How Effective Form Headers Increase Registration Count

Have you ever gone to a website and had a difficult time finding what you're looking for, so you end up leaving? The same thing can happen with your registration form. The first thing people see when they land on your registration form is the top of the page. So you’ll want to make a great first impression and provide all necessary information for them to complete their registration.

So, what makes a good header? There are many things you can include in your header to make it more informative and appealing. Over the years we have seen a lot of headers, so we know what works, and have compiled some suggestions on things to be aware of when creating your registration form headers.

1. Attention grabbing - Try to incorporate your logo and any graphical elements that keep in line with your website, or conference branding. Your registrants will recognize your brand and be more inclined to complete registration.
   


2. Opportunity to sell your event - Point out some highlights of your event. Perhaps a well-known speaker is coming, or you're offering a free off-site event. These are all things that entice your registrants and should be clearly outlined so they don’t miss out.
   


3. Include basic details - Make sure the header answers the 5 W's - who, what, when, where & why.
   


4. Avoid excessive details - Too much information can scare people away, remember, your goal is to have the user register. Try to hit a balance between informative and quick to read. You'll also want to avoid including so much information that your registration form is pushed below the fold (the part of any web page that is shown in your browser before you need to scroll).
   


5. Avoid linking away from the form - If you need to include links to outside materials, try to set the link up to 'open in a new window'. This way, the registrant does not navigate 100% away from your page, but can view any supporting material in new tabs or windows, and is able to switch back to the form when needed.
   
   
6. Include a privacy policy - This is very important in the online world as you want to ensure your registrants feel secure when entering their data. If anyone has questions as to the security of their information ensure that is included in the privacy policy.
   

Questions?

We are always happy to offer some free advice and give you some ideas 1-800-507-3759.

If you have comments about this article, please contact us.

Increase Your Event Registrations With Email Invites That Work - Part 1

Email is a great tool and arguably one of the biggest leaps forward for business in the last 20 years. As we become more and more attached to this form of communication we must also become more aware of the pitfalls that go along with it. This month we're going to cover some important things to consider when sending out an email invite for your next event.

If you typically send your event invitations through the mail you may be used to the traditional process of proofing copy, images etc. before the final version is printed and sent. With email invites the process is similar. However, it is important to remember that unlike paper invitations your email has many hurdles to overcome, such as spam filters, grabbing the attention of the user before it's quickly deleted and whether or not the email recipients software downloads it as it was meant to be seen...to name a few.

Before you send your next email campaign, use this checklist to make sure you have some of the basics covered :

1. Subject Line – this will make or break your campaign. You have two important tasks here. One, get through the spam filter, and two, catch the readers attention...quickly. Descriptive subject lines are great for both of these goals. Which of these subject lines would prompt you to continue reading "2009 Computer Conference" or "Registration for the 2009 Computer Conference is Now Open"?
   
   Spam filters keep an eye out for certain words. So when creating your subject line and copy (#3) try to avoid words like 'Free', '$$$', 'Save', 'Discount', etc. And yes, I do realize the irony in that sentence.
   
   
2. Images – Although the designer in all of us would love to have an image rich email it can be a red flag for Spam filters, and not all users have 'allow images' turned on. Get your message out with text and support it with images (not the other way around). If you create a good balance between these elements more potential registrants will receive your message.
   
   
3. Well Written Copy – This seems basic, but I regularly receive emails that don't seem to be written for a human being. If you were to send your email to anyone, right now, would they know what it's about? If you do not have a good in-house copywriter that's okay, contract it out with all that money you saved ditching the paper invitation campaign!
   
   
4. Call to Action – Now that the email has reached the recipient and they are engaged, what do they do? Ask yourself, "Why am I sending this email?" If that's not clear in the body then your call to action is not clear and concise.
   
   Make sure the reader is doing exactly what you want them to do. This is where an image is great! Have your designer create something eye catching (Note to designers: This is my version of an apology for #2), or, feel free to use this button in your next campaign (right click then 'save as').
   


5. Links - Although the above button is eye catching and it's no mystery what action to take, it is always good practice to include a text link to your registration form just in case your recipient's inbox does not download images.

Next Post : Part 2 of Increase Your Event Registrations with Email Invites That Work - five more items to check...

Questions? We are always happy to offer some free advice and give you some ideas – 1-800-507-3759.

If you have comments about this article, please contact us.

Does Your Registration Form Do These Eight Things?

The answer to the question “What should a registration form do?” might seem obvious, but if you respond with “Collect registration data”, there is a good chance that you can improve your registration forms to increase registration count and put on memorable events.
From our experience, here are eight things your registration forms should be doing in addition to collecting data:

1. Make you look good – Your registration form should reflect your professional image by having consistent branding, flawless formatting, well positioned text and of course, look the same in all browsers.

