On most registration platforms setting up the basics is straightforward – you can get your registration page up and running in no time. But there are plenty of features that you may have passed over in your initial perusal that could make your life A LOT easier.
Read on for our four top under-utilized features quietly making the process smoother for event directors.
Automated Confirmation Email
Are you worried that your registration page is getting too cluttered with information? The confirmation email is a great place to put information that’s really only relevant to confirmed registrants. Specific information that takes up valuable space on your registration page can be moved into the confirmation email. This not only reduces clutter, but saves the important space on your registration page for the more glamorous details and not the boring stuff like parking or event rules.
With an automated confirmation email you can let your participants know important information, like what time packet pickup will be the day before event, relevant directions and parking, and any other information relevant to a registered participant.
Automated confirmation emails are also completely customize-able. You can add in your event logo and your own styling using HTML in the body of the email; all of which help enforce your event branding and message.
Returning Participant Email Tool
Who knows your event better than last year’s participants? Most registration platforms have a way to reach out to last year’s entrants, but with a tool specifically designed around this you can really maximize your email blasts.
Using athleteReg’s Returning Participant tool you can gauge how many people from last year’s event have signed up so far and then send an email only to the people who haven’t yet registered encouraging them to do so. We all have too much email in our inbox, and this way those already registered won’t be bothered by continued emails that could be seen as spam.
Passwords/Bypass Codes
Making your event exclusively available to a set number of participants before general registration opens up is a great way to offer previous participants, locals, etc. a guaranteed spot in your event. Using a combination of passwords and bypass codes this can be accomplished with relative ease.
The first step is to password protect your event – this will be a password only you have access to. You can even set the password to expire on a certain date so you don’t have to worry about going back in and opening your event up to the public. Once your password is in place, it’s time to setup bypass codes. You might be curious, what is a bypass code? It is simply another form of password, but one that can be tailored for each participant. When you generate bypass codes, you can give them a specific name to hand out to a select group of people e.g. MYEVENTROCKS, or use the tool to generate as many random bypass codes as you want, so you can hand out a unique code to each participant.
Using passwords and bypass codes adds a later of exclusivity to your event, and makes the group of people you have chosen to have select access feel appreciated.
Event Lottery
If your event fills every year, and you are looking for a different way to select registrants than first come first serve, having an event lottery is a great way to offer an impartial registration method.
A lottery will be set by allowing registration to be open to all with a delayed charge-so the participant is only charged if and when they get into your event. Once your registration period closes, the lottery will be run, randomly choosing from the pool the amount of final participants you want in the event, and charging them as they are moved in. With an event lottery everyone has a fair shot at gaining entry, as opposed to being the first in the queue when registration opens.
All of these features are a definite value-add for your event; you certainly don’t have to use them, but they will put your event in a tier above the rest, and your participants will notice the difference!