Events, such as conferences or congresses, should have an individual website, called event landing page. What kind of website is it? The event landing page is an independent website that not only informs visitors about the event you are planning and contains the details related to it, but – what’s most important – allows visitors to make a registration for the event.
The goal of the attractive and well-constructed event landing page is a conversion, which means converting visitors into participants in your event. And your goal is to achieve a high conversion rate. The question you might ask is: “Do I need a separate webpage dedicated to the event?”. The answer is „YES” if you want to:
- increase attendance at your event;
- facilitate the promotion of the event and communication with participants;
- get an additional tool for marketing.
Project – let’s talk about design
How should the event page be designed? In moderation. It is not worth to overload the event landing page with an excess of text, which nobody will read anyway. It is better to use an image with concise content. Your goal is to increase a desire to find out more and to motivate visitors to make a registration. How to do that? Use photos on the website – remember, the brain processes real images faster and better than text! Use the color to draw the attention of visitors, especially to the event registration button. The registration form or link to the registration page should absolutely be placed in a clearly visible place, e.g. at the top of the page.
Contents – let’s talk about the benefits
As already mentioned, the content should be brief, but it must be absorbing enough to convince visitors to make a decision about participating in your event. Present legibly the benefits that potential participants can expect. Highlight the most interesting elements of the topic of the conference / congress. Specify what the participant will get and highlight the uniqueness of your event (e.g. attractive place, fantastic lecturers or a program full of attractions).
Your event landing page has to provide visitors with the answers to the following questions:
- what does the offer contain?
- what will I gain from participating in this event?
- why should I register right now?
- how can I take this ride (how can I register)?
Remember, your language has to be simple and attractive, but at the same time, you have to be precise and able to present key ideas.
Call to action – let’s talk about the “register” button
Call to action (CTA) section is one of the most important elements of the event landing page, so you need to pay close attention to it. The CTA button should be attractive, placed on the website in a visible place. You have to lead visitors by their hands. If you don’t, they may not register for the event, even if the offer is attractive to them.
Use helpful phrases like “Click here to register” or simply “Register now” – the website visitors will know that they should take the next step here and now.
Focus on the registration form – try to maximally facilitate the registration process. Limit the number of steps to the absolute minimum!
Technical aspects – let’s talk about mobile-friendliness
Creating websites that are mobile-friendly is now an obligation. More than half of all Internet traffic takes place via such devices, so the event landing page must meet the criteria of mobile responsive design.
It is worth using the public content management system (CMS) to build a landing page. By far the most popular system is WordPress, followed by Joomla. Before you decide to choose a system, it’s worth comparing their strengths and weaknesses.
Checking – let’s talk about your effectiveness
To check whether the design of the event landing page meets the expectations, it is worth asking someone unrelated to the organization of the event to take a look at it. Try to find answers for the following questions:
- if the information about the event is contained in a transparent (and at the same time attractive) manner;
- whether the date and place of the event were legible;
- whether the call to action is well-formulated.
You can use the feedback you get to improve the message and registration process.
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The attendance at the event is evidence of its success or failure. That’s why event marketing is one of the key activities during planning and organizing events. One of its basic elements is to create an event landing page that generates high conversion rate. The more you think about the design of the website and registration process, the greater the chance for conversion guests visiting the site into participants in your event.