How To Boost Event Attendance With Early Bird Registration?

Imagine you are all set for the big day. Decorations are done, guests have arrived and the lighting looks a little too perfect. You wait for the attendees to fill up the seats. But just then you realize there is not enough crowd.

Your heart breaks a little. 

And you start wondering what you could have done differently to pull in more crowd. Perhaps more marketing, discounts, and early bird offers?

Yes, that could have helped.

More than half of social media users suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out). And early bird registrations and discounts are the perfect way to capitalize on it. It allows you to tap into people’s fear of missing out to drive urgency and action so that you never have to worry about an empty seat again.

There are a lot of ways in which you can offer early bird discounts and registration. We will be discussing that, and other early bird basics and best practices in our article today.

A. What is early bird registration?

Early bird registration is a marketing technique used by event organizers and businesses to encourage early commitment from attendees. This is typically done by offering an exclusive deal which is available to those who register early or during a certain timeline. Early bird registrations open very early in the booking process with most discounts being between 10-25% off standard pricing.

Early bird offers are commonly used in

• Concerts and festivals
• Product launches
• Conventions, conferences, and lectures
• Webinars and classes

B. Why does early bird registration matter?

The benefits of early bird discounts can serve to propel your promotion efforts not only before the events take place, but even during and after. Moreover, your attendees will feel good knowing that they have snagged a good deal.

Additionally, early bird booking will allow your attendees to

• Plan for travel early
• Research and know more about the event destination
• Get other early bird savings on hotel bookings and transportation
• Arrange for family needs such as pet care

Here are some more benefits-

i. Early collection of data for marketing purposes

It is hard to organize a productive and effective marketing campaign without a target audience and marketplace. Early bird registrations will help you produce enough data to know your audience demographic, the source of finding tickets, age groups, etc.

For example, from one purchase you can analyze how and where they are accessing your tickets, what is working and what isn’t. You will be able to get a breakdown of where your target market is coming from (URLs, direct links, referrals, social media) and use that information to create a campaign in those areas.

ii. Collecting buyers’s information for future use

You will be able to collect target audience data and information to target current or future promotional efforts. You will be able to access all data if you use an event registration software like Ticket Generator or through links posted to platforms and other internet-based outlets. This will also help your sponsors by allowing more time to promote the event.

iii. Igniting early interests

Offering early bird interests not only helps to boost event attendance but is a smart way to accomplish the promotion goals and encourage word-of-mouth promotion. It is based on the scarcity model or FOMO (Fear of Missing Out ) that drives consumers to accelerate their buying habits.

The goal is to push your prospects to buy tickets NOW, the earlier the better, or else they may lose interest and ultimately not buy tickets. Offering discounts for a limited time will encourage your audience to buy the tickets before the sale ends, thus creating a sense of urgency. Well, this brings us to our next point.

iv. Creating a sense of urgency

According to Search Engine Journal, you will have a greater chance of increasing ticket sales if you create a sense of urgency in those who are invested in purchasing tickets. Since early bird discounts are only available for a limited period, people who want to attend will develop a strong desire to purchase for a lower price. This will also encourage them to spread the word to family and friends which can boost event attendance.

C. Types of early bird registrations

The key idea behind early bird registration is to tap into your audience’s sense of urgency and entice them with great deals. So if people are on two minds about booking the tickets, early bird offers can nudge them in the right direction.

But remember that for early bird offers to work, it should be of great value. It is not only about a cheaper package, the experience needs to be worth it. You can perhaps give the registrants access to more exclusive content. Otherwise, people will not feel like they are missing out. 

Commonly there are two types of early bird registrations-

i. Restrictions

All early bird offers work on deadline restrictions. Based on the target demographics or the specific needs of the sales team, planners may include other restrictions to limit who can register for the exclusive offers. For example, planners may choose to limit early bird offers for subscribers or people who hold memberships.

ii. Rewards

Early bird offers do not necessarily offer discounts but it is surely the most common early bird reward. Some businesses also offer a percentage off full pricing or a specified dollar amount discount. Also, these rewards do not have to be monetary, sometimes they can include coupon codes to promote the event or include a discount on a future event.

