Time and donor money goes into every event, but what goes on behind the scenes is more impressive. If you want to learn how to generate engagement, and to promote high event registration, you must have a carefully considered strategy.
Event Registration Best Practices
When it comes to nonprofit event fundraising, event registration is one of the most important parts. Your marketing practices will determine the social impact you make, by being able to accommodate more attendees.
But how do you handle event registration? Event registration best practices include:
Make it mobile-friendly
Allowing guests to register through their mobile devices is important. This makes it easy to do so, and register no matter where they are, or whenever they get the chance.
This means that the registration page should be optimized for a smartphone, and easy to understand. Especially if for a virtual event. Ticketing should be a no-brainer when planning your event marketing.
Make it seem urgent
You should use specific language, with an urgent message to purchase tickets. This is a bit of a social ploy, to guide attendees to purchase as soon as possible. It gives them the impression that they must purchase or they might miss out.
Keep it short
Instead of asking for unnecessary details, one of the best event registration tips is to keep the process short. Additionally, your event payment processing should be quick.
The online event registration form should only ask for:
- Full name
- Home address
- Mobile phone number
- Payment information
Make it easy
The event registration process flowchart should be simple, and the purpose of event registration should not be difficult. That is why one of our main tips is to make a social media registration option. This can allow every supporter the chance to easily sign up for the nonprofit event.
Now, you may wonder, how can I improve my registration process?
Nonprofit Marketing Best Practices for Events
The best nonprofit marketing strategy can be understood in a few main steps. Although you may feel that there is a learning curve, after your first event you will be able to get it down and even generate your own ideas.
Offer comprehensive registration tools
The importance of an event marketing plan is underrated. You need to have proper registration tools, to make the site function properly. Doing so will make it easy to promote the site, and the engagement will most likely be higher. If you feel that your marketing plan for an event does not include good tools, it is recommended to improve on this.
Consider offering different packages
Offering many different packages is one of the better event marketing ideas. It helps with event marketing and promotion and gets people excited about what you are offering. For example:
- Standard admission packages with no extras
- VIP member packages, including parties or receptions
- Early promotional packages, to encourage early registration
Email marketing is essential
Another digital marketing strategy for NGOs includes an email marketing plan for event planners. Although social media is important, marketing ideas for event planners when it comes to email can help you reach even more attendees. Be sure to add value to your emails and you will see them become more effective.
You may even want to mix things up with your event marketing, and try sending the following:
- Mailing list newsletters
- Personal messages with major donors
- Invitations to new prospects
- Volunteer updates
- Targeted campaigns
- Nonprofit marketing best practices for acquiring supporters
Using your platform to market appropriately, can help immensely when acquiring supporters for an event. The first piece of information you may need is how to get sponsorship for an event. This is essential, because sponsors help to fund the event, and generate a custom experience.
Some event sponsorship examples might include a grocery store, a food brand, or local businesses. After you have found these sponsors, you can work with your event attendees to follow up.
The series of emails that will lead to more nonprofit event ticketing includes not only a pre-event follow-up email, but also a pre-event email to attendees, and a follow-up post-event as well.
Online event registration
You need to make the registration as easy as possible, which means that using a free event registration app is usually the best way to go. By opening online event registration and online registration platforms, it is easier to learn how to sell fundraiser tickets online. You may even begin to have participants finding your nonprofit online event registration through SEO or other means. The next step is using a platform like Eventbrite, but using the Eventbrite nonprofit pricing service.
Social media marketing
Social media marketing for event planners is not much different than other forms of social media marketing. Although you should definitely create a social media plan for the event, there are a few main things to keep in mind.
So what should be in a social media campaign plan? The social media plan for event should include:
- An understanding of the campaign goal
- Method of promotions on each channel
- Content calendar for the entire week or month leading up to the event
- Great visual content rather than just words
- Scheduled posts at specific times
- Monitoring, responding and following up questions
- Your next nonprofit event
Communication is key when looking to manage the content and marketing strategy for an event. Using a CRM for volunteer management, and using a multi-channel social email campaign process, is a surefire way to get you the best version of the event you are looking to put on!