3 

Making the sale

The overriding aim of your marketing strategy is to get people to buy

tickets and come to your arts event. This chapter looks at people's 

buying behaviour, potential barriers to buying a ticket, the box office and

other options.

The box office and ticketing

No matter how much time and money you spend informing and attracting an audience, it

is time and money wasted if you don't close the sale. Your box office is where sales are

made. The easier it is for people to buy tickets the bigger your audience will be. 

Put yourself in the position of someone wanting to buy a ticket and try to remove any

potential barriers. Questions to ask: 

3

  Where do they go? Is there parking while they purchase a ticket? Is street signage

adequate? Is there sheltered queue space?

  Can they book by phone? Is the phone number easy to find? 

  Can they book online? How do they find the website?

CUSTOMER

  How much is a ticket? What do you mean by koha (i.e. donation)?

SERVICE

  What's your pricing structure for full price and concessions? Who is allowed a

concession?

The box office is your point

  What identification do they need to provide for a concession?

of sale. It's vital that the

  How can they pay   eftpos, cheque, credit card, cash?

people selling your tickets

  Is there a transaction fee? How much? 

are familiar with your

  Can they buy a ticket in advance or is it door sales only?

product so they can give

  What hours is your box office open? Are they convenient for your target market?

good customer service. It's

  Have you collected the purchaser's name, phone and number of tickets purchased? If the

a good idea to provide the

event is cancelled, for example, you will need to make contact.  

box office staff with a

succinct and appealing

Pre booking tickets to an exhibition is seldom necessary and most tickets will be

blurb about your event,

purchased at the door. However, if you have a very popular exhibition there are a couple

which can be read over the

of things to remember:

phone: e.g. A  weekend of

poetry at the Bishop Suter

  If you have 50 100 people lined up outside the door, keep them posted on the

Gallery in Nelson, featuring

approximate time they can expect to wait. Offer them a brochure to read while they wait,

leading New Zealand poets

and even provide queue sitters so people can go and get a take away coffee.  

Jenny Bornholdt, Brian

  Consider selling tickets for specific times and days so you can manage the crowds better.

Turner and Bill Manhire. 

Weekends are the most popular times for visits to exhibitions.

23

Smart arts

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