2. Convert the people who arrive at the form into paying customers – Getting people to your form is only the first step. Usability headaches such as too many required fields, confusing registration options, incorrect pricing or dates all contribute to people abandoning the registration form.

3. Give people a second taste of your event – The first taste comes from your marketing materials, so now you need to reinforce it. Your form should have a similar look and feel to your marketing material and be well organized, error free and work as intended, just like the event will be.

4. Make people feel safe and secure – Having a professional looking form is a great help, but you also need to ensure you have a clearly displayed privacy policy and that your form is hosted on a secure server.

5. Prevent mistakes – Let’s face it, people don’t read instructions, so even if you add text to your form explaining what to do and what not to do, it likely won’t be read. Your form needs to be set up in a way that mistakes cannot happen in the first place.

6. Reduce calls to the event planners – Event Planners are busy people, they don’t need more calls about registration form issues. Always have a contact phone number on your form in case people do need to call, but try to anticipate common questions that might come up and make sure they are answered on the form. Also, test, test and test your form. Many calls are a result of a problem encountered on the form,o make sure yours is perfect before going live.

7. Make people say, “Wow! That was easy!” – Even registration forms with lots of options, categories and workshops can be made to seem simple with the right planning and layout. Invest the time, before you start, to eliminate frustrations and problems later on.

8. Collect data the right way for meaningful reporting - There is more than one way to set up a question for many of the fields you find on typical registration forms. All of the question types may get the data into your database, but you need to consider whether the format of that data will provide you meaningful, consistent and reliable reporting for your requirements.

Questions? Call One Of Our Solutions Experts – We are always happy to offer some free advice and give you some ideas – 1-800-507-3759.

8 Alternatives To Extending Early Bird Deadlines When You Need More Registrations

Last month’s article called “5 Reasons Not To Extend Your Early Bird Pricing Period” advised against extending early bird deadlines to encourage people to register for your events and promised to come up with a list of alternatives.

We have put together our list of ideas and also invite you to send us some of your own ideas. Anyone who sends us an idea will be entered into a draw for a coffee card and with your permission we will publish any unique ideas along with your name in our next newsletter. See below for the details.

8 Alternatives To Extending Early Bird Deadlines When You Need More Registrations

1. Reinforce the benefits of attending your event. Highlight different benefits when you send out registration reminders. Be sure to write these benefits in a way that will appeal to the demographic you are marketing to. For example, promoting that the conference is next to a world class golf course won’t be a benefit unless most of your group are avid golfers.
   
2. Pick up the phone and make a sales call. It can be time consuming, but the payoff can be big. Start by calling the people who registered for your last event, but haven’t registered for the current one. They probably have it on their to-do list, but remind them why they should register today. Maybe you can even enter their details into the online form while you have them on the phone to secure the registration right away.
   
3. Reveal new details about the event in each registration reminder. Rather than repeating the same information in your reminders to register, let people in on some of the new details such as surprise guests, newly added workshops, or door prize announcements.
   
4. Use testimonials from previous events. Make sure people know how great the last event was so they attend this year.
   
5. Find discounted deals for your participants. Rather than discounting your price, find deals on attractions, restaurants, accommodation, etc. that your participants can take advantage of if they attend your event. Some of these deals may already be offered and you just need to find them, or you may need to call businesses in your area to see what they are willing to offer.
   
6. Add a second tier price break. If you really feel that extending a price break is needed, then consider making it in between the early and regular rate. For example, if the Early Bird deadline is Dec 15th for $100, then go up to $125 before reaching the final price of $150 rather than extending the original early bird price. This ensures that people who registered early still get the greatest benefit.
   
7. Be honest about your situation and address concerns that people may have. It’s usually better to address the concerns that people may have than to let imaginations runs wild and allow rumours to start. For example, if you think people are not registering because they are unsure if the event will happen, let them know that registration is down due to the economy, but that you aren’t cutting any programs. Fill them in on what you are doing to ensure the event happens. Always remember to highlight the positives without making it look like you are being unrealistic.
   
8. Offer an incentive to registering early besides saving money. Items such as an entry into a draw, a free white paper or a book related to the event could be just enough to get people registering. Make sure that the real early birds get the same benefits too!

Remember, it doesn’t take much to convince people who are sitting on the fence to take action and register. I hope that you will be able to use some of these ideas or that they get you thinking about some other ways to encourage registrations.

ENTER TO WIN!

Send us your ideas, tips and strategies on how get people to register.

If you send us an idea, we will enter you into a draw for a $20 coffee card and with your permission, we will publish your unique idea, name and company in our next newsletter. Please send you ideas to jim.romanik@eply.com.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments about this article.

What to Expect When Working With ePly!

