Begin by determining what type of subscription packages you would like to offer. The subscription works like a gift card and as seats are purchased, the number of seats available using the subscription pass decreases. For example, if you have six performances planned for the season, you could offer a Full Season subscription that includes 6 ticket purchases. You also have the option of creating a la carte subscriptions where you have a base subscription of tickets and additional tickets can be purchased to add to the subscription.

The subscription pass is purchased through a special event page created just for subscriptions. Go to Events > Event Pages and click on +New. Name the subscription event page and provide the email details in the Acknowledgement Info tab. Click Save and Next to proceed.

In the Event Settings tab, the date range usually coincides with the date range of the performance season. Mark “Hide Event Date and Time” Yes. You can set a specific date range when the subscription passes will be available for purchase under Online Sales. If all the performances happen at the same venue, you can enter a location if desired. It is not required.  Complete the Internal Notification section to get a notification when a subscription pass is purchased if desired.

Complete the Financial Information section, being sure to mark “Accepting Subscription” as NO.  This field will be used when setting up the events for the individual performances, not when purchasing the subscription passes.

In the Ticketing section, mark “Ticket Event” to YES and “Use Customized Tickets” to YES. Customized Tickets are how the subscription passes are generated. They will be emailed to the purchaser. All other fields in the section should be marked NO. You can customize the “Ticket Level Caption” to make it clear what is being purchased.

 In the Advanced Settings section, mark “Subscription/Flex Pass Event” to YES. For the field “Generate Same Subscription/Flex Pass” mark YES if you wish for all the subscription pass numbers to be the same for this entire purchase. So, if they purchase multiple passes, they will all have the same subscription number to use when purchasing tickets for the events. If this is marked NO, a unique number will be generated for each pass. This will also require a separate transaction for each ticket purchase, which is cumbersome for the purchaser. It is recommended that this field be marked YES to make it simpler for the purchaser.

Click Save and Next to proceed to the Event Setup. Click on +Add Level to open the window to complete the description and information for each subscription pass. If there are a limited number of these subscriptions, you can enter that in the Qty. Avail. box. Leave blank if it is unlimited. Number of attendees per purchase will be 1.   

Next click on Subscription Info to enter in the number of tickets and discounting to be applied.

If you want to offer unlimited tickets, set Unlimited Tickets Allowed to “YES.” A subscription purchaser will be able to use this subscription to purchase unlimited tickets on any event pages where the subscription level is valid.

If you want a specific number of tickets to be included in the subscription, enter that number in the # of Tickets in Base Subscription box.

Enter the price and if there is a non-refundable fee or tax-deductible amount, you can enter them as well. The price for a specific number of tickets is usually discounted off the regular price of single tickets.

If you prefer to offer an A La Carte option, mark the Include A La Carte Pricing “Yes.”

Making this setting active will then display 4 additional fields. These four fields will allow you to input the setting for how many tickets can be included overall in a subscription package and how much of a discount can be applied to that package. Please see below for the individual field descriptions.

Subscription Ticket Max - Enter the total number of tickets that a purchaser can purchase under this Subscription Level (default tickets + additional tickets).

Regular Price Per Ticket - Enter the standard/regular cost of your individual Event Level Tickets. The entered amount will be used to determine the final cost of the selected Subscription Level in combination with the two Discount % fields below.

Base Discount % - Enter the percent that the standard/regular cost of your Event Level Tickets will be discounted to determine the reduced cost of this default Subscription Level.

Discount % Per Additional Ticket - Enter the additional percentage discount that will be added to the Base Discount of the purchaser's Subscription Level per additional ticket add to the Level above the base number of tickets already included in the default Subscription.

The A La Carte Pricing fields offer two different discount scenarios. Both allow for additional tickets to be added to a package by the purchaser at a discount, but you can choose if the discount will be a flat % regardless of how many tickets are added or you can allow for the discount to increase each time an additional ticket is added.

To keep the discount at a flat percentage you would enter the desired percent for discount into the Base Discount % field and then place a “0” into the Discount % Per Additional Ticket field. This ensures that no additional discount is offered beyond the base.

Example: If you include 4 tickets in the base subscription, each ticket has a regular price of $25 and you are offering a 4% discount for the subscription. The price of the base subscription will be $96, which is 4% off the $100 regular price. If the purchaser adds 2 additional tickets, the discounted price is $144, reflecting the 4% discount off the $150 regular price.

Or, if you wish to offer a greater discount each time the subscriber adds an additional ticket, you can add percentage value into the Discount % Per Additional Ticket field. This percentage will be added to the total discount for ever additional ticket added to the package above the Base number of tickets.

Example: There are 4 tickets in the base subscription, each ticket has a regular price of $25 and you are offering a 4% discount for the base subscription and a 1% discount for each additional ticket. The sale price of the base subscription will be $96, down from $100 with the 4% discount. However, if the purchaser adds 2 additional tickets, the new price is $141, which is a 6% discount off the regular price of $150 (4% base + 1% additional ticket + 1% additional ticket = 6% total discount.)

Once you have completed your Subscription Info, you can upload an image if desired with the Upload Image tab. When finished, be sure to click on Update at the bottom of the window to save your changes.

When you have completed adding subscription levels, click the green Next button at the bottom right of the screen to go to the next step. There is no need to collect Attendee Info in the next section and that can be left as NO. Click Save and Next to proceed to the Style Event Page tab. You can style and edit the event page as desired and click Save and Next to proceed to the Customized Ticket tab.

The most important field on the Custom Ticket is the Ticket Number. This is the merge field that includes the subscription pass number to be used for ticket purchases. Ensure this number is prominently displayed. You may also want to include instructions for using the pass and contact information if the purchaser needs assistance when completing their purchase. Once you have completed setting up the Custom Ticket, click Save and Next to proceed to the Thank You message.

 The default Thank You message includes many fields which are not used for subscription pass purchases. Click on Edit Message to open the Email Editor and make changes as necessary. The center section provides the summary on the levels that were purchased. The center section cannot be edited, but it can be deleted if desired.

Note that Coupons, Subscription Pass Applied, Gift Card Amount, Donation Amount, and Amount Due and Tax-Deductible Amount are generally not applicable.

You may want to provide instructions here about using the pass and let the purchaser known that the actual subscription passes will come under a separate email with the passes attached as pdf files. You can also provide information about how to contact your organization if they need assistance. For more information about editing an email, see the video “Email Editor” and use password DV2017.

When finished editing the Thank You Email, click on Save & Close, then click Save and Next to publish the page. You are now ready to sell subscription passes. If you are using theater seating, refer to the next article “How do I assign subscriptions for seats?” for the next steps.