Event registration for internal events

If you run internal company events, you'll probably be well versed in some of the unique challenges of event registration and comms that come with them.

A few questions that need answering

How do I send the invitations?
How do I make sure that it's only employees registering?
How do I make sure the registration site and emails are on brand?

Invitations
If the event platform that you're using to create the registration site has the option to send personalised email invitations, that's probably the easiest option. To throw in a curveball, what if the IT police don't want you using another external system to send emails from?

Need some options?
1. Send them out via the events platform if you're allowed;
2. Send them out via your email marketing platform;
3. Send them out via your local email client (Gmail, Outlook, etc) using a merge function.

We've already mentioned option 1 is the easiest, but it's all down to your friends in the IT team.

Options 1 and 2 present another issue, how do you get the personalised links from the event platform into the email marketing platform/local email client? Unless there's an option to bulk export the invitation links from the event platform, you're in for a long day (or days depending on how many employees there are) exporting the links one by one. Check with your provider to see if this is an option.

Employees only
How do you make sure the only people registering are employees? It’s difficult because there is nothing to stop an employee from sharing their unused invitation with someone from outside the business, but there are some things you can do.

1. Make registration accessible via a secure login for each invitee;
2. Mark the event as private which can only be accessed via a unique invitation link that expires once used;
3. Restrict the domain(s) used in the email field to company ones only;
4. Only allow email addresses that are in the database;
5. Make the first name and last name fields view only.

It’s worth noting that the above are only options if your event software has that functionality.

Keep it on-brand
“On-brand”, it’s a widely used term. What we mean is that it looks like all your other company marketing stuff. Website, social media, print, etc.

If that’s not important to you, there’s a number of platforms that you could use such as Eventbrite.

If it is important but you don’t have the time or budget (could be both) to engage with a web designer, make sure your current event platform has at least the following:

1. The option to use a custom domain/sub-domain (e.g. yourcoevents.com), for both the event registration site and the email comms.

2. The ability to add your logo, colours, fonts and footers as a minimum.

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Are you using a registration platform that has developed functionality specifically to cater to these types of events?

If the answer is yes, then it sounds like you're covered.

If the answer is no, we might be able to help and it’s a simple next step, send an email to hello@mitingu.com or fill out the enquiry form.

Post-event communications, yes or no?

Let’s face it, the tendency is to focus on good communications before the event and during it. There's a valid argument for this, before the event we need to get people excited and keep them informed to make sure they show up. On the day itself, communications are a great way of keeping attendees updated.

Post-event comms are a bit like the poor relation that can be either completely ignored or done as a bit of an afterthought.

Just because the excitement of the build-up and the actual event has passed, it doesn't mean the opportunity to keep the conversation going should be missed. Sending surveys, thank you emails, highlight reels, popular slide decks are all decent examples of post-event comms.

Surveys
An effective way of getting honest feedback (especially if you let the respondent answer anonymously). Make them short and snappy - people like quick response options like check boxes, radio buttons and dropdowns. Try and keep free text fields to a minimum, perhaps just a comments box at the end of the survey.

Send them out 24-48 hours after the event whilst it's still fresh in their minds.

If you've got the budget something like a prize draw is a good way to encourage attendees to respond.

If you're sending out surveys, the key thing is to have an easy mechanism to view and download responses. Don't ignore the results, act on them and share the key points.

Thank you email
A simple "thanks for attending" email is an easy way to acknowledge and thank people for coming to the event. Make it more relevant to the individual if you can, a bit more than just their name if you can.

It could be used as a standalone email, include a link to take the post-event survey (see above), or an attachment/link to the highlights reel.

Highlight reels
Most of us haven't got time to watch a 60-minute film of an event we attended, no matter how good it was. Most of us can find the time to watch a condensed summary of the event if it's about 5 minutes or so. It's also something that can easily be shared and used to promote the next event.

Promoting future events
A good time to get early bookings for upcoming events is straight after the last one. We're taking it as read that this applies to attendees who got something positive out of the last event.

Neglecting post-event comms, might mean you’re missing out on an opportunity to differentiate your events from the rest.

Feature Highlight - File Upload

New for 2022!

