Zoom is an exciting new integration with TicketSearch that gives you the opportunity to setup a Zoom webinar/meeting directly via your TicketSearch event/activity. Zoom allows you to host your events/activities online, with the power of reaching a wider audience both domestically and internationally from the convenience of their homes. This gives you more flexibility to provide entertainment in this current climate. The show must go on!
Customers will receive a unique URL in their confirmation email to join the online event after they purchase a ticket. This helps to prevent the sharing of the URL.
TIP: Please ensure you log into your Zoom account, click on ‘Settings’ then scroll down to Webinar Passcode and flick the switch to turn this function off. TicketSearch will send a join URL that is unique and no password will be provided.
How does it work?
Step 1: Firstly, you will need to have an account setup with Zoom at http://zoom.us.
Step 2: Go to marketplace in Zoom and get a JWT app which will generate your API details to connect to TicketSearch.
Go to this address to access your Zoom profile: https://zoom.us/profile
Under plans make sure you select ‘Zoom Video Webinar’.
https://us02web.zoom.us/pricing/webinar
From the menu, click on ‘Advanced’ and then click on ‘App Marketplace’.
Then click on Develop > Build App
Under ‘Choose your app type’, select ‘JWT’. Click ‘Create’. This is to create the authentication.
Once you click ‘Create’, follow the steps to create your app name and details such as basic info and developer contact information. Follow the menu below. The menu option ‘App Credentials’ will have your API details.
If you already have an app created, click ‘View here’.
From ‘App Credentials’, copy your API key and copy your API secret and enter these details into TicketSearch (this process will be explained below).
Step 3: In TicketSearch, go to Settings > Organisation Settings > Step 2: General Settings > Zoom Webinar/Meeting and enter your API Key and API Secret.
Tip: Please ensure that you enter the keys exactly as provided by Zoom, paying particular attention not to leave any spaces.
Step 4: Go to Events > Build & Manage Events and build your event. In step 1, you can decide where the event will be hosted. In this case, you would choose ‘This is an online event’ which will avoid you having to build a venue also. There is also the opportunity for you to host the event online while allowing customers into your venue.
Important: If you have a General Admission capacity where customers will be admitted into your venue and you would like to host this event online as well, select a venue in Step 1 and when building your pricing for the event in Step 3, create two ‘Price Levels’.
In the below example, after clicking ‘+Add Price Level’, you can create a new price level called ‘Watch Online’, ‘Online Viewing’ or anything you like. You must enter a capacity.
In step 3, you’ll have the option to set different ticket types/prices depending on whether it’s viewed online or at the venue.
**Important** – We expect to release mixed price scales for General Admission and Reserved Seating before the end of this year. If you prefer to offer both services, i.e. seated and online, create two events. You can link these events together using our link generator and you can also link them together by adding a link in the description area.
Step 5: Select your delivery option – if this is an online event only, select ‘Email Confirmation Only’ so that the Zoom webinar details will be added to the confirmation email.
Step 6: Still in Step 1 of the event/activity build, scroll down to ‘Options and Add Ons’ and select ‘YES’ to activate Zoom Webinar/Meeting for your event.
Once you click ‘Save & Next’ or ‘Save’, you may see the message shown in the picture below. This message instructs you to turn on Ticket Holder Information to ensure that if a customer purchases more than one ticket, each ticket will be registered with a First Name and Email Address. This is because without this information, if four tickets were purchased, the purchaser would receive one confirmation email with all four unique ‘Join Now’ links to join the Zoom webinar/meeting.
The message that appears is as follows:
Oops, as you have activated Zoom Webinar, if a customer purchases more than one ticket, each link provided to access Zoom will require the ‘First Name’ and ‘Email’ of each Ticket Holder. You must select ‘Yes’ to ‘Do you want to obtain customer details for each ticket holder?’ below and make sure the ‘First Name’ and ‘Email’ fields are selected. If you cannot see the option ‘Do you want to obtain customer details for each ticket holder?’ below, click on Settings > Event/Product Settings > Additional Ticket Holder Information and click ‘Yes’ to ‘Do you want to alter these settings per event?’.
Step 7: Ticket Holder Information. As stated above, First Name and Email must be set as mandatory fields to be collected. If you cannot see the option ‘Do you want to obtain customer details for each ticket holder?’, click on Settings > Event/Product Settings > Additional Ticket Holder Information and click ‘Yes’ to ‘Do you want to alter these settings per event?’. This will then display Ticket Holder Information in your event build.
Step 8: Step 4: On sale date/time –
Select an option below noting that as you’ve activated Zoom for this event, clicking ‘Go Live’ will take you to ‘Step 5: Zoom Webinar’ rather than the ‘Event Summary’ page.
Step 9: Zoom Webinar
There are two options on this page:
Schedule Webinar: Simply select your session/performance and complete your webinar details as required. For multiple sessions/performances, repeat the same process to ensure that each date and time has a unique Zoom Webinar. Click ‘Save’, the page will refresh, select your next session/performance and repeat the process. Click ‘Save And Next’ once complete.
