Ticket Ballot

Finally got to use the system to run a ticket ballot. Everything went according to plan!

It's a nice combination of lots of small bits of already existing functionality that come together to be more than the sum of their parts.

Firstly, we create a Marketing List signup, that allows people to join a specific marketing list. This functionality was motivated by Waiting Lists - and general enquiry forms - but also works for this, for no extra development effort.

So we make the signup available, and the (lots) of people sign up to the list, creating accounts with passwords, addresses, etc, and using the existing Custom Form functionality to supply additional details.

We give them time to sign up - and then we close the ballot.

Next, we dedupe the list of signups - by name, email address, postal address, and additional id info - using existing functionality, so people with multiple email accounts don't get multiple chances.

Then, we copy the signup list, and use the existing "Random Filter" marketing tool to draw N names from the signup. We then use the existing "Add User Status" marketing tool to give these people a "Ballot Winner" membership status for the next day... and then extract the names and send them an email informing them that they've won the chance to buy a ticket. The ticket product, of course, is on sale only to people with the "Ballot Winner" status, so those people can buy tickets and no one else can.

At the end of that period, if there are any unsold tickets, we draw more names, and repeat the process - copy the signup list, remove the people who won in round 1, and then filter down again.


What I've learned from this first go is:
1. The click through rate is surprisingly low, and if you have enough tickets for N orders, and you only draw N names, you'll need to do several rounds.

2. Rather than insisting that everyone who wins the ballot gets a chance to buy a ticket, it might be more efficient - especially if time is limited - to draw 2N names, and change the communication so that it's clear that they aren't *guaranteed* a ticket - there's still competition, it's just much more civilized, with 2N people after 2N tickets, rather than 1000N people after N ticket.

3. It's much, much calmer than throwing a few tickets on sale and hoping that the servers don't melt.