The type of support you’ll receive depends on the people and policies of the software vendor. Everybody says they offer “free support.” But that can mean very different things to different companies.

To make this clear with some examples, here are two sample questions and how a support person would deal with these on each level.
  

Sample Support Question #1

You ask: “How do I add a field to my registration form?”

Just OK support: The support rep tell you the basic steps to add the field such as, “Click the Add Field button at the bottom of the Settings page and then choose your Field Type.” You could have read that much in the online help. But does that really answer your question?

Wow! support: The support rep starts by asking you what information you need to collect and why. Then they recommend the best type of field. For example, at first glance radio buttons and checkboxes might appear similar, but each one is designed for a different use. Picking the wrong one can affect all the data you collect.

In the example above, if you use a radio button, you can force people to choose yes or no.  This is important because if you use a check box and then are looking at the reporting you will only see how many people checked the box.  Out of the people who didn’t check the box you won’t know if they didn’t check it because they aren’t attending or if they forgot to check it or didn’t see it.  This means you don’t know for certain how many people are planning to attend the dinner.

Sample Support Question #2

You ask: “The image I uploaded to the header of my registration form is taking up too much space. How do I make it smaller?”

Just OK support: The support rep says you need to resize the image in a graphic editing program and then re-upload the image. That’s it, that’s all.

Wow! support: The support rep recognizes that you have limited knowledge of image editing, so they ask if you have any image editing software on your PC and if you know how to use it. If not, they ask if you have someone else in your office who can help you with that.

If you can’t get it done, the support rep might just ask you to send them to image, and take care of resizing the image for you, especially if you’ve built up a relationship with them.
  

Don’t underestimate the value of building up a relationship with support staff.  If you can email or talk to the same person or two when you need help, you won’t have to explain your situation over and over. You’ll likely get better answers, and the whole process will be more enjoyable because you’re dealing with someone you know at least a little.

Adding a map to an event website is fairly common these days, and if you invest a few extra minutes you can easily enhance it to make it stand out.

By enhancing a map we mean marking up the map with specific points of interest and notes that your event attendees need such as where to park, where to get a coffee or the best entrance to use.

Here’s an example of an enhanced map:

 
You can access the actual map in the image above with this link – http://goo.gl/maps/bWRHP. 

If you click on any of the icons while viewing the map you’ll see the sample text that we added.

It only takes a minute to add a point on the map and you can choose the icon, colour, title and add and format text. You can even add links to websites, photos and videos, mark out a route, give distances and more.

Once you’ve created a map you can invite other people on your team to collaborate with you and give them permission to add items and edit the map. All changes are updated in real time, so each time someone accesses the map they get the latest.

The number and type of items that you add to your maps will vary depending on the event and where people are coming from, but here are some suggestions to get you started.

• Where to park – you might want to add a note on the parking rates too
• The closest subway station
• The best walking route from the parking lot to subway station, maybe there’s a shortcut or a route that is mostly covered if it’s raining.
• The best entrance into the venue
• A nice place to get some fresh air
• Point out coffee shops and restaurants close to the venue.
• Shopping areas
• Grocery store
• Entertainment 
• Best place to catch a cab to the airport

Creating your own enhanced map

Creating a map like our example is easy and it will help you to wow your event participants even before the event starts.

To create one, use the feature in Google Maps called My Maps.

All that you need is a Google account and then follow these steps in this help article.

If you need a hand creating a map call our support team at 1-800-507-3759 or email support@eply.com and we will help you get started.

1 – Don’t use allcaps:
  

This one is just common sense. Besides looking aggressive and LIKE YOU’RE YELLING AT YOUR AUDIENCE, it’s one of the least sophisticated, and most common attention-getters that a spammer could use. While they’re getting more resrouceful, nobody ever said they were getting more tasteful.

2 – Beware of specific words and characters – especially in the subject line of the email:

 
Junk email filters tend to hone in on several “tried-and-true” key words, phrases, and characters. Try to keep your subject line free of overtly “sales-ey” terms (“Satisfaction Guaranteed!”, “Free fill in the blank!”, etc.). Under no circumstances put a dollar sign ($) in your subject line, which is the email equivalent of taking a bullhorn and announcing “I am spaaaammmm, please automatically file me away where nobody can see me!”

3 – Make the “Unsubscribe” link prominent on the email:

 
Although you ideally want a large list of potential contacts, if your unsubscribe link is difficult to find, your recipient might find it easier to lodge a complaint regarding your broadcast, which will hurt your online reputation. The more complaints received regarding the emails you send, the higher the likelihood that the email service provider will blacklist you altogether.

4 – Avoid overuse of images:

 
With all of the assets your marketing department might have on hand, it’d be hard not to be tempted to include five or six powerful images in your email broadcast – after all, you want this to look slick, right? Well, if you do go overboard with the graphics, the probablility that your email will be flagged as spam will skyrocket! Additionally, many email providers automatically filter out images (Hotmail and Gmail, to name two). The trick is not to eliminate images entirely, but rather to use them effectively:

a – Place your image as a banner: Place your image at the top of your email – don’t have it any wider than 700 pixels, or any taller than 75 pixels.

b – Keep most text out of the image: Use actual text for communicating words – messages with only graphical content and no actual text tend to be flagged. Also, if your image is filtered out, the actual message won’t be received.

c – Keep the file size reasonable: Who wants their email client clogged up with huge image files?

5 – Avoid red fonts:
  

As a colour that relays a sense of urgency, red fonts have been used extensively in the spamming world – avoid using red if at all possible.

Free Spam Testing Tool
  

There are a number of free tools online (such as http://spamscore.me/) that will take a sample email, process it, and assess its likelyhood of getting caught in a junk mail folder.