Existing Webinars: This will display any active Zoom Webinars that have already been scheduled. When a customer makes a purchase, they will receive a unique link to join the Zoom Webinar. This will be displayed in their confirmation email and you could also create one or more pre-event Zoom Webinar emails to be sent prior to the session/performance time. For unrestricted access, you can always share the ‘Join URL’.
To setup a Zoom Webinar for a specific date/time, you will need to enter the required information:
Please see below for information regarding each of the fields to setup your Zoom Webinar:
Topic: This is the name of the event/activity that you have entered in step 1. Special characters such as ‘:;-’ etc. will not be accepted. If you add any special characters, you will receive an ‘undefined’ error message when trying to save. The next release will include a specific error message detailing the issue with special characters.
Start Time: This will display the start date/time you have entered in Step 2 of the event/activity build.
Timzone: This will display the timezone of your venue or in the case of an ‘online event’ or ‘to be announced’, the organisation’s timezone. If you are hosting these meetings in different states/provinces, ensure you create a venue to assign the correct timezone.
Duration (minutes): This is the entire duration of the event you are hosting. Enter in minutes.
Agenda: This agenda will populate only to the confirmation email sent by Zoom as description of your event. This will not be included in the confirmation email sent out by your organisation. The limit in this field is 1800 characters, if you exceed this amount you will be met with an error message when trying to save. Currently, you can add more than 1800 characters without the field blocking you – this issue will be rectified in the next release and you will not be able to add more than the 1800 characters in any instance.
Confirmation Email Details
Enter a heading to appear in the confirmation email: Enter any highlighted text about your Zoom Webinar that you want to appear below the name of the event in the confirmation email. This could be something like “Join us for this special online event”.
Tell your customers about the Zoom webinar/Meeting: Enter a general description detailing your Zoom Webinar.
Above: Existing Webinar details are provided. If multiple Zoom webinar/meetings have been created, you will see multiple lines. If there is unrestricted access to join the webinar (i.e. a free event or complimentary viewings), you can use the ‘Join URL’ shown in the above image. This gives access to anyone who has it. In the case of a free event, you might like to include this URL in your pre-event email or in the special notes section of the confirmation email.
Step 10: The Sales Process
To sell a ticket, go to Sales > Standard Sales and follow the sales process. You will notice below that you will need to enter the details for each recipient i.e. 4 tickets for online Zoom access will result in 4 registrations.
REFUNDS & EXCHANGES
When processing a refund or exchange, you will need to use the following process to cancel the customer’s access to the Zoom Webinar. We are currently investigating for the future the possibility of this being an automated process through Zoom’s integration with TicketSearch.
To cancel a customer’s access to a Zoom Webinar after a refund or exchange, you will need to log into your Zoom account online. Go into the relevant webinar, find ‘Manage Attendees’ then click ‘View’ and in the pop-up search and select the customer and click ‘Cancel Registration’. See below images for guidance.
Step 11: Confirmation
Once the order is processed, each recipient will receive details from Zoom with a ‘Click here to Join’ option and a passcode.
The customer will also receive an email from TicketSearch with each recipients’ details including a ‘Join Now’ link.
As stated previously, the ‘Enter a heading to appear in the confirmation email’ and ‘Tell your customers about the zoom webinar/meeting’ will have generated in the confirmation email from the content you entered in Step 5: Zoom Webinar.
***Important step not to be missed*** Add the tag ‘Zoom Webinar Confirmation Details’ to your Confirmation Email
Under Tools & Templates > Email/Letter/SMS Templates > Other Emails > Confirmation Email, click into the template, go to ‘Message Text’ (right-hand side), and scroll down until you find the ‘Zoom Webinar Confirmation Details’ tag. Drop the tag into your desired position to ensure that the Zoom Webinar details are populated to your confirmation email.
For clients that have signed up after Saturday 15th August 2020, this tag has been automatically added. For existing clients, as many have updated their confirmation emails already, adding the tag will cause your confirmation email to revert back to the default, hence the tag must be manually added.
Above: The tag ‘Zoom Webinar Confirmation Details’ has been added underneath ‘Hi First Name’.
Additional Option – Pre-Event Email Notification
Setting a Pre-Event email will allow you to remind your customers they have an upcoming Zoom Webinar/Meeting. You can setup as many alerts as you like e.g. 24 hours and 1 hour before.
Go to Tools & Templates > Email/Letter/SMS Templates > Pre-Event Emails.
Create a new template: If you create a new template, the {Zoom Webinar Confirmation Details} Tag has already been added.
Existing Templates: Simply add the {Zoom Webinar Confirmation Details} tag into your template. You may want to customise the template further to include, for example, “Your online event is just around the corner”. The Zoom join details will be clearly displayed once the customer receives the email.
Clicking on the ‘JOIN NOW’ button
If a customer clicks on the ‘JOIN NOW’ button, they will need to follow the prompts from Zoom, downloading the required software. If the customer clicks the Zoom link early, they will see the below message, stating when the Zoom Webinar will start.
Zoom Conformation Email
As customers also receive an email from Zoom, below is a sample of what they receive.
