Remember the last time you registered for a conference? Was the process smooth and quick or did you find yourself tangled in endless forms?

The events world is highly competitive; you need to maximise every chance you have to attract and retain your audience. And registration is a prime opportunity to make an impression – so it’s important to remove any potential barriers to buying, and to optimise the user experience.

Registration may be someone’s very first interaction with your brand, so it’s worth taking the time to get right and set the tone for what’s to come. A poor experience can negatively influence someone’s attitude towards your whole event – overly complex forms or clunky systems can even put people off buying altogether. Something to be avoided at all costs.

To help you tackle this all-too-common problem, we’re going to explore ways to streamline registration – down to just 3 clicks – and make it a breeze for your attendees, ensuring their satisfaction and your success.

The problem with complex registration processes

We’ve all experienced the overwhelm of page after page of online forms with seemingly endless questions, when we’re just trying to book a ticket. Sometimes long forms can time out mid-completion, meaning you have to start the whole thing again! It’s a major turn-off for potential attendees. At Brightelm, we’ve experienced all kinds of unnecessarily complex or lengthy registration processes over the years. For example, one pharmaceutical association outsourced their registration to a third-party provider, who required every delegate to answer numerous non-essential demographic questions.

When the Brightelm team attempted to book places on behalf of a large group of 800, we found we had to register them individually, and each registration had around 20 questions – many of which were non-essential.

The result? Frustration, inaccurate data, and a whole lot of wasted time. It was a logistical nightmare that could have easily been avoided with a system that had anticipated group bookings at the planning stage, and created built-in pathways to facilitate them.

In another scenario, some of our team tried to book tickets for a large tech conference. This brand had done some great marketing, so we were excited to attend. However, the registration process was so lengthy and packed with non-essential questions, that in the end we simply gave up and chose a competitor’s event instead. In overlooking the user experience of registration, this tech event must have lost many participants, wasting their marketing resources. It’s a clear sign that a streamlined process is a necessity, and crucial to hitting your sales targets.

The benefits of simplified registration, in a nutshell

So, why should you care about simplifying your registration process? Let’s summarise the main benefits:

  • Increased attendee commitment: A straightforward registration process makes it easy for attendees to commit. You get more sign-ups and fewer abandoned carts.
  • Improved cash flow: More early registrations mean improved sales and revenue, helping you plan and execute your event more effectively, and avoiding the stress of resorting to reactive tactics further down the line.
  • Positive attendee experience: A smooth registration process sets a positive tone for your event and makes attendees feel valued.

Brightelm’s guide to effective registration

The 3-clicks process: this is how we keep the process of registration and purchase as simple, user-friendly and efficient as possible:

Click 1: Access the registration page. The first click should take the attendee from the event website to the registration form.
Click 2. Fill in essential information. Collect only the necessary details such as name, email, and payment information on a single page.*
Click 3. Confirm registration. The final click should confirm the registration and process the payment. It should be as easy as that.

*What’s considered essential vs. non-essential information? Here’s our list of registration must-haves:

– Full name
– Email address
– Company name
– Job title
– Phone number
– Emergency contact details
– Dietary and accessibility needs

Remember, you can always gather non-essential information later through follow-up emails or profile completion prompts.

Use representative samples for data analysis

We understand the importance of data collection for associations, however, try not to overwhelm your attendees with this. Do you really need to collate data from every single individual? To keep things streamlined, you could instead focus on getting information from a representative sample and use this to draw meaningful conclusions. It’s an efficient approach that can save time for you and prevent unnecessary hassle for your attendees.

Learn and apply form logic

Form logic principles can make a world of difference to the user experience. Take one of our clients, for example, who was bogged down with an overwhelming 14 different registration workflows. We stepped in, analysed the workflows, and managed to cut them down to just five. How? By understanding the different types of delegates and customising the forms to fit their needs. We used smart form logic to ensure each question was relevant to the attendee, avoiding information overload and making the process much more user-friendly. We collected only essential data upfront and saved the non-essential details for later follow-ups.

Leverage event management technology

The right tech can totally transform your registration process. We helped one client who was struggling with an outdated, clunky system of spreadsheets. We switched them to a more efficient platform, and the results were amazing. Registration speed increased, and attendees were much happier.

If you’re considering subscribing to specialist event management software, our advice is to prioritise functionality over cost, because a robust system can save so much time and significantly improve the user experience – quickly delivering you a worthwhile ROI. Specialist platforms make the registration process smooth and intuitive, encouraging more people to complete sign-ups without any hiccups.

You can learn more about specialist events software in our recent guide.

Have pre-registration planning discussions

Early discussions with your team at the planning stage, will help you figure out what information is truly necessary. This way, you can map and streamline your workflows prior to building the forms. To keep things focused, make sure you critically question every field and ensure it has a purpose.

Profile completion incentives

When it comes to collecting non-essential information after registration, it can help to incentivise the process. Tying essential features (like downloading the event app) to profile completion, can work really well (especially if the app is a requirement for gaining access to the meeting). Tactics like this can help you gather additional information without overwhelming attendees at the buying stage.

Putting the user first benefits everyone

Start as you mean to go on. If your entire planning, launch, sales and marketing process is built with the user in mind, you won’t go far wrong. Streamlining your registration is a crucial part of the process, and we want to prevent you losing any of those early buyers from something that is easily avoided. Just focus on the essentials, use the right technology, and collect data smartly.

Need additional support with registration?

If you’re in need of expert guidance to review your processes and implement better systems, we’re here to help. We’ve helped many associations streamline their event planning and transform their registration – becoming more effective and successful year upon year.

So, whether its registration, planning, sales or management, get in touch with the Brightelm team today and together we can create an experience that’s easy, efficient, and enjoyable for everyone.