Until the day that promised FUSSP (Final, Ultimate Solution for the Spam Problem) finally comes around though, the three-way tug of war between spammers, anti-spam software engineers, and legitimate email marketers will continue. Whatever service you use, make sure that it’s reputable, and that they are actively working to prevent spam from being sent from their servers. The more spam they send, the higher the likelihood that they’ve been blacklisted by several email service providers, reducing your overall reach. It may be difficult to get a 100% delivery rate for your email broadcast, but with a few easy steps, you can definitely get most of them in.

To create a good looking form you don’t need to hire a graphic designer and a CSS coder, but rather just follow a few basic design and layout rules. If you are using a professional online registration system, you should be able to easily implement all of our suggestions yourself.

 
Registration Form Design Rules
 

Be Consistent

Spacing
 

When you scan through a registration form, or for that matter, a webpage or other document, it appears neater and more professional if the spacing between elements is consistent.

The same rule also applies to spacing between fields and other elements on your form.
  

Field Widths
  

When you have a series of text boxes in a column, making them a consistent size is easier on the eye.

Here is an example of text boxes that are sized to the width of the
expected text; it’s hard for the eye to scan through.
  

Here are the same text boxes sized more consistently and it is much neater.
  

In some case it makes sense to vary the size of a text box in a series to more closely match the expected data, but if you do, try to limit the number of different sizes, or group the similarly sized fields together if it makes sense.

Field Types
 

Each field type (text box, text area, radio button, drop down list and checkbox) generally has a specific purpose, but radio buttons and drop down list can often be used interchangeably.

Generally, drop down lists are better if you have a lot of options to choose from in a list so that the long list is tucked away until it’s clicked. Radio buttons can be better for short lists since you don’t have to click the field to see the available options.

That said, sometimes it looks better to use a drop down list for yes/no options if you already have a series of drop downs for other questions. Sticking with one field type can help prevent your form from looking cluttered, but you also need to consider the usability.
 

Font Types, Colours and Sizes
 

Pick one or two font styles and use them consistently. When you have too many font types, sizes and colours it adds to the cluttered look.

As an example you might want to have all of the field labels and text as Arial 10pt and headings as Arial 12 pt and bold.
  

If you look close you will see this example shows several fonts sizes and styles. Some people may not see the actual differences, but it will just not look quite right to them.

Wording
 

Paying attention to the small details will help to give your form an extra professional feel. For example, all dollar amounts on your form should be formatted in the same way, all with the currency symbol and/or cents or all without. ( $100.00, $100, etc.). The same applies for times and dates; use the am/pm or a.m./p.m. and include the year in the date or don’t. It’s a matter of personal preference, but be consistent with what you choose.
  

Line Up Fields and Text

There are many options for positioning fields on a form, but we think that when you have a series of text boxes with short labels (like for collecting contact information), it’s best to have the boxes right aligned with the labels on the left.
  

Left aligned like this is too messy.
  

Right aligned like this is much neater.

When you are adding check boxes, drop downs and radio buttons, it’s often neatest to left align them and position the label on top of the field because the field labels and sizes will usually vary more on this part of a form.
  

Labels on the left make the form look messy.
 

 
Here are the same fields with labels on the top; much easier to use.
  

You also want to avoid text that wraps in a bad spot or leaves one hanging word. You can almost always adjust the width or the text to avoid this.
  

Don’t Supersize It

Yes, your logo is important and you want to make sure that registrants see the logos of your sponsors, but there is a point at which having an overly large logo wastes space, looks unprofessional and sends the message that you don’t know how to resize an image and didn’t want to ask for help.
  

Poor quality, over-sized logo.
 

Smaller, quality image looks better and takes up less space.
  

Don’t Over Format

There are a lot of formatting options available: size, colour, style, position, etc, but it doesn’t mean that you have to use them all! Keep it simple and consistent and resist the urge to use a big font that is bolded, underlined and in italics. A good rule of thumb is to never use more than two fonts on a page.

Over bolding is another common issue. If you bold everything, the effect is diminished – it’s like not having anything bolded at all. See these bolding examples:
  

Too much bold text so nothing really stands out.
  

Bold titles only to draw attention to certain areas.
  

Finally, we suggest to avoid underlining text online, as this is reserved to indicate a link.
  

Use of Colour

We always recommend matching the colour scheme of the registration form to the event website as closely as possible. There are several online tools available to help you capture the exact colour value – a particularly useful (free) tool is ColorZilla, available at http://www.colorzilla.com.
  

Use Less Text

We hope you’re reading this article, but when it comes to  reading something online, people generally skim it at best. For online forms, most people won’t read the text and just start filling in the fields.

Our recommendation is that you build your form in a way that makes it so that you don’t need to provide instructions and in a way that a mistake can’t be made. Not only will this result in a cleaner looking form but it will be easier to use and save you the time of writing out detailed instructions.

If you do need to have some text describing the option,s keep it short and use bullet points. If the same text is also on your website, just link to it from your registration form so that there is less text on the form and if you need to edit the text, it only needs to be changed in one place.

Here’s an example of how you can reduce the amount of text on your fields while at the same time make the questions easier to answer because there’s less reading.

  
An example where the users must read “Will you be attending the” for each option. This slows down the registration process and adds clutter to the screen.
  

 
Here the repeated text is removed to make it easier to read with less clutter.
  

Have a Comfortable Amount of White Space and Margin

Make sure that you have a reasonable and consistent amount of margin between the edge of your form and the text and fields on the form. Seeing text or fields touching the edge of a form is a sure sign of a rush job.
  

It looks unprofessional to have text touching the edge of the form.
  

 
Much neater now.

Another critical place for white space is around the submit button to make sure that it really stands out.
  

Here is a submit button buried in text.
 