Not knowing when to expect to hear from a supplier can be very frustrating. Did they get my email with my requests? Are they giving me the priority I need? Do they know I’m under a deadline? What should I tell my client or boss who is asking, "When the form will be live?"

At ePly, we understand that receiving updates and meeting deadlines is imperative to maintaining a great reputation with your client or boss. And, because we create hundreds of registration forms a year, we know approximately how long each step of the process takes.

1. A first draft of your registration form within two business days after we receive your signed contract and all of your event details, unless we provide a specific date.
2. Once you review the first draft of your form and send us the changes, we will have the form updated within one business day unless we provide a specific date.
3. Your form will be ready to go live within two business days after you give your final approval on the layout and content. This gives us time to go through our 150 point checklist to ensure everything is perfect. If your form requires custom JavaScript programming (we will tell you if it does), up to three additional business days may be required to complete the programming and testing.
4. We will respond to all voicemail and email within two business hours. If the person you are contacting is out of the office we will provide you with an alternate contact in case you need an immediate response.

If you have comments about this article, please contact us.

5 Reasons Not To Extend Your Early Bird Pricing Period

A lot of events incorporate early bird pricing to encourage people to register early and it usually works. In some cases an Event Planner may extend an early bird period after registration has started, but after a recent experience I think that this strategy should be avoided.

Here's why.

This past fall, I was considering attending a conference, but kept putting off looking into the details, checking into flights and hotels and making a decision. I knew that the early bird pricing ended December 10th, so I set a reminder for myself to make a decision by that date.

The morning of the deadline, just as I was about to finally look into the details and decide whether to register or not, I received an email stating that the early bird deadline had been extended until January 15th.

I immediately re-scheduled my reminder to register and was happy that I could hold onto my money for another month and wait to see a better opportunity arose.

I understand the organizers of this event were trying to encourage more people to register, however, I now realize the problems an Early-Bird extension can cause.

Consider these problems:

1. Delayed registrations and revenue from fence sitters - If you allow a reasonable amount of time for people to take advantage of your early bird pricing anyone who is serious about attending will register. If people are undecided or putting off the decision as I was, extending the period just gives more time to delay.
   
2. Lost registrants to competing events or other commitments – The longer someone waits to register for your event the more likely they will make other commitments and be unable to attend your event. Get people registered early so they will schedule other things around your event rather than at the same time.
   
3. Gives the impression that your event is struggling – When I found out that the early bird period for this recent event was extended, I concluded that they must be getting less registrations than expected and needed to offer another incentive. This thinking made me sceptical about registering since there might be less networking opportunities, cancelled workshops and other changes as a result of less revenue.
   
4. Frustrate people that registered before the early-bird deadline – If people registered and paid their money early only to find out that the procrastinators will get the same deal they did, you could get some complaints or leave a bad impression in their minds.
   
5. Set a precedent that waiting until the last minute pays off – People will remember what happened with registration for a previous event and if you are known for extending early bird deadlines, it will become harder for you to get people to take immediate action when you send out your marketing materials.

Since we believe that extending early bird deadlines isn’t a good way to get more registrations, we’ve come up with a list of our recommended alternatives for the March newsletter.

If you have comments about this article or want a sneak-peak at our ideas, please contact us.

An Easy Way to Secure More Registrations for Your Event

Have you ever come across an event that you wanted to attend but registration wasn’t available yet? What did you do? Did you remember to go back in a few weeks to register or just forget about it?

If people are starting to think about registering for your event and you don’t have a way to capture that interest, you are losing potential registrants. Seizing every opportunity to make a sale is critical to a successful event, especially during a time when people are spending less.

Use A Save-The-Date Form

A Save-The-Date form is a simple form designed to collect contact information of people interested in attending your event before registration opens. Once you have the email address and/or phone number of people interested in attending, you can proactively follow up to encourage them to register.

A side benefit of the Save-The-Date form is the number of responses you get may help gauge the interest level for your event.

Over the last few weeks, while the ePly team was snowed in, we brainstormed what a really good Save-The-Date form should include:

1. Keep it simple and easy to complete.
2. Limit the fields to name, phone number and email address; ask for other details only if you really need them.
3. Make email address the only required field.
4. Give clear and easy-to-read instructions on how the save the date form works such as “Registration for the “event name” is not yet open. Please enter your name and email address below and we will contact you once registration opens”.
5. Have a privacy policy on the form so people feel safe providing their information.
6. Make the form branded to match your organization or the event, so people feel comfortable.
7. Put the name, phone number and email address of a contact person on the form. You probably won’t get many calls, but just knowing that there is someone to contact will help make your form seem more legitimate.

Here is a sample Save-The-Date-Form:

The next time people express interest in your event and you are still finalizing the details, make a Save-The-Date form a part of your event marketing plan and proactively follow up to secure those registrations.

