Internet Marketing

It’s not the goal of this article to explain the technical details of what cookies are and how they work; all you really need to understand is that cookies are small files than can be created by web pages. The files are stored on a user’s computer and can be accessed later by the website. Cookies are generally harmless, but like anything (software, cars, guns) when people use them inappropriately, they often get a bad name made for them.

So what does all this mean to meeting planners?

Online registration software packages have recently started to include the ability to track visitors throughout the entire registration process. This is accomplished through the use of harmless tracking cookies that are placed on a registrant’s computer. These cookies allow you to answer questions like:

How many potential registrants viewed the form?
Where did the registrants come from?
How long did they take to fill out each part of the form?
How many visitors actually became registrants?
Where in the process do most of the visitors leave the form?

As you can see, this is valuable information to know about your form. Online registration saves you time by automatically sending out confirmation emails to your registrants, processing payments online, running and emailing reports and much more, so that you can concentrate on improving and adding value to your event.

This added information allows you to use the time saved using the software to improve your registration form. Reevaluate the spots where registrants get stuck, find new partners via referral stats, or provide incentives for your promoters to send you more registrants by running your own affiliate program.

Clearly, the addition of cookie technology to online event registration software for the purpose of tracking visitor behavior is very valuable. Even if you’ve never used web tracking software before, it is very easy to get started and the potential rewards are very high for those willing to take advantage.

So how do you find out what your time to complete is? A few of the leading edge online registration software packages now provide integrated analytics reports with their standard registration package. However, if you don’t currently use a system like this, or are locked into a restrictive contract with another company, then you may be able to implement a free tracking program like Google Analyitcs to help you determine your time to complete. But the easiest way to get this information is to use an event registration company that has already done the work for you to give you the right stats.

What you really want to know is how long the entire process takes (introduction to confirmation) as well as how much each page of the form contributes to the total time. This is one of the great advantages that web forms have over paper forms: you can virtually be sitting over your registrants’ shoulders watching their progress through the form.

Once you know the total average time to completion you can use it immediately to help increase completed registrations. By adding a line to your introductory page stating that “Registration Takes Only X Minutes” you can help your registrants better plan their time. This in turn will make them more likely to commit a specific block of time to your registration process.

The next step you should take is to break the registration process down into the specific components. This will help you to identify where there are specific sticking points within your registration process that can be improved. Are registrants spending 15 minutes on your lodging page? Maybe you can pare down the options a bit. Are they looking at the pricing options for an inordinate amount of time? Maybe you should look into providing more or less options so that they don’t need to work around your system.

Finding out how long it takes your registrants to complete your form gives you great insight into where you can make improvements, and can also make your registrants more comfortable with the registration process. Putting it all together makes great improvements in your form.

URL parameters are an easy way to pass information from one page to the next. They enable newspaper sites to host many tens of thousands of articles, or ecommerce stores to list thousands of products. Typically, you can spot URL parameters on websites you are browsing by checking for a ‘?’ somewhere in your browser’s address bar.

After the ‘?’ in the URL you will probably see a mess of words, letters and numbers. This alphabet soup consists of each URL parameter and a corresponding parameter value.

For example, when viewing your favorite ecommerce website you might see an URL that looks like: http://www.example.com?productSKU=123-ANH. To the right of the ‘?’ you can see the parameter ‘productSKU’ (probably defining the stock number of the product), followed by an ‘=’ which tells your browser that the following characters are the value of the ‘productSKU’ parameter.

So what will a web browser do with this information? In this case, there is probably some code on the web page which will take the parameter and lookup the SKU number in a product database. Without the use of URL parameters many large sites would need to create one page for every product they carry. But web parameters are useful in other ways as well.

For a meeting planner, the ability to track URL parameters provides additional marketing opportunities. An affiliate program can be a great way to increase sales. The way an affiliate program typically works is through paying a percentage or flat fee per sale to individual marketers, in exchange for driving conversions on your website.

Event professionals can use a program like this to pay marketers in different channels and verticals to drive additional attendees to their events. Because they are pay-per-registration, there is very little risk associated with affiliate programs. However, the cost can be prohibitive as many established affiliate software packages can cost hundreds of dollars per month to use!

Integrated web analytics reports provide a simpler, more cost-effective solution for event planners wishing to get started with affiliate programs without spending a large portion of budget on expensive software. Providing your affiliates with unique URL parameters to use allows you to run your own in-house affiliate program right alongside your event registration.