We’ll be releasing regular feature highlights that give you a bit more detail on Mitingu’s functionality and some real-life examples of how they can be used.

File Upload

We are starting with this one because, at the time of writing, it has a lot of relevance.

A number of countries (including the UK) require attendees to provide proof of vaccination prior to gaining entry into the event.

Adding a mandatory file upload to your registration form means that guests cannot complete registration until they upload their proof of vaccination. This is then stored against their name in the attendee data.

File upload isn’t just about uploading vaccination passes though (as we all hope they are just a temporary thing). It could also be used for event waiver forms, proof of identity and accreditations.

Contact us for more info.

Event registration - Out-of-the-box or custom build?

A custom event registration site is built to your specifications including the design and functionality.

Depending on which event registration platform you are using, an out-of-the-box site is normally created from a template on your event registration software that can be customised to a greater or lesser extent. The minimum customisation could simply be adding a logo, while a more advanced customisation could include the logo, layout, fonts and colour scheme - nearly a custom site, but with the bonus that it utilises tied and tested functionality.

There are a few factors that come into play when you’re making that decision.

1. Time
2. Budget
3. Infrastructure & support
4. Frequency

1. Time

How long have you got?

Depending on the size of the event, the amount of content, and the required functionality, a custom event website is likely to take weeks to build. If it includes email communications (even if it's just an integration with a platform like Mailchimp), analytics and database management, it will add more time, complexity, and cost.

A simple out-of-the-box site could be built in under an hour! A more complex site that is heavy on content, with personalisation and filters should take no more than a couple of days. Most out-of-the-box solutions also have built-in email communications, analytics and delegate management functionality.

2. Budget

How much have you got?

When it comes to building a custom website with specific functionality, pretty much anything is possible. I'll qualify that by adding in that it depends how deep your pockets are. Custom sites can get expensive even if you have provided a clear brief and agreed on the scope of the build.

An out-of-the-box event site will almost always cost less than a custom site. There is normally an upfront outlay that includes customising and branding templates and then a usage cost (some charge per registration, some, like us, charge a monthly licence). You don't have to account for additional costs such as hosting and support because they are included with your event registration software (see item 3 below).

3. Infrastructure & Support

If you've commissioned a business to build a custom site, they may factor in hosting and support but it will be an additional cost and will need to fit with your requirements.

If they haven't, it will fall on you to source a secure hosting environment with adequate levels of support.

Event registration software comes with secure hosting and full support to make sure your site is always available. Regular security updates and testing are carried out to make sure your attendee data is secure.

4. Frequency

Is this event a one-off or part of a series? Do you run events all through the year?

Custom-built sites could get really expensive and time-consuming if you run lots of events throughout the year, even if you're using the same or a similar theme.

If you run your events through a dedicated events platform, you could have a choice of branded templates and set up a new event in minutes. Most have copy event functions too, making it possible to generate a new event at the click of a button.

In summary...

Custom sites - you could get exactly what you want, but it comes with a hefty price tag and a much longer timeline. It's super important to get your brief and requirements agreed upfront or it could get even more expensive.

Out of the box - you'll have to make some small compromises on the look and feel, but will benefit from a lower price tag and a much quicker time to get your event sites live. You won't have to worry about technical stuff like servers and support and can utilise a number of existing functions that have been tried and tested.

One last thing, how does an almost custom site sound but with all the benefits an out-of-the-box solution brings? That is something we can definitely help with!

"Interesting" chat down the pub

The first 15 minutes of chat whilst I’m down the local on a Friday night is the very short window of time when my friends and I talk sensible stuff.

The longer we’re in there, the more likely it is that the conversations will go just about everywhere and anywhere.

None of my mates work in the software industry, so it’s always a bit of a challenge how I explain what Mitingu is in as few words as possible without boring them onto the next pint.

Whilst they’re pretending to be interested they normally ask “What does Mitingu do?”

Basically, it creates event sites that allow people to say that they are going to an event. It then sends personalised emails like reminders or event updates. A bit like when they register to go to Glastonbury (the world famous music festival, not the town) for their tickets and then get reminder and update emails. The only difference being that Mitingu focuses purely on business events.