At ePly we want to see our customer’s events succeed, so we are offering to set up a free Save-The-Date form to anyone using our system. Contact us for more details.

In the next newsletter we will be writing about extending early bird registration deadlines. Does it really encourage more registrations or does it just give the procrastinators more time to think about it and frustrate the people who have already parted with their money before the original deadline?

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments about this article.

8 Ways To Get Attendees To Book In Your Hotel Room Block

During one of the sessions at a recent CanSPEP conference, I overheard several of the event planners talking about how their conference attendees continually book hotel rooms through online services, rather than booking rooms within the conference hotel room block.

This causes problems because room blocks aren’t being filled and event planners are still charged for the rooms.

As I sat in the session, I thought of several reasons why a registrant should want to book in the room block. I encourage event planners to consider adding some, or all, of the following wording to their registration forms and confirmation emails to help fill the room block.

Reasons to book in the room block and not online:

1. You don’t have to pre-pay for your room if you book in the block, but you do if you are booking through a discount service.
   
   
2. The room you book online may not be comparable to the rooms in the conference room block. Remember, you get what you pay for!
   
   
3. Booking in the block will allow you to make changes to your reservation if needed.
   
   
4. If you book online through a discount service, you can’t cancel and get any of your money back.
   
   
5. If there happens to be a room drop (i.e.: conference message, schedule change or gift), you may miss out.
   
   
6. If you book in the block, you get to claim award points.
   
   
7. If you are using a discount service, your hotel may not be close to the conference hotel, so you won’t be able to sneak back to your room for a nap, snack, or to check email between sessions.
   
   
8. If your hotel is not within reasonable walking distance of your event, you will incur cab costs which may offset any savings that you received.

At ePly, we are always making suggestions to our clients on how they can increase the success of their events. By using some, or all, of the eight ideas above on your registration form, you have a better chance of filling your room block and avoiding attrition fees.

In next month’s newsletter, we’ll explain how using a simple “Save-the-Date” form can help you secure more registrations for an event.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments about this article.

Does AVS Affect Your Event Registration?

You may have heard the term AVS or encountered a situation when buying something online where your shipping address needed to match the address on your credit card. In this article we will explain what AVS is and how it could be affecting your online event registration.

AVS (Address Verification System) in a nutshell is a system used to verify your identity as the owner of the credit card you’re using to pay for something online. Essentially it protects you if you’re card is stolen and someone tried to use your card but does not know your address.

However, AVS can become frustrating when you’re trying to pay online with a credit card and for one reason or another are entering a shipping or contact address that does not match the address that is on file with your credit card company.

For instance, I was trying to purchase a product online recently, and my credit card was rejected each time I tried to submit my order. The reason was that I was trying to purchase a product with my credit card and have it shipped to my office.

So what? AVS can increase the potential for transactions to be declined when using online registration. Transactions that would normally be approved might be declined because the registrant is using an address to register that is different than the credit card billing address.

Since AVS is mostly used to make sure merchandise is being shipped to the proper person (ex: Amazon or eBay), it may not be necessary to use for online event registration since there is no merchandise being shipped (ie: the person committing online fraud cannot receive anything from the registration and most likely won’t turn up at your event!)

Then what? You’ll probably want to check your AVS settings if you are receiving a lot of declined credit cards for your event and you aren’t also using the merchant account for selling merchandise. Talk to your online registration provider for more details on your settings and if you want to change your AVS settings you will need to contact your gateway company.

If you are concerned about your settings or would like more information about AVS feel free to contact us and we will help to point you in the right direction.

Written by Katie Laughlin

What To Do With A Fraudulent Registration

Over the past two issues we’ve been looking at types of online event registration scams and how to spot fraudulent registrations in your database. Now that you can easily identify when a scammer has targeted your event, what should you do about it?

If you missed last month’s article or would like to review it, go to:

http://www.eply.com/event_resources/online_registration_articles/
fraud.html

A couple of years ago, while planning an international conference in the Caribbean, I was bombarded daily with fraudulent registrations from all over the world, specifically from Africa.

I had to pay close attention to registrations from Nigeria, since we were actually expecting delegates from Nigeria. I had to verify each registration so that I wasn’t sending Visa letters to scammers.

Sometimes it was clear who the scammers were once we made contact with them. They would refuse to send us money for the conference (most chose to pay by cheque because they only wanted Visa Letters) and claimed that they needed a letter of invitation in order to get the money from their organization to attend.

These responses tipped me off immediately.

Here is how to handle a fraudulent registration:

1. Refund the payment immediately if it’s by credit card. This will prevent you from getting hit with a chargeback as it is most likely a stolen credit card.
   
