Of all your responsibilities as an Event Manager, ensuring your event is well attended is top priority. Low registration rates can affect other facets of your event, including sponsors, revenue, and speakers, so we’ve put together these five tips to help you get your registration rates up and your stress level down.

Event registration tip #1: Engage Influencers

Influencers are highly active people on social media who have very loyal and engaged followers. While you might not be able to afford the type of influencer who has millions of followers, micro-influencers are a powerful way to reach new audiences and sell more tickets. 

Micro-influencers are perceived as more authentic than larger-scale influencers and since they have a very targeted audience in a specific niche or geographical location, micro-influencers are a great fit if you’re promoting an event in a specific city or to fans of a unique genre.

Here’s how to find the right influencers for your event:

  • Look at Instagram’s ‘Explore’ tab for posts tagged locally or with relevant hashtags to find people who have strong followings and may be interested in your event
  • Make sure their following is engaged by checking how many likes and comments they get per post compared to their number of followers
  • Investigate their background in events by looking at what kind of content they’ve created in the past and whether it’s in line with what you want to communicate about your event
  • Hook the influencers with photos and videos of your event, and explain how a relationship can be mutually beneficial
  • Once you get your influencer on board, it’s time to build your partnership. Offer them free tickets in exchange for sharing posts and tagging you in stories about your event.

Event registration tip #2: Mind your social copy

To stand out in an event-goer’s Facebook or Instagram feed, your event ads need to be concise and compelling. You’ll need to build the story of your event with snappy copy and eye catching imagery. The best kind of post for that is a video or photo compilation from past events with a clear call-to-action. 

Get started with these templates:

  • Registration is now open for [name of event]! Register today for the [hottest, smartest, and most fun] event of the season.
  • Get ready to [action statement that pertains to your event: dance your face off, learn from the smartest people in the business, eat all the best things…] The [xx]th annual [name of event] is back — buy your tickets now!
  • Join [describe types of performers, speakers, or experts] and enjoy [highlight something else attendees can do at your event] at [name of event]! Tickets on sale now.

If you create your event on Eventbrite and publish to Facebook (or Instagram), fans can buy tickets right from the platform without having to leave the app. 

Event registration tip #3: Transportation

For event creators, tapping into the rideshare movement is a smart way to align yourself with the values of your millennial audience. Here’s how you can take advantage:

  1. Use Lyft Events to set up ride codes your attendees can plug into the Lyft app for a discount on rides to your event.
  2. Establish your event with a geotag in the Lyft app to make pickup and dropoff seamless for both drivers and riders.
  3. Let it be known that your event is rideshare-friendly in all of your marketing and communication.
  4. Go the extra mile and staff your event with rideshare ambassadors to help people get to their cars.

For a detailed manifesto on how you can take advantage of ridesharing trends and statistics, download the free guide The Future of Event Transportation: An Inside Look From the Lyft Business Team.

Event registration tip #4: Create an ad calendar

To catch attention in an event-goer’s feed, your social media posts need to be compelling  and frequent. You don’t need to post every hour on every platform, but you do need a plan.

Whether you’re using paid or organic social media posts, use these tips to promote your event more successfully:

  • Event announcement phase: During the awareness stage your goal is to link interested viewers to ticket sales. A great way to do this is by linking your event to Facebook through Eventbrite’s Add to Facebook integration and then running an Event RSVP campaign. 
  • Ticket on-sale phase: You should see a surge in sales when tickets become available. For less hustling later on, convince people to buy tickets now. The most important thing to do during the ticket on-sale period is run conversion campaigns. Using Facebook’s “conversion tracking” feature, you can track how many actual purchases came from which ad.
  • Maintenance phase: Now is the time to convince those highly interested in attending your event to act fast, and your job is to give them a compelling reason to do so. Instant incentive to buy might include a short-lived promo deal or a social contest offering discounted tickets. You may not sell a lot of tickets during this stage, but the money you spend will accrue interest when you get to the closeout period.
  • Week of event: Ticket sales ramp back up at this point, for a very good reason: there’s a hard deadline. So now is the perfect time to double down on your conversion campaigns. The key takeaway: your social media ads should target those who’ve already expressed at least some level of interest in your event.

Event registration tip #5: Have a clear website CTA

If Your website is a treasure map, your call to action (CTA) is the giant red ‘X’ that says “Over here!” After an interested event-goer has decided to attend your event, buying a ticket should be an easy next step

These three best practices will make buying tickets simple for your site visitors:

  • Put a CTA button on the top of your homepage
  • Use active language, like “Get Tickets Now”
  • Make it pop by using a contrasting button color

Raise your event registration numbers

Ready for your next event to be a sold out affair? Set it up on Eventbrite.