How to Set Up a Password-Protected Pre-Sale in ThunderTix
Hi, everyone. My name is Maggie, and I’m a member of the ThunderTix customer support team. Today, I’m going to show you how to use password-protected pre-sales.
This feature allows you to reward your most loyal fans, members, or donors with early access to tickets. Whether you’re preparing for a sold-out opening night, launching a new performance series, or promoting a special fundraiser, pre-sales help create urgency, boost early sales, and build a stronger connection with your customers.
I’ll show you how to set up a password-protected pre-sale when creating a new event, edit the settings for an existing event, and preview the experience on your public-facing site.
Start in the Events tab, under Event Manager, and click Create Event. I’ll fill out the basic event information so we can focus on the pre-sale settings. Password-protected pre-sales work with general admission, reserved seating, stadium seating, and other seating configurations.
I’ve entered the event name, performance dates and times, ticket type, event description, picture, and event address. For this example, the event is called Biggles the Musical, named after my cat.
Next, scroll down and click Advanced Date Display Options. This is where you can configure your pre-sale. The first setting is the activation date, which determines when your event goes on sale to the public. By default, it uses the date and time you’re creating the event.
To offer a pre-sale, set the activation date to a future date. For this example, we’ll select the 29th. Once you choose a future date, additional options appear, including the pre-sale announcement.
For the announcement, you can use your event description and add a short message at the top explaining that a pre-sale is available and when public ticket sales begin. Here, I’ve added “Members-only pre-sale” along with the date tickets go on sale.
You can customize the announcement to make it stand out. For example, you can increase the font size, make the text bold, or change its color. I’ll show you those options later.
Displaying a pre-sale announcement can also help generate interest. Visitors may want to know how they can participate or whether becoming a member or donor gives them early access. This gives you an opportunity to promote those benefits before public ticket sales begin.
After creating the announcement, choose when it should appear. We’ll set it to today, but you can select another date before the event’s activation date. Once you’ve configured the announcement, the password-protected pre-sale option appears.
Create the password you’ll share with customers who should have early access. These might be members, donors, or another group you select. Customers will enter this password to purchase tickets before they become available to the general public.
Another setting in Advanced Date Display Options is Public Access to Your Event. If you select Public, visitors can see the event and its pre-sale announcement on your public ticketing site. They won’t be able to purchase tickets without the password, but they can see that a pre-sale is available.
If you don’t want the event to appear on your public site, select Semi-Private. This gives you a direct event link that you can share with selected customers. They can use the link and pre-sale password to purchase tickets while the event remains hidden from your public listing.
Once you’ve chosen your settings, click Finish to create the event.
Now, let’s look at how to update the pre-sale settings for an existing event. Open Biggles the Musical and click Public Display. Scroll down to Customizing the Buy Button, where you’ll find the pre-sale announcement and password settings.
Here, you can review when the announcement goes live and edit its content. You can also make the text larger, bold, or red to draw attention to the pre-sale. These formatting options help customers notice the announcement when they visit your event page.
You can change the password in this section as well. If you do, remember to share the new password with everyone who should have access to the pre-sale.
Next, let’s look at the ticket button. When your event activates and public ticket sales begin, the button normally says “Buy Tickets.” You can customize that wording for your event.
During the pre-sale, the button says “Enter Pre-Sale.” This tells customers that they’re entering an early-access sale intended for a specific group.
Before previewing the event, let’s return to Event Information. When we created this event, we selected Semi-Private. That setting allows invited customers to use a direct link, but it keeps the event off the public ticketing site.
For this demonstration, we’ll change the setting to Public so the event appears on the site. Then, go to Public Display Settings and click View Public Display.
On the public site, you can see Biggles the Musical and the beginning of the pre-sale announcement. Clicking Read More displays the full event description. The event’s button says “Enter Pre-Sale,” while events already available for public purchase display “Buy Tickets.”
Click Enter Pre-Sale to preview the customer experience. The next page displays “Password Required,” along with your pre-sale announcement. Customers can scroll down to the Enter Password field, but they can’t continue to purchase tickets without entering the correct password.
Once we enter the password, we’re taken to the ticket selection screen. From here, customers can purchase their tickets before public sales begin.
There’s one more useful step if you choose Semi-Private access for your pre-sale. When you’re ready to open ticket sales to the public, you’ll need to return to the event settings, switch the event to Public, and remove the pre-sale password.
To help you remember, you can create a task. Go to the top right corner of the screen, click Tasks, and select the green button to create a new task.
We’ll name the task “Turn event back to public” and label it “Biggles the Musical.” Since public ticket sales begin on the 29th, we’ll set the due date to the 29th at 8 a.m. In the description, we’ll enter “Turn event back to public for general public ticket sales.”
You can select a contact method, such as phone or email. I prefer email because it sends a reminder when the task is due. You can also choose a priority. For this task, I’ll select High because making the event public on time is essential for customers to purchase tickets.
Click Create Task to save the reminder. You’ll see it listed in your tasks, helping you remember to update the event when the pre-sale ends.
That concludes this tutorial on password-protected pre-sales in ThunderTix. If you have any additional questions, please contact the ThunderTix customer support team. We’re happy to help.