Top tips for driving last minute sales this New Year’s Eve

In just under two weeks, you’ll be ready to open the venue doors and welcome enthusiastic eventgoers looking to kick off the new year in style.

That’s right. New Year’s Eve is on its way and we know that you’ll be putting in the hard work right up until the 31st of December.

And why wouldn’t you? All promoters understand just how impactful last-minute sales can be, and data from our archives backs it up. From November 6th to December 25th, almost half of all New Year’s searches take place on our website.

But it gets better. From December 26th to December 30th, over a quarter of New Year’s searches take place, and on New Year’s Eve itself? A tenth of overall New Year’s searches take place.

To help you take advantage of this search traffic, we’ve devised a list of last-minute techniques you can use. In this blog, you’ll find tips on how to spruce up your event listing and get the lowdown on the most effective Skiddle features ahead of the big day.

Ensure your short description is on point

It’s easy to overlook your short description. It’s a one-hundred-and-odd-word blurb that gives a brief description of what potential attendees can expect from your event. Nothing too special, right? However, dive a bit deeper, and you’ll find a lot of value. 

Nailing your short description opens the door to our Facebook Retargeting service, where we show your event to people who have previously visited the Skiddle website without making a purchase. 

These ads can be powerful. How many times have you been shopping for a new pair of trainers, left the website, but seen an even better pair on an Instagram ad? 

Plus, it only needs to be 100-150 words. We’re not trying to put fellow writers out of a job here, but you could get ChatGPT to write the first draft and tweak it as you see fit. 

Make use of festive discounts

People love discounts so much that they used to fight over TVs on Black Friday. Remember that? What a wild time to be alive. 

Jokes aside, discounts can be really helpful.

Let’s do a quick thought experiment. You’ve got three events with the same genre, level of acts and similarly priced tickets. If one has a discount, it’s likely to stand out. People are looking for an experience that comes with value, so if you’ve got a high-quality lineup in a great venue and a discount, you’re well on your way to making sales. 

It’s not just the star-studded lineups that can benefit, though. It feels like no one has any money at the moment. We’re all pretty familiar with the effects of the cost of living crisis, not to mention the extra expense of the festive period. Eventgoers will be receptive to a discount no matter what kind of event they are attending. 

Plus, you can set discounts up with ease in The Promotion Centre. Head here to learn all about the feature and press play below to learn how to add them to your events. 

Don’t forget your long descriptions, either

Your long description can work in tandem with your short description.

If people are coming to your listing via Facebook Retargeting, they might click and have a look at it to get a feel for what your event is all about. 

So, ensure that your long description is detailed and gives potential attendees context. This extra information can increase event visibility and might be the key to convincing people to buy for your event over others. 

But long descriptions give potential attendees context, too. Here, you can inform people about the acts on your lineup or the attractions you have at your event. You’ve got space to paint the picture, be imaginative and give people an idea of what’s in store. 

Galvanise your reps

If you’ve got ticket reps for your events set up in The Promotion Centre, they can be a huge help. 

Consider asking them to get in touch with people they know and offer them the chance to buy tickets to your event. 

This could be over the phone, in person or via social media. If you wanted to take the idea one step further, you could create a social asset for your reps to post on their personal channels, letting their friends and other followers know that tickets for your New Year’s Eve event are available. 

It could go a long way to securing ticket sales for the big day. 

Shout about your event on socials

Family events, hometown reunions, last-minute present buying and eventually Christmas Day itself take up the time before New Year’s Eve, with people looking for NYE tickets once all that is out of the way. 

So, promoting your event right up until the end is crucial. 

One way you can do this is with social media. Take a look at your ticket sale data, find out the percentage of tickets left for your event and create an eye-catching asset that shows this data in a percentage format. If your ticket sales are steady from week to week, you could post one a week to show how fast they are moving. 

The idea here is to create urgency. If people can see that your event is close to selling out, they’re more likely to act as soon as they can to secure their tickets for your New Year’s Eve event. 

Download RapidScan

Let’s face it: Long wait times can damage the reputation of an event. Customers will remember the times they got into an event quickly. That means there’s more chance of them coming again, which means more chance of you selling tickets to your next event. 

That’s where RapidScan comes in. You can scan a ticket in a second, manage multiple entrances and get real-time stats on who is at the venue. You’re making life easier for you and your attendees.

Plus, it’s free. You can manage a pain point without having to break the bank. Click below to find out more and watch our video to discover how to use the app.

Tag your artists

Organising a New Year’s rave with a bucket load of top DJs? Tag them in your event listing!

It’s a simple process and you can even add the names of artists and DJs appearing at your event if you can’t find them. Check out our FAQ article to find out how.

But the benefits don’t just come from the ease of setting the feature up. When you tag the artists or DJs appearing at your event, Skiddle users who follow their profiles on our website will receive alerts via our app.

It’s a fantastic way to generate excitement ahead of the big day.  

Don’t forget about Waiting List

Sold-out events are a great sign of demand, but ensuring those tickets go to the right people is crucial.

Enter Waiting List. It’s automatically enabled once your event sells out, letting customers join a waiting list for tickets to sold-out events. When tickets become available, through Re:Sell, for example, they’re reserved for the Waiting List on a first-come, first-served basis. Fans are immediately notified via email and SMS and have a 20-minute window to complete their purchase.

Waiting List protects your events from touts, meaning tickets go to genuine fans who are excited to attend. It’s a simple way to enhance the fan experience while building trust and loyalty, helping your event stay connected to your true audience this New Year’s Eve.