7 Tips for Promoting and Ticketing a High School Event

Savannah McIntosh

Mar 13th, 2019

Event Planning 101

7 Tips for Promoting and Ticketing a High School Event

Crafting a marketing strategy strictly for high school events helps ensure their success, allowing organizers to raise more money for the school and create a template for future events.

Follow these 7 tips to help you properly plan the event and follow a strategy for promotion and ticketing protocol. Many high school events can be ticketed whether they are free or priced to create an orderly system for staff, students, and family members.

Whether it is a sport-related activity or a fun seasonal event, there is a way to more effectively ticket and promote these events, so admissions can flow smoothly with fewer complications.

Here are a few of the different types of events in which organizers can and should use ticketing.

Sporting events
Carnivals
Dance Programs
Lectures & Workshops
Theater Productions
Senior Events (senior night, prom, etc.)
Extra Credit Events

How to promote and ticket high school events

Using these 7 tips will help organizers become more effective and allow for easier admissions and fund-raising capabilities.

Try inserting a few of these ideas into your plan for the next high school event.

#1 Turn to social media

If you can’t beat them, join them! Most students today are connected with a variety of social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter), which is why it makes sense to communicate through these major social media channels.

Periodically posting information about the event and taking the time to include photos, video, competitions, giveaways and activity information can keep students engaged and updated.

You aren’t going to be able to keep students off of social media on breaks and lunch, and they aren‘t going to pay attention to signs posted around them, so why not bring the content to them?

Tip: Make sure you are highlighting the students in these events.

For example, if you have a sporting event coming up, you can post content or bios about each player each day leading up to the event. It’s a fast way to get more students engaged, as they are most likely to share posts about themselves to friends and family.

#2 Create a user friendly registration

Finding a method to register parents, volunteers, and students for these events that is user-friendly and convenient will likely boost attendance.

More than anyone, parents are more interested in what is convenient for them that will fit in with their busy lifestyles. A registration that if fully online, with events in one central location that are easy to find, is probably the most convenient way to purchase tickets for these parents as well as any family members coming from out of town.

A user-friendly registration also means having the option of selecting seats in advance, discount codes for students, school merchandise, a place to purchase season passes, etc.

Having everything your guests need in one place is always a great way to encourage purchases and increase the likelihood of sales.

Registration for education

Graduations, lectures, sports, arts;
schools host a variety of events year-round
that need ticketing for their events.

#3 Make registration at the gate simple

It’s all about the ticketing process.

Setting up at the gate and creating a sense of order is just as important as having a fully functioning online registration.

While everyone’s definition of convenience is different, you will always have people that prefer purchasing tickets at the event gate so make sure you have that option available.

#4 Utilize student IDs as coupon codes

Stop worrying about the different discount code options and remember who the event is for; your students!

So instead of creating different coupon codes, just use their ID cards.

These codes can only be used once per event to avoid repeats, and it’s a great way to encourage students to attend an event and bring family who is charged full price.

If possible, for quicker access you can scan their ID card’s barcodes or give them the option to use it to purchase tickets online so they don’t have to hassle at the event gate.

#5 Make Events Extra Credit

Teachers may want the option to give students additional class credit for attending certain events, so make their lives a little easier.

Consider approaching school administration or individual teachers about these types of incentives to help boost attendance.

Organizers can then create an online form where students can enter their information and apply it to a certain teacher or class, which would then would be passed along to the teacher once they purchased the tickets.

If you want to 100% guarantee your student attended each event, you can have them check in at the gate to confirm their attendance.

#6 Use traditional marketing (flyers)

Fliers are still one of the best ways to pass along information around the campus, but like we said, students aren’t going to be looking around campus when they are glued to their phones.

So make sure you are posting them in unique spots where they are bound to be noticed.

Bathroom Stalls
Gym Locker Rooms & Showers
On Student Desks
In Parking Lots
Gymnasiums
On Student Lockers

Place them anywhere there is a high volume of students at any given time during the day, popular lunch spots, cafeterias, etc.

This method is highly effective when promoting an event and a fast way to pass along important information such as time, date, and ticket sales.

#7 Encourage students to volunteer

Encouraging students to volunteer or participate by highlighting how they can give back to the community is an excellent idea to harness their talents and engage them in school-related activities.

volunteer-page