Most people contacting us are already sold on the idea of using online registration. They see the many benefits including saving time and money and eliminating labour intensive tasks.

From talking with these event planners, meeting managers and admin assistants, we often hear that they have to sell the idea of online registration to their clients, boards and bosses and all too often they hear things like "it’s not in the budget", "it worked fine last year" or "we aren’t ready for it".

These types of reactions are usually the result of a lack of understanding about how online registration works and its many benefits.

To help you sell online registration to your clients, boards and bosses, we have outlined seven helpful ideas for you to consider.

1. Compare Costs

Comparing all of the costs associated with different registration methods will be a big help when working with people focused on the bottom line. To do this you will have to make some assumptions and estimates, but you should be able to come up with a reasonably accurate list of costs.

One of the biggest costs is labour. Start by brainstorming a list of all of the tasks involving labour, then stimate how much time is spent on each task.

Next, consider how much your labour costs are per hour. This is a little more difficult as the real labour rate is always much higher than what an employee takes home. For some costs to consider, see the list below.

Table 2 - Real cost of labour.
Labour	Related to having an employee
- Wages - Holiday pay - Insurance - Benefits - Pension - Sick pay	- Interviewing, hiring, training - Supervision/Management - Office Space - Equipment and software licenses

Now, with some multiplication you should have a reasonable estimate of your labour costs.

Next, consider material costs. Here is a partial list to get you started.

Table 3 - Material costs.

- Long distance charges for phone and fax - Postage - Stationary - Printing promotional material - Paper for fax, printer and copier - Toner for fax, printer and copier

At the very least, the price comparison sheet you generate will help you realize that many of the costs associated with event registration are often just absorbed by an organization.

Also, don’t forget to factor in intangible costs such as errors in registration. These can be very difficult to estimate, but are very real costs to business. Here are some intangible costs and benefits to consider.

2. Do a pro/con comparison

Brainstorming the pros and cons of anything can be a useful decision making tool.

We have started a sample pro/con chart below to get you started. The pros and cons will be different for every event and organization, so adapt what we have started to your situation. Try to include examples from past events as well as anticipated pros and cons of continuing with manual registration.

3. Show examples of online forms.

Showing an example of an online form similar to the one your event requires can be all that it takes to convince someone that online registration is a good thing to do. Many people may not be able to visualize how it will look and work so an image really is worth a thousand words.

The ePly website has several examples of different online forms for different events on our sample forms page.

Besides visual examples, examples of how other organizations have successfully used online registration will help support your case. See our testimonial letters page or contact us for a list of clients you can speak with.

4. Get a formal proposal

Having something in writing detailing exactly what we will do, what you have to do and how much it will cost will help. With a good proposal, you will be able to confidently give prices and details and answer questions.  See our request a quote page to see how to request one.

5 Make online registration a part of a larger online strategy

Many organizations spend a lot of money developing a website. Even more is spent trying to get people to visit. Online registration is a perfect way to get people familiar with your site. While they are there to register, you will have the opportunity to show them what other information is available.

Another strategy is to use online registration to build a database of email addresses. This list can be used for future marketing efforts or other online initiatives.

6. Look at your competition

If someone isn’t convinced that online registration is the way to go, look at what competing organizations are doing. You are certain to find people using online registration in nearly all industries and this may be enough to convince skeptics to try it for their next event rather than be out done by a competitor.

7. Have us talk to the decision maker.

If you know that the people you are working with are going to have a lot of questions about online registration, it might be best that you involve someone from ePly. We know all of the intricacies of our system and will be able to offer extra advice and ideas.