Think a great festival website needs to be jaw-droppingly beautiful to capture people鈥檚 interest? Think again. According to usability experts at Nielsen Norman Group, you鈥檝e only before they leave 鈥� and the best way to do that is with clear communication.
For your festival, that means you need a clear and catchy headline and description, as well as engaging visuals.聽Here鈥檚 the basic anatomy of a successful festival website so your team can build one optimised for sales.
Images of the event experience
The human eye processes images in , much faster than it can read. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 critical to use engaging visuals of attendees enjoying your festival featured on your website.
Four ways to improve your photography game:
- Use images of satisfied attendees聽in prominent places on your website
- Use images that capture the first-person perspective of the attendee
- Highlight images of venue and performers further down your web pages
- Invest in a professional event photographer to get high quality images
- If an event photographer is too costly, you can use stock photography when appropriate to save money
Attention-grabbing headlines and descriptions
The secret to crafting headlines and sentences that pique visitors鈥� interest is understanding your event鈥檚 value proposition and being concise with your copy.
Five ways to level up your festival website copy:
- Use bullet points when possible to make it easier for people to scan
- Limit paragraphs to three or four sentences
- Consider using helpful and relevant links in your copy, like FAQs
- Use benefits, not features, in your headlines and descriptions
- Always use active voice (never passive voice)
Date, time, and location of your festival
Once your event website has piqued someone鈥檚 interest, make sure they can scan the page and find out when and where your festival is, as well as how much it costs to attend. The higher up this information is on your homepage, the better.
Two tips for prioritising date and time on your landing page:
- In addition to including the date and time in the header of each page, make sure to repeat these important details again in the footer
- Embed a Google map into your 鈥淎bout鈥� page, which also improves SEO
A call to action that drives ticket sales
Your festival website is a treasure map, and your call to action (CTA) is the giant red 鈥榅鈥� that says 鈥淥ver here!鈥� After an interested event-goer has decided to attend your event, they shouldn鈥檛 have to figure out where to go to buy a ticket.
Three best practices to help site visitors buy tickets:
- Put a CTA button up top on the homepage of your website
- Use active language, like 鈥淕et Tickets鈥�
- Make it pop by using a contrasting colour for the button
Your festival schedule or lineup
People want to know who鈥檚 performing and when. That information can鈥檛 be presented as a boring list, though. Your site visitors will expect an interactive and easy-to-read lineup.
Three ways to take your schedule from boring to exciting:
- Do research to see how your competitors鈥� present that information and what you like (pop-ups that overlay on the webpage are a popular approach right now)
- Gather talent bios and photos as soon as you confirm them, so you have the content.
- Make each description punchy and engaging, whether it鈥檚 the artists performing or activities festival-goers will enjoy (see copy tips above)
List of event sponsors
From big-name festivals to smaller, local events, sponsors can add credibility and extra budget. And, offering sponsors space on your site is another way to help win them over.
How to incorporate sponsors on your website:
- Don鈥檛 just feature sponsor logos on your website鈥檚 home page. Instead, tell visitors why they鈥檙e important partners and how they鈥檒l enhance the experience.
- If you have a blog on your festival website, have sponsors write a guest post that encourages attendees to stop by and meet them in person.聽
Put these tips into action with real examples
Your festival website should be the ultimate salesperson for your event. Find out how to shape it in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Event Websites ebook.
