople consider the most challenging part of the gig to be finding new buyers, especially when racing against the clock with a holiday deadline.

When organizing Christmas events, the competition is cutthroat (every event has Santa snapping pics, kids’ concerts, and enough craft stalls to fill a football field).

Read on to learn practical and easy-to-follow strategies for promoting your Christmas event in 2024. Whether you’re hosting a Christmas market, a holiday light show, a winter wonderland festival, or even a Santa meet-and-greet, we’ll show you how to make your event shine brighter and sell your tickets super fast. These popular Christmas events, along with Christmas concerts, tree lighting ceremonies, and holiday craft fairs, are perfect opportunities to attract attendees and maximize your ticket sales.

Understand Your Target Audience

Firstly, for any event, you need to know exactly who you’re trying to get through the gates.

Are you after families looking for a day out with the kids, or are you chasing the corporate audience looking for a Christmas party?

Each group is looking for something different — families want fun, easy parking, and kid-friendly activities, while corporates might want a luxurious, all-inclusive experience.

If you nail who your audience is, you’ll know precisely how to grab their attention and, more importantly, how to convince them to hit the ‘buy tickets’ button.

Plus, you need this information to set up your landing page. How will you convince them to buy your tickets if you don’t know who you’re selling to?

Here’s what you need to figure out:

• Demographics: Specify the probable age of the attendees, their likely hobbies and interests, and their economic class. Some people may be searching for family entertainment, and some for a party.
• Psychographics: Try to understand your audience’s values, attitudes, and lifestyle. Knowing what makes them tick — be it community, tradition, or entertainment — will help you shape your message.
• Previous Attendees: Review attendance records to understand who was present at your last year’s event and why they were there to help you improve the advertising strategy.

Setting Up Ticket Sales

If buying a ticket to your event feels hard, people will, more likely than not, bail out. The process needs to be streamlined.

61% of the users won’t bother returning to your landing page if they struggle to get it working on their mobile, and worse yet, 40% will just head straight to your competitor’s site instead.

You have to think about everything. Your ticketing platform needs to be super simple to use and have options to set up early bird deals to attract people’s attention.

Plus, most potential attendees are scrolling through their phones these days, so your ticketing system better be thumb-friendly.

Here’s what you need to do to set up an event page that does its job flawlessly — get people to buy tickets to your Christmas event without any issues:

1. Select Your Ticketing Platform

If you’ve ever had a ticketing platform give you grief, you’ll know how critical it is to pick the right one. You don’t want your ticket buyers hitting roadblocks at checkout or getting stuck in a glitchy system.

TicketsCandy, an online ticketing platform for Christmas events, has everything to make promoting and selling your tickets super easy. Best of all, they have all the right tools at no cost to you.

With TicketsCandy, you can manage it all — timeslot management, ticket sales, sales reports, etc. — and it’s all secure and stress-free.

You can track your ticket sales in real-time, tweak your marketing, and even offer flexible pricing options, including discounts for bulk tickets.

Plus, the checkout process is super smooth, so your ticket buyers complete their purchase without a hitch, and that means a higher conversion rate.

2. Ticket Pricing Strategy

Setting the right ticket price is a balancing act that takes a careful hand. You have to offer good value to your punters without leaving yourself out of pocket. The goal is to ensure your prices are fair, cover your costs, and leave you with a tidy profit.

But there’s a bit of strategy involved in hitting that sweet spot:

• Early Bird Specials: When arranging a Christmas event, offer discounted prices to those who purchase their tickets in advance. That’ll leave more cash on hand for event promotion and make your life easier. Plus, people buying their tickets in advance basically guarantee that they’ll show up to your event, taking the guesswork out of the whole thing.
• Group Discounts: Encourage your attendees to bring along their families and mates by offering cheaper rates for groups of four or more. More people through the door means more energetic events and more significant profits.
• VIP Packages: Offer VIP Packages for those after a bit of luxury — think meet-and-greets, premium seating, or exclusive perks. You’ll rake in more cash while giving your event a unique edge.

3. Design An Appealing Event Page

Your event page is one of the first things your audience will see, so it needs to be enticing. It also needs to tell your attendees why they need to attend your Christmas event and what they’d be missing out on if they don’t buy a ticket.

Design Features of an Event Web Page

• Catchy Event Title: Select the title that describes the event to the letter and makes people want to give your event page a read.
• Event Details: This should capture what is in store for the attendees and what they are likely to see or hear, such as music, dance, and other performances or entertainments, as well as the persons who may be invited to speak.
• Visuals: Make sure that you have quality pictures and videos that are inspiring and that capture the spirit of the holidays and why your event is unique.
• Call-to-Action: Make sure you have a big, bold button that screams “Buy Tickets” front and centre. It should be the first thing they see when they’re ready to lock in their spot. Keep it simple, easy to find, and very clear.

Here’s a more detailed guide on how to set up your first event page.

What Distinguishes Your Christmas Event?

The Christmas season is a hectic time. With so much on the go, you have to think about what’s really going to make your event stand out in a sea of festive options.

Before you promote your event, ask yourself a few tough questions:

• What’s going to make punters choose your event over the rest?
• Are you offering giveaways, free samples, or maybe some live tunes to get your event just right?
• What about raffles, competitions, or a line-up of great vendors?

The goal is to make your event feel like the place to be, not just another Christmas party.

Sort out these answers during your planning stage, and then it’s time to let the world know why your event is worth their hard-earned cash.

Promoting Your Christmas Event

Now that you have your ticket sales system in place, what you want to do next is promote your event. Using multiple marketing channels will ensure that everyone you want to reach will be reached in one way or another.