That’s normally where I leave it. Eyes are glazing over and there’s much more interest in the guest ale that’s on that week.

Falling in line is good for your brand

Mothers’ Day was fast approaching so John decided to login to Moonpig (other custom card builders are available!) and get to work on creating a special card for his mum with the personal touch.

The colour palette in the tool allowed him to choose from a huge range of colours and he eventually went for a deep pink and lilac combo because his Mum likes them. He also had a large range of fonts to choose from and he went for Montserrat for the heading and good old Arial for the main body.

Needless to say, when John’s mum opened the card there were smiles all round. She felt good which made John feel good too.

Now that he was a graphic design guru, John decided to use his new talent at his day job as an event manager for ABC Consulting. He was responsible for putting together a registration web site, for a conference ABC was organising.

John logged into his account on his ABC’s event site building software and got to work. A few hours later he was done. He’d created a “masterpiece”. With a flourish of confidence, he pressed “go live” on the site and sat back.

He checked it an hour later to see how many had registered. No-one. 

He tried again an hour later. Still no-one.

The next morning, he rushed down to his laptop on the kitchen table as soon as he woke up. Still nothing. He felt a sense of mild panic. This wasn’t going to plan.

When he got to work that morning, he asked a couple of friends in confidence what they thought was going on. The penny dropped the moment his friend Jack asked:

“Whose event site is that?”

It hit him like a ton of bricks. He’d designed the site he thought looked great. He hadn’t built an ABC Consulting site. He hadn’t used any of the brand colours, styles of fonts that ABC uses. He had gone off piste and unleashed his new inner graphic designer.

It was a nice looking site, but it didn’t look anything like ABC Consulting. That confused site visitors who left rather than sign up.

John felt an idiot. He’s learned a simple lesson the hard way.

It’s your well-known brand that attracts your punters. Not your new design skills. Brands remain powerful by people being disciplined about their use. That’s what a company’s brand guidelines do. They are there for a reason.

At Mitingu we’re a bit obsessed about great looking event registration sites. We spend all our time trying to think of better ways to help you create awesome registration sites for your events. Unlike John, our tools will help you keep communications and style on brand, every time.

If you can bear to put your inner graphic designer to one side for a few minutes, come and have a look at our next generation event editor. It will help you build great looking branded event sites, so your events will sell out faster than an umbrella salesman at a wet festival.

Take a look at the new editor

5 Tips For Failsafe Online Event Promotion

All live events begin with an online presence. The majority of companies – 89% by one estimate – utilize some form of online marketing. You also have plenty of approaches, from social media to email newsletters. Diversify your approach to broaden your outreach. Here are some best practices for organizing an event marketing campaign.

1. Don’t Neglect Keywords
Contrary to what many people are saying, SEO is not dead. All online promotional content should be optimized with two to three longtail keywords. The keywords should include an industry term followed by a geo-location. If you’re hosting a tech conference in London, for example, then the keywords would be “tech conference in London,” or “IT conference in London.” Use the Google Keyword Planner to discover lucrative keywords in your niche.

Include your keywords in all written content, including blog posts and in the description of video content. Adhere to the basic SEO rules. Include the keyword or a close variation of it in the title, in at least one H2 title, and enough times in the body of the text to achieve a 5% keyword density.

2. Show Off Your Social Proof
Never heard of social proof? This is online content from your followers that you share with other
customers. This can be a post that you retweet, a testimonial, or a customer’s Instagram pic from a previous event. Social proof shows that other customers and event goers are active brand advocates. Showing off social proof may motivate others to follow suit. Just as you expect followers to spread your content, the reverse is also true.

The easiest way to show social proof is by reposting other people’s post. You can also get more creative and include a video compilation or slideshow of the posts.

3. Use Retargeting Ads Often
Retargeting ads are way underutilized. If you’re unfamiliar, these are ads that are shown to followers that went through a portion of the sales funnel process but fell short of purchasing a ticket. These people expressed some level of initial interest and are more likely to convert if you reach out to them again.

