Sell Out Your Event By Creating Great Links To Your Online Event Registration Form

Just using good online registration software doesn’t guarantee the success of your event.

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

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.