Image-ine the Possibilities

by ticketprinting on May 16, 2012

Upload Your Own Images to Create Fabulous Raffle Tickets

Which would you prefer to buy: drab raffle tickets that are a bore to look at, or colourful, unique raffle tickets that include logos or pictures? It’s not hard to answer that question, because human nature prefers that which is appealing to the eye.

Put yourself in the average ticket buyer’s shoes. You can’t quite expect everyone to instantly want to buy your raffle tickets just because you’re selling them. You shouldn’t even expect them to buy simply because the cause you’re supporting is important (which it surely is), or even because your prizes are desirable (which they ought to be).

Expect the Unexpected

What you can expect from raffle ticket buyers isn’t rocket science. It’s simple, really. Ticket buyers want the most for their money. The best deal they can get.

So give them what they truly want. Print raffle tickets that are so attractive, even the losing tickets won’t end up in the bin. If you add the right pictures and colours to the mix, your tickets will serve as keepsakes.

Logos and Pictures are Lovely

Have you a fantastic sponsor? A grand prize that’s just to die for? Well, you’re in luck, because you can upload your very own image right onto a raffle ticket templates. Every ticket is printed full colour and full bleed, which is sure to brighten even the dingiest of days.

Combine the best of your efforts. Print beautiful, reasonably priced, high quality raffle tickets, and upload any image that you like. The best part: do it all online, with the ease of a few clicks!

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

Don’t be a bother trying to come up with new ideas for which images to upload onto your raffle tickets. One of the primary reasons people will be buying your tickets is to win a prize. Take advantage of this fact. Upload a clear snapshot of the most coveted prize right onto your raffle ticket.

If your head sponsor is popular with the masses, be clever. Upload their logo onto your raffle ticket, and ride on their coattails for a bit (at least until you get the word out there). Once you’ve spread the word to a few people, especially if there’s a big time, well-known sponsor backing your raffle, they will tell their mates, their mates will tell their mates, and you’ll be off to a roaring start.

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The Long Draw: Your School Raffle Part I

by ticketprinting on April 8, 2011

Educational fundraising is an uphill battle: when your school needs money for extras (or even for essentials, when times are hard) and you must turn to the community for additional funding, generating interest and maintaining it over the long term requires a lot of forethought.

Long-term prize draws for nonprofit organisations such as your school can be fun, but they require a lot of hard work. Start planning in advance and make a success of the occasion. Choosing the appropriate prizes, proper sales strategies, and turning the final draw into an exciting event can all translate into success.

First, know your supporters. To whom will you be selling raffle tickets, and for what prize are they most likely to open their wallets? Ask around, or use an Internet quiz feature like Facebook Questions to get the best intelligence. Your draw will be a bigger success if people are excited about your prizes.

Next, prepare your sales force. Consider a separate prize draw for students who sell the most tickets, or else offer them their own tickets for a student raffle based on the number of tickets they sell. Get them excited to start selling, and teach them the fundamentals of sales. Be sure to teach them how to be safe as well as how to be polite and be good salespeople.

Then, set a date for the big draw. If you can incorporate it into a larger event such as a carnival, performances, or dance, you can increase interest and continue selling raffle tickets right up to the moment of the prize draw.

Once you know what prizes will be offered, how much they will sell for, and when the draw will take place, it’s time to print those raffle tickets. Choose an appropriate design online, fill out the ticket template, and print those tickets. They’ll be shipped to you so you can get your kids to start selling.

Next week: The big sales drive

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Eyes on the Prize

by ticketprinting on March 28, 2011

Educational Fundraising Success

Selling Raffle Tickets to support your local school is perhaps the simplest way to help earn more money for education. You need not organise food, drink, and entertainment, as you must for some charitable events, and no one need sort and delivery boxes of biscuits, candies, or other popular fundraising sales items. I might point out that such fundraisers also mean that a large percentage of your money goes to the organisation that sells the biscuits and candies to your school, whereas all prize draw profits stay at the academic institution.

The key to successful school prize draws is to motivate the salespeople: that is to say, your children. Small children may not be able to visualize the outcome of a successful draw. Perhaps they don’t understand why you need the money, or the long-term benefits they will receive. But they can certainly visualize winning a prize on their own.

