How should I decide on the price of my tickets

You may be new to the event management, or an old bird in the industry already. But have you wondered at what price you should set your ticket price at so that you can get the most from your events? Well, in this article we will discuss about the steps we should take when deciding the price of our tickets.

Research on other similar events:
Chances are there have been multiple kinds of events similar to the one your are holding. Although it is not the main basis for you to decide on your ticket pricing, it would still be good to find out how much your competitors are charging because it helps you to get an good gauge on how much are the people attending willing to pay. 

Deciding a pricing model:
1. Value-based pricing:
Value-based pricing model is where you set your ticket prices from your potential customers point-of-view. This is where your research from before comes in handy. First of all, the data you got beforehand gives you an estimated average amount of how much is the customers going to pay. For example, the average price of a ticket to a museum exhibition is $2, if you are holding a similar exhibition, it would be safe to first decide your price at $2 first, then move on from there. 

This method of setting ticketing price works even better for events such as concerts where the fans are willing to pay for a higher price. This is because the perceived value of the concert experience by the potential attendees is much higher than, let’s say’ a museum exhibition. 

However, even though research has shown that a value-based pricing system can yield greater profit, it requires more effort on research and knowledge on your potential customers that supports you to be in a good position to do so. 

Pros: Great for events with huge fanbase, yield good profit
Cons: requires more research and knowledge on your client’s fanbase, potential customers 

2. Cost-based pricing: 
The conventional way to decide on the price of your ticket. In cost-based planning, you start off with the cost of your services as the price of your tickets. So, this reduces the effort on searching for the average price your competitors charge.However, this requires a good bit go guesswork to be done and you already have good understanding of your
​market. This is because part of the process is figuring how many tickets you aimed to sell. The next stage is to calculate the cost of putting up your event, from venue hire, wages, marketing fee, cost of using online ticketing platforms, food and transport catering and the list goes on. This will be your total cost and the cost you aim to break even with the amount of ticket sold. Divide the total cost by the amount of tickets you aimed to sell and you will get the price u need to charge in order to break even.

Do remember though, no matter the amount of you decide to charge, it should be larger than the amount needed to break even. After all, your aim is to make a profit. 

Additionally, if the calculated amount is too high, you may need to cut down your cost and adjust your ticket price accordingly 

Pros: Good way to come up with ticketing price within short amount of time
Cons: Does not really give you the best yield

Ticketing Options:
For events, you can provide different options for your attendees to attract different group of potential customers. You can even set difference prices according to the seating positions. Additionally, you can make offers and provides free gifts to encourage people to come to your events. For example, you can allow bookings to your events and charge cheaper price ( early bird option ) or even bundle up additional items along with the ticket ( commonly seen in shows and movies ).

​However, to take caution in pricing your event, even if it may require your additional hour and more effort to get the ideal pricing, or you may end up with large amount of unsold tickets, worst still making a loss instead of profit. 
 
​This makes having different levels and customisable options more valuable and important as it allows rooms for mistakes and after the event you would know better what kind of offer would work and what does not. These experiences are valuable if you ever want to make your next event more rewarding than the previous ones. 

Hope this article helps you to understand how to set your prices on tickets and make the most out of ticket sales. If you found it meaningful, share this article and comment down below.