Retargeting ads may be directed towards those who, for example, clicked on the RSVP page link in an email newsletter but did not secure a ticket. The message in the ads should also apply FOMO, or the fear of missing out principle. FOMO are messages that convey a sense of urgency. An example may be “Only 20 tickets left,” or “Ticket discount offer ends in 12 hours.”

4. Get Creative with Ticket Sales
Don’t just set a ticket price and sell them via event page with a purchase link. Look for creative ways to part with them. How else can you sell or give away tickets? Consider these methods:
• Early bird pricing
• Discount for bulk purchases
• Give them away to those who perform a favorable action, such as refering X number of buyers

• Discount pricing for loyalty and VIP members
• Give them away in a social media contest, either as the winning prize or to everyone who participates.

5. Use a Social Media Wall
Online promotion continues even once the event is in progress. Even though you’re no longer selling tickets at this point, you still want to spread social media mentions. This helps spread brand awareness and helps promote any products you may be pushing at the event.

To drive in-event social media discussion, incorporate a social media wall. This is a digital signage that shows social media posts from various networks as they’re posted in real time. Seeing live posts should prompt other attendees to join in and submit their own tweets or Instagram posts. Encourage all posters to include the event hashtag with every posting.

The Web provides so many angles for approaching your event promotion. Achieve optimum results by exploring multiple methods and tweaking your strategy to improve analytics.

Dan McCarthy is an Event Manager at Venueseeker, an event management company based in the UK. Dan has 6 years of event project management under his belt. He has worked on many successful events, and currently, he shares his knowledge by writing on the company blog. Follow him on Twitter @DanCarthy2.

How events can help grow your print business

Before I began my journey with Mitingu, I ran a digital print business. About 8 years ago I had doubts about the longevity of print... how wrong was I ?! Print is the perfect physical communications tool and combined with technology and complimentary digital channels, the only limit to what you can do with it is simply one’s creativity.

There are lots of printers out there that have the technology and skill to make their clients’ communications come alive. The issue is there are far fewer who actually tell their clients and prospects what they can do and how they can help improve marketing ROI and cost efficiencies (via print on demand).

This is where running onsite, local and national events come into their own. It gives the print business the opportunity to inform, add value and raise awareness of what they can do and how they can help.

If you are one of those printers out there that thinks you don’t have the time or budget to organise one event, yet alone a number of regular events, I completely get that because I felt exactly the same! When I finally got round to organising an event (an open house), it opened my eyes to the opportunity. We attracted existing clients and some prospects who until that point we hadn’t managed to have a conversation with. We found out their actual pain points and got the opportunity to demonstrate how we could help them. The event gave us the opportunity to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones.

The great news is that it doesn’t have to cost lots of time and money to organise and manage a professional event for your business.

Mitingu can help printers or any type of business with event marketing, registration and ongoing communications from one platform. Here’s how… 

1. A mobile responsive event registration and marketing site - your branding, your URL..not ours!

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2. Event emails - invitations, booking confirmations, reminders, survey requests...personalised, branded and relevant to each recipient.

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3. Attendee management - plan ahead by seeing who’s coming and what they hope to get out of the event (use the registration form to get valuable information such as that).

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4. Analytics - see important metrics like registrations versus invitations, email response rates and total bookings and revenue (if you’re charging people to attend).

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5. Integrated payments -take card payments online as part of the registration process.

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6. Share on social media - helps to generate registrations and interest in your event.

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7. Check-in - a professional way to check attendees in via an iOS and Android app. Their status is upgraded in the event admin attendee list, so you know who has made it on the day and who hasn't.

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8. Surveys - your chance to collect more valuable attendee data to help you understand their pain points and how you can help them. It's also an opportunity to get their honest feedback on the event which can be used to refine the next event so it's even better! 

Print has a great future, especially if it utilises technology such as web to print and cross media marketing software. 

Events could be one of your business’s biggest opportunities to get the message out there and we’d love to help.

6 reasons to make business events accountable

Making events an accountable part of the sales cycle and culture has always been an issue for businesses. Believing any opportunity to meet customers or partners face-to-face, or bring employees together at a corporate event has always ‘felt’ like the correct thing to do. Time and time again budget holders were left questioning and unable to answer what the return was. The set up, management, delivery and measurement so often fell short of being properly planned and integrated into wider internal and external customer sales and experience strategies. But that is all changing.