2. NEVER send a cheque to refund a credit card payment because if it’s a stolen credit card, then the perpetrator gets the money and you end up paying the credit card company when the card is reported stolen.
   
3. You may want to consider reporting the fraudulent registrant to your local or national Internet Crime Centre.
   US – http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
   Canada – https://www.recol.ca/intro.aspx?lang=en
   
4. Be sure to let everyone you work with know about the fraudulent registration, how to spot them, and what to do if they spot one incase there are others.
   
5. Instead of ignoring the registration, mark the registration as deleted. If you have a maximum number of spots for your event, you don’t want fraudulent registrations taking up spots.
   
6. NEVER send letters of invitation or other documents to registrants unless you’ve verified their legitimacy. If you have already sent these documents and realize the request was a scam, alert the proper authorities immediately.

Be proactive!

Deter scammers from even registering for your event. Depending on your expected audience, you may have less of a chance of being scammed if your event is local, as it is quite unlikely that someone from Russia is going to register for a Seattle Business Professionals Conference. However, scammers are found in every country, so here are some ways to make your event unattractive to scammers:

• Limit the list of countries in your drop down menu to only those you expect to attend your conference.
  
• Ask registrants to enter a code that only they would know or have access to in order to complete their registration. For instance, the code could be emailed out to those invited to register. If a potential registrant needs the code, they can ask for it via email. Then, you can verify their email first, before they even have a chance to register. Keep in mind that although this helps prevent scammers, it may complicate the registration process and deter people from completing the registration.
  
• Ask for a unique piece of information such as a member number that only legitimate registrants would know.
  
• Similarly, you could have the link to the registration on a secure page of your website that is only accessible by username/password.
  
• Be sure to ask for the CCV number if you are collecting credit card information.
  
• Add text to your form that states credit card refunds can only be made back to the original credit card or that international registrants will be verified by phone.

If you follow the advice we have offered in our last three articles, you should be able to avoid being a target of a registration scam. In many cases online registration will allow you to deal with a potential scam more efficiently than a paper based registration system.

Be sure to check out next month’s newsletter when we explain what an AVS is (Address Verification System) and how should it be used with event registrations.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments about this article.

Written by Katie Laughlin

Online Event Registration Equals Success for Event Marketing

NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C. –- July 10, 2008 –- Having difficulty getting people to respond to an invitation? Not enough people registered for an event? ePly, an online event registration service, makes it simple for people to register and maximizes results.

ePly provides online event registration forms for conferences and events. All of the conference registration forms ePly creates are confined to one page, making the process short, sweet, and simple.

“Almost all other companies who offer the same service have a system where people have to click through several pages to complete the various online registrations,” Jim Romanik, president, ePly, explains. “Systems with multiple pages can cause people to get lost in the process and information can also be lost if the browser’s back button is used.”ePly's one-page conference registration forms eliminate these problems. This practical and easy-to-use online event registration form allows people registering for events to scroll up and down to see what information they need to provide before they start entering their details. They can review their information before they click submit and since it is designed much like a paper-based registration form, it’s attractive to less Internet-savvy users.

Meeting and event planning professionals will also benefit. ePly covers every phase of the online event registration process from form planning, design, programming and testing to payment processing and refund management. It provides all the necessary tools for reporting so planners can focus on what they do best -- planning the actual event.

“The ePly tool made dealing with conference registration, refunds, and reporting a breeze,” Laurie Monserrat, one conference planner, explains. “It was a great solution for the ‘joys’ of event planning.”

ePly will also custom design conference registration forms to resemble company websites. They understand that branding and image is important and that a successful event is the bottom line.

In addition to standard credit card processing, refunds and check payment facilitation, ePly also offers tax reporting and tracking, group registration, and more, all within a single conference registration form. They even have real-time management of limited seating to prevent overbooking.

“We can virtually meet any requirements that special event and conference coordinators may have,” Romanik says.

The ePly website also offers tips for successful event planning; how to avoid common event planning pitfalls; and much more.

For more information, visit: http://www.eply.com/.

Create Great Links For More Registrations

The success of your event marketing is usually measured by how many people register for an event. Even the best marketing campaigns can fail if people don’t take the critical step of going from your promotional material to your registration form.

Potential registrants are often left fumbling around looking for an online registration form that should be right at their fingertips. You are likely driving people to a registration form from a website, an email or printed material. Each of these marketing methods has some important considerations to keep in mind.

Linking From Your Website

Most commonly, you will direct registrants to the online registration form through links on your website. However, not all links are created equal and some do a better job of getting potential registrants to your online form.

• Put a link to your registration form near the top of the first page people see when they get to your website. Don’t leave potential registrants hunting around because they have to click through multiple pages before finding the link or because the link is hidden at the bottom of a page.
  
