How to get more attendees to your events

You may recognize this: You have created an event so great you feel like inviting the queen herself, spent time finding the perfect location and catering, and invited just the right target group. Even so, during the first week, you’ve only received 7 registrations for your event with room for 300.

So why is it that your invitees are not able to see how great an event they’ve been invited to? And how do you get more people to sign up for your event in EasySignup?

Here is our advice for you:

1. Focus on your participants' “What’s in it for me?”

Make it clear at the beginning of your event description how your participants will benefit from your event and save the details of your event for later in your description. Doing so increases the chance of your visitors wanting to read on and (hopefully) sign up for your event.

Here are two similar but yet different event descriptions:

Example A:	Example B:

If you also find description A to be dryer than an overcooked steak with no sauce, you are not the only one. On the contrary, description B addresses the reader directly and quickly presents the benefits of participating in the event.

Description B follows the checklist:
[X] I address the participant directly by writing "you"
[X] I address the target group's situation and needs
[X] The participants' payoff is clarified in both the headline and the introductory text

Use the checklist next time you're making the description for your event to ensure your focus is on your participants' "What's in it for me?". 

2. Make your signup site manageable and visually appealing

A manageable and good-looking signup site can make a difference in whether or not your visitors read your event description and sign up. If they, at first sight, are met with lumps of monotonous text, they may find your signup site as manageable as a trip to the supermarket on the 24th of December. This increases the chances of your visitors exiting the page before signing up tremendously.

Instead, we would like to present a manageable and visually appealing signup site to our visitors that is catchy and easy to read.

Here are two examples of different signup pages for the same event:

Example A:

Example B:

(Click here to see the entire signup site)

Example A lacks breaks in the text, which makes the text appear long and difficult to read. At the same time, no visual elements like pictures and colors are included in the event description to catch the eye of the visitor. This makes example A rather dull for visitors, who are likely to move on without signing up.

In example B, breaks are included in the text to make it easier to read. Colors and images are also included in the description to catch the eye of the visitor and make the page more interesting. You choose the colors yourself and may, for instance, use the colors from your brand identity to make your signup site more recognizable to your visitors.

When creating your event in EasySignup, consider what attendee information you need and avoid collecting more than necessary. The less attendee information you gather, the quicker it will be for your participants to sign up for your event.

Similarly, you can create drop-down menus and checkboxes and use these instead of open-text fields in situations where you can define the different answers in advance. For instance, you may want to know which department your participants are from. Besides making it quicker for your participants to fill out the registration form, you will also get more consistent data when you export your list of participants.

See how to create drop-down menus and checkboxes in this guide.

Description B is made with help from the checklist:
[X] I have used line breaks and/or tables in my event description to make it easier to read
[X] I have highlighted essential parts of my text in bold to create reading breaks
[X] I have included one or more visual elements (such as colors or images)
[X] I avoid collecting more information about my participants than necessary

3. End your event description with at least one good reason to sign up

Your visitors have reached the end of your event description, and now you want them to sign up. Give them one last reason why they should sign up for your particular event.

Here are a few phrases you are welcome to use:

When you leave this meeting, you will leave with a [description of the outcome].

or

When you leave this event, you will have gained a much better understanding of [description of the outcome].

or

What you take home with you is [description of the outcome].

You can also choose to give your outcome a headline, made bold to highlight it as in the shown examples:

You get to take home:
[Description of what knowledge and tools your participants get to take home]
 
Among the benefits you will experience from the event are:
[Description of the benefits your participants get. You may use bullet points]

After the event, you will have more knowledge on:
[Description of what your participants will learn about]

Your checklist for future events

For convenience, we have gathered a list of the presented tips. You may save this as a checklist for your next event in EasySignup:

Click here to download the checklist (pdf)

One final tip:
If you create an event from scratch in EasySignup, save the polishing of your event description for later. Instead, go through the 5 basic steps and save your event.

When you have saved your event, you can edit and polish it and save it as you go.