Running a club means doing a lot at once. You might be hosting a techno night on Friday, a disco revival on Saturday, and a live act on Sunday. With such a varied calendar, building a consistent and loyal crowd can be challenging, especially when your audience changes from one night to the next.
That’s why having a smart, adaptable ticketing strategy matters. Whether you work with resident promoters, switch genres weekly, or run everything in-house, the right tools and approach help you sell more tickets, gain a better understanding of your visitors, and strengthen your connection with returning guests. This guide is designed to help you do just that, based on the data, best practices, and what’s working right now for clubs like yours.
Summary
Understanding and growing your audience
1. Identify the specific characteristics of your audience
Club audiences are often smaller, more niche, and more frequent than those at festivals. That makes your returning visitors one of your most significant assets. If you can get 15% or more of your guests to return regularly, you’re on the right track.
In a club setting, your crowd isn’t just one group of people: it shifts constantly based on the night, the music, and the promoter. That’s why understanding your audience starts with knowing who is buying tickets for what kind of event. Are most of your visitors new to the venue? Are they returning regularly? Are they here for the artist, the vibe, the genre, or the location?
Your most loyal visitors probably don’t belong to a single group. Chances are, they represent different music scenes and subcultures that revolve around specific genres. That means your community is actually comprised of multiple micro-communities, and the more you understand about each of them, the better you can tailor your communication, timing, and ticketing strategy.
2. Collect the right information about your visitors
Collecting information about your visitors is essential for building an effective growth strategy for any club or venue. But what information should you gather, and how?
Typically, when ticket buyers complete their order, the person making the purchase only enters their own contact details before proceeding to payment. Since most orders include 2 or more tickets, and the checkout process only asks for details from the buyer, you end up losing almost 50% of your data.
This is why we recommend modifying your form questions after the purchase in the customer area, allowing you to collect additional information from all participants, not just the person who places the order. By updating these questions afterwards, you can request more details from each visitor, enriching your database in both volume and relevance.
Instead of overloading the checkout process, and risking a drop in conversions, you can keep the purchase journey smooth and simple, then invite participants to complete or update their information later on. By modifying your form questions retrospectively, you can tailor the information you gather to your current needs and ensure you are collecting the insights that matter most.
With these customised questions, you can ask things like “Who is your favourite artist?” or “Which genres would you like to hear more of?” and use those answers to shape your future programming and communications. You can then segment your audience according to their music tastes, preferences, or typical attendance patterns.
We recommend adding the following fields when modifying your form questions after the purchase:
We advise adding the following fields in Late Personalisation:
- Age
- Gender
- City
- Detailed and niche music genre preferences, including techno, hard techno, house, hard house, EDM, etc.
- Favourite artist
3. Build and nurture your community
OK, so you are gathering data on all your visitors. But loyalty doesn’t just happen; it takes effort. A good community strategy means more people returning and more people bringing friends. Here’s how to build that loyalty over time:
- Communicate regularly. Keep past guests informed through newsletters and targeted social media posts.
- Use your CRM wisely. Categorise your genres and audience segments correctly, so you know who to target with each message.
- Show that you know your crowd. Personalised messages based on what they’ve bought before go a long way.
- User-generated content is another powerful driver of community. Encourage your audience to share their experiences, tag your venue, or participate in challenges and giveaways. These organic moments build visibility, trust, and social proof.
4. Use an event-focused CRM to automate your communication
Data is your best friend. Look at where your ticket buyers come from, which genres they prefer, and which events attract the most repeat visitors. Adjust your strategy accordingly. For example:
- If a large percentage of buyers comes from a specific city or area, focus on outdoor advertising or local social media efforts in that area.
- If a particular night or genre consistently attracts more guests, allocate it more space in your programming and increase its visibility in the shop.
5. Leverage your data to shape your strategy
According to this report, several significant trends are emerging that could influence your strategy:
- The average age of club attendees has increased from 25 to 27 since 2021.
- Younger audiences are no longer waiting to buy late, but instead are moving toward earlier, lower-cost ticket options.
- For clubs, the average ticket purchase window increased very slightly from 40 to 42 days before the event.
- The top 25% of clubs retained at least 15% of their audience across events.
Manage your ticket phases for maximum impact
Determine the best timing for your ticket releases
Most club nights only use two ticket types: Early Bird and Regular. That’s usually enough. Just be sure to go live early enough. Unlike festivals, which often launch ticket sales far in advance, club events tend to be short-cycle events.
In our experience, 3 months ahead is the sweet spot for most clubs and venues. If you wait too long, you miss out on both the early buyers and the word-of-mouth buzz that early buyers help bring along. Early buyers tend to be your mini-ambassadors, so give them a good reason to commit.
Consider incentivising your early birds, either by (significantly) discounting early bird ticket prices and/or offering a free drink. It’s a small gesture that pays off in extra guests and loyalty.
Structure your collaborations with promoters
Coordinate promoters and ambassadors efficiently
For many clubs, working with promoters is essential. Most clubs work with two types of partners: external promoters, who run their own marketing, and resident promoters or local ambassadors, who assist with outreach and street sales.
1. External promoters
Whether it’s a one-off or a recurring series, external promoters often bring their own audiences, brand, and communication channels. The best setup? One event, 2 shops. You can easily create a separate shop for the promoter, even under a different account. This way, each party drives traffic to their own link, manages their own campaign, and gets complete visibility into their own sales.
An overview across accounts
Clubs and promoters can sell tickets under separate accounts, but they can still list them together in a single ticket shop. This flexibility keeps your backend organised while offering fans a smooth experience.
Other options are available thanks to these integrations:
- With Linkie, for instance, you can create and share temporary links with a live overview of your event sales.
- You can also use WeezAcess to provide insight into selected ticket types and who has checked in at the event without the ability to export the data.
Shared accounts
Perhaps the best way to approach a partnership with a promoter is to create a separate account within the WeezTicket dashboard. This split means both parties can manage the events, set up shops, sell tickets and view insights with ease. You can then assign ‘admin’ and ‘view-only’ accounts to the relevant team members on each side. One of the biggest pros of this approach is that you can set up the payouts according to the agreements between the parties.
2. Collaborating with residents or ambassadors
If you work with resident hosts, influencers or ‘proppers’, you’ll want to focus on tracking performance per person. Assign each of them their own tracking link in the dashboard. This lets you see who’s pulling in ticket buyers, which is ideal for reward-based promo systems or recurring guests.
Selling tickets for club nights successfully means thinking ahead, knowing your audience, and making every interaction count. Start your sales early to make the most of Early Bird momentum, and use your data to communicate effectively and efficiently. With WeezTicket, you’ve got the tools to keep the dance floor full, night after night.
One thing we know for sure: no two clubs are alike. Keep testing what works for your audience. Try minor tweaks, such as adding a loyalty programme, enabling promoblocks in the shop, or offering merchandise or add-ons like lockers, drinks, or after-party tickets.
