AttendStar now offers Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) ticketing to help you sell more tickets for your events as well BOGO+ where you can offer different BOGO combinations like Buy 10 and Get 1 Free or Buy 15 and Get 2 Free.
If you’re already using AttendStar to sell event tickets, you can create BOGO offers right now in the Discounts area of your Event Manager Dashboard. The new feature is available to all AttendStar users.
Why You Should Use BOGO Offers to Sell More Tickets to Your Events
Here’s a simple truth – buy one get one free offers work. In fact, they usually work better than an equivalent or superior straight price discount (e.g., 20% off, 50% off, and so on).
This consumer behavior has been proven in research.
For example, a study led by Akshay Rao of the University of Minnesota’s Carslon School of Management and published in the Journal of Marketing found that consumers prefer getting something for free over getting something for less money. Separate research by Kristina Shampan’er and Dan Ariely of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that consumers overvalue the benefits of a free offer, even when a free offer is compared with a discounted price on a higher-quality item.
The reason for this phenomenon can be attributed to consumers’ abilities to comprehend percentages and fractions (or their willingness to take the time to do the math).
For example, when offered a choice between two deals – a 33% discount on loose coffee beans or 33% more coffee beans for free – test subjects overwhelmingly chose the offer with 33% more coffee beans for free despite the fact that the discount would actually have saved them more money. Similarly, test subjects purchased 73% more hand lotion when a portion of it was offered for free (in a bonus pack) than they purchased when it was offered at an equal straight price discount.
Let’s put this into context.
Imagine you’re selling tickets to your event for $20. You could offer a BOGO+ where a consumer can buy two tickets and get a third for free. You could also offer a 50% discount (half off) on the price of a single ticket. If your cost per full-priced ticket is $10.00, your profit for the BOGO offer would be $25 ($40 revenue – $15 cost = $25 profit). Your profit for the 50% discount would be $15 for the same three tickets ($30 revenue – $15 cost = $15 profit). Based on the existing research into consumer behavior, most people will prefer the BOGO offer. They’ll perceive it as a better deal although the 50% discount is clearly the better deal for consumers.
Bottom-line, it’s unlikely that a discount will beat a BOGO offer. Of course, it’s always best to test this theory with your own audience, but the research certainly shows what consumers prefer.
BOGO offers can help you boost ticket sales if they’re sluggish while ensuring you retain a larger profit than you would on straight price discounts. You’re also likely to get a better response from your audience to BOGO offers than straight discounts. In fact, a survey conducted by AMG Strategic Advisors found that 93% of consumers have taken advantage of a BOGO offer but only 79% have taken advantage of a discount offer.
How to Create BOGO Offers to Boost Ticket Sales
The key to a successful BOGO offer is to create a sense of urgency that evokes the fear of missing out (FOMO). Therefore, you should set an expiration date for your BOGO offer, so people buy tickets sooner rather than later. This is a very effective tactic to boost early ticket sales and get your event in the black as early as possible.
To create your BOGO+ offer using the AttendStar online ticketing software, follow these three simple steps:
- Log into your Event Manager dashboard and navigate to the Discounts menu.
- Give your BOGO+ discount a name and unique code.
- Create your BOGO+ ticket combination and apply it to a specific ticket.
That’s all there is to it! A big benefit when you create BOGO+ offers in the AttendStar software is that you don’t need to give out any discount codes to your ticket buyers. If they choose a ticket from your ticket sales page that has a BOGO+ enabled, the rest is automatic! This creates a smooth checkout process and prevents situations where ticket buyers have to call or search for discount codes.
Your BOGO+ discounts will appear on your ticket sales reports from AttendStar just like any other discounts you create in the software. You can also track how many tickets were issued for each BOGO+ discount. It’s a great way to sell more tickets by giving people the type of discounts they like the most based on the results from multiple consumer research studies.
Your Next Steps
BOGO is an extremely effective ticket pricing strategy, but before you create a BOGO offer, do the math. Go ahead and compare your profits with a BOGO against a straight price discount. Which is more profitable to you? Which would ticket buyers perceive to be a better deal knowing what you now do about consumer behavior related to price discounts? Most importantly, always create BOGO combinations or bundles that meet your profit requirements. Get out your calculator and crunch the numbers!
If you’re already using AttendStar to sell tickets to your events, you can start using the BOGO+ feature to boost ticket sales at any time. If you’re not already using AttendStar for online ticketing, call 615-223-1973 or use the contact form to get started.