Lots of nice white space here to help this critical button stand out.

Organize Fields Using Section Dividers

Grouping your fields in a logical way with section dividers will make your form easy to scan through. Common groupings are contact information, registration options, group registration and session selection.
  

Use Built-in Logic To Hide Fields Until Needed

An easy way to make your form easier to complete is to hide fields that aren’t applicable to certain people. For example, if someone indicates that they are a member, hide all of the fields only applicable to non-members. Spend a few minutes setting up this type of logic and your event registrants will be impressed with how slick your form is.
 

Use Quality Graphics

A bad image will really stand out and lower the overall quality of your form.  If you aren’t familiar with properly re-sizing images, cropping, pulling images from other websites, etc. ask for help or get someone to do it for you.
  

Get a Little Bit Fancy

After you’ve taken care of the basics, you might want to fancy up your form a little more with some background gradients or other style to polish it up and make it have the same look and feel as your website or event marketing material.

If you are using the ePly system contact one of our experts to take care of this part for you for free.

Let us know if you have any comments or questions or if you have some other ideas for building good looking registration forms.

Populate Contact Information Automatically

If use you the ePly system to send out an event invitation to your list of contacts, when a contact clicks the “Register” link in the email the system can automatically fill in the registrant’s name, address, phone number and email address on the registration form.

If you aren’t using the ePly system to send invitations, there are still ways to auto populate data on the form, call us to discuss the options with you.
  

Public Reports

Sometimes the need comes up to share registration data on your website or with a group of people who don’t have access to login to the ePly system.  With the new public report feature, a custom report can be set to public allowing anyone with the report link to view it.

You might want to use this feature to post a of list of people who’ve registered for the event or a list of sponsors.  Any custom report that you create can be made public, but please use caution and only show information that you have permission to give out.

Here’s how you can make a report public.
  

Calculated Columns in Reports

When you create a custom report, you can now add columns that contain formulas.  For example if you have a column that indicates someone is attending the event, plus another column with the number of guests they are bringing, you can add a third column that will sum the first two for an overall total of how many people will be attending.

Basic arithmetic operators are supported and you can also combine text fields using a formula such as making a first and last name appear together in a separate column.

See adding calculated columns to reports.
  

Formatting Control of Registration Details in Confirmation Emails

Until now, you’ve only been able to insert the details for each registration into the bottom of a confirmation email with no control over the font style or colour.  Now, you can insert a block of registration details anywhere in your confirmation email and specify the formatting to match the rest of your email and brand.

To position and format registration data in your confirmation email see point 8 in the this help item.
  

New Control For Group Registration

In some situations, you’ve needed to contact ePly to do a bit of custom programming on forms with different pricing levels and discount options on forms involving groups or ticketed events.  Now, you have greater control over this area and can set up your own logic to open up the right number of fields for ticketholder names and/or group details.

Call our free support to help you set this up.

ePly Event Registration is always open to feature requests – contact us at support@eply.com if you have an idea to improve our online registration solution.

Conventional logic tells us to keep things simple when putting up an event registration form – keep as few barriers as possible between your attendee and their successful registration. Keep it simple, right? This generally works well for things like receptions and corporate events. There are times however that you will want to ask for a few questions other than just name and address. For recurring events with participant-tailored content (such as annual conferences) you will want to get a bit more information. Listed below are four examples of how when it comes to repeated events, it’s all about the numbers:

Example 1: You’re organizing a conference with two types of professionals, Doctors and Nurses, in San Francisco. The original plan was to organize educational content as 80% doctor’s sessions, and 20% nurse’s sessions. After historical data collected via registration is reviewed however, it shows a 30% increase in the proportion of nurses at shows previously held in San Francisco – session topics may now be adjusted accordingly to allow for the projected increase in the number of attending nurses.

Example 2: The deadline for finalizing your event catering is rapidly approaching. At first you based the quantity of food ordered at the reception based solely on the number of attendees. At an average of 13 pieces of food per person for a reception that serves as a meal, and projected attendance of 125 people, you initially calculate 1625 pieces of hors d’oeurvres will be needed. A quick look at the reporting tells you however that fully 30% of the attendees going to the Opening Reception are actually graduate students. Cash strapped, hungry grad students, who without fail will always eat 50-75% more than your average attendee. After reviewing the registration demographics, you know to increase the catering numbers, lest the students devour all of the food before the reception is half over!

Example 3: Your International Annual Meeting on Business Management alternates yearly between locales on the East Coast and the West Coast of North America. Past data indicates that every year the Meeting is on the West Coast, a large number of MBAs from China attend. You may decide that based on this data, some sessions held jointly with a Chinese business school may be in order, or that perhaps an Alumni Reception would work.

Example 4: You are a long time non-profit event planner who has found their dream job in a faraway land. You have managed your association’s Bi-Annual Meeting for the last eight years, and your last task in your current role is to bring your replacement up to speed. Having eight years of detailed demographic information on hand is going to make your replacement’s transition period a lot smoother. She’ll be able to understand your attendees that much better, and you’ll have more time for packing.

These are just a few of the ways that you can use registration data collection and archives to your advantage.  To help get set up for your upcoming events, call 1-800-507-3759.

Justin Dyck – ePly Account Manager

1-800-507-3759 x 902

justin@eply.com

Justin is one of ePly Event Registration’s account managers. He’s worked with large corporations, as well as tiny non-profits. He knows when to speak, but more importantly, he knows when not to. Justin’s priority is to find out exactly what you need, and to give you the tools you require to make a truly informed decision.

ePly event registration tradeshow booth

A poorly planned or executed onsite registration could put the successful opening of your event at risk. Attendees tend to arrive in waves, with one of the largest waves crashing in right before the event opening. If your onsite registration is disorganized, your attendees will be kept in long lineups, leading to them possibly missing the opening ceremonies or their early sessions. This now-entrenched attendee dissatisfaction could colour your participants’ view of the entire event right from the moment that they arrive, particularly if they’ve traveled a long way to attend.

