Event marketers have used tickets for centuries to give their events a special feel of exclusivity and as a way to know who to let in. Tickets are cost-effective attention-grabbers that (done right) can really add spice to your marketing. You can use tickets to fill events, seminars, webinars, teleseminars, even for pre-tradeshow marketing. However, as I’m going to show you in a moment, you don’t necessarily have to be hosting an event to be able to use this attention-grabbing marketing tactic. This means EVERYBODY reading this marketing how-to article, can use this tactic in their marketing.

One such company that used tickets in their marketing was a client of mine who was hosting a local seminar. We came up with the idea of including printed tickets to be sent in a direct mail package to a cold prospect (meaning we bought a list and they were not current clients of my client). We thought we did everything right, but the initial response was only around 1.1%, which we thought was low given the importance of the seminar topic and the fact it was free.

Then I had the idea of sending the package out again, but this time letting them know the tickets were in the envelope by adding a CopyDoodle® on the outside of the envelope. The result was a phenomenal bump in response (to 8.7%) and one of my first CopyDoodles success stories.

Recently, a number of other excellent examples of “ticket marketing” have come across my desk and I thought I would share them here. Probably one of the best examples of using tickets to fill an event (and fill it it did) comes from Mike Crow of Dallas, Texas. At the recent GKIC Info Summit(SM), Mike handed out these great0looking tickets inviting attendees to a special breakfast. They were printed on a high-quality metallic gold paper and they got attention. Notice the effective use of copy cosmetics and good “reason why” copywriting. Nice job Mike and his marketing guy, John!

Speaking of the GKIC Info Summit, GKIC sent out a great looking ticket to help fill that event.

James Malinchak, who spoke at the Info Summit created another great-looking, high-response ticket for his recent bootcamp that had over 600 people in the room.

And finally, to show one more example of using tickets to fill up events, here are the tickets Charlie McDermott and I are using to get business owners to attend our Business and Entrepreneurs Networking meetings (www.benphilly.com). We print these up and hand them out to members to allow them to invite their friends to our next meeting.

But what if you’re not hosting events, can you still use tickets in your marketing? Absolutely and one way to do this, would be to create a graphic that looks like a ticket and use it in your ezines, newsletters, sales letters, HTML emails, web site, etc. The idea is to use the ticket to get attention and get your recipients engaging with your marketing.

This month, I released a Ticket CopyTemplate for my CopyDoodles Access Club Platinum members and it contained a number of ticket templates and special ticket marketing CopyDoodles for our members. One such template was a ticket design just about any business owner could use (as you can see) as an attention-grabber.

So I hope I’ve triggered an idea or two on for you to consider how you can use tickets in your marketing. If you have any other ideas or ways you’ve used tickets in your marketing, leave me a comment below!

In more practical terms, what I mean by “marketing context” is the appropriateness and sensibility of a particular marketing message delivered to a particular target in a particular way.

For example, you should be talking to your current customers/clients/patients differently than you would talk to a cold prospect.  When talking to a customer, the context of your relationship allows you to be more informal and personal because of the existing relationship.

With a prospect, the relationship has yet to be created, so the context of the relationship is one of a “warm-up period” where, over time, you allow them to get to know, like and trust you.  I always use the analogy of dating.  Chances are most people do not ask their spouse to marry them on the first date.  There is a courting period, an engagement period and finally marriage.

Let me share a specific example of marketing context and how it relates to day-to-day marketing.  My friend and mentor, Bill Glazer, often talks about his most successful marketing piece which was a four-page letter on yellow legal paper that appeared to be hand-written.  The piece generated a ton of business and Bill even won an industry award because of its success and uniqueness.

Other marketers see this letter and try to emulate Bill’s success.  In particular, I heard about one story where a marketer basically did the same thing Bill did, but got ZERO RESPONSE.

The reason Bill was successful and this other person was not was because Bill understood the context of how to use the handwritten letter, whereas the other person did not. In Bill’s situation, he sent the letter to people who already knew him and knew what he stood for (including some pretty outrageous marketing).  The context of the relationship was familiarity and a hand-written letter from Bill was congruent with the relationship.

On the other hand, the marketer who copied the letter, sent it to COLD PROSPECTS!  Think about this for a second.  You receive a funky-looking, handwritten letter from somebody you don’t know.  Does this make sense?

Probably not, which is why his response rate was zero.

I teach people how to improve the attention-grabbing power of their marketing by using copy cosmetics.  These are proven techniques to grab attention and keep the reader reading.  In the case of Bill Glazer’s sales letter he used several techniques, including simulated handwriting.

So even though I am a huge fan of copy cosmetics there are times when the marketing context dictates I use only a few copy cosmetic techniques.  For example, when I create a multi-step, lead-generation direct mail sequence, I tend to use only the basic copy cosmetic techniques like underlining, boldfacing, subheads, etc.

However on subsequent steps, I may techniques that convey a more informal approach, such has handwritten notes, because I have already started a relationship with the reader.  Their use is suitable as the reader starts to get to know me.

You should always be considering the context of your marketing message and consider whether or not it makes sense for your target.  Is it appropriate for the current state of your relationship and the situation surrounding it?  Most importantly, remember, the context is from the point of view of your target - NOT YOU!