bedside book whitepaper

INCREASING THE NUMBER OF ATTENDEES IS FUNDAMENTAL FOR THE

SUSTAINABILITY AND GROWTH OF YOUR EVENT. IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE GREATER

CONVERSION EVERYTHING MUST BE CONSIDERED, FROM HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR

EVENT TO WHAT PRICING STRATEGIES SHOULD BE IMPLEMENTED.

Powered by ACTIVE Network Event Organiser’s Bedside Book

What’s your magic number? 3

BENEFITS OF HAVING A REGISTRATION TARGET 3

Don’t be fashionably late! 4

CROSS SELLING OTHER EVENTS 5

Tiered pricing strategy 5

GROUP DISCOUNTS 6

Cost on event day 7

previous databases 7

EXTENDED REGISTRATION DEADLINE 8

Event day registration 8

incomplete registrations 8

promotional widgets 9

Social media strategy 10

QR CODES 10

Simple but effective website 11

Leverage sponsor promotion 11

Partner with similar events 11

Email marketing 12

BUILDING A DATABASE 12

OPEN FUTURE EVENT REGISTRATIONS 12


Maximising registration for any event requires you to plan

ahead in order to attract and entice your target audience.

Every race organiser should set a maximum capacity for their event. This should be

decided based on previous events and depend on the venue size and amount of

resources available. Once you have your number, it should be fed into your online

registration system. For example, if you are using ACTIVE RegOnline, the maximum

capacity for the event is entered as the ‘target registration’.

The online registration system that you are using will keep track of all attendees so

that you don’t exceed your maximum capacity.

Easier management: A pre-defined target allows you to work on a

comprehensive marketing plan which is designed and targeted to achieve your

registration numbers. For example: If you have a small event, it can help you

position it as “exclusive”.

Measuring your marketing plan: A registration target will help you choose how

to use your marketing plan. For example: In the scenario where registration

numbers are low, one could offer discounts or launch online contests to market

the event.


Creating waiting lists: All registrants exceeding your target registration can be

placed on a waiting list. Their registrations will be confirmed subject to

cancellations/capacity increase, helping you decrease no-shows.

Your event registration should be launched within a week of having confirmed the

logistics for your event. In the highly competitive events market, it is important to

take the opportunity to extend your visibility by opening your event registration early.

An earlier launch of registrations can be supported by emailing past databases as

well as using an early bird pricing strategy.

ACTIVE’s Recommendation: Launch event registration at least 3 months prior to

your events.


Be proactive and take up the opportunity to cross-sell other events that you or your

partners are organising. Some opportunities where other events can be promoted

include the:

Confirmation email sent to registrants

Early bird pricing promotional emails

Post event mail sent to the attendees

Selecting the right price enables the organiser to boost their revenue, while enticing

potential registrants to attend the event. To achieve this fine balance there are

several strategies or approaches that one could take.

This is one of the most effective ways to promote your event. Clearly communicate

the benefits of early registration to your potential registrants at the event launch as

well as the subsequent price increases for the event as the event date approaches.

There are usually 3 pricing levels for event registrations.

Here’s an example:


In Normal Scenario Revenue

1,000 registrations x £10 £10,000 Tiered Pricing scenario

Early bird (cap at 30%)

300 registrations x £8 £2,400

Normal Price (majority will register at normal)


Late entry (assume at least 25% register within two weeks of event)


Total Revenue £11,650

Using the example above, it is clear that the organiser can increase revenue

through a tiered pricing strategy. Using a tiered pricing strategy also gives rise to

additional opportunities to promote the event through your marketing channels.

Customer results using a tiered pricing:

Brighton Marathon

The organisers wanted to increase

revenue without a substantial increase in attendance levels. Using the tiered strategy the organisers were able to

create a sense of urgency and exclusivity for their event and as such achieved an

18% increase in event revenue.

“Attendance increased by 3% while revenues grew 18% by implementing

early bird and late pricing schedules”

Tom Naylor, Event Director

Encourage potential registrants to get their friends and

colleagues to register for the event by offering group

discounts to individuals who register at least 4 other

attendees. Marketing the event within their circle of

influence can significantly help you increase your

registration numbers.


It is considered best practice to increase the cost of registration on the day of the

event. You can charge up to double your normal registration fee. There are two

main benefits of doing this:

Provides an incentive for your attendees to register earlier (helping you with

cash flow and logistics planning.)

