In this article, we are going to look at setting up free ticketed or sign-up events. This is a great way to keep track of the capacity of your free event and also to have contact information for your attendees, as well as their demographics, interests, and preferences. You could also use this information for post-event surveys or marketing for similar events.
Setting up a free ticket
Customers may not understand the term 'comp' so its best to set up a ticket called 'Free' or similar, and ensure there is no price or booking fee attached.
Create the Pricing Scheme
First, you will need to create a Pricing Scheme to house the ticket.
Go to Manage > Pricing Schemes.
Here you can add to a current pricing scheme or click Add New+.
1. Name your pricing scheme Free.
2. Ensure the toggle is clicked on (blue) to activate the pricing scheme.
3. Add an optional colour.
4. Select Add.
Now we want to set up the ticket.
1. Name your group ticket, e.g. 'Free'.
2. Click the toggle on (blue) to activate the ticket price.
3. Enter zero value '0' as the price.
4. Select your Price type Comp.
5. Add an optional Description.
6. Enter an optional Priority number (this is only necessary if you have multiple Tickets in your Pricing Scheme).
7. Leave the Group size as 1.
8. Leave Print Group Ticket unticked.
9. Add optional Tags which can be helpful for reporting.
10. Click Update Ticket Price.
Removing Booking Charges/Fees from the free ticket
If your event is free you may not want to apply the booking charges. If you do you can leave your account as it is but it is recommended to add a comment to the event or in the show description, for example, 'This event is free but ticketed, booking charges/restoration levy of £1 per ticket still applies'.
To remove charges from the ticket price:
- Navigate to Manage > Pricing Schemes > Find your Pricing Scheme > Click into your Ticket Price.
- Click on the Settings tab.
- Click into the "skip per ticket booking charges" setting.
- Tick the box to enable / true (blue) and select Update.
This will now remove all booking charges and fees from this specific ticket price.
Create your Show
Now you have created your free ticket, you can create your Show. If you need any help, take a look at our step-by-step guide How to create a Show.
Adding extra information to the Show to explain it is free
Once you have created your Show, we'd recommend adding some extra information to explain that the event is free but a ticket is still required to be booked.
To do so, you can add this to the Show Description box.
- Go to Manage > Shows and find your Show from the listings.
- Click into the Show so you are on the Show details tab.
- In the Description box, you can add your desired text. For example, 'This event is free but requires a ticket. If you no longer require a ticket please contact the Box Office to release it'.
The description will appear here on the Show Page:
Ticketsolve Tip
Statistically, there are more 'no shows' on free-ticketed events compared to paid events. A helpful tip is to set up an Upcoming Event Alert email to go out to bookers ahead of the event, or use the Email all customers function to send a plain text email. Within this reminder email you can include text like: 'Please contact the box office if you no longer require all or some of your tickets'.
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