When you think of registration software, you think of an active process for registering applicants leading up to your event or program. But did you know you can use your registration software as a sales platform too? Your registration software can help you manage your data, design your marketing strategy and help you better prepare for upcoming events. But how?
When you begin with your registration software, it usually looks like this:
- Setup your system.
- Launch.
- Register applicants and gather data.
- Have your event.
But what happens after? You have just collected a wealth of information! Besides just saving it to roll over to your next registration season, you can capitalize on the information you’ve received and make it work for you.
Below we will look at several ways your registration software can support your sales and marketing goals. I will outline how your software can be used in your low or off season to maximize your return and increase your business and revenue.
What do you do with all the information you’ve collected?
Using the filtering function in your registration software is the best tool you have! Once you’ve collected information from your applicants, you can utilize this to understand how your event or program did, target specific groups of people to connect with, and lock in your applicants as repeating clients.
Using your software’s email tools plays a huge role. Below are a few scenarios on how to use your software to finish the onboarding process:
- You can target the applicants that started, but never completed their applications by sending them an email inviting them to finish the process. Or check out what you are offering next time to entice them to come back. This group of users is a sales opportunity you shouldn’t miss!
- During the registration process, you can filter and find applicants who haven’t made a payment or have an outstanding balance. An email full of information can help encourage applicants to close their balance. You can also use your software’s autobill feature, if available, to automate payments and make this process even easier and more streamlined for everyone.
- Filter people who have answered a question in your application about programs they’d like to see in the future. You can generate a list of ideas from this information to improve your program and offerings for next year. Essentially, you can evaluate what people loved, what people want, and what people didn’t like so much, to grow and improve for the future.
- Use your software’s time-stamp and recent actions tools to see which applicants haven’t logged in a while. Then create an email promotion to reengage with them.
- Offer automated discounts for doing more business with you. This includes setting up your system to offer early bird and late bird pricing.
Your registration software is really a long terms sales solution for your business. Some registration software on the market will collect your data online for you, but present it simply. Either in an Excel or other format. Others will collect information for you AND give you access to the back end, which will allow you to achieve the abilities mentioned above.
When you think about registration as a way to gather all the data you need to improve your marketing and grow your business, you can see how your registration software plays a vital role as a sales platform for your business.
When will I have time to do all of these great things?
Many organizations that use registration software have a high season and a low season. A time when things are crazy and registration is underway and a time to breathe and take a step back. Often times, organizations assume that their registration software isn’t needed during the low season since they aren’t “registering” anyone. But going with the idea that registration software is also a sales tool, your off season is THE time to evaluate your past events, make changes, reach out to applicants, and design a fresh marketing strategy going forward.
Your low season is an opportunity to:
- Deal with receivables and correct any lingering issues.
- Generate statistics.
- Measure who your audience is. If you are a camp and had a large number of 7th graders this year, next year that means you will have a large amount of 8th graders. PLAN FOR THIS in your programming!
- See which programs were full, which weren’t, and adjust your program offerings for NEXT year based on turnout THIS year.
- Email applicants with information on upcoming events and programs, new offerings, etc. Forget email marketing software AND registration software! Simplify your processes and automate your process with one platform!
- Optimize your forms and questions – make sure you are asking questions you want and need answers to. Make sure to include where they heard about you. You can evaluate your outreach going forward. You can also ensure you are spending your marketing dollars where you see the best return.
Conclusion
The goal of any paid software is to get the most out of it for the money spent on it. Understanding that registration software provides much more than registration management will allow you to get the most out of your software. Not only that, you will improve connection and communication with clients and use feedback to enrich your business and understand what you’re getting right, and where there is room to improve. Good luck!