• Use an image such as a “Register Now” button with enough white space surrounding it so that it stands out. If you are linking from text rather than a button, use a different font colour and a larger font size.
  
• Use a call to action such as “Register Now” rather than “Click here to register”.
  
• If appropriate, link to the registration form from more than one page on your website and as a bonus include hyperlinks to the form within any body text that refers to registration.
  
• Have your links open in a new window so that once registrants have submitted the registration form they can easily return to your website.
  
• Check all of your links to make sure that they work - mistakes do happen!

Linking From Email

If you are using email to promote your event, there are a few practices that will help increase traffic to the registration form.

• Always include complete web addresses in your emails. If some of your recipients uses text only email, they will not be able to click a text or image link. If the complete address is provided, then anybody viewing email in plain text can quickly copy and paste the address into a browser.
  
• If you are attaching a promotional brochure to your email, it’s a good idea to still include the address to the registration form or to the event website within the body of your email. Registrants can then go straight to the registration form if desired. If your attachment is a pdf, make sure that all links are clickable.
  
• Send yourself a test email and check all of the links before sending your email blast.

Linking From Printed Material

• Part of your event marketing may include printed material such as posters and brochures. Keep addresses short so that they are easy to remember and to type into a browser.
  
• If you have a website dedicated to an event, consider directing people to that website rather than directly to the registration form. The address for the website will likely be shorter than the address to the form.

Setting up effective links to your online registration form is simple and can have a true impact on your registration volume. Either express your requirements to your webmaster or contact ePly if you need help and we will be happy to show you how to create great links or offer you feedback on what you have set up.

5 Easy Ways to Make Your International Registrants Feel Welcome

Unless you’re escaping winter weather or otherwise simply escaping, holiday travel isn’t generally a topic of choice. Images of crowded airports, long lines, security searches, screaming children, exasperated parents and bad food quickly come to mind. Really, unless you’re in good spirits because you’re heading off on a Caribbean vacation, most travel is the same.

Being as fun as it is, all of the little things that you can do to make attending your event easier are going to be appreciated by your international registrants.

A good way to make an early impression on international registrants is to design an online registration form that includes a few special considerations.

International addresses: If registrants can’t select their country from a drop-down menu, it doesn’t create a very welcoming impression. Be sure to include a complete country list if any international registrations are expected. For province and state, an option to select “Outside U.S. and Canada” is generally the best option as a comprehensive list would be overwhelming and an international address may not include such a designation.

It’s a great exercise in frustration to know that you are entering the correct information, only to find that the system won’t accept it. Be sure the system will accept different formats for postal code and phone number. If it doesn’t, many international registrants won’t be able to enter valid data and you’ll end up with data that you can’t use.

Not being able to enter a complete address can also result in declined credit card transactions. Of course, while this is frustrating for the registrant, it can also result in lost registrations.

Time Zones: It may seem too obvious to include the time zone in the event details but if the registration cut-off time is at 5:00 p.m., the fact that this is actually 5:00 p.m. an ocean away may slip the registrant’s mind. It’s easy to overlook so some extra clarity can avoid disappointment.

Currency: It doesn’t hurt to state the currency as it’s easy to overlook. If you expect a large number of people to come from a specific area, it’s also a nice consideration to include an approximate exchange rate so that the registrant isn’t doing the math. However, make sure that it’s clear that the exchange rate is approximate as you can’t account for fluctuating rates.

Translations: You can make international registrants feel more welcome by offering your registration form in a second language. If half of your registrants are French or Spanish speaking, then the impact on these registrants may be worth the extra effort. If the volume isn’t high enough or if the language diversity is too great, then be careful about using industry jargon or acronyms that registrants from outside the country may not be as familiar with.

International Calling: It’s generally a good idea to include a phone number that registrants can call if they have questions about your event. If you only have a local number, include the country code so that International registrants don’t have to look it up. If you have a 1-800 number, it may not work outside of North America so you may also need to include your local number or an International toll free number.

The “Secret” Behind Effective Registration Forms: Easy To Use Doesn’t Mean They Were Easy To Make…Or They Should Be Cheap To Buy

After seeing what effective web forms look like, it is common for people to assume that with some specialty software, anyone can create an effective website form. There’s danger in thinking that anybody can create an effective web form. If you need proof simply take a quick look around the internet.

Here’s a good example: At ePly, we have spent thousands of hours developing systems that can create effective, easy-to-use websites. Recently, we spoke with someone that was truly interested in our service. This prospect spoke with a friend who said that he could create the web form they needed over the weekend. This friend felt confident that he could create the web form because he was a really talented computer programmer.

Both the event planner and the computer programmer friend were smart and capable people, but we at ePly knew that they could not pull off what was required over a weekend. The form requirements were simply too complex.