Decrease your logistical cost of having volunteers, managing on-spot

registrations as well as your administration costs.

This section of the guide covers various aspects of event registration in order to help

you effectively manage and communicate with your event audience.

The starting point of any registration should be to contact past attendees to share

details of your upcoming event and the early pricing discounts available to them.

Using ACTIVE Network’s online registration platform enables organisers to access

previous event databases with ease in order to create an email distribution list.


Registration deadline is an old concept applicable when registrations were primarily

offline and the organisers needed time to collate the registrants’ data to finalise

event logistics. Online Technology brings the opportunity to register last-minute

attendees without affecting your planning, and more importantly extending the

customer’s ability to make a decision about their attendance. In fact, organisers

should extend the registration deadline until the last day, and by implementing a

tiered pricing system they can create an additional commercial advantage.

Investing in an iPad/Tablet is a great way to reach out to potential attendees to

register on the day of the event. It saves on the cost of labour, risk of paper being

misplaced, as well as the handling of cash/change during at the event.

Every Friday the organiser should check on all

the incomplete registrations on their system. A

standard email should be sent out to the

incomplete registrants. They could also be

offered a last-minute incentive to complete

their registration.


Widgets are pre-designed buttons which can

be placed on a web page in order to direct

people to a specific form, content or page.

Where can the “Enter Now” widgets be placed?

Event website

Company website

Sponsor website

Vendor websites

Any other promotional sites

Research indicates that the ‘Enter Now’ button should be placed in the top right

corner of the page for optimum results.

ACTIVE Network’s system provides organisers with the option of using

“Enter Now” widgets to direct registrants to their registration page.


This is increasingly one of the most important marketing strategies for your event as

a lot potential attendees spend quality time on various social networking sites. Most

people do not miss the ‘trending’ topics of the day on these networking sites. Here

are a few strategies to increase social media awareness:

Integrate Social Media buttons: Place social media buttons on the check-

out/confirmation pages of your registration forms. Always include them in your

design and encourage attendees to share their registration.

Email formats: Include social media buttons within your email template forms.

Facebook Contests: Online contests (caption competition, one-liners) should

be hosted on a regular basis. The winner can be offered free entry into your

event. All those who participate in the contest, will also indirectly or directly

(depending on the contest) be promoting your event on their social timelines and

increasing your event’s exposure.

Refer a friend: Sending a simple email request to your registrant asking them to

request their friends or colleagues to register will act as a reminder for them to

encourage other people to participate in your event.

A QR Code is a matrix bar code readable by QR scanners

and smart phones. All printed marketing material should

include a QR code, allowing the reader to easily navigate to

your event registration page. With the increase in smart

phone users, it’s the easiest way for people to reach your

registration page while on the move.


Although it is important that every event should have a website, it is probably even

more vital to keep it simple. An effective event website has a high conversion

between the number of people who visit the website and the number of people who

register for the event.

It is always in the shared interest for event sponsors to promote the event along with

the organiser. Be bold in requesting access to their databases or placing information

on their marketing collateral to promote your event.

Here are a few ways to leverage sponsor promotion:

Have a write-up, along with an “Enter Now” button on their website.

Have the event QR code, placed on their marketing material.

Mention the online link on the event press release

Take up the opportunity to partner up with other organisers of similar events that are

not in direct competition with you in terms of the event date and location. The

biggest advantage of doing this is to build a shared database which can be used to

promote you events.


A standard email template should be created to promote your event. Make sure that

you send out email invitations to your database informing them about your

upcoming event in addition to email reminders.

This should include the following details:

Integrated social media buttons.

Register now link - a quick link to access the event

registration page.

Basic event details including time, date and venue.

Consolidating your participant database after the event builds a pivotal

communication platform for your future events. The event database should include

details of the complete list of registrants and incomplete registrations.

A few days after the event, while the experience is still fresh in the minds of your

attendees, is the ideal time to send out invites and information about your next event

or function. Research shows that this is the optimum time to reach out to your

attendees in order to sell them similar experiences at a discounted rate.


Often when we speak to event directors, we get asked “You guys provide online registration

software, don’t you?” The answer is yes we do, but we really do so much more than that. We are

your marketing magicians, your pricing advisers, your best practices buddies, and more. We are

your event partner and we are as dedicated as you are to growing your event and the industry. We

also attend a lot of events, so as participants we have a special insight into your world.

+44 (0) 207 554 0949 +65 6692 6072 1800 229 019 0800 452 608

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