8 ideas on how to upsell to your event attendees

A burger is great. But a burger with chips is always better. It might cost extra, but most would happily pay a little extra to upgrade their experience.

This is the principle of upselling and it applies to event and tickets as much as anything else. Now is a great time to start, as LIVE IT's new upsell functionality had made it easy to present add-ons to your customers in the booking process.

To help kick our organisers off we've put together a few ideas on how different events can upsell to their customers.

Merchandise - this requires you to have either a recognisable brand that people will want to wear, or talented merchandise creators working with you. But once cracked, merchandise can be a very profitable revenue stream. Consider offering at a small discount compared to the actual event to increase uptake and thus revenue in advance of the event. Customers can then collect on arrival and wear their merch during the event.

Early Entry - give your keenest attendees the chance to experience even more time at the event they love, or more quiet time at a very busy one. Most applicable to busy attractions or experiences.

Pre-booked Food & Drink Packages - can be sold for any event with food/drink readily available. This could be an actual package with limited stock e.g. champagne bottle service or a special advance deal on drinks tokens.

"Golden Circle" Access - for any event with a performance at its heart, consider offering the best seats or view in the house at a premium.

Photo & Video Packages - works best for big team events such as escape rooms or away day experiences. Attendees will be keen to have a lasting reminder of their time together. This could be cheap and cheerful, just a couple of team photos at the end with a DSLR. Or it could be a full day of being followed by a professional photographer!

Queue Skip - larger events are liable to have big queues to get in, especially at peak times and if security checks are necessary. Consider setting aside one or two entry lanes especially for those who detest queues enough to pay extra to skip them.

VIP Access - a separate VIP area with it's own bar, seating area, and luxury toilets is pretty much a standard at festivals of any kind at this point. By presenting the access as a separate upgrade in the booking flow (so when people already have their wallets out, so as to speak) you could improve uptake on this option.

Parking & Transport - this will largely be car park spaces and could apply to any event which has a venue car park. Once again consider offering a discount in advance of the event to secure bookings (and so you know how many cars to expect!) You could also offer shuttle buses here if your event is some ways away from public transport.

Learn more about selling upgrades, add-ons and more alongside your event tickets with LIVE IT - check out our Feature Focus here.