In reality, for that “friend” to create those forms, he would spend long nights and wasted weekends trying to create a “simple” form before the registration is ready to be launched.

The fact is that in the world of registrations, you really don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. So you’ve got to make sure that your web form is a dynamic, professional powerhouse from the day it’s launched.

So what’s the point? The registration form is a store. It functions as a showroom, a price tag, and a checkout – all on one page. Your online store should be viewed as a store that must be supported by the best organization and tools you can provide in order to bring in customers.

You may have heard the saying, “If you build it, they will come.” However, registrations are not automatic; it’s up to you–and your skill at marketing the event through a form — to make it happen.

Do You Need A Partner To Create Your Online Registration Form?

At ePly we manage the entire process of creating online registration forms, including form planning, design, programming, testing, payment processing, refund management tools, up-to-the-second backups, registration limits, and tools to gather all the reports you could ever want so our clients can focus on organizing and running the actual event.

If you have an upcoming event, meeting, seminar, conference, symposium, or convention and you are looking for the best value in online registration, we would like to offer you a free guide to online event registration, complete with an event planners’ most common concern – including how to plan and prepare registration forms and prevent common enrollment blunders - all the while meeting the requirements of your event registration and your budget.

Five Ideas to Help Sell Out Your Events

Unless attendance at an event is mandatory, getting people to register comes down to sales. You, as the event planner need to convince the event participants that attending your event is the best use of their time and money. Even if your event is free and intended to be fun such as a Christmas party, you still need to show people that attending your event is better than anything else that they could be doing.

For some events, the promotional material (mailers, emails, etc.) will list the benefits and do a good job of communicating the value of an event to prospective attendees. This will help get people to the registration form, but the sale isn’t closed until they click the submit button.

Here are five tips to keep in mind for your promotional material and your registration forms to help you get the sale.

1. Clearly state the benefits of attending.

Clearly stating how people will benefit by attending your event is one of the best ways to encourage people to register. Make your benefit statements descriptive and put them in terms that prospective event participants can relate to. Here are two examples:

“When you leave this event, you will have ten new strategies for motivating your staff that will result in less turnover.”

“In this workshop, you will learn the real differences between software A and B, so you can make the right decision for your business and avoid a buying mistake that will cost you time and money.”

2. Use a good title

Many event titles are similar to “2006 Annual Convention”. This tells you what the event is, but doesn’t really catch your attention. Try adding a benefit or other interest grabbing words to the title such as the one below.

2006 Annual Convention – See the new industry technology that will keep you competitive.

3. Clearly state what the price includes

Everyone perceives price differently. Some may say it’s too high, while other people will pay it and not complain. Itemizing what your event includes will help to show people who think it’s too high the value of what they will receive. Outline items such as speaking events and the number of instructional hours, to meals and conference materials.

4. Talk about the food

Everyone likes a good dinner and most conventions have several meal functions and usually a final banquet.

Rather than listing the meals as “Monday Lunch” or “Dinner and Awards Banquet” create some anticipation around the event by giving more details such as the dinner options, what is for dessert, how fresh the ingredients will be, how many awards the chef has won, etc.

5. Use testimonials

Testimonials from previous events can be a powerful motivator. Make sure the testimonials you use are descriptive and demonstrate how the person benefited by attending the event.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments about this article.

ePly Online Event Registration exhibits at BizBash L.A.

Last month, ePly exhibited at the BizBash tradeshow in LA. As part of the promotion at the booth attendees were entered to win a new laptop and gift cards from Starbucks.

The drawings have been done and the winners notified. All visitors to the booth also received a copy of the guide called “What Every Event Planner Should Know About Online Event Registration”.. This guide compares different types of systems, lists questions that event planners should as when doing research and includes a special offer for first time clients on the last page.

If you would like a copy of this guide and the opportunity to take us up on the special offer, please download the guide here - http://www.eply.com/downloads/epg-form.html

Get set up with online registration in less time than you think.

I’m writing this for people who like the idea of online registration but imagine it’s a time consuming ordeal to get set up. If you are using a professional full service online registration provider you can be fully set up by investing as little as an hour of your time for basic seminars, meetings, conferences or online ticket sales forms.

A breakdown of the steps to online registration:

Research (10 mins)

If you’re new to online event registration you’ll want to spend a few minutes checking out the different options available. A quick read of our Event Planner’s Guide to Online Event Registration will help you decide on your best approach.

If you want to make it easy on yourself, we recommend going with a full service online registration company. They will:

• Do all of the set up for you, thoroughly test it and have it ready on time.
• Make recommendations for laying out your form in a way that will get more people to register.
• Produce a form that looks more professional and is easier to use than those created by templates or self service systems.
• Help you get familiar with the back end systems so you can access and manage your registration data.
• Advise on the best practises to help you get more registrations for your event and therefore add to the success of your event.
• Free up your time (along with your staff’s) and alleviate frustration for those organising and attending the event.
• Consult with you on the best way to handle credit card transactions.

