Much to my chagrin, I’ve met a few organizers who don’t see the need for creating a registration page. More often than not, it’s because their event doesn’t require attendees to show their tickets at the door or it’s a casual free event where managing capacity isn’t an issue (street fairs, sports viewing parties, etc). However, I’ve surprised many event organizers in encouraging them to create registration pages for these types of events. After all, Eventbrite is completely free when you’re not collecting payment! Here are just a few reasons why you may want to think twice when you think your event doesn’t require a registration page:
Get in Front of a New Audience When you publish your event on Eventbrite, it gets listed in our directory of events and could potentially be included in our Eventbrite Picks newsletters. These newsletters feature events based events you’ve attended in the past and events your Facebook friends are attending. We’ve seen some organizers ‘sell’ over 30% of their tickets through these channels alone. While promoting your event to your current community is crucial, getting in front of new faces is also very important.
Events are More Fun with Friends Nobody likes going to events by themselves, so it’s no surprise that one of the most critical factors in prompting potential attendees to register for an event is knowing whether their friends are also attending. Through our Who’s Going feature, directory of events, notification emails and mobile alerts, it’s easy for potential attendees to see if any of their friends are going to an event, increasing the likelihood that they’ll attend, too!
Social Sharing People are constantly using social media to gather news and information. We conducted a study on the global impact of events and social sharing, and found that Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are all hugely impactful for increasing visits to your event page, the number of registrations, and revenue!
Opportunity to Collect Information Event registration isn’t just about knowing the names of your attendees, but collecting important information about your attendees. If you use Eventbrite for registration, you can collect as much custom information as you’d like. Use this as a way to find out how people found out about your event, what they want to gain from attending, if they’re interested in being notified about future events, etc.
Bottom line? Even if your event is free, and even if you aren’t actually checking tickets at the door, it’s worth your time to create a registration page on Eventbrite. You’ll reach a new audience, drive more views and ‘ticket sales’, and gain important insight on who is coming to your event and what they want to get out of your event.
Anything you’d add to the list? Tell us in the comments below!
