5 Tips for Boosting Sales This Holiday Season

By Carrie Basta, Instructor III at Gateway Ticketing Systems, Inc.

Although we haven’t flipped the calendar to November yet, consumers are already saving, planning and maybe even purchasing in anticipation of the holiday season. It is just as important to make sure your attraction has their to-do list completed in order to grab a share of the close to 1 trillion dollars spent on friends and loved ones in a few short months.

While Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the heavy hitters, it’s important to plan for the full season to make sure you maximize your revenue opportunities. It may seem overwhelming to create an offer (or offers) that will cut through the noise in the marketplace over the next few months. However, Galaxy can help you be creative and efficient in enticing guests to put visiting your attraction on their holiday wish-list.

Making the purchase process simple and providing a high-value offer makes it easy to choose your site over the next “it” toy that will only provide a few minutes of fun. Nothing can compare to the lifetime of memories provided by a ticket to a zoo, membership to a museum or season pass to the local amusement park.

So here are our top tips to take full sales advantage of the upcoming holiday season.

Have a Plan

The holiday spending season doesn’t stop on Cyber Monday, so developing a promotional plan that maximizes the full holiday season, from pre-Black Friday sales all the way through New Year’s Eve is critical. While the plan doesn’t need to include the significant savings expected by consumers on Black Friday, it is important to determine which specific product or products you want to drive your sales in the upcoming months. Be strategic in what is offered and when, ensuring there is a defined and consistent campaign message throughout this critical sales period.

For example, offer a limited-time deep discount on a popular consumer demand product like general admission over Black Friday weekend, but then pivot to a campaign supporting full-priced memberships for the remaining sales period – highlighting the benefits included and why a membership makes the perfect holiday gift. Generate interest by teasing upcoming sales and offers for guests to get the best deal on their next visit. Successful campaigns have a coordinated approach from all areas of your business, so share your plan with all key stakeholders creating a seamless guest experience.

Create Urgency

Black Friday is driven by the limited time deal, with savings or special offers advertised as available for just a day or even as short as an hour! Creating a similar trigger message elicits a FOMO (fear of missing out) moment for your guests if they don’t take action today, driving them to commit to a visit that could be six or more months away.

Using Galaxy tools such as Effective Date Pricing or Price Schedules, Galaxy can automatically adjust the pricing for the timing of your sales promotion and then return to normal pricing without a cumbersome manual process. If the offering itself ends on a specific date, Sales Calendars can ensure the product is removed easily from your web store without setting your alarm clock for midnight. Consider going the extra mile and using countdown clocks embedded in your web page or targeted email campaigns as a useful way to remind potential purchasers how long they have left to take advantage of a great deal. The premise of time running out often drives a “commit now” decision verses the guest navigating away with a vague intention of returning.

Drive Opportunity Periods

Discounts can cause hesitation from your management team, as they are a delicate balance between creating urgency and maintaining your profit margins. By restricting the validity of a ticket to periods where you have attendance opportunity, the risk of lost revenue is dramatically reduced. An appropriate savings amount leads guest to see increased value during times of the season where you have a reduced product offering or less desirable visitation days, such as weekdays when school is still in session. Creating unique Access Codes for these holiday season products in Galaxy gives you the ability to be more creative with your savings message while maintaining your revenue goals.

Offer Flexible Options

It is important to consider that your target consumer during the holiday season may differ from your target consumer during the core season. While on a normal basis you look to attract those who plan to visit your attraction, during the holiday season you also want to focus on attracting those who buy gifts for your typical guest. This means you may need to make some adjustments to your normal ticketing model.

If you typically encourage visit date selection by your guests, this may be a time to focus on a Good Any Day ticket offer. Many of your holiday purchases will come from gift-givers who may not be a part of the trip planning process or know when the recipient plans to visit your attraction. A gift-giver will appreciate this flexibility be and more likely to purchase. Want to give your purchasers the ultimate flexibility? Consider using Galaxy’s Stored Value module to sell gift cards that can be used by the recipient for the ticket or pass purchase of their choice.

Develop Unique Bundles

Bundling popular products is a great way to create a unique present offering to those shopping for the attraction lover in their family. Have a bundle that you always wanted to try, but wasn’t sure if it was worth the risk? The holiday season is a great time to test the waters on a new and unique offering, like admission with free parking or an all-inclusive package. Since promotions during the holiday season are widely accepted as short term deals, you can gauge response with a smaller sample size to see if it’s a program worth adding to your regular season line-up. Configuration of Packages in Galaxy allows you to increase your per-cap while creating a seamless purchase experience for the guest with a single selection for a high value product. Include things like general admission, event tickets, special items that can be redeemed upon arrival and more.