Pre-selling for events offers several significant benefits. Registrants paying in advance means fewer no-shows, more cash upfront, and a better pulse on your audience as you plan. 

The perfect time to start is right after this year’s event. Here are our 4 best tips to make the most of pre-selling your event.

1. Contact Last Year’s Registrants

This year's registrants, who are still riding the post-event high, make next year's most loyal supporters. Show your appreciation for these potential repeat registrants by offering them a special discount to grab registrations a whole year early. 

Unlike the new registrants, the repeats rarely require all the nitty-gritty details to say yes. They already trust that they’ll have a great time and, most likely, already have friends to join them. 

To reach your repeat registrants, use an email marketing service, such as HubSpot, to send a personalized email. 

2. Reward Early Commitment

Knowing that registration purchasers tend to procrastinate, how do you get people off the couch and onto your registration purchasing page? You offer them something even more appealing than a couch sprawl—a discount! 

An early-bird deal is a great way to motivate people to commit to your event and, as a result, pre-sell even more registrations.

3. Showcase Next Year’s Key Details 

Did you score a sweet venue for next year? Is a top thought leader speaking at your workshop? As you gather the details for next year’s event, start promoting them.

4. Use Scarcity as Motivation

Have you ever searched for a plane ticket and discovered there were only two seats left on the flight you wanted to catch? We bet you scrambled to grab your credit card and buy tickets before they vanished. 

Little motivates a person faster than knowing the event will sell out in a few days…or even a few hours. Make people aware of your event’s limited capacity.  

It could be as simple as a “space is limited” line on your site or as specific as posting the remaining number of spots on your social media. When people know your event has a limited supply, inevitably, it will drive up the demand.

We’ve seen these strategies work for countless others, and we know they can work for you too. 

Got questions? Reach out to our support team. We are here to help you!

— The RegFox Team