From RSVP to attendee: Crafting a winning event registration strategy

Events are a lot of work—you have to choose a venue and speakers, create content, and create a full event strategy to drive attendance and engagement. Even when you do everything right, you still might not get the attendance you were hoping for.

‍High event registrations don't guarantee attendance.

The key to a successful event? It's not getting people to sign up—it's getting registrants to show up, to engage throughout the event.

But don't worry—a solid event registration strategy can help. Build a plan that nurtures potential attendees from the moment they click on your event registration link through and after the event.

Doing so—and optimizing the entire attendee journey—can help you avoid drop-offs, no-shows, and disengaged audiences. 

So, how do you optimize your event sign-up flow to skyrocket turnout rates? We're breaking it down.

The three pillars of a high-converting event registration strategy

High attendance numbers are at the top of every event planner’s mind. Event professionals have stated their top priorities:

• Increased registration (36%)
• Greater ROI (26%)
• Enhanced attendee engagement (25.3%)

Despite registration and attendance-focused priorities, ​​​​52% of event planners say their biggest challenge is increasing attendance. They want to know how to improve event registrations.

My suggestion? Combine a frictionless sign-up process with personalized pre-event engagement and post-registration nurturing to increase engagement and attendance.

1. A frictionless sign-up process

You’re walking into an exciting event. A smartly dressed person pushes the door open with a smile as you approach. You step through the moment they open the door as if you choreographed the moment together. 

That’s how your event registration process should feel. More or less.

People who click “Register now” on your website or in an email are probably ready to commit, so the registration process should easily seal the deal.

An elegant event registration form, striking visuals, and seamless flow make it easy (and even enjoyable) to register. Any hiccups along the way—like missing information or clunky steps—can turn people away.

Make sure your sign-up form has all the key information (and nothing more) that registrants need to make an informed choice, like time and date, what to expect, and who the event's for.

2. Personalized pre-event engagement 

So, you have a growing list of registrants. Great! Now it’s time to keep the excitement going and maintain a sense of connection with attendees until the actual event data. The key to boosting event attendance? Make everything feel special.

Here are a few event registration best practices to follow to increase attendance:

• Make it personal. Send personalized emails using a registrant's name to build a personal connection. Tailored content also helps you personalize their experience pre-event, building their anticipation and commitment toward the event.
  

• Drive excitement around session registration. People sign up for events with interesting, relevant content. Hype up specific sessions and speakers or workshops to get registrants excited to attend.
  

• Build equal excitement around the event. Start a countdown. Let attendees know they’ll miss out if they wait too long to sign up for specific sessions with limited space.
  

Share early access content. Nothing makes people feel more like a VIP than getting access to something exclusive. Share teasers of session content and send out videos from speakers expressing their excitement. Show registrants that their investment is going to pay off with exceptional content.

3. Strong post-registration nurturing

Sign-ups aren’t guaranteed attendees. Boosting event attendance requires retention tactics to reduce the risk of no-shows and get registrants to commit to showing up:

• Reminder emails or text messages
• Countdown emails and social posts 
• Incentives for confirming attendance
• Personalized content that hypes the event

Depending on how big your event is and budget, swag is a great way to incentivize attendance. You can even tease the goodie bag contents, building anticipation and getting people excited to show up and get one of their own (for in-person events). 

Roll out the red carpet: Creating a seamless registration flow

You already know how crucial the registration flow is to boosting event attendance. But how can you craft an effortless experience to capture the most registrants—and attendees—possible?

Start by avoiding common mistakes that can negatively impact event sign-ups before your event even begins.

Common event registration mistakes to avoid

Filling out endless form fields gets overwhelming—and fast. Keep things simple and only collect the essential data so users can move through your sign-up form effortlessly. 

Remember, registrants are probably on their phones. Is your sign-up flow optimized for mobile? A poor mobile experience quickly turns people away. 

Here's how to do it instead.

Sure, you're gathering information on your attendees. But make sure you share event details, too. Your event registration form should include essential information, like the what, when, how, and why of your event.

Visitors should be clear on when the event is, what it’s about, why they should attend, how much it costs, and who it's for (ideally them).

