10 Game-changing Online Event Registration Tools

What is an event registration tool? Which tools should you use to drive event registration? Find out in this round-up of the top online event registration tools.

More and more companies are starting to see real value behind live events. According to the Bureau of Statistics, the event and conference industry is booming and can be expected to expand another 44% by the year 2020. From multi-day conferences to VIP get togethers, there’s more event variety available for event marketers to plan than ever before.

However, that also means that there are more events for prospects to attend than ever before. And as the market continues to grow, so too will your need to stand out from the crowd in order to maximize registrations.

There are many ways to ensure event success. From using an event marketing software to building the perfect event registration page, increasing ticket sales becomes much more manageable.

Get ahead of the game with these 10 game-changing online event registration tools.

1. Bizzabo

Event management tools like Bizzabo give organizers the opportunity to check all the boxes all at once. Use it to build event registration pages, surface event insights, and provide attendees with a seamlessly branded experience with just one marketing platform. Plus, compare how your events are performing with Bizzabo’s cross event analytics. Bizzabo also offers a wide variety of integrations that make it easy to customize your event planning process and streamline otherwise time-consuming tasks.

Create event landing pages that drive registrations and ticket sales with Bizzabo. Source: Bizzabo

Bizzabo’s event dashboard lets you visualize event registration and the mobile application drives attendee interaction.

Bizzabo Tips:

• Ensure your branding is consistent across all channels, including your company website and event registration website, with white-labeled hosting.
• Take advantage of Bizzabo’s catalogue of over 1,000 integrations, which include MailChimp, Salesforce, a variety of payment gateways, and other popular tools like Slack.
• Use optimized website templates created by event marketing professionals based on real results.

2. Optimizely

Optimizely is an A/B testing platform that event organizers can use to experiment, learn, and assess how different event website designs can affect conversions. Optimizely offers features like segmenting that will allow you to narrow your tests to target personas, industries and more. Use Optimizely alongside your event software to view and compare data across all your event marketing efforts, and learn how to better serve your audience.

A/B test all aspects of your registration process with Optimizely. Source: Optimizely

Optimizely Tips:

• Create registration pages that convert by testing different design options.
• Personalize campaigns with messaging that is highly targeted and effective.
• Remember to test all copy variations, images, and CTAs.

3. Google Analytics

Google Analytics, a tool within the Google Marketing Platform, helps you measure visitor traffic and behavior on your event website. As a Google product, this tool can be used alongside Google Ads and Google Tag Manager. Using these tools together adds an extra marketing oomph by letting you test smaller page elements, like a small section of copy or a distinct call to action across multiple ad versions. Comparing results from those ads will help you see what CTAs will be most effective on the event website itself.

Google Analytics is easy to integrate into event software like Bizzabo without having to use any code. Sites like Zapier (detailed below) set up triggers—like a new registration—and their corresponding actions—like updating benchmarks and goals—for a fully automated event registration website.

A Google Analytics dashboard will organizers understand their audience. Source: Google Marketing Platform

Google Analytics Tips:

• Use event tools like Google Analytics to streamline your event registration workflow.
• Measure the effectiveness of your event website by seeing what works and what can be improved once tickets go on sale.  
• Combine the power of an event registration tool with other products that allow for the testing and automation of all your marketing efforts.

4. Sumo

Sumo offers a variety of tools that automate event registration website growth. For example, Sumo’s Reduce Cart Abandonment feature helps users understand conversion rates and how to improve these with actionable follow throughs. Event organizers can also easily implement pop-ups and social share buttons that make selling tickets and registrations easier by incentivizing promotional offers and increasing event visibility.

In addition to these conversion boosting resources, Sumo also integrates with many popular email marketing tools like HubSpot so your leads get added directly to your contact lists.

Retarget potential attendees and drive ticket sales with Sumo. Source: Sumo

Sumo Tips:

• Learn what helps or hurts your event website conversions with insightful ecommerce tools.
• Use social share buttons to reach new audiences.
• Combine your email marketing tool with your event registration website to automate list-building.  

5. Unbounce

Unbounce helps marketers build landing pages from scratch, create sticky bars to drive registration, and launch trackable pop-ups. Although other tools like Sumo also offer pop-ups, Unbounce offers customizable confirmation pages, mobile responsive templates, and customizable forms—all of which make for a frictionless user experience. Unbounce has a large selection of integrations, one of which is LeadRX, a sales tool that helps maximize return on digital ad spending. Using this together with Unbounce can help you get more conversions on your landing pages.

