The Meeting Planner's Online Advantage: 8 Surefire Ways to Attract 20% More Attendees

The easier you make it for attendees, the more likely they are to sign-up. Research shows that more than 50% of prospective attendees abandon their registration forms before completing them. Twenty percent of people would have registered if the event organizer had made it easier for them. The reason?... 20% of people signing up for events are "fence sitters" not ready to make quick decisions unless the meeting planner has made it easy for them. 8 Ways an automated system makes it easier for attendees, giving you MORE REGISTRATIONS: 1. 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. 2. 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. 3. 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. 4. 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. 5. 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. 6. 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. 7. 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. 8. 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.