You may choose to offer a large prize to the top salesperson, but an even better way to motivate them is to instead set up a second raffle for the kids, but they cannot buy tickets to this draw. Instead, they must earn those tickets. For instance, for every ten pounds of money they raise, they earn one ticket for a prize draw to win something they really want: such as an iPod or a new bicycle. Take a survey and determine what prize will best motivate them, and then watch them start selling!

Here’s a new tip for earning more money: the “fill in service.” If supporters buy a large amount of tickets, your students can fill in their names and contact information on the tickets for them. Make it a number worth your time: say, twenty-five pounds. You’ll be surprise how many people will buy more tickets to earn this free service!

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Every Step You Take

by ticketprinting on March 22, 2011

Ready to print your own raffle tickets? If you’re uncertain, the advent of filling out your raffle ticket template is the perfect opportunity to determine whether or not you have taken care of the necessary details. An online ticket template, which prompts you to fill in all the required details, can help you identify any missing information.

Finding the prizes is your first step. Since you must identify the three largest prizes in your draw directly on the raffle ticket, it’s best to take care of this issue prior to considering the other details. What can you offer? The more attractive the prize, the more raffle tickets you can sell.

You must also identify the time and place of the actual prize draw. Don’t have this information? Figure it out immediately! If you do not already have a venue in mind, perhaps you can make a deal with someone who does have a space (such as a the owner of your local pub) and would appreciate the extra business your crown might draw. Choose a time and place.

How about prices? Typically, you’ll want to sell your raffle tickets for one or two pounds. Work out the sums: how many tickets will you need to sell at various prices to reach your sales goal.

Finally, if your raffle is to require a licence, go get it! This information must be printed on the body of the ticket, so you’ll need the licence number prior to ticket printing.

Review the information. If you’ve filled in all the blanks and it all makes sense, then you’re ready to print your own raffle tickets online and start selling!

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Utterly Sweet

by ticketprinting on February 7, 2011

With Valentine’s Day approaching, it’s time to consider the sweetest prizes money can buy (or your supporters can donate). Standby favourites include:

  • Chocolates
  • Flowers
  • Spa day
  • Holiday getaway
  • Massages

For an orthodox approach to Valentine’s themed fundraising, pair these prizes with a romantic raffle ticket, which you can print online and receive in just a few days.

How about an unorthodox approach? The prizes above work well for most groups, but perhaps you wish to try something a little different. Consider ways in which you could make your supporters’ lives more comfortable, or provide them an extra avenue for romance. Busy, two-parent families, for instance, might have difficultly redeeming those massages or sensual holiday getaways, for lack of time or childcare!

What can you do for them? What about:

  • Gift Certificate for free childcare
  • Catered dinner in their home
  • Free house cleaning

Consider the reality of your supporters’ lives? What is most likely to make them feel loved and happy? If you can’t guess, why not ask? You may be surprised to find what people are willing to pay for.

Once you’ve settled on the perfect Valentine’s themed prizes, select a romantic, Valentine themed Raffle Ticket. Printing your tickets online helps save time and money so you can start selling your tickets more quickly.

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A Qualified Success

by ticketprinting on January 14, 2011

You may recall, some weeks back, a post about a prize draw where raffle tickets could not be purchased, but rather were rewarded for each instance of an online activity benefiting the sponsoring organisation. Recently, I participated in such a raffle, earning four virtual raffle tickets.

The prize? A free professional massage!

Yes, I wanted to win this very badly.

One of the nice things about this sort of draw is that the odds are very, very good. I was able to increase my odds by taking action to receive the maximum number of raffle tickets. And my efforts paid off. For the second time since I became your fabulous ticket girl, I won!

If only I had scheduled my massage a few days earlier. Little did I know that the therapist would cancel on me at the last minute, having contracted a disease that left him unable to stand for any period of time :(

However, the sponsoring organisation made a complete success of their raffle, garnering a great deal of free publicity. In this case, every raffle ticket represented, essentially, a free advertisement, written by customers, extolling their virtues! This type of prize draw is a winning situation for everyone!

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A Proper Number of Prize Draws

by ticketprinting on January 8, 2011

Time is of the essence.

Your fundraising needs may be extensive, and your schedule is important, but you must keep in mind the needs of your donors as well. If you intend to sell Raffle Tickets for multiple prize draws in 2011, it is in your best interest to stagger them out.

Our experienced correspondents note that constant requests for money, particularly in a sluggish economy, can be irksome for your supporters. You may need it quiet badly, but remember that your fans are also experiencing the economic downturn. If they are good enough to give money a few times a year, the last thing you want to do is alienate them with repeated solicitations that seem endless.