Online Promotion Strategies

1. Social Media Marketing

Create a comprehensive social media strategy that includes the following:

Event Pages

• Platform Power: Start by setting up event pages on Facebook, Instagram, and even LinkedIn if your audience is a bit more corporate. Share your event, and don’t be shy to invite people to ‘join’ straight from the page or your event website.
• Invitations: Get your current followers to tag their mates who’d be ready for your event. Make it easy for people to RSVP with a big, bold “Grab Your Tickets” button.
• Event Details That Matter: Throw in all the essentials — time, date, location, and why your event’s going to be awesome compared to the rest of the Chrissy parties.
• Early-Bird Discounts: Offer some cheeky early-bird specials to get the ball rolling because nothing gets people moving like a good bargain.

Regular Updates

• Behind-the-Scenes Sneak Peeks: Share a few glimpses of what’s happening behind the scenes. Tease the entertainment, the food, or any freebies up for grabs.
• Countdown: Create a Christmas countdown that keeps reminding people how many days are left till the big day. Let them know what they’ll miss if they don’t get their spot.
• Highlight the Good Stuff: Provide regular updates about what makes your event the go-to — live acts, sausage sizzles, and everything in between.
• Interactive Fun: Use Stories on Instagram and Facebook to throw in some polls, quizzes, or Q&As to get people hyped and in on the action.

User-Generated Content (UGC)

• Hashtags: Create a catchy event hashtag like #ChristmasCountdown2024 and get everyone posting their snaps, videos, and event moments with it.
• Incentivize the Audience: Give a little nudge to get people to share their content by offering them a shot at winning some freebies at the event.
• Community Building: Share their pics and videos on your own pages to keep the hype going and make everyone feel part of the fun.
• Photo Contest: Start off a contest where people can upload their best festive photos for the chance to win a prize on the big day. Everyone loves a bit of friendly competition.

2. Email Marketing

Email marketing still ranks among the most frequently used approaches to direct marketing. Get contact information of those who have participated in your previous events and those who have shown interest in your events.

If you don’t have an email list already, TicketsCandy can help you out. They’ll send out newsletters about your event to a hyper-targeted audience that’s super interested in attending your event.

Email Tips

• Segment Your List: When sending messages, consider the audience’s interests. For example, families may like to read about event updates, such as kid-friendly carnivals.
• Create Compelling Subject Lines: Write click-through-inducing subject lines in a more festive and urgent tone (e.g., “You’re running out of time to get our Early Bird Prices!”).
• Include Clear CTAs: Every email should also have a solid call to action, and the option to buy the tickets should be clear.

3. Content Marketing

Using content marketing to spark interest in your Christmas event is a top move. For blog posts, go with titles like ’10 Things To Do During the Christmas Holidays’ or ‘Prepping for the Ultimate Christmas Concert’ to catch attention and drive clicks. Share highlights that tease the best bits of your event.

For videos, create short clips to hype up what’s coming, with sneak peeks or interviews with performers and coordinators.

Post them across your socials to build excitement and get everyone talking. The goal is to get people so pumped they can’t wait to grab their tickets.

4. Online advertising

Platforms like Facebook and Google Ads let you target specific demographics, making sure your event gets seen by the right crowd.

Whether you’re aiming at families, music lovers, or festive foodies, you can tailor your ads to hit those spots.

With these tools, you can zero in on the people most likely to grab a ticket and join the fun.

But if you aren’t an expert in running event ads, burning through your ad budget without getting any actual results is very easy. If you choose TicketsCandy as your online ticketing platform, they can help you out with ads as well.

Working in this industry for several years, they have a lot of experience running ads and have perfected the strategies to get the highest possible ROAS.

5. Word of Mouth

Word of mouth sounds like a dream — until you realize how tough it is to actually get people to bring their mates. You’d think it’d be easy, but getting someone to spread the word and rally their family and friends is tough.

You’re counting on them to talk you up, and instead, you’re left hoping they’ll remember your event exists. And you’re left wondering if it’s worth all the effort you have to put in.

But it is!

92% of people actually trust recommendations from their friends and family, yet getting them to act on it doesn’t happen by magic.

Without the right push, most of your attendees will just show up solo, leaving you with more gaps in the crowd than a stadium after a losing season.

Hand out personalized referral codes to your event speakers and special guests so they have a reason to hype up your event.

When people feel like they’re sharing something special with their mates, they’re more likely to do it.

A proper setup turns those casual mentions into endorsements and can quickly fill your seats up.

6. Sell Tickets on Mobile

With 1.8 billion people shopping online last year and smartphones being the most used devices for digital purchases, ignoring mobile users is literally leaving money on the table.

Your potential ticket buyers are doing everything on their phones, so why should event tickets be any different?

Your ticketing game needs to be sharp, with a website that’s as smooth on mobile as it is on the desktop.

An even better option would be to offer a mobile app that makes buying tickets easy. Let your future attendees get a spot at your event while they’re on the go, whether they’re waiting for their coffee or lounging on the couch.

Setting up a seamless mobile sales solution will mean more tickets sold faster.

Have the right tech stack in place to make signing up easy.

With the right ticketing solution like TicketsCandy, your audience will be signing up with just a few taps without any stress. And you’ll have sales growth that’ll keep your event packed to the rafters.

Wrapping Up

Selling and advertising tickets for your Christmas event in 2024 might seem like a bit of a tall order, but when you nail it, you’re setting up for a fantastic celebration.

The trick is knowing your audience inside and out — what makes them tick, where they hang out, and how to get them excited about your event.

Also, your ticketing platform has to be reliable, easy to use, and offer a smooth experience for anyone looking to get tickets.

TicketsCandy gets it — they truly understand what you need to make your Christmas event a smashing success. It keeps things simple, and best of all, it’s absolutely free. Try it now.