5 Easy Ways to Increase Season Pass Sales

5 Easy Ways to Increase Season Pass Sales

Some events and activities rely on the season pass model. Snowboarding, skiing, and even (recently) movies are all glued to monthly or seasonal memberships.

But, really, every event marketer loves season passes. They give you a surge of up-front income and a guaranteed sale on multiple events at the same time.

So, how do you get customers to bite and boost your season pass sales?

What are season passes?

Season passes are one-time purchases that give you access to something for a set time period.

So, if you buy a season pass for a video game, you get access to all the extra content (e.g., expansion packs, digital goodies, etc.) that release within a specific timeframe. For event marketers, it works the same way.

You can offer season passes that give people access to ALL of your events during a season. So, let’s say that you do concerts. With a season pass, someone could attend all of your concerts for the entire year.

Why is this good?

Because they’re prepaying you for a year, or just about, so you'll want to offer these season passes at a discount.

So, if the season pass lets them access 50 concerts, you may only charge them the price of 10 concerts.

Here's why?

Because they will not go to all 50 concerts. Well, statistically they won't, and you get that cash immediately. Offering these passes also helps you plan out your year more accurately.

That’s a win-win. But how do you sell your customers on the idea?After all, it sounds like you’re getting the bulk of the benefits, right?

1. It’s all about the savings

People love saving money... even if they aren’t. 90% of people actively scout out coupons, and 40% of them feel smart when they use them.

But, there’s a trick here. Research that followed the purchasing habits of 2,000 couponers noticed something... they actually spend more recklessly. People will spend more money to save more money.

So, always advertise savings.

Even if customers aren’t going to attend all of your events, they may purchase the season pass simply because they would theoretically save money if they did. That might be good enough for them.

2. Give them goodies

If you’re having trouble moving those season passes, try leveraging merchandise to sell them faster.

Throw in a free t-shirt or foam finger with your event branding. Not only does this help you with marketing your event, but it can definitely make your season passes more tempting.

In fact, you can create specific merchandise JUST for the season pass holders — this helps you control expenses and tightly monitor the overall total cost of your passes.

3. Make it an “Exclusive” experience

Try leveraging season passes as “exclusive” or “VIP.” Don’t just give them free season tickets. Give them free VIP upgrades — like drink passes, better seats, exclusive passes and wristbands.

These VIP-like features can seriously boost your sales. You can even play with FOMO (“Fear of Missing Out”) by offering only a certain number of season tickets for a limited amount of time.

4. Give them options

Why offer one season pass when you can offer five? This tactic works amazingly in combination with the previous tactics.

So, if you have 5 tiers of season passes, each can be more expensive than the last (or more limited) but come with unique incentives — like merch or VIP access.

These luxury-like deals work. The top 100 luxury brands are worth over $217 billion for a reason — people will pay for better-than-average things so make your season passes better-than-average.

5. Add non-physical bonuses

Speaking of adding bonuses to your passes, consider adding some bonuses that are a little more... personal.

Things like backstage meet-and-greets, autographs, or VIP tours can add a wealth of benefits without having to spend cash on actual merch. These are typically reserved for higher tiers, but you can pick-and-choose where they belong.

If your event has continuous events throughout the year, offering these deals is a must in order to boost season pass sales and event results. For more weekly event hacks, marketing tips and planning ideas, you can subscribe to our blog below.