There is now a growing recognition and a desire amongst corporate event managers and other lines of business (sales, marketing, procurement, finance, HR teams etc.) to be much smarter in the way that events are run, and how they can prove accountability to the business. Here’s why:

1. Businesses need to differentiate to win. Real world face-to-face interactions (via your events) allow these points of differentiation to be delivered, experienced, captured and capitalised upon.

2. Events can contribute significantly to the overall experience and perception customers, partners and employees have of your brand. By being joined up with business and sales objectives events become an integral part of their company’s purpose and accelerate opportunity and belief.

3. Without a strategy you're committed to and a plan to deliver against it, you are vulnerable. Knowing why, how and when you need to run an event will ensure it provides and delivers value to all.

4. The customer is at the heart of everything. Successful events are not run by a siloed department. They are an integral part of the sales cycle and experience process. The face-to-face opportunity events provide has relevance to every part of your business.

5. First class experience is expected as default. Providing a personalised experience to each delegate individually from the very first communication is paramount. The more you can demonstrate you understand their needs and preferences, the more relevant you will be to them and the greater their desire to engage and attend. You can also serve them better too.

6. Technology is an enabler. The right event management platform will enable your business to set-up and deploy an event in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost by anyone, at any time, anywhere in the world. Intuitive to use, aligning to your brand for a seamless look and feel and providing relevant data and insight to enable you to deliver a great delegate experience on any device, pre event, during the event and post event, should be the basic criteria.

By aligning to business strategy, applying good planning skills, integrating with other business activities and colleagues and using the right technology tools and applications, any event can now feed both the attendee and the business with richer and more valuable experiences and outcomes. All of which can be measured and reported more accurately and effectively than ever before.

Tool up to win

Event managers that have a good understanding of their organization’s purpose and strategy will be better placed to make lasting and valuable contributions to the sales and experience effort and ensure all future events are correctly funded and attended.

Choosing and using the right event management technology to bring it all together, attract the right delegates and remove the uncertainty of event accountability is time worth investing. A simple gap analysis of how you currently run events versus how you must plan and run events in the future is a critical first step. With that knowledge, there is only ever likely to be a limited number of event management platforms and applications capable of meeting your needs. We understand that and this is why we built Mitingu.

Welcome to the new Mitingu

It’s been over eighteen months since we launched the Mitingu platform and we’re really enjoying the ride (albeit with a few bumps along the way)!

Photo: Priscilla Westra

Test and measure

It was always our intention to focus on the business events market and, on the whole, we’ve been pretty successful keeping to that. From the beginning we decided to offer two options to potential users:

1. Pay as you go - Sign up via the website and start creating events immediately

2. Private/white label - A customised version with no mention of Mitingu

Like any good business coach will tell you to do, we have tested and measured the success of each over the last eighteen months. What we have seen is over 80% of our business (and growing) is coming from our private/white label offering. With that in mind, from August 2016 we stopped offering the pay as you go service to new users (existing clients are not affected by this) and have decided to purely focus on what we now call Mitingu Enterprise.

Say hello to Mitingu Enterprise

We’ve been busy developing this behind the scenes and it’s ready for release! It’s still simple to use as we like to keep things that way, but has a few more bells and whistles to help make your events even better. We also realised when it comes to pricing, it has to be simple too, so we have three pricing options, all flexible and designed to accommodate specific needs.

Here’s a brief introduction to some of the features we’ve added so far:

1. Improved analytics, giving you a better oversight of your events

2. Event accommodation

• Manage capacity and allocation

• Help your attendees choose the right hotel by providing information as part of the registration process

3. See which breakout sessions and workshops are the most popular and manage allocation and capacity accordingly

4. Pre-registrations: Gauge interest and manage invitations for limited space events

5. Incomplete registrations: View and contact attendees with incomplete registrations to encourage them to complete their registration

6. Reduce form abandonment with intelligent single or multi-page registration forms and surveys

7. Enhanced tagging and filters, personalise and segment your communications

8. Multi-lingual event sites and communications

Events and attendees from all over the world? No problem, with Mitingu you can quickly and easily upload translations for one or as many languages as you need at the same time, This allows the delegate  to decide which language they would prefer to register and receive the subsequent event communications in.

