Paid Event Better than Free Event, Really?
Eventbrite recently featured an article on its blog titled “Why people don’t value free events” which lead to me to read another article on their blog titled “When it comes to events, “Free” is a dirty word” by Corwin Hiebart.
People take free events for granted, whereas when they are asked to contribute money they are committed to attending the event. Blog writer Tamara says, “You work hard to throw amazing events. Why signal that they have no value by offering free attendance?” SF New Tech networking event charges $15, but offers free tacos.
Attendance rate for the free event was 38%. But for the $5 event, 69% of registered attendees showed up.
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I was worried that with a price associated with the webinar, fewer people would register. What we saw was the opposite. We had almost double the number of registered attendees for the $5 event. We chose not to pocket the revenue, but instead donate it to Citizen Effect, an amazing organization we’ve written about before. I’m not sure of the effect that this had on whether people registered, but we were proud to donate over $1,100 to a worthy cause. If you are planning a free event with a cash bar, think about charging $5 or $10 to attend and giving folks one free drink with their ticket. Get creative with what you do with the money that you collect and use it to make your event even more enticing. SF New Tech networking event charges $15, but offers free tacos. |
Eventbrite also discuss the poor success of Facebook Event invites. Corwin says, “It’s a miracle even if 1% of the confirmed attendees from a Facebook event actually show up. Event invitations from Facebook events invoke little or no commitment. And when commitment level is low it is easier to bail. Corwin points out that giving discount can be tricky as well. Many organizers slash ticket prices last minute to fill in seats. When you do this you lower people’s expectation and you increase speculation that the event may not be successful. Vira Designs manages ticket sales for various event organizers and we can agree with Corwin.
Add Value, Don’t lower it.
We recommend you to offer deals to early registrant’s to book your shows early. We have seen that organizers who offer discounts to purchase ticket’s early have a great response especially a week before the deadline.