Unbounce Pop-up builder and templates. Source: Unbounce

Unbounce Tips:

• Use pop-ups like the ones featured on Unbounce to offer prospects free tools and resources that make them further invested in your event. Plus, A/B test with their multi-variable popup testing. 
• Make sure your event registration tool is easy and enjoyable for users to visit no matter what device they’re on.
• Combine event registration tools with sales analytics to better understand how you can convert visitors.

6. HotJar

This tool boasts an all-in-one solution for registration landing page analytics and feedback. HotJar has features for event organizers who want to track user behavior with an array of tools. These include detailed heat maps, sidebar surveys, and recordings of the actual movements your visitors take when they click, scroll, and navigate your event registration page.

Hotjar’s Heatmap feature allows you to see where site visitors click and scroll through your event registration pages. Source: Hotjar

Hotjar Tips:

• Generate more registrations by utilizing visual indications of your attendees’ journey to learn about visitor behavior on your event website.
• HotJar can be combined with Optimizely to both test and track new website designs.
• Use Hotjar Feedback surveys to understand why visitors aren’t converting by asking them yourself with these sidebar surveys.

7. Zapier

With all these great tools available it’s hard to choose just one. The good news is that you don’t have to because Zapier provides an all-encompassing integration platform for event marketers. Connect your event registration website to products like Bizzabo, Sumo, Google Sheets and any other program you love for marketing. You can, for instance, add new event registrants as SalesForce leads. Doing so will help you streamline your workflow and save time by automating tasks like data entry.

Zapier solves your integration roadblocks with their extensive list of integration solutions. Source: Zapier

Zapier Tips:

• If you love the tools you use, use a tool like Zapier to combine their powers into one comprehensive solution.
• Test out new registration website apps and software without disrupting workflow using system integration.  
• Creating a seamless user experience is the most important event registration principle. Having a reliable process helps achieve that.

8. Moz

Moz helps its users optimize their search engine visibility, increasing the odds that your event registration website shows up on the first page of Google results or other search engine results page. With a tool like Moz, event organizers can discover and track SEO keywords that get more traffic on their event landing pages. Moz also offers an SEO guide, SEO training, and an in-depth video presentation that teaches users how to help local events and businesses increase visibility.

Moz’s Keyword Explorer feature helps you find better keywords to target and analyzes the complexity of ranking for it. Source: Moz

Moz Tips:

• Use SEO tools to increase the number of unique visitors to your site.
• Test and track keywords. Compare those findings to user behavior tools like Hotjar to fully understand what makes your audience tick.
• Look up event registration website examples for more inspiration on what keywords to use.

9. HubSpot

HubSpot is a marketing automation platform that event planners can use to promote their registration process. With it, organizers can create workflows, send and automate email campaigns, as well as manage contact lists. It also integrates with Bizzabo to market your event website and maximize event experiences.

A HubSpot workflow snapshot. Source: HubSpot

HubSpot Tips:

• As any great event registration guide will tell you, the best way to create event momentum and drive registrations is through consistent marketing.
• Combining your event planning tool with a product like HubSpot makes it easier to keep track of every detail from a Facebook promotion post to tiered ticket monitoring.
• Automating tasks helps event organizers do more with less.

10. Salesforce

CRM tools like Salesforce help organizers visualize and categorize their sales pipeline, monitor conversions, and predict which previous attendees are likely to repurchase tickets for future events. By getting the birds eye view of your audience, Salesforce helps organizers piece together how established contacts and attendees are contributing to overall business outcomes—beyond registration revenue. Plus, use Salesforce alongside a event registration software like Bizzabo to classify attendee leads, which are then automatically added to your CRM.

Source: Salesforce

Salesforce Tips:

• Use a CRM tool to learn more about who your repeat customers are and what made them loyal in the first place.
• Create targeted lists based on contacts that are more than likely to convert and send them your event website link.
• Save all leads captured through your registration site to your CRM so you can follow up with them in the future.

Wrapping Up: The Event Registration Renaissance and You

Events are more powerful than ever before and event registration tools are helping marketers in every industry complete their lengthy and varied to-do lists with ease. Today’s top online event registration tools:

• Include a broad range of functions like marketing, visitor behavior monitoring, and integration with other apps for a smoother workflow.
• Increase site visibility with the help of keyword rankings, search engine optimization (SEO), and social sharing.
• Provide a seamless user experience by combining forces to simplify the event registration process, both for the attendee and organizer alike.

All in all, your event registration tools do more than just sign up attendees – they help organizers amplify the power of live events and succeed in creating memorable experiences for everyone involved.