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Wickedly Good Halloween Event Planning + Marketing Tips

a cute black pug wearing an orange tutu for Halloween sits on a bench

September 24, 2024

‘Tis the season…for ghosts, goblins, vampires, and howlin’ Halloween events, that is!

Whether you’re planning a haunted hayride, a masquerade ball, ghost tours, or a virtual Halloween dessert-making session, these five tips will ensure your event is the talk of the town.

Tips for Organizing + Marketing a Wickedly Good Halloween Event

1. Craft a Bewitching Event Page:

Selling tickets online is much easier with a professional-looking event page. When you’re asking people to spend their time and money, they want to feel confident about their choice. You also want to guarantee a secure, straightforward transaction.

Create your event site using a trusted ticketing platform and take the time to tailor it to your event. Add images, logos, event details, and copy that inspires excitement about attending. Then, use your event site’s shareable link to promote your event through email and on Facebook, Instagram, and any other social media platform.

For more tips on how to make your event page spookily good, read our article Event Page Essentials: Why You Need One & How to Perfect It.

2. Cast a Cohesive Marketing Spell:

Consistent, eye-catching visuals are as vital to a vampire as blood. When you order admit one tickets, it’s best to keep their appearance similar by using the same logo, colors, and graphic family. Doing so will make your brand recognizable and leave a professional impression, which will, in turn, help you sell tickets.

Make sure you echo the same branding and look in all your marketing materials—from social media posts to printed posters and postcards. For your print marketing pieces, we recommend adding a QR code that directs to your event site. This simple addition makes it incredibly convenient for recipients to buy tickets instantly.

3. Reach Out and Grab ‘Em—Through Email:

Scary-good email marketing is great for enticing ghoulish guests to attend. Email services like Mailchimp and Constant Contact offer easy-to-use templates, making creating an engaging email easier than saying “trick or treat.”

With our event ticketing platform’s native email marketing capabilities, the entire ticket-selling process is made seamless. You can choose a pre-designed email template or the one you’re using for printed products, and it automatically populates with your event details and image. Plus, you can set up automated emails to thank guests for their ticket purchase, saving you time and effort.

A spooky skyline on Halloween
4. Event Management Mayhem (Or, In This Case, Awesomeness):

Using a ticketing platform to keep things organized will free you to focus on other things, like making sure “Monster Mash” isn’t playing on repeat. The benefits of using an event management platform are more numerous than a kraken’s arms. You can conduct sales online, in person, and at the door, check in guests, livestream the show, and text attendees before, during, and after the event to notify them of changes or thank them for coming.

5. More Swag Than an Egyptian Mummy:

Let your event live on like a happy, non-dangerous zombie, and keep people talking by giving out fun door prizes like custom merch. To do so, you can hand out roll tickets as people enter—just be sure to keep the stub so you can connect with the winner! Another way to make your event memorable is with a raffle benefitting a great cause. Print custom raffle tickets and announce the winner at the night’s end!

Another nice Halloween touch is to hand out actual goodie bags. You could ask local shops and services to add something fun to the mix that promotes their business and also thrills guests (like a coupon card or yummy treat!).

Don’t forget to create a social media hashtag unique to your event and encourage everyone to use it! There’s nothing like FOMO to encourage anyone who missed your event to sign up for next year’s.

Organizing a successful event requires a blend of creativity, planning, and a touch of magic. We hope the tips above help you host a spine-tingly good time…and have some fun doing it!

If you aren’t already using an event platform, consider Eventgroove! We make everything easier, from fundraising to selling tickets online and checking in guests. Plus, when you use our platform, you can access our online printing services, making ordering printed tickets a snap. Set up your free account and start selling tickets now.

How Selling Prom Tickets Online Works

Creating a ticket sales page takes no time, and you can customize it so it matches your prom theme and school branding. Here’s the shape of it:
  1. Create the event. Name (Enchanted Forest Prom, 2026), date, venue, capacity, dress code, anything else students should know.
  2. Set ticket types and prices. Most committees do one student ticket plus one guest or date. Some add an early bird ticket tier at a $10 discount for the first two weeks.
  3. Grab a shareable link. Drop it in the school newsletter, add it to a QR code on your prom posters, then drop it into the school’s socials and the committee group chat so everyone can share within their networks, and the principal’s morning announcements.
  4. Collect the money. Card and digital wallet payments flow straight into your account, whether someone pays in person at school or at the door on prom night.
  5. Scan tickets at the door. Each student arrives with their printed prom tickets or a digital version. A volunteer scams them using their phone.

6 Things to Look For in a Prom Ticketing Service

Not every ticketing platform is set up for school events. Three things that matter:
  1. Real-Time Data: Student planners and faculty advisors need to monitor sales and revenue, and access updated attendee reports.
  2. Clear Fees: Every platform makes its money through fees. These fees can be passed on to buyers or absorbed by the school. In addition, when credit cards are involved, processing fees always apply but may not be included in your free ticketing platform’s service. When these are not included in the platform price, you’ll need to organize online payments separately, which can result in a much higher per-ticket cost on your end.
  3. Online and physical tickets: Printing prom tickets is something many schools do – they’re a great memento of the night, and make the experience more special. Make sure your platform’s capabilities include tracking and scanning both printed and digital tickets.
  4. Easy attendee check-in: Look for a platform that lets you scan without an app or special equipment. When faculty can scan tickets using their mobile phone‘s browser, getting up to speed takes less time.
  5. Attendee management: You’ll want to track students as they enter, leave, and return. Ensure your service can support this.
  6. Ticketing adaptability: Creating ticket bundles, reserved seating, and comp codes for VIPS means your chosen platform needs to be flexible.

What to Charge For Tickets To Prom and When to Sell

On average, a prom ticket costs between $55–$125. The exact number depends on the venue, what the night includes (DJ, photos, dinner, flowers, and the like).

Pre-prom ticket sales strategies

  • Early Bird discount. Knock $10–$15 off the standard price for the first 2–3 weeks of sales. An early bird ticket strategy rewards students who buy first, builds momentum, and gives your committee how the night is tracking weeks before prom.
  • Group bundles. Offer a small discount for friend groups buying 4 or 6 tickets together. Ticket bundling speeds up sales and they nudge friend groups to commit early.
  • Reserved tables. If you want groups to sit together, set up your ticketing with reserved seating and sell whole tables as a single package.
  • Day-of door pricing. Charge $10–$15 more at the door than online to  encourages families to pre-buy.

When to sell tickets

Open sales 6–8 weeks before prom, switch from early bird to standard pricing 2–3 weeks in, and close online sales 24–48 hours before the dance so you can finalize the catering count.

A note on the platform side: Eventgroove’s setup is free, and the service fee on paid tickets is small (2% + $0.75 per ticket). You can pass that fee on to ticket buyers, and for free events, there are no fees at all.

If you’re looking for an efficent and easy way to sell school dance tickets and manage your attendees, we’d love it if you gave Eventgroove a try. Our ticketing platform is free for organizers, with low ticket-buyer fees, no hidden charges, and no contracts. Plus, we’re also online printers, so you order custom prom tickets, VIP  badges, and flyers all in one place.

Want to see Eventgroove in action?

We’d love to show you! Schedule a one-on-one demo with our expert sales team.

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