How to Use Promo Codes for Your Party Without Training Your Crowd to Wait for a Discount
Posted 6 hours ago
Posted 6 hours ago
It is Wednesday, sales are flat, and someone on your team says the words: “Should we drop a code?” Ten minutes later a 30% off code is in every story and the group chat, and the people who bought early bird last week are wondering why they bothered.
A promo code is a small tool with a long memory. Used well, it thanks the people who show up for you and tells you which friend, DJ or collective moves tickets. Used badly, it teaches your crowd to hold off on buying until a discount shows up. Here is how to set codes up so they do the first job.
Every code should have one job you can say in a sentence. A few that work for a party:
If you cannot name the job, skip the code. If everyone should pay the same price, you may not need a promotion at all.
On Beatmatch, you can create several promotions for the same event, each with its own rules, and add a short description to each one (made-up examples: “Returners from the September party,” “Collective X’s list”) so your team knows what it is for.
An open code with no cap and no end date is a public price cut. The two settings that keep a code honest:
Set both when you create the code. You won’t be watching your phone at 1 a.m. to turn it off by hand.
Promotions on Beatmatch can take a fixed amount off (for example, $5 off) or a percentage off (for example, 20% off). For a party, a fixed amount is usually easier to say out loud and easier to fit around your tiers.
The rule of thumb: a code should never beat your early bird. With the ladder from the pricing guide, $22 early bird and $30 GA, a $3 code keeps the discounted price above your early bird and still gives the returner a reason to buy this week. If you are still setting those tiers, start with the ticket pricing guide.
People share codes in voice notes, stories and at the bar. Keep them short, all caps and free of letters that look alike:
Use one code per group, and name it after the group. Say your opener is a made-up DJ, Mara, with the code DJMARA. When she posts “use DJMARA at checkout,” her fans know exactly where the code came from, and so do you.
A code meant for returners belongs in a message to returners. A code meant for a DJ’s fans belongs on that DJ’s accounts. Posting every code on your main flyer turns them all into one public discount.
For returners, a text blast to guests tied to your event works well: one short line, the code, the end date and the door time. For timing and wording, see How to Text Your Event Attendees. To fit the code into the rest of your week, see The Week-Of Event Checklist.
After the event, check how each promotion did and write down three things for each code: the group, the cap and roughly how many it moved. In a made-up example, a DJ code that moved 18 tickets earns that DJ a bigger cap next time. A code that moved two can retire.
You can edit a promotion after creating it, including the description, the amount, the maximum usage and the dates. If a code has already been used, some changes may be limited, and removing an active code with redemptions takes a message to Beatmatch support. That is one more reason to set the cap and end date right the first time.
When you create your event on Beatmatch, add your ticket options first, then add one promotion per group with a cap, an end date and a short description. Step-by-step: Create a Promotion (Discount Code) and Create Ticket Options.
