At Something Dope for the People, the party starts in line. By the time founder Jordan St. Pierre arrives, people are queued up, abuzz with creative energy. They’re playing keyboards, strumming guitars, and socializing — St. Pierre’s even spotted DJs deejaying the line.
“We created a culture where the line is a big part of the event,” says St. Pierre. “People show up very early, and for those people, their experience starts 16 hours before the show.”
Something Dope for the People hosts weekly open mics at venues across Los Angeles — their largest, at The Jewel Room, sold out with 800 people. Determined by raffle, performing in the open mic isn’t guaranteed, and yet attendees arrive with backup dancers and instruments, hopeful they’ll perform their music or poetry to their people.
And these are their people — St. Pierre has attendees come back as many as seven weeks in a row.
For St. Pierre, who thrives on connecting creatives, Something Dope for the People’s cult status has grown as they’ve supercharged their event marketing with Eventbrite marketing tools. And no wonder: Events promoted using our marketing tools get nearly 2.5x more listing views*.
“We use Eventbrite for the discoverability aspect,” says St. Pierre. “And we’re gaining followers. I can’t think of any event that wouldn’t make sense to be using Eventbrite’s marketing tools to communicate with your consumers.”
Something Dope for the People’s music industry mixer drives email open rates three times the industry average
Something Dope for the People uses Eventbrite’s email marketing tools to share event details, announcements, and reminders with past and current registrants. In 2022, they sent more than 30,000 emails, averaging a 63.5% open rate. (According to Mailchimp’s 2022 stats roundup, the average email open rate in the music industry is only 21.88%.)
Zooming in on one campaign tells the story behind Something Dope for the People’s staggering results. On August 27, Something Dope for the People sent a same-day email reminder for an open mic at Hollywood’s The Bourbon Room. The event’s email copy shared that 100 free tickets had been added for the music-industry mixer. With Eventbrite’s email marketing tools, one click adds your event details, photos, and a link to your registration page.
St. Pierre sent the email to 2,307 people. Of the recipients, more than 1,500 opened the email, clocking in at a walloping 67% open rate. Almost 2% of recipients clicked on the email, which ultimately generated 21 ticket purchases, or 9% of all tickets purchased. Overall, this Something Dope for the People open mic generated $723.40 in gross ticket sales.
Email remains a critical marketing tool for St. Pierre, especially when the tool is this powerful. “Our open rates sending an email through Eventbrite are higher than they are from sending from our own domain,” he says. “Do you want to heighten your open rates?”
Smart audience targeting (and quadrupled ticket sales)
What makes Eventbrite’s email marketing tools so effective for creators like St. Pierre? The answer is intelligence — specifically, targeting intelligence. Our tools allow creators to target based on geographic location, interest, age demographics, and even listening preferences on Spotify. Segmenting or sending to your full subscriber list is a snap.
As Something Dope for the People grows, St. Pierre sees that targeting takes his messages the extra mile. ”We don’t invest a crazy amount in marketing, so we need our investment to be the most effective,” he says. “When we do email blasts, we’re doing them through Eventbrite. They don’t go to junk. They’ve already got a ticket, so it’s not in their spam. That email coming from Eventbrite hits differently than it does coming from our website.”
And “hits differently” leads to more ticket sales. After all, events promoted with our Paid Email Marketing campaigns sold on average 4x more tickets**.
Using Eventbrite right off the bat
For St. Pierre, Eventbrite is a must-have for any event creator. “One of the first few steps when you’re doing an event should be making an Eventbrite link,” he says. “I was talking to some people at our event that came from finding it on Eventbrite. They said the page’s aesthetic, the photos, the diversity — it attracted them to be open-minded and check out this place.”
“One of the first few steps when you’re doing an event should be making an Eventbrite link.
– Jordan St. Pierre, Founder, Something Dope for the People
With our email marketing tools in hand, St. Pierre has the confidence to keep expanding Something Dope for the People’s reach. Up next? A West Coast tour.
While on the road, St. Pierre’s excited to check out the latest marketing capabilities: Eventbrite Ads. “I mean, honestly,” he says, “I love just being able to pay to run ads on Eventbrite.”
*Eventbrite data 5/1/2022 – 12/1/2022 comparing events promoted with Eventbrite marketing tools with any event that was not promoted with the same tool.
**Eventbrite data 5/1/2022 – 12/1/2022 comparing events promoted with Eventbrite’s Paid Email Marketing tool with any event that was not promoted with the same tool.
