Registration Forms: How To Make Them Irresistible With Follow-Up

By: Bill Flagg

Everyone LOVES to save money or get a deal when making a purchase - and registering for an event is no different. Use pricing discounts to give your prospective registrants an opportunity to save on the registration fee. We're not saying everybody, every time - pricing discounts are typically based on timing, volume, or type of registrant.

Early-Birds Get the Discounts

You've seen it or at least heard about it, but are you using one of the most popular and successful discount hooks - the Early-Bird Special? An early deadline creates urgency to get the registration done quickly before the discount expires on the date you set. In our experience, over 80% of registrants take advantage of early-bird pricing if the discount is compelling. For example $89 versus $109 or $389 versus $449.

Be prepared though, inevitably the procrastinators will call after the deadline making their best plea to get the Early-Bird pricing. You'll need to determine ahead of time if you want to be flexible or toe the line when you get these calls. It's imperative, too, that you send your marketing materials at least one month in advance of the Early-Bird deadline to insure that you give people an adequate amount of lead time to register.

The More the Better

Volume discounts encourage people to promote your event to others. Offer a reduced fee - typically 10-15% off the full fee - for group registrations. Or, charge full price for the first three registrants and throw the fourth registration in for free.

Membership Has Its Privileges

Varying pricing by registrant type is another another popular form of discounting. Most common is a member and non-member rate where non-members pay a higher registration fee. This approach can also be extended to students, exhibitors or other groups at your event.

The Golden Rule: Keep it Simple

The easier a discount is to understand, the more likely people are to take action on them. So keep them simple.