How to Sell New Year’s Eve Party Tickets

It’s official. Halloween is over and the holiday season has officially begun.

New Year’s Eve party planners understand the challenge. Everything must be set in place, but almost no one will purchase their tickets until after Rudolph and Santa have faded into the moonlight.

Year after year NYE event organizers have seen the same results. Unless the event is one of the most sought after parties, is by invitation only and attendance is required or has limited tickets, it’s all hurry up and wait. There simply seems to be too many distractions – holiday parties, sales, shopping, concerts, performances and family, friends and work obligations – to focus on December 31st activities.

What’s the best way to sell tickets to a New Year’s Eve event?

We suggest the following:

  • Organize your event before Thanksgiving week.
  • Once all the details are in place, announce it on the home page of your website with “New Year’s Eve Tickets Now Available.”
  • If possible, create a landing page just for your NYE function. Use search engine optimization so your online presence can pull results. Keep the site up year-round to keep SEO in place.
  • The week after Thanksgiving push out a Tweet, post an announcement on your Facebook page, send out an email (assuming you have an existing database of potential customers) and use your online ticketing system’s email invitation to share news of your event and encourage sign ups, providing you have a targeted guest list.
  • Every week continue with a Tweet, a Facebook post, a quick email and an online ticketing reminder. Make it fun. If you want to be successful avoid the hard sell – that’s not how social media should be used. Share photos of previous parties (with permission of those in the photos, if at all possible). Include some interesting tidbit about your entertainer. Tease them about the food and beverages. Include an interesting factoid how NYE is celebrated in different parts of the world and interesting cultural traditions.

Expect minimal results before Xmas. The sole purpose is to create awareness, so when party-goers are discussing what they want to do for New Year’s, your event will be top-of-mind.

The day after Christmas it’s highly likely you’ll see an uptick in website traffic and ticket sales will begin. Think about it! When folks have returned those unwanted gifts, tallied up their holiday expenses to see how well they kept to their budget, they’ve got a much better idea of how much cash is left for New Year’s Eve, a new pair of dancing shoes and in some cases the dog or babysitter.

As an event organizer, you’ve been ready to get this party started for a very long time, however, everyone else is just now starting to pay attention to it. You’ll see a boost in web traffic, but like many events – there’s some downtime before tickets are sold as family and friends need to confirm participation among their group. Someone will take charge and purchase a group of tickets.

Ironic isn’t it? The countdown for tickets sales is much like the countdown to midnight and the New Year…10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…….


To learn more about event and festival management, check out “Secrets to Successful Events:  How to Organize, Promote and Manage Exceptional Events and Festivals.” For those with event planning experience, consider, “Secrets to Successful Events Resource Guide: 42+ Easy-to-Use Tools and Resources.” Both are written by internationally known author and speaker Lynn Fuhler and are available on Amazon and at major booksellers.

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