Onsite registration requires planning and resources. For a larger event, a single desk with a pile of badges isn’t going to do it. Here are the top five tips for a pain-free onsite registration:

1. Set up early:
Setting up a registration counter takes longer than you might think, particularly if you are installing things like badge printers. You’ve got to make sure that your supply shipment has arrived, set up your materials, test your network connection…the list goes on. Give yourself enough time to properly set up, so you don’t get caught unprepared when attendees start to arrive.

2. Divide up your counters by purpose:
It’s always a good idea to divide your onsite registration into a section for those who registered in advance, and a section for walk-ins. This way, the people who are just picking up their badges and materials won’t be held up by people going through the registration process onsite. Get a completely separate check-in area for your VIPs – registration lineups can be lengthy, and you might not want your speakers, executives, or high-level sponsors waiting for very long. For a small budgeted event get a separate counter for your VIPs; for a large-scale event, get a separate room entirely.

3. Maximize your work area’s potential: It’s always a good idea to have a set of tables behind your counter, so that you can set up badge printers, supplies, and workstations (your other events won’t wait while you’re tending registration for this one!). These back tables also come in handy for storing items under – extra boxes of tote bags, programs, and the like. If you do use the space underneath as storage, it’s a good idea to get the counters draped to hide your items. Of course, never leave valuables unattended at the counter, even if they’re hidden. As tight as security can sometimes be at public venues, undesirable elements are always finding new ways inside, no matter what city you’re in. Your venue will generally have a clause in the event contract stating that they are not responsible for lost or stolen items, so keep an eye out.

4. Assign line monitors: The longer the line, the more likely that your attendees will be in the wrong one! During particularly busy times, designate one of your staff members as a line monitor. Have them walk up the line, directing your attendees to their appropriate counter. Having someone spend a few minutes doing this will save your attendees an enormous amount of grief, and spare you the brunt of their anger.

5. Train your staff well: For larger events with multiple registration categories and complex procedures, remember to take enough time to be able to train your registration staff on policies and procedures. An untrained clerk can hold up the process significantly. Place the most trained staff at the onsite registration counters – they’ll have to deal with the nitty gritty of your registration procedures. Staff the pre-registration counter (badge and materials pick up for those who pre-registered before arriving) with the people who are friendly, but perhaps less intimately familiar with things like registration categories and pricing.

With a bit of planning ahead, and appropriate resource allocation your onsite registration process will be unhindered by major blockages, and your participants will be able to move ahead with the event in no time.

1. Substance versus Style:
   Style is important, but substance is much more so when selecting a registration vendor. The product may look slick, but will it do what you need it to do? Make sure that you see some real examples of registration forms done on your potential vendor’s system. See if you can get them to build you a demo featuring your requirements and branding, and not just have them show you pre-made forms that may not be relevant to your business.
     
2. Customer Support:
   Get the idea of the service level that their support team really provides by dialing your prospective vendor’s support line, or sending a question by email. You’ll get an idea of the hold and response times, and a sense of how helpful the support will be when you really need it. Take particular note to see if you can call the same agent directly, or if you simply get placed into a high-traffic call centre queue.
     
3. Corporate History:
   What reputation does your vendor carry? Have they been named in any lawsuits? Take your prospective vendor’s name, and enter it into Google along with terms like “review” or “lawsuit”. You may be surprised at what you find!
     
4. The Fine Print:
   As much as it seems like common sense, read every point on the service agreement that is sent to you. The most important points may not be highlighted:
    
   1. Are you being forced into a minimum term to use the service?
   2. Is there an automatic renewal clause? If so, are you guaranteed the same rate or lower once renewal rolls around? Watch for terms like “Then Current Rates” or “Market Rates” when examining this clause – this gives the vendor freedom to increase the fees with renewal.
   3. Are there penalties if you cancel?
   4. Who owns and has rights to use the collected registration data?
   5. Are you pressured to use additional features that are from obvious affiliates, such as venue selection software? Your vendor gets a kickback every time you use these “free” extras.
       

   If your account manager dances around these points, you might want to put them at the bottom of your list.

5. Comprehension of your business needs:
   If you have specific requirements and are unsure if the account manager fully understands them, have them reiterate your needs in writing. If they don’t understand what’s required of their product, how can they provide the service? If you are getting a written quote for a registration provider to set up your registration form for you or for custom work, the quote should clearly state what work will be done and for what cost. If you get a quote that simply states an hourly rate with a time estimate, you might be in for a nasty surprise. A company that is confident in their product and service will have no problem giving you a proper scope of work and a fixed price so you know exactly what you are getting.
    
6. Your own instinct:
   Trust your gut! If you feel that an account manager is leading you down the garden path, they most likely are. When you tell them that you’re not sure, and that you’ll call back with an answer after careful deliberation, do they call you back incessantly anyways? Are they very aggressive? People tend to know on an instinctual level when they’re being played, but they can sometimes be overcome with a few loud promises. Listen to that inner voice that says “Warning!” – It could save you a lot of time and frustration down the road. A professional sales person will:
    
   1. Ask questions to understand your exact requirements.
   2. Let you speak without interruption.
   3. Do what they say they will, when they say they will.
   4. Be very clear on price and terms.
   5. Recommend a different solution if they feel their company isn’t able to fully meet your requirements.

       

Meet Justin:

(Artist's depiction)

Justin Dyck is one of ePly Event Registration’s account managers. He’s worked with large corporations, as well as tiny non-profits. He knows when to speak, but more importantly, he knows when not to. Justin’s priority is to find out exactly what you need, and to give you the tools you require to make a truly informed decision.