At Mitingu, we are all about providing our clients with “their” event management platform. A place where they can create and manage great looking, branded and multi lingual event sites as well as  communications, whilst collecting information about their clients and prospects that they can use to improve event experience and build long lasting business relationships.

If you would like to take a look at the all new Mitingu then we’d love to show you. No commitment necessary, but good honest feedback essential! Get in touch with us here or email hello@mitingu.com and we’ll set something set up. Our standard demo takes no longer than 20 minutes unless you want it to.

4 activities to help you deliver successful events

The majority of people do not run or attend an event without having a good idea about what they want to achieve or what they want to take away from it.

The process of engagement and achieving mutual objectives starts with the very first piece of event communication; save the date or invitation emails for example.

We think there are four key activities to consider:

1. Give information

2. Get information

3. Use information

4. Stay on brand

1. Giving the right information

Clean, accurate data is the key. We've said it before and we'll say it again, Information is Gold Dust! Make sure the data you are using is up to date, it shows attention to detail and that you’ve taken the time to think about it.

Good data enables you to tailor your communications, even if you only know my name and company name then use it, I’ll appreciate it (I’m easily pleased!).

The event registration process gives you the perfect opportunity to gain valuable information about the individual attendee. Once you have information, such as their specific topics of interest, where they travel from, dietary requirements etc then it’s really important to include this in your ongoing communications before, during and after the event.

The more information you collect the more tailored your communications can be. If they are regular attendees of other events you run, that information should also be used. Mitingu enables tailored communications which evolve with every piece of data you collect, helping you enhance your attendee’s experience as well as building and strengthening engagement and relationships. Not using the data you collect is such a missed opportunity, knowledge is power after all and showing you know your attendees will leave a lasting impression, no one wants to feel like a number.

2. Getting the right information

I don’t think I’m on my own here when I say that I really dislike filling out long registration forms that are asking me questions that have no relevance to me; I’ve told you I’m driving to the event, so there is no need to ask me my flight number and so on.

Intelligent registration is the way forward! Only show me questions that are relevant to me, either based on what you already know or how I have answered previous questions upon registration. This means some questions will only appear based on how I have answered a previous question ('Show me you know me'). Make sure the form does not look daunting and time-consuming when I first land on it.  My point here is that registration forms are not ‘one size fits all’ and should be the right length for each individual attendee whilst only collecting information that is relevant to them.

Tailoring registration forms makes completing them quicker, easier and continues to build on the good feeling they have about attending the event.

3. Using the information

A few years ago I attended a Xerox event, the event registration process has always stuck in my mind, amongst other questions like my dietary preferences, they asked the following:

     i.        Which breakout seminar topic I was most interested in

    ii.        They had a prize draw at the event and asked me which prize I would like most

All the follow up emails I received from that point on used that information in both text and imagery, it kept me engaged and reminded me of why I wanted to attend. On a lighter note, it meant that any prize I may have been lucky enough to win (I didn’t!) was something that I would like and more importantly associate with the good event experience that Xerox had provided.

So, if you use information taken before (via a registration process), during and after (via feedback surveys) and tailor it to the attendee, that will build attendee engagement and give event organisers meaningful statistics and reports that will enable them to measure the true return on investment, success of the event and give them valuable insight on where future events could be even better.

4. Staying on brand

Staying on brand, whether that is the specific event brand, your business brand or a combination of both is another key factor. The attendee should immediately associate all communications and registration site with your event and your business.

As we say at Mitingu, it’s your event not ours!

It will not come as a major shock to hear that Mitingu can help you with all of the above, so if you would like to know more we’d love to hear from you.

‘Show me you know me’ why personalisation is a great idea for your event

A big driver for us when we created Mitingu was to make personalisation a key feature in the platform. Having worked in print and digital marketing for over 20 years, I have seen the positive impact that personalised communications have on response rates and ultimately a client’s bottom line.