Is your registration form “just a form,” or is it an event experience? Every step of the registration process is another opportunity to win people over and convert visitors into attendees.

Delight them with a beautifully branded and simple sign-up form that makes them feel like they’re signing up for something special.

Pro tip: Use Typeform for event marketing to ask one question at a time and brand your event registration form, all while capturing the critical data you need to make your event a success.

Build an event registration form people want to fill out

Want to get as many people signed up for (and attending your event) as possible? Optimize your event registration strategy.

• Keep the registration form short and simple. Get essential details first—you can ask for more in-depth information later.
  

• Use progressive data collection. Progressive data collection allows you to ask for data gradually throughout the attendee journey, so form-takers don’t get overwhelmed. Collect data before, during, and after the event.
  

• Offer multiple ways to sign up. Many businesses promote their events on their websites—but if you want to increase visibility and increase sign-ups, you need to offer multiple ways to register: website, email, social.‍
• Design your sign-up flow for mobile first. With more and more people using their phones to get information and sign up for events, you need to optimize your registration form for mobile. Make it mobile first.
  

• Include a clear CTA. Give form-takers a sense of their progress throughout the sign-up form using a progress bar and phrases like "Almost there" or "Lastly." Once they've completed the form, include a CTA that lets them know they're done, like "Register" or "Submit."‍
• Build a sense of urgency. Create a feeling of scarcity with messaging like “Registration closes in five days” or “Only 10 spots left” that prompt visitors to sign up so they don’t miss out.

Make your event sign-up seamless with Typeform

So, how do you create an engaging registration flow that brings in more registrants—and more importantly, attendees? Leverage Typeform.

An effortless event registration flow

Typeform makes sign-up flows feel effortless. A sleek welcome screen brings visitors into your form, and the conversational flow (one question at a time) keeps them engaged and moving through your sign-up form.

And with on-point event branding, you can create a seamless experience long before the event launches. Use brand kits to add custom logos, fonts, colors, media, and more.

Conditional logic

Every event attendee is different. Some may be attending as a part of a team, others may be flying solo. Some might attend every session while others are only there for a specific workshop.

Either way, they likely don't want to answer a bunch of questions unrelated to them. For example, if they only plan on attending a specific speaker's sessions, you don't want to ask questions about other areas of the event they're not interested in.

Typeform lets you only ask relevant questions and segment each attendee (after they submit their form) based on their answers using conditional logic. 

This means you never ask form-takers irrelevant questions. Every question feels personal to their needs and interests, leading to higher completion rates (and more attendees). 

Recall information

Typeform turns form-filling into a personalized experience with recall. Ask attendees for their names at the start of the form and call them by name throughout to fully personalize the experience.

You can also use recall to use their previous answers to tailor the rest of the form-taking experience. And recall goes beyond just the registration process.

You can use URL parameters to store information you already have about people. So when you send another form (like a post-event feedback survey) to attendees, you can pre-populate with their name, ticket type, and other key details. 

Simple no-code embedding

Capture event registrants wherever they are with easy embed options. You can embed Typeform sign-up forms on your website, in a pop-up, and even in email. Or you can copy and paste the live link to your registration form and share it anywhere.

Bonus: If your website is built on WordPress, Squarespace, Webflow, or Shopify, you can get an embed code built specifically for that platform.

Progress indicators

People only have so much time in the day. Filling out a form needs to feel effortless—and quick. Typeform tells visitors how long a form takes to complete and has a built-in progress bar so attendees know exactly where they are in the sign-up process. 

Connect everything you need 

With 120+ integrations, you can connect your event registration form to your entire event workflow.

Connect Stripe to accept registration fees or MailChimp or Salesforce to store email addresses. Want to keep track of every detail? Use the Google Sheets integration. 

With integrations, you can get the most out of your data by setting up complete event workflows.

Turning RSVPs into attendees 

Getting people to register for your event is only half the battle—you need them to show up. But with busy schedules, many people who RSVP "Yes" might not actually show up to your event.

So, what should you do? Deploy event registration best practices, like:

• Sending personalized event communications to keep attendees engaged—even after they sign up. Send emails with tailored content, use a countdown tracker, or share speaker bios to build anticipation.

