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The Meeting Planner's Online Advantage: 8 Surefire Ways to Attract
20% More Attendees
by Bill Flagg
Published on this site: June 28th, 2006 - See more
articles from this month
8 Ways an automated system makes it easier for attendees, giving you
more registrations:
- Provide 24 hour, anywhere access.
Give prospective registrants anytime/anywhere access to your event information
so that they can easily find, refer back to, and recommend your event
to others. An automated system increases the ease of access, enhancing
the chances of people making a decision to attend your event.
- Auto-fill information and steer attendees to your goal.
Make it easier for registrants to say yes by auto-filling their registration
form and auto-selecting their registration type options (member, non-member,
sponsor, etc.) Some automated systems allow your form to pre-populate
known contact information into a prospective attendee's registration
form and then steer them down the proper registration path based on
their registration type.. It's less confusing for them and you get correct data the first time.
- Provide payment solutions.
More payment options equals more registrants. Each person typically
has a preferred mode of payment that, if not offered, will cause them
to hesitate or not enroll at all. Make sure you offer all five of the
major credit cards (Visa, Master Card, Amex, Diners & Discover),
as well as checks, echecks, and PayPal. A good online registration system
enables you to easily offer and accept all of these payment options,
in real-time, with automatic processing.
- Implement 'one-stop shopping'.
One of the biggest reasons people don't register immediately for events
is because they want to first check into travel arrangements. Using
an online system to offer hotel booking options and flight arrangements
in your online registration, means you will convince more people to
register right away, minimizing the potential to forget about your event.
- Present more details.
In your online registration, give your registrants as much detail on
your event as possible. Provide links to venue maps, further venue details,
detailed agendas and speaker bios. It is easy to automatically generate
an "Event Details" web page that makes it easy to provide
extra details that people need during their registration process.
- Send instant confirmations
Give your registrants 'warm-fuzzies' by instantly confirming that their
registration is complete. Increase your conversion rates by offering
an extra e-freebie that you can include in your confirmation email along
with their receipt/invoice and other event materials. The immediate
follow-up that an automated confirmation email provides will increase
your attendees' confidence in referring others to attend your event.
- Notify registrants of incomplete forms.
50% of potential registrants start, but do not complete their registrations.
Send them an automated email letting them know that your event is well
worth attending - along with a link back to your registration form.
Give them five more reasons to attend or an extra incentive to complete
their registration. There is only one system that currently offers this
capability.
- Provide a self-service option.
Automated services enable users to make changes to their registrations
online... versus having to call or email the event organizer. Give the
attendee more control and reduce staff time in managing these changes.
By promoting this option to registrants, more people will register because
they won't feel locked into their registration preferences.
A fully-automated online registration system is specifically designed
to make it easier for you and your registrants... attracting 20% more
attendees in the process.
Bill Flagg If you would like to receive more great tips on how to
increase your registrations and decrease your workload, visit http://www.RegOnline.com/eTips
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