Justin will be at the IncentiveWorks 2012 Trade Show in Toronto, ON August 21 and 22 – meet him and ePly President Jim Romanik at booth 738 to learn more about the ePly Event Registration System. For more information, go to http://www.incentiveworksshow.com/

Event registration has always been more than simply taking names and counting tickets – that’s why the ePly Development Team has been hard at work, adding new features and functionality to our online registration software package.

Email Invitations

ePly clients can now upload a list of contacts and send out email invitations to events from within the ePly system.

When you login, you will see a new tab in the upper right called Contacts that will take you to the contact and email management area.  From here you can upload contacts, create email templates and track the emails that you send.

You have access to set up and test the emails and related features, but before you can actually send out your first email campaign, you will need to contact ePly to enable sending on your account.  

Custom Roles

Many event stakeholders who aren’t necessarily authorized to modify your carefully set parameters require access to reporting and other event information. Rather than constantly creating reports, you can now create custom roles for your stakeholders. The custom roles feature allows you to have greater control over what the users in your account can see and/or edit.  For example you can create a role where a user can only see a particular report and nothing else, or a user that can access the set up area, but only make changes on certain pages.

Top of Report Filters

On the standard reports you can now filter the data right on the report.

Just enter some text in the filter box to get started.  To see all of the filter option click the filter icon.

Coming Soon

French Interface

The ePly system already supports French registration forms and currency formatting, but soon you will be able to set up forms and work with reports in French too. It will just be a few clicks to switch between languages.

Merge Fields for Forms

This will be a big time saver for people with events that use essentially the same form layout,  but just need to update details such as the time date and location for each new event.  Once this is launched you will only need to update the new details in a single place and the changes will be reflected anywhere you use the merge field such as in the form header, closed page, confirmation email, etc.

Trade Show Appearance 21 & 22.

We will be in Toronto exhibiting at the Incentive Works trade show August 21 & 22.  If you are planning on attending please stop by booth #738 to meet a few of the ePly staff in person.

To help show this, we’ve set up two sample form sections with four simple yes/no fields. Each section collects exactly same information, with the same fields, but visually they are much different.

 
Option #1 – Text heavy labels

The formatting and field labels here will work, but we think it could be better.  Here are some issues that we see:

1. The words “will you be attending the” and the dates are repeated for each field.  This adds unnecessary clutter to the form making it seem more complicated than it really is.
2. The repeated text also makes it hard to scan though the form to quickly choose an answer without reading, this can frustrate registrants and lead to errors.

Option #2 – Concise labels and formatting

1. We’ve removed the repeated text since the instructions at the top of the section already tell people what to do.
2. With the extra text removed, registrants can instantly see what activity they are registering for.
3. We added in the day of the week so registrants don’t need to go look at a calendar to figure out the day.
4. We added in a divider line so that at a glance you can see there are options over multiple days.
5. Bold was added to the date to help it stand out and further help divide the days.

The amount of work to set up either registration form is about the same, so the next time you’re building a form, see if you can adjust your labels to make the form easier to use and maybe even get a few more people registering for your event.

 
Field Setup

Before this update, when you were adding list items to drop down lists or radio buttons you had to save after adding each one.  If you were editing the items, you would need to click edit, make the change and then click save.  If you had a long list, you could have been doing a lot of clicking.

Now when you go into a check box, radio button or drop down list field, you will see that it loads the list items in edit mode.  You can add new items and edit existing ones and then just click save once when you’re done.

The save button appears at the top, middle and bottom of the page to minimize how far you need to scroll to save.

Also notice the new drag handles in the image below.  Use these to easily re-order your list items.

 (click image to view full size)

Limits Report

When you have automatic limits on your form, you will likely be monitoring them on a regular basis to see how items are selling and making adjustments as needed.  To make it easier to monitor the limits, you will now see a limits report appear in your report list if you are using this feature.

URL changes to eply.com

To direct people to your registration forms, the address (URL) has always started with www.eplyevents.com, for example www.eplyevents.com/myevent.   We’ve switched over to using www.eply.com for the address of your forms to keep the addresses a little shorter.  You don’t need to change anything as all of the existing addresses will continue to work, but going forward, when you generate an address for your form on the form links page you will see it using www.eply.com.

 
Show and Hide Logic

You now have the ability to show or hide one field based on the response from another field.  See an example of the show and hide logic.  Using this logic will help to guide your registrants though the form by only showing them fields applicable to them.

Hide a Whole Section

If you’ve ever needed to hide a whole section of your registration form because you wanted to launch the form before you had all of the details or were doing a staged registration process, now you can.  Just go into the properties for the section you would like to hide and un-check the “Visible” box.

Demo Mode Trick

Once you’ve made your form live, you may still have a need to put in a test registration.  To do this without affecting your live form or your registration data, open your form in your browser and add /demo to the end of the URL that appears in the address bar and press enter (the url should look similar to www.eply.com/yourevent/demo).  This will reload the form for you in demo mode so that you can submit a test registration.

If your form is closed, you can also add the /demo to the end of the URL in on the closed page.  This will bypass the closed page and show you the actual registration form.

Please feel free to contact us for help any of these new features.

There are many important factors in putting on a successful meeting, conference or event including making sure you have a cost-effective program for accepting Visa and MasterCard.

Most merchants deal with their bank for the initial set-up but often end up switching providers as the industry is becoming increasingly competitive putting downward pressure on pricing.   But before switching providers it is important to make sure all of the costs associated with the new offer are understood so as to avoid cost ‘surprises’.

