Raffle-Tickets.us Blog

One easy way to boost ticket sales for your organization’s raffle is to offer a discount on tickets when customers buy them in bulk. Offer 1 ticket for $1, 6 tickets for $5, 12 for $9, etc. The larger the number of tickets sold in a batch, the better the discount should be. You can afford not to make as much on each ticket, because you know you’re selling more tickets and your expenses for the raffle are already set. Printing more tickets costs you next to nothing. People will look at the larger batches of tickets as a better deal, and will also consider they have a better chance of winning the prize. If someone wants to buy an unexpectedly large batch of tickets, offer them a special price.

Another way to increase ticket sales is to offer customers a certain number of free tickets if they sell tickets to others. For instance, if someone sells 10 tickets to friends and family, give them a couple of free ones. This will get you a cheap distribution force as well as increase your sales. Just make sure to assess how many tickets you can afford to give away. An easy way to do this is to go by your bulk discount prices. If someone sells 5 tickets at $1 each, then give them one free ticket. To you, this is the equivalent of selling 6 tickets for $5, just as with the bulk sales.

Whenever you run a raffle its important to set goals for your group.  That way when every one is out selling tickets they have that goal in mind and try to strive to attain it.  It is also important that your goal be realistic.  When determining how much money you want your group to make from a raffle, you have to take into consideration a couple factors.

The first question you have to answer is how many people do you have that will be actively selling tickets?  Also, what are the costs of the raffle that you will have to cover?  Something that helps is to give your sellers a minimum amount of tickets that they have to sell to be able to meet your projected goal.  Then set another amount of tickets they would have to sell to stretch your goal by another thousand dollars or so.  This will inspire your over achievers in the group.

Lastly, you should set two time goals before the your raffle ends.  Pick two dates around the mid-point of your raffle and how many tickets you think should be sold by the group as a whole/each individual by then.  This will help to keep your sellers continually motivated throughout the duration of the raffle.  Goals are good and very beneficial for any raffle.

Raffles in themselves are great.  However, there is Sometimes the hardest part about doing raffles is getting your people who are going to be selling the raffle tickets motivated.  Going door to door or standing outside of a Wal-Mart selling tickets can be awkward for a lot of people.  That awkwardness usually drives them away from the idea of wanting to sell raffle tickets.  Raffle tickets are only as good as their sellers.  Motivation is not an easy trait to stir up when you are the one in charge of multiple sellers who kind of don’t want to sell either.

So the key here is to put some sort of reward system in place for the sellers.  We want them to be selling as many tickets as possible, right?  One of the best ways I’ve found to do that is to bribe them.  Yes, that’s what I said…bribe them.  They need to have a reason bigger than the one they already have to benefit their organization.  I’m not sure why, but sometimes they do.  So on top of having to find prizes to raffle off, you now have to find prizes to reward your sellers.  When it comes to that, here are some good prizes that I’ve found that work well:

• Electronics (like an Ipod shuffle, clock/radio, Ipod speakers, etc)
• Gift Cards (restaurants, department stores, malls, etc)
• Time-off (if fund-raising for a work place)
• Sports Tickets (usually easily to come by if you know someone)

Now I’m sure that there are many more prizes that work well, but in my experience these kinds of prizes usually help to get and keep sellers motivated.  It’s not an easy task, that’s for sure.  Let me be clear though, what really helps your sales with raffle tickets the most is when you can sell your sellers on the idea of helping your organization.  Tell them how this will not only benefit the organization, but benefit them as well.  Sometimes it can be hard for people to see beyond themselves.  It is this kind of selfish mentality that we have to fight against.  Get through to their hearts by really personalizing your fund raising.  Give them a clear vision of what will happen if you are able to earn all the money your organization needs.  Hope this helps.