• Segment your audience based on interests, job roles, and more to personalize outreach and boost engagement. A CMO likely isn't interested in branding tips while an entry-level designer certainly would be.

See the common thread? Personalization. Your sign-up form has multiple opportunities for current and future personalization, including:

• Gathering attendee preferences upfront to personalize future communication
• Collecting crucial information for post-event follow-up
• Getting attendee data, like name and job title, to help sales personalize outreach

Getting attendees engaged and excited requires personalizing every element of the attendee experience.

Do this by using the registrant data you collect in your event registration form to create highly relevant pre-event content. And if you want to really engage attendees, share exclusive early-access content that previews the event and makes them feel like they're getting something extra special.

‍Pro tip: Integrate your event sign-up form with your CRM to use that data to nurture leads post-event and send personalized follow-ups.

Boosting event attendance with post-registration nurturing

You sign up for an event, get the confirmation email, and then two weeks later, you forget that you ever signed up at all. Or, worse, you lose interest. This is one of the biggest challenges event marketers face—how to get registrants to become attendees.

Aside from potentially costing you money, when registrants are no-shows, any chance at post-event engagement goes out the window, along with any sales leads. It's crucial your event registration strategy includes a plan for boosting event attendance:

• Automate personalized reminders to keep the event top-of-mind for registrants.

• Gamify attendance with exclusives or perks for those who participate before the event—people love prizes.
  

• Leverage commitment psychology and ask registrants to reconfirm their participation as you get closer to the event.
  

Getting registrants to commit can feel daunting, but with strategic communication sequences, you’ll get your best turnout yet.

Registration data for better future events 

You’ve gathered all attendee preferences. Finalized session sign-ups. Added attendee profiles into your CRM. And now, you have a wealth of rich data that can help unlock even better future events. 

But only if you know what to do with it. While attendee data is vital, you'll also want to use registration data to track:

• What channel drove the most registrations?
• Was there a spike in sign-ups during a certain time period?
• What job titles are signing up for your events?
• Where did people fall off?

Pre-event data

As soon as you begin promoting your event, start examining registration data, like who’s signing up for your events and what channel drove the most registrations. Thoroughly review the registrant profiles to make an educated guess on who will—and won’t show up.

Let’s say you’re hosting an event for B2B marketers. But when you look at registration data, you notice that the majority of those signing up are B2C marketers. There’s obviously a misalignment in messaging, but it could also predict who will and won’t show up.

If you’re running a B2B event that’s not relevant to B2C marketers, it’s more likely than not that the B2C marketer won’t show up. Or worse, they’ll show up and have a poor experience because the event isn’t meant for them.

Another data point to look at? Email addresses. An @gmail or @hotmail.com email address could indicate someone who will be less engaged than someone using a business email address.

‍Pro tip: Examine registration data early so you can refine your messaging, content strategy, or targeting approach to get the right registrants to attend.

Post-event data

After the event, compare registration rates with no-show rates to determine whether your event was a success and to see the impact of your post-registration nurturing efforts.

Look at engagement rates across different segments—were entry-level job roles more engaged than senior execs? Was there a segment that had exceedingly high no-show rates?

All this data can help you better plan future events. And when you use Typeform for event marketing, you can also track things like:

• Question-by-question drop-off
• Sign-up trends
• No-show rates
• Engagement

These insights show what worked in your registration process and where you can improve. You can use them to refine your next event sign-up form, making your flow even more seamless and, ultimately, gathering even more registrants. 

A solid event registration strategy to boost attendance at your next event

As you plan your next event—whether a webinar, workshop, or in-person summit—consider your event registration strategy. The more strategic you are, the higher attendee engagement you can expect.

Build anticipation leading up to the event, and don't stop once a visitor signs up. Keep them engaged throughout the sign-up and pre-event process to increase attendance rates.

Remember, the attendee journey should feel like an experience—not simply signing up for an event. That experience starts with a seamless (even pleasant) registration process.

Create a stunning event registration form to get visitors in the door, and then gather more data post-event with a feedback form that'll help inform your next event's strategy.