For example, you can provide each affiliate with a 4-digit number, and ask them to use it in any emails or web-links they use to direct visitors to your site. All they need to do is add ‘?AffID=1001′ to your event’s URL and your reports will reflect the parameter. At the end of each billing period, you simply run a URL parameter report to see which affiliate referrals resulted in registrations and pay out fees based on that figure.

By letting others assist you in your marketing efforts you gain access to additional marketing channels, as well as allowing you more time to concentrate on important matters like event content, registrant concerns, etc. And because analytics reports are now being packaged with event registration software, it doesn’t have to cost you anything extra to run a successful affiliate program.

A now-classic expression about photography says that color prints for free on the web so you should make as much use of it as possible. This holds especially true for your event registration website. Events are social, exciting and colorful, and photography is an excellent medium through which to express these ideas. Effective use of photography can make an average registration form a great one.

The broadest and most relevant source of imagery for your event website is photos taken at past events. Although commonly unpolished, nothing captures the essence of what your conference, seminar or trade show is about better than the photo record from previous occurrences. These pictures help to convey the fun, the socialization, the appearance of prominent figures and the captivating talks given by your speakers. All of this will be conveyed to new attendees and will remind past attendees about the experiences they had.

Using a service like Flickr to host the images of your event allows you to take advantage of their excellent widgets and API calls to pull rotating photos displays and slideshows directly on to your event website or registration form. You can also use their search function to find additional photos taken at your event by attendees.

When designing your form or website, you may find that there aren’t any suitable images taken specifically from the event that you can use as a header or main title graphic, which is very common due to the chaotic nature of event photographs. However, one easy solution is to turn to the venue where the event will be held to find inspiration. Some venues provide more opportunity than others. Las Vegas, for instance, is easy because it is a very visual city: dice, cards, dancing girls, slot reels and bright lights can all make for great photography which will lend to the excitement of your event. Other venues can be more challenging, but the simplest strategy is to stick to what makes the city or state unique. Check out http://www.sxc.hu for free stock photography to use on your event website or registration form.

When designing your event information website, or online registration form, remember to take advantage of the structure of the form to make use a variety of photos. For example, if you have a recommended hotel or are using the meeting space of a specific hotel ask their staff if they have any promotional photos of the hotel that you can integrate into your page. Feature the hotel’s best photos, and show pictures of the rooms and amenities. Make your registrants excited about attending not just for your event, but for the entire experience.

You can also use photos of your speakers on the agenda next to their session descriptions. This way, your attendees will have been “introduced” to your experts and familiarized with their experience before they’ve even checked in for the first session.

Photography is a great way to capture all the fun, spirit, emotion, and value of your event and express it to potential registrants in a concise message. Photos are worth 1,000 words, and when you are trying to convince someone to become an attendee you need all the opportunity you can get to speak to them about the benefits of your event.

Once you have created a great website for your event using logos (your parent organization’s and one for the event), color schemes and exciting photography you need to back it up with some great copywriting about the event to really get registrants excited. There are some important considerations when you are writing the information for your event such as the headline, selling your event, providing contact info, adding testimonials, and the general presentation of the information.

The goal of a great event title is to really pull the potential registrant into your event information and make them hungry for more information. Think about the difference between “Sales Seminar” and “Explode Your Commission Check!” Which seminar would you be more likely to be excited about based on the title alone? Which one has more useful content? The second title not only provides a much greater excitement level about the event, but also gives a clear indication of what you will gain from attending. The phrase ‘commission check’ has much more meaning to a sales person than just the word ’sales’. It allows them to identify with a tangible benefit to attending your conference. Always consider this when writing your event title.

It’s important to continue selling the strongest points of your event in the copy and emphasize the points you made in your title. Your event details should also emphasize what attendees will learn at your event and why they should attend. You can even state these clearly by naming sections with these phrases. “What will I learn at this event?” and “Who should attend?” are great section titles which will directly address registrant concerns.

Your event details page should also provide clear contact information for registrants to get in touch with you if they have questions, concerns or need recommendations and guidance. At the very least you should include an email address this can be your personal address or a custom address like ‘questions@yourdomain.com’. If possible, you should include a phone number, preferably an 800 number. A mailing address and fax number are less important, but can be beneficial especially if you are dealing with a predominantly non-techie audience.

