The practical part of organising a conference starts with securing a venue, lining up speakers, and streamlining your marketing campaign. When all the aspects of the event management and meeting design come together smoothly, it is time to register attendees. Conference registration and acquiring a ticket is an attendee’s initial investment to the event. Therefore, you should set the tone for your conference with a good impression by making the process seamless. Unfortunately, many event organisers underestimate how the registration process influences people to attend the meeting. Here are five strategies that will make the registration experience satisfactory for your attendees:
1. Find Suitable Conference Registration Tools
In the past, congress organisers relied on forms to register attendees. With the current technological advancements, conference planners require conference registration software to streamline the process. When choosing the right platform, ensure you align its features to your event planning goals. Determine the performance indicators and match them with registration tools to improve the conference experience.
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Since marketing is a significant part of conferences, you should look for an event management software that integrates marketing. Analytical tools, payment processing features and a mobile app can also come in handy. It helps to have software that can collect registration data for easy monitoring of benchmarks and tracking the number of registrants in real-time.
2. Have an Engaging Event Registration Page
If you already have a conference website, you need to create a landing page for registration. Alternatively, you can build an event registration website from scratch. The web page should be simple but creative. The website’s simplicity and user-friendliness will increase the number of registrants. You should also design the website with the attendees in mind for easy navigation. For instance, the event’s theme should be visible, and the registration button should be accessible. The website colour scheme should be consistent with the conference branding and promotional tools.
Keep in mind that registrants do not want to fill lengthy registration forms. Therefore, use short questions that are relevant to the conference. You can also create preloadable registration fields for regular attendees to make the process quicker. Providing the option of filling out the event registration forms from a mobile app will also increase ticket sales. Encouraging mobile and online registration allows you to customise the process and personalise communication.
3. Market the Registration Website
Marketing the event registration site is challenging, but it is a crucial step in increasing conference attendees. Email marketing is a great starting point since it has the highest ROI. However, you should learn a few tricks to increase the opening rates of your emails. For instance, add a human touch by avoiding the no-reply sender emails. Personalising the subject line can increase the open rate by 17% while adding video boosts the open rate by 30%.
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Social media is still an efficient tool for meeting planners. Use it wisely to expand your conference reach and market to your target audience seamlessly. Create a buzz and a conference hashtag and provide a link to the registration platform to boost ticket sales.
4. Streamline the Payment Processes
With your marketing efforts driving traffic to your site, you need to make the payment process smooth. Irrespective of the pricing strategy, the payment options should be vast. Apart from credit card payment, you should include digital payment options and integrate different currencies. You should also customise the payment process for previous attendees to increase convenience and boost retention.
5. Improve the Onsite Registration Experience
The check-in process can make or break your event. Attendees will build an impression depending on the first people they meet at the venue. How can you create an impressive onsite registration to impress attendees?
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Self-print stations ensure faster handling of participants and prevent long queues. Facial recognition can be useful, where the face of the attendee is scanned and the badge is automatically printed. Possibly It is also advantageous to do personal triage by your staff at the entrance and send the already registered participants to the self-print stations, the not yet registered to the self-registration desks and the people who have questions or problems to the registration desk. True, we live in a digital time and automated processes are the trend, but real-person assistance will always be appreciated by your delegates.
Conference registration can be a tough nut to crack due to the many procedures and technologies involved. However, with the right strategies, tools, and professional help, you can boost the attendees‘ experience with little effort. At Congrex, we can help you design your tailormade conference registration experience.
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Congrex Switzerland is an internationally operating agency delivering customised solutions. This encompasses the overall organisation of conferences and meetings, including the management of hotel rooms and the strategic consultancy. Annually Congrex Switzerland organises approximately 45 events with over 73’000 delegates. Amongst our clients are international associations, governmental organisations and corporations.