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.

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.