Getting the right ticket prices requires a lot of discipline and analysis — not luck.
Here are three signs that are good indicators that your pricing strategy can benefit from a new way to approach pricing.
1) Your tickets sellout quickly or do not sellout at all
Is this situation familiar? Your live event or a new movie goes into presales and most of the tickets are sold right at the start. Of course, you are happy that the demand was so huge. But on the other hand, what if you could have sold the tickets at a better price. Your visitors would likely have paid a higher price, especially if they perceive your service as high value.
Another scenario, some tickets do not sell out at all. Is it off-season? Are you targeting the wrong clients? How can you take advantage of all of the available demand?
Generally changing your pricing during the sales period is an indication that you don’t yet have the optimal pricing strategy.
2) Your Pricing is based on gut feeling and experience alone
We often come across ticket sellers who do not pay significant attention to their pricing. Instead of looking at their past ticket sales they base their prices on “gut feel” saying “We always have done it this way”. Sound familiar?
Not surprisingly, these companies are missing out on easy revenue. Their pricing strategy has no well-crafted guidelines and while managers complain about declining price levels, they lack the capabilities to counter bad pricing decisions.
3) You constantly compare your prices to your competition
Are you constantly checking your competitors’ prices and adjusting your prices accordingly? If so, you are losing out on potential revenue by undervaluing your product and being reactionary to the market instead of leading new trends.
Keeping track of competitors is important, but a unique pricing strategy that takes into full account the value of your brand can help you keep a competitive edge without reacting constantly to the market.
Fix the source rather than the symptoms
If you find any or all of these scenarios familiar now is the time to invest in finding new ways to sell your tickets. Before jumping in and changing your prices here are some important points to consider.
Don’t just rethink your ticket prices, rethink your complete pricing strategy to maximize the impact on your revenue and visitor satisfaction. Some suggests are: look at demand-based pricing, introduction of marketing techniques such as up-selling added value packages and providing incentives to encourage customers to spend more or come at off-peak times.
5 Steps to start your new pricing strategy
Before jumping into a brainstorming session on your pricing strategy, look at these six steps to start your new pricing strategy.
1. Know your value proposition. If your pricing strategy and value proposition aren’t aligned, you are confusing the market and limiting your opportunities. Be clear about where in the market you want to be.
2. Look into your ticket sales data. Your ticketing system has all the information you need to get detailed insights into visitor behaviour. You can see, which tickets have been sold when, at what price, and through which points of sales.
3. Calculate your total estimated revenue for different price levels. First, calculate your current revenue at your existing ticket prices. Then look at your historical sales data and the effect that price changes have on demand and total revenue.
4. Evaluate the best pricing strategy for your business goals and test the theory. If possible, set up a test to evaluate your new pricing, before you implement a pricing change.
5. Communicate your new pricing. In order for your visitors to accept new (flexible) prices, be very open about the change and explain the rules of your pricing transparently.
About us
Smart Pricer provides ticket sellers around the globe with the necessary tools to increase ticketing revenues, online sales, and off-peak attendance. Over 10 years of airline pricing experience and millions of ticket pricing optimizations make us the go-to pricing partner for Ticketmaster, FC Bayern München, UCI, and Zermatt Bergbahnen, among many others.
We are currently developing a new Pricing Strategy Simulation software. For more information and a demo, please contact info@smart-pricer.com.
Stay tuned for part 5 of our Pricing series – coming soon! Subscribe to never miss our updates again.
Read more from our blog series about the future of pricing:
Part 1: In times of digitalization, data-based pricing is not a choice, it’s a must
Part 2: How Sports and Entertainment venues learn from Amazon to get ahead of competition
Part 3: 3 proven steps to implement a pricing strategy that fits your business goals