Instead, schedule your prize draws so that you are selling Raffle Tickets at particular times when you are most likely to have success. A big raffle at the end of the year is a good idea, as is one that corresponds with a large event you hold annually. If you hold too many raffle, however, you may trigger a compassionate burnout, where followers begin to resent your request. Rather than continual, small draws, combine your funds or your prizes to hold a few larger draws at fortuitous times throughout the year.

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Bundled Raffle Tickets: Make a Bundle

by ticketprinting on November 27, 2010

As the Christmas fundraising season hastens, we continue to advise you regarding the best ways to maximize your earning power and raise more money for charity than you’ve ever raised in the past. Foremost amongst the top tips for Raffle Ticket sales suggested by our professional correspondents is to have ones tickets stapled into booklets of 5 tickets each. If you print your own Raffle Tickets online, this should be a standard option, and adds very little to the cost of your order.

To what advantage? Stapled ticket booklets help make your prize draw a financial success by encouraging donors to purchase multiple tickets, rather than a single Raffle Ticket: one step toward multiplying your profits by 5! It’s simply a matter of convenience for you and for your supporters. Stapled booklets are simple to sell. You can encourage multiple sales by pricing tickets appropriately, and ensuring that the price of 5 tickets is an even number. Sell 1 ticket for 2 pounds and 5 for 10 and watch your profits soar!

Keep checking this blog as the winter progresses for more expert advice from fundraisers who have traveled this road before and know the best route to take.

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The Two-Edged Sword

by ticketprinting on October 25, 2010

Of course, you expect your prize draw to earn money for your organisation, but you need not limit yourself to the money you earn selling Raffle Tickets. Consider these facts. Your supporters:

  • Use social media platforms to connect with like-minded individual and learn about their world
  • Are more trusting of their peers’ opinions than of paid advertisement
  • Prefer to purchase goods and services after reading positive consumer reviews

It’s clear, then, that great modern business require great modern feedback. If your supporters or customers can’t be bothered to write a few lines about you on a website that appraises your sort of organisation, you’re far less likely to attract new customers. Instead of selling Raffle Tickets, why not use the promise of a coveted prize from your business to drum up those positive reviews. Chances are, you can circumvent some our those pesky gaming laws while you’re at it.

Simply select those websites where you feel you should make an impression (e.g. Google Places or FourSquare) and then let customers know that they will receive a free virtual Raffle Ticket for each site on which they write a positive review. With very little expense, you’ve created the best possible sales pitch. And, unlike traditional advertising, this feedback has staying power. Most sites will reveal how many reviews you’ve received and what your average rating is. That makes it simple for potential customers to judge whether or not they wish to do business with you!

Another bonus: social media feedback is a two-edged sword. If you’ve received negative reviews in the past, an influx of positive reviews can hide the bad ones and raise your overall ranking.

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Fertile Dreams

by ticketprinting on September 21, 2010

Back in March, I reported on the human egg raffle, wherein one lucky UK couple won a human egg, along with IVF services, to be provided in the US (as UK law prohibited such a prize draw). Controversial or not, apparently, the Bridge Center were not the only organisation to realize how profitable such a raffle might be.

From the States, a similar circumstance, without the donated human genetic material. Dr. Mark Trolice, an infertility specialist, started the charity Fertile Dreams to help those who, like his own wife, have difficulty conceiving. Every year, they sell raffle tickets to raise funds for the organisation, with the grand prize being a full round of in vitro fertilization treatment. The group also encourages infertile couples to consider adoption, as Dr. Trolice and his wife have, completing their family with 5 children!

Last year’s raffle winners, Niki and Fred Trusty, won big. They had already decided, after many years of failing to conceive, to give IVF a try, and attended Fertile Dreams’ annual conference, Paths to Parenthood. Hearing of the prize draw, Fred calculated the odds and the couple decided to take a chance—20 chances, actually. The purchased 20 Raffle Tickets, spending $500 (about £320) and won the treatment. Doctors harvested 18 of Niki’s eggs, one of which eventually became her son, Harrison, now 6 months old. She calls him her miracle baby.

Planning your own prize draw? No, you can’t raffle off your own children, but you can think about what your group has to offer, and what your supporters likely desire. Like the Trusty’s investment, the price of your Raffle Ticket may seem small compared to the value of winning that top prize!

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