Everybody loves a discount.
Ticket purchasers love them because…well…it means they’ll be paying less money at checkout! But event organizers love them, too. Promo codes are one of the most effective ways to track the results of marketing and advertising campaigns. Even if you’re using a marketing channel that’s notoriously tricky to track, like say a billboard, promo codes help you tie sales back to that specific ad.
They’re a great way to incentivize customer behavior, too. Want to encourage guests to add a t-shirt onto their ticket order? There’s a promo code for that! Trying to introduce your event to new customers in the area? Yep, promo codes can help with that, too.
Let’s take a deeper look at promo codes, how they work, and how to get the most value out of them for your next event.
What is a Promo Code?
Think of a promo code like a digital coupon. Short for promotional code, a promo code is a sequence of letters, numbers, or both that can be entered during the online checkout process to receive a discount or special offer.
From the guest’s perspective, you usually enter a promo code in a designated field at checkout, typically labeled "Promo Code," "Coupon Code," or "Discount Code." The website will then apply the discount or offer associated with the code.
Promo codes often have expiration dates and may be subject to other restrictions, such as ticket type, or only apply to group sales, product bundles, etc.
How Do Promo Codes Work?
There are two types of discounts you can offer with a promo code: percentage and dollar value. A percentage discount is variable: it lowers the total cost of a ticket (or transaction) by a given percentage. This type of discount can work well if you have multiple different price points for your tickets. Regardless of which ticket they choose, everyone gets 25% off, for example.
Dollar value discounts reduce the ticket price by a set dollar amount. It’s a fixed discount, so this can work well if you want to simplify the total value you’re willing to discount. For example, if the first 100 people to use a promo code get $1 off their ticket, you know you’re limiting the cost of that promotion to $100.
With Passage, promo codes can be applied to an entire order, or you can limit the number of tickets per order to use it on. So, you could have the code “GIVEME5” give a customer $5 off their entire purchase, while the code “SHOUT20” could give a customer 20% off each ticket.
Promo codes can be set to apply for all ticket types at a venue, or you can select specific ticket types from individual events.
How Many Promo Codes Can I Create on Passage?
As many as you like! With Passage, you get an unlimited number of promo codes free with your account. They can be any sequence of letters, numbers, or a combination of both.
Creating Your First Promo Code
Start by clicking the “Promote” tab at the top of your admin area and select "Promo Codes" from the drop-down menu. This will take you to the page to create a new promo code.
To finish setting up your code click the "Create Promo Code"button. You can return to edit a code any time from your Manage Codes page.
How Do I Track Promo Code Usage?
We track the number of times every discount code is used, so you can see which code (or marketing campaign) worked the best!
This can also be a great feature for setting up “referral” tracking. For instance, let’s say you come to an arrangement with an influencer that you’ll pay them $1 for every ticket that is sold based on their social media posts or videos. But how can you be sure a sale came from them? Give that influencer a special promo code to use, and tally up the number of times it’s used to make a purchase!
Bulk Uploading Promo Codes
Need to create a lot of promo codes at once? With Passage, it’s simple!
All you need is a .CSV file with your list of discount codes listed in a single column. Services like Groupon and Living Social will provide your lists of codes in this format, or you can create and manage .CSV files in any spreadsheet program.
Once you have your .CSV file, you can upload the codes by selecting Promo Codes from the Promote tab at the top of your admin area, then selecting the Upload CSV option in the left-hand sidebar.
From there select your file to upload, and enter the settings to be shared by all of the codes in this list.
Final Thoughts
Promo codes are a great tool for savvy event organizers. They can help bring in new business, incentivize guests to purchase tickets early (or to bundle their purchase), and make it simple to track your marketing results. Whether you decide to offer a percentage discount on an entire order, or a dollar amount off a specific ticket type, your promo codes can be easily tracked in Passage so you know which ones are most effective.
Need a little help setting up your first promo code on Passage? We’d love to help! Reach out to our team and tell us your vision - we’ll help make it happen.