Part of the change that the industry has under gone in the last five to ten years is a move away from a single price driver – discount rate to a model that makes use of multiple price drivers.   The new model can make it difficult to really understand what is important when it comes to pricing.    Table 1.0 illustrates the differences between the old and new pricing models.

Table 1.0

Typically the new model is sold with a too-good-too-be-true discount rate while the merchant potentially ends up overpaying on the other fees.   Because of this it would not be unusual for a merchant to end up saving only a nominal amount of money despite paying a substantially lower discount rate with their new provider.    To effectively compare competing offers merchants need to focus on the monthly or yearly costs and not the individual pricing components of the offer.

Once a merchant has a real understanding to the costs involved with switching to a new credit card provider the next step is completing the necessary paperwork and signing the Agreement.    Prior to signing the new agreement a merchant would be wise to make sure there aren’t any ‘hidden’ fees in the agreement.   Some providers charge a fee to change a bank account or mailing address while others charge prohibitive cancelation fees.   If also entering into a lease agreement make sure the end of lease procedures (and costs) are understood.

It often makes a lot of sense for a merchant to change providers as the savings can be substantial but proper due diligence is required.   A confident sales rep will spend as much time as required to explain the how they have priced the account so don’t be afraid to ask questions.   And remember discount rate is now just a part of the costs associated with accepting credit cards.

At ePly we refer our clients needing to open new merchant accounts to:

Canadian merchant accounts – Caledon Card Services

US merchant accounts – eOnline Data

Be careful, however, with how you word the code field and any related text on the form as well as with the codes that you choose to use or you might end up with some frustrated registrants and extra work on your end.

Here is what we recommend:

The wording on the form

If you label your code field as a discount code or promo code you might have some registrants feeling left out and wondering why they aren’t getting a discount.  If you use a more generic label such as “code” or “registration code” that doesn’t as clearly imply a discounted rate, you may not get as much unwanted attention.

How many codes to use

If you can keep the number of codes to a minimum you will make your life as an event planner easier.  If you have just one code for speakers and one for sponsors, then you only have to send out two codes.  If you have a different code for each speaker and sponsor, then you will need to merge the appropriate code into an email and will need to be looking up individual codes when people lose them and call into you.

Either way you can monitor the use of the codes using the registration system, so keep it simple at your end.

Make codes easy to enter

As we discussed in our post called Keeping People Honest With Member Rates on Online Event Registration Forms, it’s unlikely that people are going to try to cheat by using a code that they aren’t entitled to because they expect that you are checking and will eventually have to attend the event and don’t want to get caught.  On the other hand, you want to make the codes unique enough that someone isn’t simply going to guess it.

In general, you should avoid the following when coming up with your codes:

• Spaces – people are unsure if they should enter the space or not
• Punctuation – it can be unclear as to whether quotes, periods or other punctuation are a part of the code you are providing or just a part of the sentence the code is included in
• Mixed cases – keeping your codes all upper or all lower case will make them easier to enter
• Avoid the number one (1) and zero (0) as in some fonts they can be confused with upper case (I) or lower case (l) and upper case (O)

Good code examples:

• speaker2233
• sponsor5594

 
What to do if you catch someone using a code when they aren’t supposed to:

If you do see someone misusing codes it’s likely an honest mistake, or at least approach it like it is.  A simple phone call to ask the registrant where they got the code from or a question such as, “I see you used a sponsor code, are you planning to become a sponsor?” should usually clear it up.

As long as you are doing your checking before the event it’s easy to charge a credit card for the difference or send another invoice and if the bill isn’t paid you don’ t have to let the registrant into the event.

The conversation usually starts out with our client thinking that they will need to integrate their membership database with the registration system or upload lists of members.  While this is all possible, we always start out by suggesting some easy to implement options before calling in the geeks.

Option #1 – Do nothing

Registering for an event is different than purchasing merchandise online.  With an event registration, you need to show up in person to get what you paid for.  This means that most people won’t try to cheat by paying the lower rate when they aren’t members because they know that the event planner could be monitoring the data and they could easily be caught.

We like this solution because there is nothing extra to set up and it doesn’t make registering any more complicated.  Lots of our clients use this option and we’ve never had any reports of people cheating.

Option #2 – Add some text

If you think that you might have a few opportunists in your group, add a bit of text to the form just to make it clear such as “If you choose the member rate, but are not a member in good standing, you will be required to pay the difference before entering the event”.

This option is still easy to set up and doesn’t require the registrant to do any extra work.

Option #3 – Add a field on the form to collect a member number

If you have less faith that your registrants are going to do the right thing, you can add a field that requires people selecting the member rate to enter their member number.   The field can be set up to accept any number or you can add a high level validation to check that the number entered matches a specified format.  For example, if your member numbers are all six digits long and start with a two, the system won’t accept the registration if the number entered doesn’t match those criteria.

This is a little more work to set up, but still on the easy side.  However, this option will require that your members know their member number, so there could be some potential for frustration or a delay in registering if they don’t know their number or have to go hunting for it.  It could also generate some calls or emails to you from people needing to be reminded of their number.

Option #4 – Call in the geeks

If you are really concerned or have some other reason for needing to fully verify members, it can be possible to do some integration work, but it will cost you some programming time and you may need to have someone technical on your end too.

With this option, when you factor in the cost of the programming and time to get set up, compare that to the potential lost revenue if the odd person does cheat and pays a lower rate.  You’ll probably find that the numbers favour the honour system.

Remember, you are always able to run a report of everyone paying the member rate and do a bit of manual checking against your member list.  It’s not the most technologically advanced option, but it works and just costs a bit of time.

Adding this field will please your event attendees who prefer to go by something other than their official given name and will mean that all of the Roberts, Williams, Benjamins, Christophers, Barbaras, Elizabeths, Victorias and others won’t be constantly telling the new people they meet to call them something else.

