Following chats with the Ticketsolve Community at our 2023 Workshops, we wanted to tell you a little bit more about subdomains, a really awesome feature that we realised some of you hadn't heard about.
And the best way to showcase Ticketsolve features is to show how they’re being used (really well) by members of our Community, which is where Jessica Toomey comes in!
Jessica is Managing Director of the Frog and Bucket Comedy Club in Manchester, and also runs the Women in Comedy Festival (the 2023 edition of which kicks off this Friday!)
Both organisations use Ticketsolve subdomains really effectively to sell their tickets, so Jessica and her team are perfectly positioned to tell you exactly what subdomains are, and how they can be used to the benefit of your organisation.
So let's kick off! What exactly is a subdomain, we hear you ask?
Jessica describes it as “another customer facing website which for us is visually different (in terms of branding and design) than our original website.” Using one Ticketsolve account, Jessica and her team sell tickets for Frog and Bucket year-round, with the Women in Comedy subdomain used to sell tickets for the duration of the Festival, which takes place over 10 days each October. Jessica explains: “Putting shows on sale is the same process, a different show or event tag is all that is needed to change which website the event is listed on. It is super simple.”
You can easily differentiate between subdomains within Ticketsolve. Jess describes how: “Tags used to differentiate our subdomains easily separates festival shows (and not) on the system, which is incredible useful for running separate reports and monitoring ticket sales.”
Ticketsolve community members use subdomains for a variety of reasons, but in the case of Jessica and her team, they wanted to ensure a smooth customer experience. As Jessica explains “each year over the festival period there are more than 60 shows hosted across several venues (including Frog and Bucket). However, during the same dates there are Frog and Bucket
shows that are not part of the festival, so we needed separate websites to clearly differentiate which shows are part of the festival and which are not, as if all were sold on the same domain, it would become overloaded, complicated and confusing for customers.”
Their existing familiarity with Ticketsolve was also a deciding factor: “We decided to use Ticketsolve as we were already familiar with all aspects of the system and let’s face it, the less passwords to remember and browsers tabs to have open the better.”
Subdomains can be quickly and easily set up by Team Ticketsolve - as Jessica describes: “We already had our branding and design confirmed so we sent everything over to Ticketsolve and your team sorted it out for us quickly using the colour scheme and artwork we provided.“ Frog and Bucket and the Women in Comedy festival have distinctive (and awesome) brands, the various aspects of which were all easily incorporated: “We were able to add logos, different backgrounds, change text colour giving each domain a very distinctive look.”
The benefits to using subdomains for Jessica and her team are clear. She says “All tickets are sold in the same box office, it streamlines our systems and reduces staff resources required.” She also mentions the marketing opportunities offered by selling tickets across one CRM: “We are able to take advantage of the vast customer data collected from Frog and Bucket shows throughout the rest of the year. Extracting audiences from similar events gives us the opportunity to market to these customers and boost the festival’s exposure.”
Thank you so much to Jessica and her team for chatting to us!
The Women in Comedy returns for its 10th year to Manchester from 6th-15th October. Head to their website to discover their amazing programme and the great work they do championing and supporting women in comedy.
The Frog and Bucket is an iconic and award winning venue situated in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, hosting established comedians as well as nurturing emerging talent. Check out their website here.
