Deciding on the type of event you will have is just the first step in the long business process for creating and planning an event that is successful.
Luckily with information technology and content management systems as well as tracking methods such as Google Analytics, marketing automation, professional certification generation, and engagement marketing, your public relations and marketing staff will have a much easier time getting the job done well.
But one of the most important things you will need is event registration software for your event.
What Is Event Registration?
Event registration is a business process done by an event planner in the industry. The event planner has experience in organizing the attendance of guests and customers at your festival. The event planner will create the process with a form (HTML) that matches your needs for the event if she is trained in this type of technical support. In the most primitive types of processes, the planner would have written a list of guests on a clipboard. In more detailed and highly technical forms (HTML), all types of details about the guests are recorded.
The event planner may also decide on offering multiple ticket options and offers discounts (with your management staff). When the event planner uses event registration software, the computer platform will process sales and payments, scan a QR code and validate registrations and/or tickets at the door, track attendance, and create reports after the event giving you all the details of your customer base. One of the advantages of all this is that these sales could be tracked at the point of sale and the revenue you are earning is almost instantly known, or in virtual reality, so to speak.
When you have an upcoming event, you will want to choose a registration event software package that can set up the forms, do the appropriate evaluation and analysis (analyses) that you will need later, and of course, make it super easy for every customer coming through the door of your event.
What Should Be Included in an Event Registration Form?
Asking specific questions is going to be super important for your business for your event registration form. The questions do depend on your industry, your event, and the goals you hope to obtain. It also depends on your promotion (marketing) and the scalability you are looking for. You should always make sure that the customer understands you have a privacy policy on what you will do with the information collected on the registration form.
Some of the questions include these below:
- All your guest’s contact information, such as name, address, city, state, zip code, phone number (desk) and smartphone number, and email address. Also your social media handles and contact information. Basically, how to get in touch with you online and offline.
- What are your goals for the event / trade fair?
- Will you be making hotel reservations? Estimated time that you will arrive at the event on the first day / registration day.
- Do you have any medical concerns or food allergies that we should be aware of?
- Check off which event preferences / sessions you will attend according to the event calendar.
- Credit card (digital card) information to make your payment
- If you would prefer to share a room at the hotel with someone else
- Your clothing size for t-shirts, caps, hoodies, etc.
This may seem like a lot of things to ask your market for but they are essential for your customers to really have the best time of their lives at your event.
Can I Use PayPal for Event Registration?
You will need your event registration to connect directly to an e-commerce payment system. You may also need the software to include a subscription business model. PayPal does offer an option for you to accept online payments for the cost of your event. It is a secure way to handle your event registrations and you need not be at the physical location of the event to make it work. PayPal will be able to handle your virtual reality events online, too. Just having a PayPal account is not enough for this; you will need a PayPal Website Payments Pro account. You can sign up for this at their site or give them a call at 1-855-456-1338.
How Does PayPal Collect Money for Events?
PayPal does collect the fees and then takes a 2.9% commission on all sales plus 30 cents. Charitable organizations do obtain a discounted rate and the commission rate to 2.2% plus 30 cents. On international sales, the cost is 4.4% plus a fixed amount, depending on the country of origin. If you use PayPal Here, the charge per sales is 2.7% per swipe, or 3.5% plus 15 cents for manual transactions.
There are ways to avoid PayPal fees. For example, you can opt to be paid less often, use accounting software to lower PayPal fees, accept other forms of payment, or simply use a PayPal alternative.
Why Is an Event Registration Certificate Important?
An event registration certificate gives your event guest (end user) credit for attending learning classes, seminars and training that may be important for his or her professional career or licensure. Your event registration software should allow you to design the certificate and may also include all the tracking necessary for you to print all the certificates at the end of the event. Attending a certain number of classes, seminars and training will allow the guest to obtain a certain number of credits that may be applied to the number of credits he needs every year to retain licensure.
The certificate also helps your planning staff with marketing research and may be used in your marketing segmentation at a later date.
List of Event Registration Software
The best event registration software for conferences and events is always going to be the one that is matched directly to your needs.
It is said in the industry that over 90% of events use Discount Vouchers, so do consider that in your selection of the event registration software you will use for your business or nonprofit organization. And you should also know that some software programs offer you the option to cut 80% of the price of the ticket or just $27.5% when creating your discounts.
Some of the software on the market that seems to beat out a lot of the competition include:
- Event Brite
- EventCreate
- EventZilla
According to Capterra, the leading software review platform, their customers ranked RSVPify #4 in Best Event Management Platforms in 2020.
You can do your comparison and list the pros and cons according to what your organization needs.
Benefits of Using Event Registration Software
Benefits include:
- You will have all the data in one place.
- The software has a way for others to access it (key marketing and management staff, presenters, etc.)
- Your marketing department can use the event registration software to create reports necessary for their jobs.
- It’s a tool that can be integrated via the dashboard into your website.
- It can be customized according to your brand and the design of it will fit most organizations.
- It uses click analytics for tracking your guests at the event and their preferences.
- It’s a tool that saves you time.
- The application software keeps your data safe.
- You can create the whole schedule of your event with it.
- It is based on real-time computing.
- It’s a tool that doesn’t require a lot of prior experience.
- It meets your needs.
- It integrates with your engagement marketing and allows you to connect with the email, social media, and Facebook contacts of your audience, along with your blog, web page and website, web content,
- The installation (computer programs) is not difficult.
How Can I Collect Payments for an Event?
The methodology of how to collect payments from a customer is pretty straightforward. You’ll set up a registration form (HTML) online and offer different payment options and tracking systems. This way, you have made the process easy for those who are ready to become a student and start learning at your online (or in person) event.
Registrants will fill out the form with their contact information and billing details and then click the button to finalize the order.
How Can I Secure Payment Transactions?
Payments are secured when you use the SSL protocol. This is a service that encrypts information gathered from the customers on their credit card or debit cards. It also protects other sensitive data. Making payments secure is important for your community and your purchasing needs. Payments are secure if the url starts with HTTPS.
The SSL certificate complies with the PCI DSS, a set of regulations created by major credit card companies. Organizations have to comply with data security rules, and the SSL helps a lot with this business process.
What Is a Payment Gateway?
A payment gateway lets you accept credit card payments online or in person. It’s a type of technology that reads the credit cards. Some payment gateway examples include CCAvenue Payment Gateway, Citrus Pay Payment Gateway, PayUBiz India Payment Gateway, Direcpay Payment Gateway, Instamojo Payment Gateway, and others.
Is online payment safe? Yes, if you follow the guidelines!
Summary
There’s a lot more to this topic so check out some of the other pages on our site that cover many other aspects of event planning, payment software systems, and control (management) systems.