Get a quote (10 mins)

Call in and speak with a salesperson: To get an accurate estimate you’ll need to know the specifics, i.e., what information you want to collect from participants, the options they have to chose from, how many registrations you expect and the fee for attending your event, etc.

• If you have a registration form from a previous event (as an example) the sales person can likely answer most of these questions by looking at it.

Address credit card processing – if applicable (5 - 10 mins)

• Online credit card processing requires an online merchant account. If you don’t have one set up most online registration suppliers can offer you the use of theirs. If you decide to open your own merchant account allow additional time - in the US a couple of days and in Canada a week or more.

Evaluate quote (10 mins)

• If the company is professional your sales person should have answered all of your questions and provided good recommendations for your situation.

Sign contract (10 mins)

• Reputable companies will ask you to sign a contract - or at the very least agree to their terms and conditions.
• This is a good thing, because a contract will help protect you and the supplier. Take a bit of time to read it through and make sure you understand all of the terms and conditions. Pay particular attention to any extra fees or charges.

Submit event details (5 – 20 mins)

• Once the formalities are complete, the online registration company will need to collect your details. The time it takes will depend on whether or not you have all of your event details prepared in advance.

Review (5 – 30 mins)

• This is your chance to suggest changes and give approval.
  Add a link to your website (5 mins)

… and that’s it

Going live…

You should allow a couple of days for your provider to get a basic registration form online as they’ll need to build your form, get your feedback, make changes and approve the use of merchant accounts, etc. For more complex forms allow extra time.

The future…

Once set up, it can be a simple matter of emailing or phoning to communicate new event details for future events.

Awareness…

There are a couple of factors that could slow this process down, such as:

• If you’re working with a committee in making decisions.
• If you have to chase up sales people to get information – and you might want to ask yourself why you’re having to do this, even before you’ve handed over your money?
• If you don’t have all of your event details together before starting the set up.
• If you are opening an online merchant and gateway account for credit card processing for the first time (see above).

Closing notes…

The approximations above are based on using a full service online registration provider. If you opt for self serve systems, the time it will take you to get set up depends on how quickly you can learn their system (to build and test the form), how complex your requirements are and how quickly you will adjust your ideas to work within the system's limitations.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments about this article.

The Secret To Making Event Volunteers Like You

Don’t waste valuable volunteer labour on tasks that can be easily automated. Challenge volunteers with meaningful work.

A couple of days ago I had a conversation with a volunteer, whom we’ll call Bob, in which he said, “I know online registration is the way to do it, I’ve used it at another organization, but they say we don’t have the budget for it here, so we’re doing it manually.”

Bob’s chuckle at the end of this explanation was very telling.

Free labor is a myth. Volunteers are in demand. Finding and recruiting these people takes time and effort and, although there are no salary costs, there are expenses involved. These can include:

• The equipment they require
• Possible office space
• Someone to train, manage and supervise their efforts

More importantly, if you want to keep your volunteers happy and keen to offer their time again, you need to make sure that they feel their contribution is valuable. Getting them to manually send out and receive registrations, fax and phone confirmations, process payments and data entry, especially when they are aware of the automated systems that are now available to do it for you, is not the best use of their skills. A smarter use of their time would be getting them to:

• Market your event to drum up more participants and generate more revenue.
• Find sponsorship for your event to help cover costs.
• Put more effort into the actual planning of the event, so it runs smoothly, is enjoyed by the participants and has them wanting to attend the next one.
• Follow up with people to thank them for attending the event.
• Strategizing how to make your organization run more efficiently and achieve the goals you have set.

Not only will your volunteer’s efforts bring in more money for your organization, but you will have given them a more stimulating experience.

Another comment from one not-for-profit organization that recently stopped me in my tracks was:

“We don’t need online event registration because our Treasurer manually processes registrations by fax.”

You wouldn’t dream of paying your lawyer to pick up your office supplies would you? Or getting your accountant to do your laundry?

The problem here, which I’ve found to be common in not-for-profit and charity organizations, is the perception that they can’t afford to use online registration – have no allocated budget for it. It’s like saying we aren’t going to buy a computer because it’s an expense. If you don’t have a computer you can’t run an organization. The same applies with online registration, you can’t afford not to.

Here’s why:

• People now expect to be able to register for events online and if you don’t offer this you stand to miss out on registrations and therefore revenue.
• Online registration costs are minimal when compared with those you’ll be saving by no longer doing it manually. It will also pay for itself by ensuring happier, more efficient and productive employees and volunteers.
• In this way it can be thought of as an investment, rather than an expense.