Each month, we take a moment to celebrate a partner who isn’t just using our tools but is truly shaping the heartbeat of their community. These are the people and organizations who create spaces for connection, support event creators, and strengthen local culture in ways that matter.
This month, we’re excited to shine a light on InsideNoVa. They’ve been a partner with us for seven years now! They’ve managed to leverage a small team into big results for their community. We want you to learn from their experiences.
Founded in 2003, InsideNoVa has grown into Northern Virginia’s go-to news source, covering seven counties through local newspapers, magazines, and digital platforms. Their ticketing platform, InsideNoVaTix, has become a trusted favorite among their community, offering fast and simple ticketing that makes attending local events easier than ever.
InsideNoVa Ticketing Tips Overview:
- Listen to your audience, InsideNoVa launched ticketing after surveys showed “things to do” was a top reader demand.
- Use the data gained from ticketing to boost event goer retention by sending a weekly email newsletter of events to your ticket purchasers.
- Leverage all of your media channels (print, email and social) to promote ticketed events and drive sales.
- Build relationships with local performing arts centers, schools and nonprofits that often have recurring and seasonal events (e.g., haunted trails, tours, equestrian shows) to anchor your ticketing platform.
Benefits from Working with Evvnt
- Easy-to-use platform for both ticketing and publishing print/digital calendars.
- Significant time savings for editors with self-service event submissions.
- Data collection from ticketing allows them to grow their email list to send weekly newsletters.
- Quality customer service experience, no ticketing complaints reported.
- Ability to serve both large venues and nonprofits with a sustainable revenue model.
Behind that success is a team dedicated to keeping their community informed, connected, and entertained. And at the center, Publisher and COO Bruce Potter has an inspiring story to share about what drives their mission.
“InsideNoVa decided to launch the ticketing platform – in conjunction with the online calendar – because we learned through reader surveys many years ago that “looking for things to do” is one of the top reasons that visitors come to our websites. In addition, as the leading news source in the region, we are often approached by event organizers – especially nonprofits – to provide free advertising in exchange for event sponsorships. So the ticketing platform not only meets a reader demand, but it allows us to help promote events while still gaining something in the process.
We’re a small team with many other products, so our biggest challenge with InsideNoVaTix is finding the time and resources to actively pursue new ticketing clients. However, we have several larger clients: a performing arts venue in Manassas that has events nearly every weekend; an arts and cultural center with several large events, including a haunted trail at Halloween; and a historic mansion that uses the platform for its public tours and equestrian events.
One of our biggest assets is our ability to promote ticketed events across all our print and digital platforms. We use the Evvnt print calendar – featuring ticketed events – in our largest weekly newspaper, which reaches 10,000 households. And our calendar editor produces a weekly events email newsletter – also highlighting ticketed events – that goes to nearly 50,000 subscribers every Thursday. We also highlight ticketed events on our Facebook page, which has over 110,000 followers. Media outlets should remember that they have a large audience that trusts them as reliable source of information; leveraging that audience is critical to the success of a ticketing platform.
We also like the ease of use with the Evvnt platform – not only for ticketing but also for producing our print and digital calendars. The self-service functionality has made life easier on our editors, who no longer have to translate email submissions into calendar listings and spend hours creating a print calendar every week. And I don’t remember the last time I had a complaint from a ticket buyer or a ticketing client about the functionality of the platform.”
Here’s to you, InsideNoVa, thank you for helping your community thrive and for being such a great partner to Evvnt!