3 Ways to Make More Money From Your Event

Photo from: mylot.com

In these rough economic times, it's smart for event holders to look for other ways to make more money with their events; selling your tickets is just the beginning. Here are three ways to earn more income from your event.

1. Sell sponsorships. This is the most popular method event holders use for additional income. However, they are also often carried out wrong. Event holders usually go wrong with sponsorships because they don't give prospective sponsors enough detail, in advance, about how they can properly evaluate their results after the event is over. Although it can be difficult for an event sponsor to pinpoint their ROI, whatever method the event holder provides them to measure results will be appreciated. And that can help a sponsor determine if he or she wants to return next year. With that said, it's important for you to describe the benefits of sponsorship when it comes to the visibility sponsors will receive (aka CPM). For example, if you believe that a banner in a venue will be seen by 30 thousand people, let prospective sponsors know that. 
2. Place ads on your event website. A lot of your event promotion will probably be online, and events can create a lot of online traffic. One good reason to create a website for your event is so you can monetize the traffic you may receive before, during and after the event. Obviously, the main point of your event website is to support the event itself, give the necessary information to potential attendees, to give event details, etc. But, you can also easily turn the site into a source of revenue with a few well-placed and carefully-chosen ads; best of all, you'll have little interference to your primary goal. Be sure to work with companies who have products or services to provide that are relevant to your event and likely to be of interest to attendees. You could also put together "online-only" sponsorship packages, which are put together like ad buys and allow you to engage businesses as advertisers who may not have been interested in being sponsors. Don't have energy or time to sell ad space on your event website? Consider contextual advertising like Google Adsense; that makes it simple to show and monetize relevant ads. 
3. Sell merchandise. People love coming home from events with different items. But, a lot of times, those items end up in the trash. A better way to benefit from this desire is to sell before and during the event; this method works particularly well if your event supports a business that already sells items. You can use your event as an opportunity to give prospective customers a better idea of what you offer and encourage them to buy on the spot with discounts or special deals available only at the event. 

Need more tips? Check out 5 ways to make extra money from your event.