How to Sell Out an Event with a Sales Funnel

Matt Astifan -

If you want to sell out events this post is going to be for you. Selling out events has become my forte. After several failed attempts I have created something that works again and again.

And when you find something in business that works, do more of it!

That’s exactly what happened when I sold out my event using this event funnel. I had huge wins with this event formula. I was getting paid to get people to my events, putting on a hell of a show, and then did a soft pitch for my courses (or service) at the end.

Then we turned the event recordings into a free or paid course (such as 4 Steps to Social Media Profits or Ultimate Facebook Profits) and while I had 100’s of people attend the events, I’ve had 1000’s more watch the videos online.

This is a breakdown of the sales funnel I used to sell out events.


The Event

These events are not designed to make money off ticket sales. While they are profitable, I used the ticket sales to fund the cost of the event, allowing it to be at a high-end location, with food and drinks, and a polished experience (DJ’s and all), thereby building credibility and setting the stage to pitch a high-ticket product or service. The events are usually held sometime in the middle of the week (Tue, Wed or Thur), lasting about four hours (5 PM – 9 PM), and priced moderately, around $35 per ticket.

You only need 3 pages for this sales funnel

  • Event Details Page
  • Checkout Page
  • Thank You Page

We use ClickFunnels to build all these pages, if you’re not a user yet you can:

I’ll share more resources for building this sale funnel for you at the end of this post.

Now let’s get into this!

Event Details (Page 1)

I have tried both long copy and short copy event details. What I discovered was that for events over $100 it is best to use a long copy (which I won’t get into here), for events under $100 go with a short copy.

So for this post, we are only going to talk about short copy event details. The reason why shorter is better? We are looking for an impulse buying decision. Not a lot of thinking. This event is just $35 and 4 hours, it won’t break the bank or take up an entire day. If anything your attendees might be thinking it’ll be good just for fun and networking. Little do they know you’re going to blow them away with your presentation and offer.

Here’s what you need:

A clear headline with a solid benefit for attending the event.

Above your headline should be a sentence or two that enforces scarcity and pushes the prospect to buy tickets now.

I’ll usually use a countdown timer until ticket prices go up or until the date of the event. Then raise ticket prices as we get closer to the event. I promote the event for 3 weeks, on week 1 tickets are $35, on week 2 tickets are $50, on week 3 tickets are $60, and tickets are $80 or more at the door. This gives you all the scarcity you need to get someone to make their buying decision now.

Below the headline is five things:

  1. A large professional photo of the event speaker (or speakers) and a short punchy bio.
  2. Five to seven specific benefit bullet points. Keep your bullet points tangible. Describe what they’re going to learn. You can even name your techniques and put little TM’s next to them to be fancy.
  3. Written testimonials. NO VIDEOS. You don’t want your prospects spending time watching your testimonial videos. They should be able to make their decision to buy a ticket instantly. I once did a test between using 6 testimonials and 12. 6 won. That probably isn’t a scientific study but you don’t need to overdo it with testimonials. If you can use pictures of the people who wrote your testimonials that’s a huge plus.
  4. A simple list of event details Location, Time, Date, Cost. Nothing fancy here.
  5. Add an event guarantee. Full refund. Say something like “After the event, if you don’t think that what you learned was worth your investment, email us for a Full Refund.” I’ve sold over 1000 tickets for this event type and only ever had one jackass ask for a refund.

Finally, include a large button with a call to action: “Get Tickets Now”.

Checkout (Page 2)

Here’s where the magic happens.

User clicks your “Get Tickets Now” button and goes to your checkout page. I recommend using the ClickFunnels order form builder. DON’T use Eventbrite or other similar event ticketing platforms because you can’t do everything I’m about to tell you with any of them.

On the checkout page, the user can select how many tickets to purchase using only 3 options.

  • One ticket for $35
  • Two tickets for $60
  • Four tickets for $100

This will boost your ticket sales massively and will encourage people to help recruit for you, bringing their friends along. If someone wants some other combination of tickets they’ll email you and ask, and I recommend you give them whatever combination of tickets and price they want. Be cool with people who personally reach out for 3, or 6, or 10 tickets, it’ll pay off for you later.

(For week 2 you can raise the prices, $50 for one ticket, $60 for two, and $100 for four. Week 3 you can use $60 for one, $75 for two, $100 for four. You get the idea. Incentives users to buy more tickets and bring friends.)

Last but not least… the VIP.

Your VIP section will sell out. I recommend at least 10-20% of your seating be VIP. People love feeling VIP. It’s where the cool kids sit.

ClickFunnels has a unique feature on their checkout pages called “Order Bumps”. This is a little checkbox on the checkout form. I use the Order Bump for the VIP tickets.

My friends laughed at the copy for my VIP offer until it sold out and had the last laugh. Here’s what I said, “We are reserving the front two rows (approximately 40 seats) for a small group of highly-motivated people. If that sounds like you, add VIP seating to your order for only $20.”

This easy offer costs you nothing, has two major benefits: it will increase profits and put the motivated buyers right in front of your nose for your live pitch.

If you want to get fancy and you have the space at your event you can charge even more and give them an open bar, coffee, food, swag bag, t-shirt, whatever. But ultimately people buy VIP for “status” so don’t forget to acknowledge it in your offer.

Keep in mind, you will get a 20% no-show rate, so always oversell your event. If you have 200 seats to fill, sell 250 tickets. If people complain the event was too crowded or there was nowhere to sit you’re a winner.

Thank You Page (Page 3)

Now while you have an interested buyer who just bought tickets, you can piggyback on their interest and impulse by offering another great offer related to your event.

On the Thank You page, have a simple slideshow video with a voice-over presenting a “One Time Offer”. The offer should be a $99 – $299 product or service, such as training that relates to the theme of the event. You can expect 5%-10% of people to take advantage of the offer, a healthy profit boost.

You could offer the event recordings (if you plan to sell them in the future), a one-on-one coaching session (with you or one of your coaches), a course you produced (or going to produce), or sell a t-shirt with proceeds going to a noble charity.

How To Make This Sales Funnel

If you’re a ClickFunnels user I can give you my event funnel as a downloadable template. It’s called a “Share Funnel” so all you have to do is click the link below and it will add the event funnel template to your account. There’s no catch besides needing a ClickFunnels account.

Download Event Funnel Template Here

If you’re going to use this ClickFunnels template I highly recommend you:

Conclusion

Sold-out events are a highly impactful means of growing your brand and attracting highly qualified prospects to your products, and services. The pictures and videos from the event will serve you for years to come.

If you got questions for me drop a comment below and I’ll get back to you. Good luck with your event!

For more information, check out the following guides: