Looking to streamline your event planning process? Event planning can be a daunting task, especially for event organizers and venues managing multiple events at once. Fortunately, event ticketing software can help create an efficient ticketing system for both organizers and ticket buyers.

With event ticketing software at your side, you can easily manage attendee data, access promotion tools, and accelerate the registration process—all with just a few clicks. So, what should you look for in a ticketing system? And with so many options to choose from (Eventbrite, TicketSpice, PurplePass, ThunderTix, and Planning Pod), how can you choose the best event ticketing software for your venue or event planning business?

Here’s everything you should consider, from features to flexibility, before deciding which option is going to be the best event ticketing software for you. 

Flexible ticketing options 

While some event management platforms allow you to create customized ticketing options for events, including tier pricing and early bird pricing, others have more rigid ticketing options. This may not be an issue for some events and event organizers, but if you’re searching for a flexible ticketing solution, it’s important to consider flexibility when choosing an event ticketing platform.

Take control of your ticket pricing

With flexible ticket setup and management, potential attendees can choose between VIP access, general admission, and other pricing tiers. In turn, a flexible ticketing system and point-of-sale (POS) can help attract more attendees and give them the experience they’re looking for.

Flexible ticket features give you more control over your event, allowing you to set the ticket price for package deals, discounted tickets, and other ticket types. For example, if you’re hosting an event and not selling as many tickets as you expected, you might offer a discount to boost sales. Or, you might want to offer a special pre-sale box office to those with memberships. 

Custom design options 

Some event management platforms allow completely customizable designs for events, including branding and logos, while others have strict templates that prevent you from fully customizing your event. Since branding and marketing are essential components of marketing events, it’s important to consider the customizable design options you’ll get from an event ticketing platform.

Promote events with branded materials

From customized landing pages to branded registration websites, Planning Pod makes it easy for event managers to market their events. Event managers and venues can easily add images, videos, schedules, maps, brand logos, and more—with no technical skills required. 

Ultimately, branded event marketing materials can help you boost social media engagement and shares. Some event ticketing platforms also offer integrations with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. For the best results, be sure to add event branding to your email notifications and mobile tickets.

Event promotion tools

Event promotion shouldn’t end with branded tickets. Instead of manually promoting your events across different platforms, event ticketing software can help streamline the marketing process. With the help of built-in promotion tools, event organizers can easily promote events across social media, email, and other marketing channels in a few clicks.

Promote events more efficiently

With online event ticketing options, event planners can reach and engage potential attendees, improve event registration, and sell more tickets. Digital event marketing tools make it easier for organizers to find, target, and communicate with the right people, allowing you to deliver the right message at the right time.

Website integration 

Every event starts with registration, so you’ll want to create a positive first impression and give attendees a taste of what they can expect. Just like your events, your registration process and ticketing page should be responsive, intuitive, and flexible—with website integration tools and embedded registration forms on your website for a seamless experience.

Simplify the registration process

One of the best ways to streamline the event planning process? Tap into web integration tools to embed registration forms on your website. By leveraging online RSVP and registration forms, you can boost ticket sales with responsive event and registration web pages. To maximize sales and improve functionality, consider integrations with social media platforms and Google Analytics. A simplified registration process will improve conversions and also reduce customer support inquiries. 

Mobile-friendly registration

With mobile-friendly registration, attendees can instantly register for an event on a mobile device without switching to a desktop or computer. In other words, attendees can easily register for events while on the go—which can make all the difference for your event attendance.

Boost convenience for attendees

By making registration easy and accessible on mobile devices, event organizers can drive more registrations and create a better experience for attendees. With Planning Pod’s event management platform, event organizers can create mobile-friendly event pages for an ultra-convenient attendee experience and market events with images, videos, and social sharing widgets.

Easy check-in features 

When event day rolls around, you want the check-in process to be as seamless as possible. From quick, easy check-in tools to attendance tracking, event ticketing systems can help eliminate on-site chaos on the day of the event. This way, organizers can speed up the check-in process by using QR code mobile app scanners or quickly searching for and checking in attendees by searching their name, email address, company name, or other key details.

Streamline event check-ins

It’s time to say goodbye to paper printouts and automate the check-in process with an event ticketing mobile app. Event management software provides easy-to-use tools for event organizers to check in guests with computers or tablet devices.

By searching for guests via keyword search (by name, email, company, or custom ID number), you can pull up their information and check them in. For an even quicker check-in process, consider choosing a platform that offers on-site payment processing and QR code/barcode ticket scanning.

RSVP and attendee tracking

To plan a successful event, you need to stay on top of your guest list—and that means knowing which guests you’ve heard from and which events they’re attending. By choosing a ticketing system with built-in attendee tracking and RSVP management tools, you can quickly see which guests you need to follow up with and obtain a final headcount.

Easily manage RSVPs and attendees

From sending invitations to thank-you notes, smart event ticketing solutions provide everything you need to manage your guest list without missing a beat. For example, order tracking and guest list tools collect attendee details and revenue data, so you can view all the information you need on a single dashboard. Once the ticket sales start rolling in, you can build assigned seating charts complete with attendee names, meal choices, and more.

Smart, real-time reporting and dashboard

You already know that event planning can be a complex process, and attention to detail is essential for planning a successful event. From planning to execution, event management platforms with real-time reporting can help event organizers keep track of every aspect of the event. 

Gain key insights into every event

Real-time reporting and smart CRM dashboards help organizers make informed decisions using up-to-date data on attendance, ticket sales, and other key insights. In turn, event data can be used to upgrade marketing strategies, improve event logistics, and ensure everything is running smoothly.

At the same time, having access to real-time data enables organizers to be more proactive and identify potential issues before they become major problems. For example, if ticket sales are slower than expected, organizers can adjust their marketing strategy to boost sales before the event.

Cloud-based ticket sales

Unlike traditional online ticketing systems, cloud-based systems help automate ticket creation and management. Cloud-based systems automatically generate tickets as needed. In other words, event organizers can automatically scale up servers as needed when large spikes in traffic occur. This way, inbound traffic to the event website is evenly divided over multiple instances of the server.

Increase online ticket sales

The right online ticketing systems enable organizers to easily sell tickets online for concerts, museums, and other events. Cloud-based ticketing systems can help boost online ticket sales and improve event attendance with highly customizable, intuitive features and affordable ticketing fees. You can take it even a step further with Planning Pod, which eliminated ticketing fees altogether.

Discount code generator

If you want to offer single-use discount codes to potential attendees, you’ll need a reliable discount code generator. Single-use discount codes expire after redemption and come with a unique code, which can easily be sent via SMS or email. You can also use discount codes to gain insights into your event, such as what audience segments have the highest redemption rate.

Instantly create discount codes

Whether you’re looking to collect attendee data or generate personalized discount codes, event ticketing platforms can help create unique discount codes for events. With online discount code generators, event organizers can create different promotional codes for individual events, set limits, and even choose what type of tickets the discounts can be applied to.

Easy online payment process

You’ve already worked hard to promote your event—and you don’t want to lose potential attendees to lengthy payment processes or restrictions on payouts. With a streamlined online payment process and multiple payment options, such as credit cards and PayPal, event organizers and venues can increase attendees and create better attendee experiences.

Efficiently collect payments online

Want to make life easier for attendees? With Planning Pod’s event planning software, you can easily create tickets, launch online event registration forms, and collect payments with credit card processing through Stripe, Square, or Paysimple.

When people have a smooth and hassle-free experience with your event’s payment process, they’re more likely to have a positive impression of your organization as a whole. This can lead to increased loyalty, better word-of-mouth marketing, and more successful events in the future.