D. Marketing best practices to promote early bird offers

Marketing is the most important tool to help you spread the word about your early bird offers. Here is how you can do it:

1. Advertise on your website

When you first announce your event, the prospective attendees are most likely to visit your website first to get the details of the event. This is the best time to capture their attention with attractive early-bird ads and offers. Make the ad easily visible with clickable buttons with the promotion advertised on them. Make sure that the site or landing page is mobile-friendly as a large number of people use them.

2. Create email drip campaigns

Email drip campaigns are a series of automated emails sent out at specific intervals to keep the customers in the loop with what your company is up to. The key idea behind this is to nurture prospects and encourage them to take the desired action, such as registering for your event.

You can highlight the rewards and benefits of registering early along with providing valuable information about your event. The best way is to use a combination of educational content and promotional offers to keep the audience engaged and motivated to register early.

3. Promote on social media

There is no better platform than social media to boost event attendance. Make sure to post about the early bird offers on every social media platform you are on- Facebook, Instagram, X (formally Twitter). Create informational posts, post testimonials, and promotional videos, and highlight the benefits of purchasing tickets early.

Social media is also the best tool to ignite FOMO among users to drive ticket sales. For example, Glazing Summit in their post specified how many tickets have already been sold and how they are ‘selling fast’ to increase FOMO among audiences.

4. Host a giveaway

Hosting a giveaway is an effective way to promote early bird registration. You can do this by offering a prize that is relevant to your event or industry like free tickets, fan-meet entry, or a piece of equipment. You can market it in such a way that to enter the giveaway, people have to register early. This will incentivize people to register early and boost event attendance.

5. Partner with influencers

Collaborate with famous influencers in your industry to reach a wider audience. The first step is to identify influencers who have a strong following in your niche and then offer a discount code to share with their followers. This will help drive traffic to your registration page and boost event attendance.

6. Advertise locally

In the age of social media advertising, let’s not forget local advertising. It still works and is a smart way to gather new attendees. Some great places to target are colleges, libraries, coffee shops, and any place you think your prospective attendees will be.

7. Market early bird benefits as VIP perks

Positioning early bird benefits as VIP perks can create an additional sense of exclusivity to boost event attendance. You can add additional benefits such as priority seating, backstage passes, access to exclusive events or content, or special merchandise. This will get attendees excited and more open to buying early bird tickets.

8. Reward repeat attendees

Rewarding repeat attendees is a great way to build customer loyalty while increasing registration numbers. This can be done by offering discounts, special perks, or early access to exclusive content for attendees who have attended your event in the past. When people are happy with your offers and rewards, they are likely to speak about the event and incite word-of-mouth promotion.

9. Promote the guests extensively

If distinguished guests are coming to your event, let people know. Promote them, promote their work, and promote what they have to say. Ask them to promote your event on their social media accounts as well. Make content with them and circulate it on all your platforms to catch the attention of prospective attendees.

10. Create video content

Video content is a powerful tool for promoting your event to boost event attendance. You can start by creating short, engaging videos showcasing the benefits of attending your event and sharing these videos on your websites and social media channels to ensure they reach a wider audience.

Wrapping up

For an early bird strategy to be successful, there has to be a lot of marketing involved, so sometimes it can get a little hard to manage everything at once.

By everything, we largely mean registrations. It is a key area where you don’t want to mess up. Even after extensive promotion and marketing if the registration process is not smooth and easy, you can lose a lot of potential attendees.

So while you are doing your best to bring people up for early bird registrations, let Ticket Generator give you a hand at managing your registrations effortlessly. 

Ticket Generator is an event registration platform that helps you with all your ticketing and registration needs. From allowing custom design uploads to offering highly secured check-ins, Ticket Generator will make sure your early birdies get the smoothest event registration experience. 

Get started now to unlock more amazing features to boost sales and increase conversions!