Copyright (c)
2009 Jim Romanik
ePly Services Inc.
http://www.eply.com
Have
you ever come across an event that you wanted to attend but registration wasn't
available yet? What did you do? Did you remember to go back in a few weeks to
register or just forget about it?
If people are starting
to think about registering for your event and you don't have a way to capture
that interest, you are losing potential registrants. Seizing every opportunity
to make a sale is critical to a successful event, especially during a time when
people are spending less.
Use A Save-The-Date Form
A
Save-The-Date form is a simple form designed to collect contact information of
people interested in attending your event before registration opens. Once you
have the email address and/or phone number of people interested in attending,
you can proactively follow up to encourage them to register.
A
side benefit of the Save-The-Date form is the number of responses you get may
help gauge the interest level for your event.
Over the last
few weeks of 2008, while the ePly team was snowed in, we brainstormed what a really
good Save-The-Date form should include:
- Keep it simple and easy to
complete.
- Limit the fields to name, phone number and email address;
ask for other details only if you really need them.
- Make email
address the only required field.
- Give clear and easy-to-read
instructions on how the save the date form works such as "Registration for
the "event name" is not yet open. Please enter your name and email address
below and we will contact you once registration opens".
- Have
a privacy policy on the form so people feel safe providing their information.
-
Make the form branded to match your organization or the event, so people feel
comfortable.
- Put the name, phone number and email address of a
contact person on the form. You probably won't get many calls, but just knowing
that there is someone to contact will help make your form seem more legitimate.
The
next time people express interest in your event and you are still finalizing the
details, make a Save-The-Date form a part of your event marketing plan and proactively
follow up to secure those registrations.
Please feel free
to contact us at ePly.com if you have any questions or comments about this article.
Author's
Note: This article was originally published here:
http://www.eply.com/event_resources/online_registration_articles/savedate.html
About
the Author:
Jim Romanik - founder of ePly Online Event Registration
(http://www.eply.com)
We
are online registration experts and treat your reputation as our own to build
registration forms that help your events succeed and make people wonder how you
did it.
Download our Free Guide - "What Every Event
Planner Should Know About Online Event Registration" at: http://www.eply.com/lp/articles.html
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Reprint
of this article does not constitute an endorsement by the National Business Association;
the article is for informational purposes for our members and viewers of our Web
site.
