SimpleTix
for Content Workshop
SimpleTix came to Content Workshop with a need to stand up to big names like Eventbrite and Ticketmaster and stand out from other newcomers.
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So what makes SimpleTix better? It's in the name. SimpleTix's creator constantly gathers feedback from customers and builds features that solve their problems. SimpleTix forged deep integrations with the payment processors and other technologies crucial to organizing an event. Not to mention, the platform's per-ticket price stands as one of the best in the industry.
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However, SimpleTix lacked a foundational content strategy that could capture low-hanging opportunities and evolve as SimpleTix gained market share.
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We worked with SimpleTix to define its audience personas, zero-in on key SEO phrases, and build a content calendar to drive organic traffic to the SimpleTix site.
Identifying the Targets
Persona Targets
SimpleTix's audience is quite broad — anyone who sells a ticket to anything, whether they're a newbie organizer throwing a local art crawl for the first time, a full-time event planner orchestrating a massive music festival, or the proprietor of a zoo.
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Too often, personas are determined by demographics like age, race, and shopping preferences. In reality, personas should be driven by common pain points and habits around using similar tools.
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We distilled SimpleTix's personas down into two types of users:
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Organizers throwing a one-time event.
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Organizers running an continuous, ongoing attraction.
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For each persona, SimpleTix's features offers a different value. For a festival organizer, SimpleTix's scan-on-demand mobile tickets keep lines moving at the gate and improve the festival-goer experience. For the manager of a botanical garden, mobile tickets let them operate with fewer staff members.
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Establishing these different value sets greatly informed our content ideation and messaging.
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I conducted discovery and completed persona profiles and message mapping for SimpleTix's personas. Sorry, but this info is proprietary, so I can't show you the fully drafted documents.
Betting Big on Organic
SEO Strategy
When you delve into keyword research, you never know what you'll find.
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SimpleTix's keyword opportunities were either extremely long-tail and low traffic or overly broad and top-funnel. However, we arrived at a set of keyphrase targets that held immense promise. We ideated and published blogs aggressively for a year, raising nearly every phrase from unranked to the front page — even phrases with competition in the high 90's.
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SimpleTix's investment paid off. It took around six months, but once SimpleTix's organic traffic began gathering steam, phrase ranking improved by leaps and bounds.
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I conducted keyword research and translated that research into a content calendar. I also managed the production of blog content by a roster of freelance writers and designers.
The Challenge of Seasonality
Content Ideation & Calendar
While SimpleTix's persona targets turned out to be fairly simple, the industries these personas work in almost universally follow a seasonal calendar. Often, they planned their activities months before they took place. To get in front of them at a point when they could consider, purchase, and implement a new ticketing tool, we needed to serve them content well in advance.
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To map out this strategy, we parsed several months of SimpleTix data to draw correlations between page creations and event types. From there, we worked backwards to determine the perfect moment to create content aligning to specific holidays, seasons, and industry trends.
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I worked closely with SimpleTix's data to create this calendar from scratch and use it as a compass for content planning and ideation. Again, this is proprietary, so I can't show you the full version.
A Better Online Experience
Full Website Planning & Rebuild
SimpleTix grew organic traffic and added new features at a break-neck pace.
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In 2022, SimpleTix's website needed a revamp. SimpleTix takes a more practical view of branding than most. They wanted their new website to work, so their focus fell much more heavily on messaging than aesthetics.
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With all of SimpleTix's new features, I built a page hierarchy that grouped them by function, advantage, or which part of the ticketing process they impacted. Topline messaging encapsulated the benefit or pain point solved by the feature, ensuring the visitor didn't get lost in the technical tedium of SimpleTix's myriad functionalities.
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I wireframed page templates for the new SimpleTix site, drafted all copy and messaging, and helped guide design. Click any image above to view the live site.
Keeping It Simple
SimpleTix is focused on keeping ticketing simple, forging strategic partnerships with heavy hitters like Square and MailChimp.
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We'll continue to work closely with SimpleTix to pick the right path moving forward and use content to achieve measurable business outcomes.