Eventbrite | Case Study
How Two “Cowgirls” Harnessed Their Love of Horses to Build an Events Business
Stephanie Holdenried and Judith Forrest have always loved horses. But neither of them thought that passion could become their careers — until three years ago on a trail ride, when the women decided to collaborate on a series of new offerings.
Driven by their shared vision of helping people through equine-assisted learning, the duo hosts popular events like “Tapping Into Your Inner Cowgirl,” an equine-guided discovery class for women, and “Girls Utilizing Their Skills,” or GUTS, for girls on the verge of adolescence. They also offer business-focused events such as leadership workshops and team-building exercises.
But turning their vision into reality was a struggle. Enthusiasm alone wasn’t enough to ensure success — especially when Holdenried and Forrest were held back by their old-school ticketing technology.
The challenge: Replace a clunky and inefficient ticketing system
In the beginning, the ticketing and invoicing process for their event business was hit or miss. “People would call or email us to schedule,” says Holdenried. “And on the day of the event, they’d write us a check — it was old-school and backwards.”
Their reliance on outdated methods frustrated attendees and wasted their limited time. Even more importantly, it threatened to slow their growth.
“We wanted to offer a networking event that would have up to 20 participants,” Holdenried recalls. “And that’s when we knew our clumsy process wasn’t going to work anymore.” The duo needed a partner that could bring order and efficiency to their ticketing and scheduling processes.
When in search for a ticketing solution, Forrest remembered that she often used Eventbrite to sign up for other events she’d attended. “Eventbrite was a natural choice,” she says. “The fact that they work for so many great companies let me know that I could trust them.”
The immediate return on their investment was peace of mind and more time in their day. “There’s no more back and forth with customers,” says Forrest. “When someone registers for an event, they get an immediate confirmation from us.”
“When people register for one of our events they get an immediate confirmation from us. There’s no more back and forth, and that saves a huge amount of time.”
– Judith Forrest, co-founder of Perspective2
Saving time with a simpler ticketing process
With Eventbrite, the co-founders now have more time to spend with their customers — and horses.
“I am hardly a tech whiz,” Forrest admits. “So I was delighted to find out how easy it was to set up our events on Eventbrite.” If they have the details of their event ready, she and Holdenried can set up their events in 30 minutes or less.
“You can’t put a dollar tag on your time when you’re running a business. The help from Eventbrite reduces our workload and more than pays for itself.”
– Stephanie Holdenried, co-founder of Equine Encounters
The technology also took the pain out of other difficult, time-consuming chores related to their event business.
“Our workshops are outdoors and have to be canceled when the weather doesn’t cooperate,” Forrest says. Before using Eventbrite, this was a logistical nightmare. People from different companies often registered for the same workshop, meaning her and Holdenried had to drop what they were doing, notify each attendee individually, and return their checks. “This process is much more streamlined on Eventbrite,” she says.
As demand for their workshops grew, the mighty team of two were able to set up repeating events effortlessly. All they had to do is update their event template and start selling tickets.
Improving the customer experience
Forrest and Holdenried aren’t the only ones who have benefited from their move to Eventbrite. “Attendees have told me that signing up and scheduling takes only about five minutes, a huge improvement,” Holdenried says.
In addition to the automated confirmation email, attendees also receive a reminder email 48 hours before their scheduled workshop — all with no extra effort on the part of the creators. These small details — along with the high quality of the events — have garnered great feedback from satisfied customers.
“Our equine assisted learning events rely on personal contact,” Forrest adds. “With Eventbrite’s software integrations, we can more easily reach out to potential customers and enable our most satisfied ones to spread a positive message about the events Stephanie and I have worked so hard to build.”
Growing their business with strategic promotions
With Eventbrite, Holdenried and Forrest know more about their customers than ever before. As customers register for an event, their contact information, demographic profiles, and information on how they learned about their events are automatically collected in the Eventbrite platform.
“We have a niche offering that a lot of people would like if they know about it,” Holdenried says. “And with this data at our fingertips, we can better understand who they are and where to find them.”
Using this data, they can create more personalized, targeted promotions. Eventbrite syncs automatically with their email marketing and marketing automation platforms — saving even more time for the creators as they launch new promotional campaigns.
As their attendee experience has improved, they’ve has also used their past attendees’ recommendations as a strategic advantage. “Thanks to the insights and analytics Eventbrite provides us, we can more easily encourage our loyal customers to be advocates,” Forrest says. “Favorable word-of-mouth drives attendance.”
A true partnership that yields great results
“Our use of Eventbrite has grown over the last three years from one-off events to a portfolio of equine-assisted workshops,” Holdenried says. “The platform removes large barriers to our growth and success.”
“Our use of Eventbrite has grown over the last three years from one-off events to a portfolio of equine-assisted workshops. Their platform simply removes a large barrier to our growth and success.”
– Stephanie Holdenried, co-founder of Equine Encounters
Eventbrite has become a trusted partner, not only for the excellence of its technology, but for the attitude of its personnel. “When we have meetings with Eventbrite to discuss our future, we see a lot of people taking notes. So we know they are paying attention.”
Because so much of their business is generated by personal referrals from satisfied customers, the co-founders plan to leverage Eventbrite’s social media integrations and explore more capabilities they’ve underutilized.
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