How to run a slick front of house

At Christmas, OSJ (Orchestra of St John's) gave two concerts in Dorchester Abbey. I was running the front of house for them.

I know I am biased, but I have to say that it was thanks to Oxboffice that the front of house was so smoothly run!

Ushers and ticket checkers had details of everyone who had booked tickets.

The capacity of the Abbey was so easy to manage for Nicky and Lilly doing box office on the door and the volunteers who were squeezing people in to the pews.

Thanks to Amy, the audience could come in out of the cold without having to queue for ages! - anyone who already had a ticket (paper or e-ticket) was ushered to the ticket checkers and anyone who didn't went to Nicky and Lilly on the box office.

We had to grit the path which was a bit of a nightmare, but it definitely helped!

Anyone with good tips on making front of house slick and panic-free should let me know or post a comment.

Esther

Hello everybody!

Esther and Mark have just brought me onboard to help them explore ways of spreading the word about all of the brilliant work Oxboffice does, all of the amazing promoters we work with, and all of the amazing events we represent.

Over the coming weeks and months, we’re going to be launching a huge range of services and strategies to ensure that everybody knows who we are and what we do — and one of the first steps is to big up Oxboffice’s blog and our Facebook and Twitter presence!

We currently have two Facebook pages — a Group page and a Fan page — but to get the most out of our Facebook activities, we’re going to phase the Fan page out and concentrate our efforts on the Group page from now on. We would love you to consider joining the Oxboffice Group now so that we can continue to keep in touch with you and let you know about all the wonderful things we’ve got going on in 2010 and beyond!

We're very easy to find: just log in to Facebook and search for “Oxboffice” in Groups.

We’re doing everything we can to increase our network of contacts this year, so if you have any friends who might be interested in the events we promote, we’d love you to consider inviting them to join the Oxboffice Group as well!

Best wishes
Philip Holyman

Drive more customers to your website

If you want your customers to buy tickets using online booking, you should make sure that this is made really easy for them.

If you have an online marketing plan (as well as the mailings, flyers, adverts, press coverage etc...) then you stand more of a chance increasing your online ticket sales.

Some of our promoters are on Facebook. Every time they send a message to their friends and group members, they put links to their website and to their Oxboffice webpage. Anyone who reads these messages is online, at the computer, mouse in hand. It's only a couple of clicks away from ticket sales.

Have a look at Susan Hallam's website. She is fantastic for giving tips and training on how to make the most of online marketing to drive customers to your site and to online booking.

http://www.shcl.co.uk/

Protecting your customers

People are really aware these days of what happens to their personal information when they buy things.

Oxboffice makes sure that the information your customers give us is only used to process their order or answer any queries they may have.

The only financial information we hold is the last four digits of the payment card.

If anyone wants to know what information Oxboffice holds on them, they should contact us.

As a promoter, you only get contact details for customers who agree to it. We do ask all of your customers and we do pass the information on to you (and nobody else).

For more details see our privacy policy.

What the statistics say about your customers

Can you learn anything form the data we pick up about your customers' booking habits?
Here are some stats for you which may be useful:

1. 75% of customers book their tickets online.
2. 81% of customers book e-tickets on 19% by paper tickets.
3. Customers but on average 2 tickets per transaction.
4. 51% of customers agree to using their contact details for marketing.

What can you learn from this?

• Make sure your website is prominently advertised on all your event publicity.
• Promote your website across the web, not just on posters and flyers.
• Make sure your book online links from your website stand out.
• Close the box office as late as you can by using e-tickets
• Make use of the marketing data we give you and encourage people to join your mailing list / Facebook group etc...
  

Use Your Website to Increase Ticket Sales: Concert Promoters

Although this article is aimed at concert promoters, the ideas can be applied to all event promoters. Follow this blog for future tips on promoting your events - whatever they are.

If you want to increase your ticket sales, why not try one or more of the following:

1. Add a BUY TICKETS button or link in a prominent place on your homepage
   
2. Share links with concert performers. Put a link to their website on yours and ask them to return the favour
   
3. Get a link to your events through free listings websites
   
   a) For concerts try:
   
   • www.oclassical.com
   • www.bachtrack.com
   • www.concertdiary.com
   • www.classicalmusic.org.uk
   
   b) Also try geographical listings sites e.g.:
   
   • www.bbc.co.uk/local
   • www.visitbritain.co.uk
   
   
4. Include your website on publicity and in adverts/press you send to the local papers and radio stations
   
5. See if you sponsors and other stakeholders will put a link to your website on theirs
   
6. Publicise the Oxboffice Ticket Sales Hotline number for customers you know might prefer to phone for tickets: 0845 680 1926

Promoters who have tried some of these ideas see increased traffic to their website. In turn, Oxboffice has seen an increase in sales for these promoters.

Sell Your Tickets for FREE

As an event promoter on oxboffice.com you can process your cash and cheque sales for free, making it more cost effective to manage all your tickets in one place. Using our new reporting you can learn even more about your customers' buying habits.

Simply login and click the sell link next to an event on My Events to see how it works. If you're not already registered then please contact us to learn more.