Promoters have the opportunity to be wildly successful. With the freedom to host events without worrying about monthly building costs and daily staffing issues, there’s no reason for each event not to be profitable. Yet, most promoters fail and end up losing money on their events.
Here are the 4 main reasons promoters fail, and how they can fix it.
1. Lack of Marketing
The Issue: Many promoters think their events will be successful by just inviting their friends. But it’s hard to consistently rely on friends to pack a venue, and it often results in them wanting comped tickets. A broader marketing strategy is rarely involved, and if it is, it isn’t tracked to know which channels work.
The Fix: Think beyond your friends, and start building a loyal customer base. Track who buys tickets to your event by selling tickets online and storing that in their individual guest profile. Use affiliate links to track which marketing channels bring in the most traffic. A few minutes of setup time is all it takes, and you’ll get access to information and customers you never knew you had.
2. Giving Away Things for Free
Issue: In line with the first point, many promoters give away too much for free. They comp their friends’ entrance fee. They buy bottles for others. They let people pass by for VIP tables without paying, even if that table is already full. They allow their staff to walk patrons in without any tracking. Then at the end of the night, they end up owing more than they made.
Fix: Never give away anything for free. This decreases the value of your event and conditions your customers to expect discounts or free things in the future. You want to build demand for your event and increase prices as supply decreases, and not the other way around. Schedule your ticket prices based on time (pre-sale vs. door sale) and quantity, , so each ticket tier continues to increase accordingly. This not only helps your revenue but also increases hype to buy early.
3. Not Collecting or Analyzing Data
Issue: Few promoters use systems, which means few promoters have insight about their events. How many people showed up? What was the gender breakdown? What was the average age? How much on average did people pay to get in? How soon in advance did people buy tickets? These are all things that you should know, and are all things that are easy to find out.
Fix: Use a system like Vēmos, that collects data for you in the background. When you pre-sell your tickets online, you can ask for your customers’ information during checkout. You can also see trending ticket sales leading up to your event. And when you check people in using the same system — whether through pre-sale check-in or a general admission walk-up at the door — you collect information on when people arrive, who they are, and what they paid to get in. Having this data at your disposal allows you to understand what does and doesn’t work, so you can keep replicating what does work to have a more predictable line of revenue in the future.
4. Fail to Operate as a Business
Issue: Promoters fail because they operate blindly and therefore can’t build a successful business. Even worse, few realize they’re actually running a business at all. Without data, insight, and strategies, it’s going to be hard to succeed.
Fix: Realize you are a business. You have expenses, you’re generating revenue, and you have the opportunity to build profitability after each event. Use a system that manages your sub-promoters, makes it easy to sell tickets to your events, and collects data for you so you always know how your business performing. Promoters that we work with have seen a 20% increase in profitability. Make your life easier and make more money by getting on board with the free Vēmos promoter system.
