Memberships allow you to offer hidden tickets to pre-selected contacts. You can let volunteers enter a show for free or give loyal visitors a discount.
A membership grants a contact the ability to buy a specific ticket type when they log in to your ticket shop. This ticket type remains completely hidden from non-member ticket-buyers.
Initial Setup: Creating the Ticket Types
Before you can assign a membership, you need to ensure the correct ticket types exist in your settings.
Go to Settings - Ticketing - Ticket types.
Create a new ticket type.
Choose the appropriate type from the drop-down options:
Select 'Membership' for paid or discounted tickets.
Select 'Guest ticket' for free entry tickets.
Assigning Memberships to Contacts
Once your ticket types are created, you need to link them to your target group or chosen contacts.
Go to Marketing - Contacts.
Search for an existing contact or create a new one.
Navigate to the Membership tab to assign your created ticket type.
Set the timeline: Enter a start and end date for the membership. Note: Visitors can only buy membership-only tickets if the event falls within this specific date range.
Set ticket limits: Indicate how many tickets can be obtained during a given period, per event, or in total. If you leave this blank, there is no ticket limit.
Regenerate QR codes: If you ever need to create a new QR code for a contact, click Regenerate. This instantly invalidates the previous QR code, meaning the contact can no longer enter with the old one.
Putting Membership Tickets Online for an Event
With memberships assigned, you can now offer these tickets for specific events.
Navigate to your event and add the membership ticket type.
Set the price, the available quantity, and the sales start date.
Tick and activate the Online checkbox.
Share the link: Click on 'Get ticket link' on the yellow tab at the top right to get the unique "membership link". When members use this link, they will be prompted to log in first and will then immediately see their exclusive tickets.
Selling Year or Season Tickets
If you want to sell a year or season ticket through the Stager ticket shop, you can do so using a workaround.
Create a single "membership event" that spans the full season or year (giving it a start and end date).
Add tickets for your Membership ticket type to this event and put them on sale.
Important: Add a note to the event information clarifying that the ticket they receive upon purchase is just proof of payment, not the actual membership itself.
Distribute the membership: You must manually grant these buyers their membership status. You can do this by creating an audience via Marketing - Contacts - Audiences.
Add the rule: Tickets > Bought tickets of type > For one or more of > And add the ticket type.
And add the rule: Memberships > Has no active memberships.
Regularly check this audience to see who has bought a ticket for this event but does not yet hold the membership. You can then distribute the membership to these contacts in bulk.
Membership Passes and Door Scanning
As an organizer, you can reward volunteers or loyal visitors with a physical or digital membership card. They can visit selected events simply upon presentation of the pass, without downloading tickets in advance.
Physical passes: You can print the personal barcode on a card and give it to each of your members. Tip: If you convert the barcode into a QR code yourself, test the new code with the Stager scan app before printing it on all new membership cards. Some online tools put a hidden link or additional code in the QR code, which causes scanning errors.
Digital passes: Every member has a personal QR code that they can find by logging into the ticket shop. This is the exact same code as the barcode in the backstage. Members who have forgotten their physical card can easily check in this way.
Scanning at the door
Members can come to an event, without having ordered tickets online. If there is capacity (meaning there are still enough tickets of this type available), you can scan their membership pass at the door.
The Stager scan app will show a pop-up with a photo to confirm the check-in. In the pop-up, you choose the membership you want to use to check someone in. If this pop-up hinders your check-in flow too much, you can disable it via Settings - Ticketing - Ticketing defaults. When disabled, if someone only has one membership card, the barcode is scanned as if it were a regular ticket and no pop-up will appear.
Important note on downloaded tickets vs. scanning: Guest tickets can be "sold" at the door through a member having their barcode scanned. However, this does not work if they have already used the membership to download a ticket in the ticket shop. In that case, they must use the downloaded ticket to enter.
Example: As a volunteer for a venue, you can enter for free at selected concerts and bring 2 friends for free. You would have a membership for 'Volunteer tickets' with a maximum of 3 per event. If you log in online and download your 3 tickets in advance, you must use those tickets to enter. If you only download 1 ticket online, you can let 2 more friends enter at the door using your membership card, provided there is still capacity.
The Ticket-Buyer Experience
When contacts order tickets online, they must first log in using the menu icon in the top left of the ticket shop. Stager recognizes the ticket-buyer by their email address and offers the correct tickets based on their active memberships.
If the contact claims a free Guest ticket and no order fee is set in Settings - Ticketing - Ticketing defaults, the payment window is skipped and the ticket can be downloaded immediately.
The tickets are only visible when:
The ticket buyer is logged in to the ticket shop.
The ticket buyer has the correct membership.
The membership is valid until at least one day after the event for which tickets are purchased.
The maximum number of membership tickets has not yet been reached.
The membership or guest tickets are offered online, in the event.
There are two types of tickets you can assign to a contact - Membership and Guest. You use the membership tickets if the membership holder is allowed to buy tickets earlier, or buy cheaper tickets. You use the membership as a guest ticket if these tickets are always free.
You can also send your contacts a direct login link for tickets for a particular event, or from the ticket shop. In the event, go to 'Share ticket link' and use the membership link.
Tickets downloaded in the ticket shop count as admission tickets. If a personal barcode is used on, for example, a member card, it can be used to gain access to an event. With a membership, Guest tickets can be “sold” at the door; through a member having their barcode scanned. Stager recognizes the membership and these members can be checked in using the app. This does not work if they have already used the membership to download a ticket in the ticket shop. In that case, they must use the downloaded ticket to enter.
Troubleshooting: Why can't a member purchase their tickets?
If a visitor indicates they cannot obtain their tickets online, it is usually because one of the following conditions hasn't been met. The membership download option will only appear if:
The contact has an active membership.
The event falls within the active timeline of the membership.
The member has created an account for your Stager environment.
The member is logged into the ticket shop using the exact email address linked to their membership.
The Membership or Guest tickets are actually offered for the event (ticked and activated Online).
Checklist for resolving issues:
Check the contact: Go to Marketing - Contacts - Choose the contact - Memberships. Is the membership period set correctly? Is the correct ticket type assigned?
Check the event: Go to the event's Tickets tab. Are the ticket types set for the correct sales period? Is the Sales start date correct, and is Online checked?
Check availability: Go to Ticketing - Ticket Management. Is it possible that the maximum number of available tickets for this type has already sold out?
Check the login: Confirm that the person is logged into the ticket shop with the correct email address.