Warning

Before you go ahead and add this field, consider how you plan to format your badges.  Some careful thought now will help to prevent some time consuming editing when it comes time to lay out and merge the data to the badges.

If you just add a field to your registration form called “Name for Badge” you will be able to collect some data, but here’s what can happen:

1. Some people will enter a first name only and others will enter a first and last name. 

   Either way you will have the data, but you probably want to make all of the badges consistent so you will have to edit all of the “name for badge” data before producing the badges.

2. You won’t be able to automatically sort your name badges by last name.

   If your event is small, maybe this isn’t a concern, but if you have a hundred or more badges, you will need them in alphabetical order by last name to be efficient.  If the first and last name are combined in the same field and you do an alphabetical sort it’s going to sort on first name.

3. You will be limited by layout and formatting options.

   Often you will see first names in a larger font than last names and first and last names on different lines.  You may also decide that you only want a first name on a badge.  If you collect first and last name in the same field you’ll be in for some manual work separating the names or need to learn a few Excel tricks to parse out the data automatically.

To make generating name badges easier, here’s what we recommend:

1. Add one field to your registration form called “First Name for Name Badge”.
    
1. This wording makes it clear that you are only after a first name.
    
2. The majority of the time a name badge name is just a variation of a first name so it’s not necessary to ask for a “Last Name for Name Badge”.
    
2. Set up the online registration form to automatically take the data from the regular  first name field and copy it to the first name for name badge field.
    
1. This makes it easy for people who don’t have a variation of their first name for a badge as they won’t have to do anything.
    
2. For people who do have an alternate first name, they will simply edit the name that shows up in the field.

If your online registration system can’t automatically copy the registrant’s first name into the first name for badge field, you should make the first name for badge field mandatory.  If you don’t, some people may leave the field blank which will mean that you have to manually edit the blank fields to contain a name before you start your merge to create the badges.

Using these recommendations will give you the flexibility to format and sort your name badges to accommodate last minute requests from your client, boss or committee without spending hours manually editing data.

If you have other tips for keeping name badges easy, please let us know.

The questions touch on registration software, security, credit card processing and best practices.  After the quiz you’ll see your score and get an explanation for each question.
 

Take the Online Registration Quiz Now

Contact us or leave a comment to let us know how you did.

This can lead to the inevitable rush order and the potential for missed opportunities when it comes to getting the most out of conference supplies.

Name Badges help delegates be more visible and to network with the right people, so here are our top tips on how to get people talking and to help create a unique experience where name badges are kept as a memento instead of being thrown away right after the event.

Get creative with your name badge inserts

Everyone loves to see their name in lights, so why not spend a few extra cents to make your conference ID stand out? High quality professional print name badge inserts may not be within your marketing budget, but a colourful or unusual name badge can be a talking point.

If you want to get really creative and involve your audience you could ask delegates in advance to send you some fun details about themselves.  A picture of a pet, a favourite quote or one question they would like to be asked. Providing a talking point can take the hard work out of introductions and start things off with a fun and relaxed atmosphere.

Remind delegates in the opening speech to check other name badges for hidden details, and you could create a talking point and buzz well before and long after the conference.

Use no twist badges & lanyards

There is nothing worse than forgetting the name of the person you have just met – especially at a Conference! If networking is a key part of the agenda, good quality lanyards and badge holders with inserts that are printed clearly with the name in large print are essential for at-a-glance name recall.

Badges can also turn around the wrong way as people move, so delegate names are not always facing forwards. Investing in good quality ‘no twist’ lanyards will help to keep your identification facing out so people can see it.

Supersize / Go large

Traditional conference badge holders are roughly the size of two credit cards laid next to each other by the long side. They hold the usual credentials with just enough room for a logo, but more often than not you have to be standing in front of the person wearing the name badge in order to see the details.

If you want to pack a little more punch to your credentials, larger badge holders are twice the size of a normal convention badge holder, and horizontal or vertical, there is more room to slot in extra paperwork. They are also made with thicker vinyl so are less likely to twist.

If you have a little extra budget, you can invest in premium neck wallets with zippers and as many extra pockets as you wish. Not only are they stylish and comfortable, extra pockets make sure that event visitors have enough room to carry all the promotional items they may pick up. They are also very useful outside of the event so often get used at home and at work, so if your logo is on it, you get extra visibility.

Lanyards are fashionable and functional!

Lanyards are fashionable and functional, so to encourage delegates to continue to wear your brand long after the event, create lanyards with a fashionable or funky design.

The easiest way to get full colour lanyards is to ask for photo-print or dye sublimation processing. This process enables you to print entire pictures of anything you like on to both sides of your lanyard and really can help you stand out from the crowd.

Clever use of attachments can also make sure your lanyards are used over and over again. Bulldog clips are easier to attach but are seldom used after an event as they are specific to the badge holder. Swivel hooks however can be used to attach keys and many other items, so if you can get through the additional work required to clip them on to the name badge holders, you may see your brand on the high street creating a fashion statement long after the event.

Use quality products

Event organizers spend a lot of time and money creating a great conference at a great venue, with the best speakers, but often try to cut corners at the end. Economy products or lanyards that twist, make people sweat, or break can often end up being the talking point you don’t want.

Remember that happy or unhappy, delegates talk, so make sure your event is remembered for all the right reasons.

Consider purchasing your printed lanyards, neck wallets and conference ID supplies form www.mybadges.ca.

Email and social media are great tools for promoting events, but if your event isn’t selling out it might be time to try something a little more old fashioned.

You might not want to hear it, but making sales calls can be a great way to sell out your event.  This is especially true if your event is happening soon and your numbers are down, as you can get almost instant results.