Low processing fees

Event organizers and venues are always looking for ways to save money and increase profits, so choosing an event ticketing software with low processing fees is essential. High processing fees can be a major turn-off for potential attendees, especially if your ticket prices are already on the higher side. The best event ticketing systems have low processing fees. For example, Stripe only charges 3.2% plus $0.30 per transaction, making it easy to keep your ticket prices affordable for both you and your attendees. 

Optimize your event budget

Not only do low processing fees help increase attendance, but they also boost revenue. Every dollar counts when organizing an event, and high processing fees can take away from your event planning budget.  By choosing online ticketing software with low processing fees, you’ll have more money to invest in your event.

Donation options

A donation-friendly online ticketing platform is a must-have for organizations, especially when it comes to nonprofits and fundraising events. From selling tickets online to providing donation options for donation-based or free events, the right event ticket software will take care of everything. To streamline your event management, consider searching for a platform with simple-to-use features that help manage ticket data and offer donation options on the backend.

Provide easy ways to donate

With ticket sales software that offers donation options, you can make it easier for attendees to donate money while purchasing tickets—or instead of purchasing tickets—for an easy checkout process. For example, Planning Pod’s event registration solution provides flexible donation options and online event registration tools for fundraisers, meetings, workshops, and more.

Easy email integration 

From automated registration confirmations to event reminders, email integration can help you stay top of mind with attendees. Whether you’re searching for an event ticketing solution for a virtual event, hybrid event, or in-person event, email integration tools provide a centralized platform for all event-related communications.

Take control of your email marketing

With a centralized event email program, you can create integrations with any email account, including Outlook, iCloud, and Yahoo!, for streamlined communications. Plus, with time-saving email templates and customizable options, you can build reusable templates for any type of event.

Social media integration 

Your target audience spends a significant amount of time on social media, making social media marketing one of the best strategies to reach attendees. With social media integration, you can tap into a wider audience and increase attendance. Social media integration can also promote your event before, during, and after it takes place, which can help create buzz and increase attendance for future events.

Drive conversions with social media

If you want to stay competitive in today’s digital landscape, event ticketing software with social media integration is non-negotiable. Social media integration offers valuable features, from simple login to your event website using social media credentials to easy tools for sharing event content on social media.

Easy refund and ticket transfer options

At any event, attendees may cancel, venues may change, and unexpected circumstances can arise at any moment. As a result, flexible ticket refund and transfer options are crucial for any successful event. If you allow refunds and ticket transfers, you’ll need to manage these features through your event ticketing software. 

Keep attendees satisfied

Easy refund and transfer solutions like help give attendees peace of mind. If something unexpected comes up and they can no longer attend, they can easily refund their tickets. In turn, ticket transfer and refund features help build trust with your attendees—all while creating a positive experience for them and increasing the likelihood that they will attend future events.

Website building tools

Whether you’re looking to promote your event or create registration forms, it’s important to choose intuitive website-building tools. Instead of hiring a web developer or dealing with coding, organizers can use their advanced event ticketing software to easily drop in images, videos, and schedules; build reusable event website templates; and collect RVSPs and registrations online.

Upgrade your event website

With Planning Pod’s easy-to-use website-building tools, event organizers and venues can instantly design custom event websites—no technical skills needed. Website building tools not only help planners save time and money, but they also offer wide-ranging features to help plan successful events. For example, Planning Pod’s web tools offer event registration forms, advanced privacy protection, and more.

The best event ticketing software and all-in-one event management and venue management solution

Whether you’re a professional event organizer or venue manager, you’re probably already familiar with the challenges associated with organizing events—from managing guest lists to collecting payments. Creating an amazing experience for attendees is a top priority, but you’ll need to choose the best ticket-selling platform to get the job done right.

Fortunately, Planning Pod’s centralized event ticket management software can help event planners and venues efficiently manage ticket sales, establish time-saving workflows, and boost conversions.Curious as to what advanced event planning and event ticketing platform can do for your business? See Planning Pod in action for yourself.