Providing testimonials about your event from past attendees is another great way to build trust about the quality of your event and get registrants excited about attending. At the end of your event, send out a registrant survey and include an open-ended question that allows attendees to provide feedback on your event. You can then store the best responses in a file for use later in your promotional materials. Personal references from past attendees provide some of the strongest persuasion to new registrants.

You should also customize the overall format of your information to the audience you are targeting. For example, you could write the event information in the form of a personal letter, a format which might be particularly useful in situations like a franchisee meeting if the letter is written from the President or CEO. Also be sure to make use of the modular nature of web pages. If you create a general info page, a contact page and a lodging information page then you can then reference each of these from anywhere when it is appropriate to the context.

The copy of your event website is just as important as the stylistic presentation and requires you to be just as creative. However, when you write about your event in an exciting, convincing way that showcases the value your attendees will gain from attending you can expect registrants to commit sooner and more often leading to additional attendees and a more successful event.

The logo and colors provide the face for your event and can help to build credibility. It is always a good idea to include your organization’s logo on registration forms to lend the credibility of that entity to the event itself. However, creating a separate logo for the event itself can help you convey more ideas than your company logo can on its own.

Adding your company logo to your event marketing materials like flyers, emails, invitations, registration forms, and event websites is imperative, especially when your company or organization is an industry-wide expert or a household name. For example, Zig Ziglar conferences or Yahoo! Search Marketing seminars always rely on the brand recognition of the parent company to help create notoriety and credibility for their events. Using your organization’s logo also helps to create consistency when you send registrants from your homepage to the registration form. Seeing a prominent reference to your parent organization reminds the registrant that the event is presented with the same quality and attention to detail that they have already experienced.

You should also consider creating a logo specifically for your event especially if the event has a large following and is building its own branding. It is not a bad idea to incorporate the general theme of your organization’s logo into the event-specific logo, including the colors, shapes and fonts. However, make sure to give the event logo its own identity or twist which makes it unique from your primary logo. If you need inspiration for elements to add to the event logo you can take inspiration from the properties of the event itself. Consider the event venue (located in Florida? Consider adding a palm tree.), the type of event (what golf tournament logo is complete without a club, flag or ball?), and the industry. It may seem cliché to use imagery like this but remember that you are trying to get registrants to identify with the idea of your event at a glance via the logo.

Making use of your company colors contributes to the consistency of the registration process, especially when using online registration system to run your event. A more consistent feel from the invitation to the website to the registration will make your efforts seem more coordinated and organized which makes registrants more receptive to your message. The colors you use don’t have to exactly mirror the scheme used on your parent organization’s website, try playing with a new pattern, or add another color to the scheme to make the event materials feel fresh and cutting edge. You could also consider using gradients and glass effects to further the ‘cutting-edge’ styling.

Irresistible Event Titles
You can attract more people to your event by interrupting and engaging your prospects with an event title that has SIZZLE!… that gets their blood moving… that causes them to stop whatever it is they are doing and say “I WANT TO GO TO THIS!”

Are Your Event Titles Flat?
Ninety-nine percent of event titles today are boooooring and don’t interrupt, engage, or attract any additional registrants. For example: “ABC 10th Annual Conference”, “XYZ Training Workshop” and “Introduction to Presentation Skills”

These titles have no substance. No personality. The good news is you can attract significantly more people to your event when you add “stopping value” to your title.

How do You Create “Stopping Power”?
Hit your audience’s HOT BUTTONS. Hot Buttons are words and phrases that describe an issue your prospect may be experiencing –so they have to stop to read more. Identify hot buttons by asking these three questions:

1. What things are important to your typical prospect when deciding to go to your event?
2. What are the important issues your event will address?
3. What will your event do to give the prospect what they want?

Next, take these answers and begin writing your titles. Write out 20-50 titles for your event before word-smithing or judging any of them. Some of the titles will give you ideas for other titles. Merge some together. Don’t worry about length. Contrary to popular opinion, longer titles that have richer content are better than shorter nondescript titles

Reworked Titles

• ABC Annual Conference – “The 3 Biggest Problems Facing ABC’ers Today and How to Overcome Them All”
• XYZ Training Workshop — “Seven Tricks That Will Save You At Least Five Hours of Work each Week”
• Introduction to Presentation Skills – “How to Get Standing Ovations Every Time You Present”