For a lot of people it’s been a long time since they made a sales call and some have never made one.  Before you start making excuses for not picking up the phone like “I hate cold calling”, “phone sales doesn’t work anymore” or “it’s not a part of my job” read on to see how easy it can be.

Here’s how to make a sales call to sell your event.

First, start with the easy calls.  If you’ve put on the event in the past, dig out the old attendee lists and start at the top.  Look at the name and then check your online registration system to see if that person has already registered.  If they aren’t registered, pick up the phone and dial away.

If you’re nervous, don’t think of it as a sales call, think of it as just following up with past attendees to make sure they are aware of the new event.  Remember, many people may be intending to register, but just keep putting it off, so your call may be helping them to get something off of their to do list.

Sample Script

Here’s a sample script that you can use to get started.  Never read from a script and be sure to adjust it to fit your style and relationship with the people you are calling.

Hello, _________, I’m _________ and am calling on behalf of _____________.

I noticed that you attended the (name of past event), but you aren’t currently registered for (name of the new event).

I’m calling to see if I can help you get registered.

Just wait to see how they respond and take it from there.  Here are a few likely situations:

If they say – “Sure, I’ve been meaning to sign up” – perfect that’s what you want to hear.  At this point it would be easy to tell them to go to the online form and register themselves, but I would recommend that you pull up the online form on your computer and register the person by asking for their details while you have them.

If they say – “I’m not sure if I can make it”

Say – “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that, what part of the event can’t you make?” – once you know when the conflict is, maybe suggest registering for one day, just the gala or other part of the event if that’s an option.

If they can’t make it at all, it doesn’t hurt to ask if there is someone else at their company that would want to attend or if they can suggest anyone else you should call.  You have nothing to lose by asking and you may be surprised at how helpful people are.

If they say – “the price is too high, it’s not in the budget” or give another price related objection.

Say – “lots of people are excited about the event because it includes… (list the education, the networking, the food, etc. to show the value they are getting for the price).  The point here isn’t to go on and on, but make sure it is clear what the price includes.

If it is truly a budget issue try suggesting that they just attend a part of the event at a lower cost.  While you have them on the phone also ask how much they think would be a fair price.  This will give you valuable feedback for future events.

If they say – “I’m not interested in the event”

Say – “oh, what part aren’t you interested in?”  Try to get them talking a little more as “not interested” could be an easy excuse covering up the real objection.

Once you have the details of the objection you can respond appropriately; maybe they just didn’t think they were interested because they didn’t have all of the details.

If there really is no interest, try asking what they would be interested in attending to help you plan future events.

Other tips when calling

1. Speak slowly and clearly, especially at the beginning.
2. A good time to practice some calling is the day before a price change, this way you are really being helpful by calling to remind people the price goes up tomorrow.
3. Avoid asking “how are you” at the start of the call, especially if you don’t know them.  People are busy, just get right into why you are calling.
4. Just give your first name, people won’t remember your last name.
5. Keep a few notes about who you’ve called, when you’ve left voice mail etc. so that you aren’t calling the same person too many times.  If you have more than one person making calls, divide up the list or have some other way to not duplicate calls.
6. Keep track of the wording that works and modify your script.  You’ll be able to use it for other events or share it with your team.
7. If you are leaving voice mail, give your phone number twice as it gives people a chance to write it down.
8. Close your email and remove other distractions so that you can focus on getting though a series of calls.  Once you are warmed up you’ll want to keep going.

If you would like us to review your script or need some help coming up with some ideas, please let us know and we’d be happy to help.

This tip is about the critical step of linking your event website, email marketing or other promotional material to your online registration form.  Done right, this link will actually increase the number of registrations you get.  If you don’t give careful attention to this step, you could be missing out on registrations and end up missing out on revenue.

There are two main components to setting up an effective link from your event website/marketing to your registration form.

Critical component #1 – Make your register button very visible

You would be surprised at how often we check on one of our client’s websites and have to hunt around to find the link to the online registration form.

Often the link is buried in a menu system or at the bottom of several paragraphs of text that people may never even read.

Here are our suggestions:

1. Come up with an eye catching image that really stands out.  This image needs to clearly stand out against your background colours and immediately catch the user’s attention.

   If you or someone on your team doesn’t know how to create an image of your own using a graphics editing program you might want to hire a graphics designer or check with your webmaster.  If you are in need of ideas for you button, do a search in Google images on the term “register now button” and you will find hundreds of examples.

2. Make your image actually look like a button.  It will help drive people to click it.

3. Add your button at the top and the bottom of your web pages.  Some people may land on your website and be ready to register right away, so make it easy for them by having a button at the top.  Others may skim though the text and scroll to the bottom of your page, so you need a button there too.

Critical component #2 – Use a Call to action

The second critical component is a call to action.  If you look closely at any good marketing piece, you will find a call to action such as “call now”, “request more information” or “get your free quote”.  You need to tell people what to do with a simple statement.

The most basic call to action to register for an event is “Register Now”.  This text should be incorporated into the graphic image that you create.

To take your call to action to the next level, work in some supporting text that creates a sense of urgency to help to drive even more registrations.  For example, giving a deadline to register, stating the end of early bird pricing or that the event is nearly sold out will help people take immediate action.

Some examples are:

-          Register now – early bird price ends today

-          Register now – this event is nearly sold out

Bonus Tip #1 – Add in text links.

Be sure to add text links where appropriate in the text on your event website.  For example, if you have the text “online registration will close June 1” on your website, make sure that the words “online registration” link to your registration form.

Bonus Tip #2 – Test all of your links

If you have a broken link on your website, you are losing registrations.  Most potential registrants won’t take the time to troubleshoot a broken link or contact you to let you know there is a problem; they just leave your site.  It only takes a few minutes, so be sure to test all of the links on your website.