Top 5 ways to boost revenue as an event creator

If you find yourself regularly selling out your events but still feel that your profits are too low, it might be time to look at ways to boost your revenue outside of just getting healthy ticket sales. 

It may be that increasing costs have seen your profits shrink in recent months, for example. If so, you’re not alone. When asked what the biggest three challenges would be in 2024, 69.2% of Ticket Tailor users selected rising costs. You'll be pleased to know things are looking up – when asked the same question in our annual survey this year, that number has dropped to just 23.5%.

Alternatively, perhaps you’ve got your sights set on growing your events business and need a healthier cash flow to do so. Whatever your reason for looking into ways to boost revenue – we’ve got you covered with these five tips. Let’s go 👀👇.

1. Hone your ticket pricing

First up – it may be time to take another look at your ticket pricing. (Cue: groans of dread, we know!) We’ve worked with Event Creators for long enough to know that this can be one of the most frustrating tasks when it comes to event organisation. There’s just so much to consider – from what the competition is doing to what your valued attendees can afford, and what your ever-changing outgoings add up to.

But if your profits are consistently falling short of what you need them to be, this would be the most logical first step to take. For a bit of context, our annual survey revealed that:

1. 50% of Ticket Tailor event organisers stated they would increase their ticket prices over the next 12 months.
2. 40.1% plan to keep pricing the same.
3. 2.3% said they would reduce pricing.

(7.6% of respondents run free events, so their answers weren’t applicable.)

If you’re not sure which camp you should fall into – the below price-audit ideas should help you decide:

Pick five similar events or competitors and note down their pricing for various ticket types, so you can see how your prices compare.

Conduct a short pricing survey to gauge what people would be willing to pay for an event like yours. There are lots of resources online that can help you with this task – like this guide from GroupSolver.

Make a list of your ticket pricing from the past five or so years to chart how your prices have changed. You may find that you haven’t been increasing your pricing enough to keep up with inflation, for example. 

Tip: Check out Ticket Tailor Founder, Jonny’s top ticketing and event marketing tips >

2. Sell products, merch & add-ons

Selling products can be a really effective way to boost your profits – whether that’s fun merch, pre-show programmes, or pre-ordered interval drinks. You may also choose to sell event add-ons, like an intimate Q&A session with one of your lead speakers. Or a video consultation with one of your event’s key experts. 

If you ticket your events with Ticket Tailor, all of this is super easy to do thanks to our handy Products feature. This allows you to sell products and event extras online all year round, regardless of whether you currently have any live events. 

Check out how to use Ticket Tailor Products > 

3. Seek to reduce supplier costs

It might be time to look at reducing your outgoings, if possible. One of the most impactful ways to do this is to find ways to spend less on your supplier contracts, and you have two main options here:

1. See if there are any ways to reduce costs with your current suppliers.
2. Switch to different, lower cost suppliers.

Both options come with their own set of pros and cons. For example, while it might seem logical to just shop around for cheaper suppliers, there may be additional costs associated with this. Plus, there’s a lot to be said for maintaining healthy, long-term relationships with your suppliers as an event creator. 

For this reason, it’s probably best to see if there are any ways your current suppliers could help you reduce costs as a first port of call. Be prepared to be flexible and even creative here. If you’re too rigid in your requirements, you may struggle to find a halfway point with your suppliers, who also need to make sure they’re able to keep their heads above water.

If you exhaust all avenues and find there are no ways to cut costs this way, it might be time to start looking into new suppliers. When shopping around, gather detailed quotes from each supplier as well as an exhaustive list of what will and won’t be included in the contract. It might be time to start drawing up some spreadsheets here, so you can hone in on the suppliers that offer everything you need for the best price.

Tip: Find out how you can use AI to speed up event planning tasks >

4. Diversify your offering

Our platform is filled with success stories of event creators and small business owners who’ve increased their profits through diversifying their offering. 

Farms that set up pick-your-own pumpkin patches, for example – like the amazing Pure Land Farm. This farm’s savvy owner, Megan, has even published a book to help other farm owners learn how to diversify their own offering through pick-your-own events. Impressive! 

Another great example is LaBelle Winery, a super successful winery and vineyard that has branched out into the events world with incredible tasting and dining events, and even a wedding offering. 

As an event creator, it might be time to look into whether there are any opportunities to broaden your horizons in the same way. Could you start up an exciting collaboration with an artist or influential industry figure, for example?

If you run workshops or classes, could you design a bi-annual weekend retreat where attendees can enjoy a fully immersive learning and networking experience?

Once you start jotting down ideas, you might be surprised at how many exciting opportunities there are!

5. Rethink your ticketing strategy 

There may be ways you can get creative with your ticketing strategy in order to boost revenue. For example, offering ticket bundles – say, a family bundle ticket that provides entry for two adults and two children – can make your event more appealing and affordable to potential attendees. 

By offering a slight discount for groups, you may sell more tickets – and make more profit – overall. You could also play around with various types of early bird and VIP ticket types, which can both work well when it comes to boosting revenue. Early bird tickets, for example, can tempt potential attendees into buying their tickets for a discounted cost long before your event – giving you a boost in cash flow much earlier on than usual. 

45.9% of our annual survey respondents used discount codes last year as part of their ticketing strategy, so if you aren't already using this feature, this might be the year to test it out!

Offering VIP tickets can also be a great way to increase profits – without needing to sell more tickets. Providing VIP guests with some cool additional extras – like a free drink upon entry, or access to an exclusive area – can justify you charging more, resulting in bigger profits. Nice. 

Tip: You might find these five cool ticketing features useful >

Boosting event revenue – closing thoughts

That’s a wrap! We hope these tips and tricks to boost your events’ revenue have been useful. Whether you realise there are areas you could be saving, areas you could be charging more, or extras you could be selling – it all adds up to the same thing: more money in your bank account. All the better for seeing your events business thrive and grow 💪 💫. Good luck!

Saving on your ticketing fees can also be a really effective way to boost your profits – especially when you look at the pricing differences between various platforms. With Ticket Tailor, you only ever pay a simple, low-cost flat fee per ticket (we don’t hit you with percentage fees or hidden costs!). Plus, you can pre-purchase credits to save even more money on your fees. 

Find out how much you could save with Ticket Tailor credits >

*Out of 1245 respondents to the 2024 Ticket Tailor annual survey.