You may have used Eventbrite before in passing or responded to an invite for an event through their system. But if you have a vested interest in marketing or event organizing it is worth your time to learn more about this platform that you can use for planning, promoting, and selling tickets to events and then publishing information about said events across social media.
Eventbrite Basics
It is easy to get started with Eventbrite; you open a free account with them. Part of their simple interface can be seen below. You just input the date, time, place, and other factors into the system. The website is very customizable, so if you have something you want to change about your event they probably have a setting.
Some of their key features include
- Multiple payment options. Attendees can pay via online or mobile, and organizers can track payments in real-time.
- Built-in email marketing and social sharing tools that you can use to promote your event.
- Tools to track your sales, examples include tools to manage inventory, set up discount codes, and access reports all in one place.
- Tools to help with check-in, event organizers can access the guest list and scan tickets at the door with any iOS or Android phone and tablet.
Eventbrite is free for free events, and they charge a small fee for paid events.
Tickets and Sharing Your Event
Above is the Eventbrite ticket interface. You can customize your tickets by name, price, when ticket sales start and end, how many of each type can be sold, and more!
You can also choose the type of tickets, such as general admission or VIP. This is helpful if you are holding an event where you have a general admission option but the VIP option comes with more benefits. You can even pick where your ticket holders are going to sit, this is helpful for something like an office party or a wedding where personalities clashing can be a concern.
Once you have your ticket options settled Eventbrite offers multiple options for sharing your event. In addition to social media, Eventbrite offers options to upload contacts from Outlook, Express, or using .csv or .txt files. You may also import your contacts from email accounts. Currently, Eventbrite supports Yahoo Mail, Gmail, AOL Mail, and Hotmail.
Eventbrite also lets you know who registered from your invitations and which emails bounced. The system automatically removes emails if they bounce. So, you don’t have to worry about going in and removing them by hand.
Eventbrite SEO
When you create an event with Eventbrite, they generate a URL that’s readable and SEO-friendly to make your event listing easier to find and promote. Below is the additional settings option, it has lots of valuable information. You want to be sure when you reach this panel, check the public page so that when your event goes live, you are giving permission for your event:
- To be indexed by major search engines (like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing)
- To be placed at the disposal of Eventbrite’s distribution partners, like Eventful
- To be listed in Eventbrite’s public event-search directory, making it easy to find event seekers.
Event Type and Event Topic are also important as they can improve your SEO because they direct more of the right people toward your event when they are searching.
Eventbrite also allows for keywords to define an event, before setting event keywords you should do some research on what long-tailed keywords best fit your market to get the best use of that space. What are long-tail keywords? They are longer and more specific keyword phrases that your visitors are more likely to use when they are looking for an event specifically like yours.
Now that you have a basic knowledge of Eventbrite. In Part Two of this series, we will go over some of the more advanced options and how they can help grow attendance to your events. All images are thanks to Eventbrite’s wonderful Support site!