These two quotes highlight our reasons for making this such an important feature of Mitingu’s offering to users...

“74% of online consumers get frustrated when content (e.g. offers, ads, promotions) appears that has nothing to do with their interests.” Janrain & Harris Interactive

“Personalized emails improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversion rates by 10%.” Aberdeen

Personalisation has to be a whole lot more than just “Hi Firstname”! Of course that’s important, but so is the content. For example; if you are running a conference on marketing communications with slots featuring on digital, print and multi-channel and you already know that I have a particular interest in print, then my invitation and event site content should be tailored to focus on that. It’s far more likely to get my attention and encourage me to register for the event. 

Once registered, I’ve given the organiser a whole lot more information about me, so subsequent communications should be tailored to what they know. For example. They know my address, so could include personalised travel instructions to the venue. They may also know my dietary requirements, so it could be tailored to and include a food menu specific to them. It engages with me and shows that the organiser is taking an interest in me as an individual and will cater specifically for me. It makes me feel special and the event experience has kicked off on a really positive note weeks ahead of the actual event.

We are passionate about promoting the correct use of personalisation across event sites and email communications. We’d love to show you how.

If you’re already a Mitingu user or would love to find out more, then contact me direct greg@mitingu.com and I’ll gladly walk you through how easy to set up it is and how it can make your events even better.

Zero to hero #2

Last month we promised you a bare all monthly post about our journey as a start up and how we've targeted £20k a month by March 2016. I'll be honest, right now that seems a big number, but we've always aimed big.

October 2015 saw us invoice circa £1500 so you can see that we have some real hard work ahead of us! The good news is that we picked up a new white label account and had six new pay as you go accounts. I know Eventbrite won't be quaking in their boots just yet, but give us a chance!

As I previously mentioned, all three partners of Mitingu have day jobs to pay for everyday life and to invest in Mitingu so our talented development team are well looked after and get rewarded for their amazing work. That does present a bit of a challenge because it means the hours we put into our business comes after a full days graft at someone else's. The only thing I have to say about that is that it's a whole lot easier when you're as passionate about Mitingu as we are and have great belief in it as a product. Also having an understanding family and friends helps enormously. They put up with seeing less of us during this time, their support,  encouragement and faith in Mitingu is invaluable. 

 

What we tried last month and what the results were like

Networking

Last month, we went to our first ever networking event. I have to say that it was surprisingly good! We made some really useful contacts and it was an education listening to how different people adopt different angles on promoting their business. The upshot of it was that we are now talking to an event management agency who are interested in the white label platform for a number of their corporate clients. We'll definitely be doing that again! 

Emails

We haven't got out as many as we'd like. The results we get from emails are generally really good, so we know it's a channel that's worth pursuing. To make us stick to it I will set a minimum target of 100 (we prefer to research and target rather than buy lists) personalised emails sent out by the middle of December 2015.

We have a number of active prospects from previous email sends, so we know it is worth doing.

Face to face meetings

These are my personal favourite, but right now we are limited to early morning/evenings. The good news nowadays, with dynamic and flexible working becoming more and more accepted as business are seeing the benefits of allowing staff flexibility in structuring their working week, is that we are still managing to get out and meet people.

Face to face meetings give us the chance to properly engage and build rapport with prospective or existing clients. I've always enjoyed business development so that's probably why it's my favourite method of engaging with clients. It's always much easier to gauge the level of interest and when a decision will be made from meeting them in person.

Online demos

We've had some interest from the US and Canada this month, so the only tenable way of demoing Mitingu is via the web. It's a great way of showcasing our product, but does have limitations as it's a bit tricky sometimes to gauge interest if you're not sitting in the same room.

That said, we'll persevere with them as we have won business from online demos in the past and I'm sure if we fine tune our approach, we'll win lots more.

Social media and blog posts

We go for the quality and not quantity approach mainly as we've not had as much time as we'd like to devote to Twitter and LinkedIn in particular.  The posts and tweets we have put out there have been well received and it's definitely something we will continue as it obviously helps to get our name out there and shows we have real passion for the events industry, marketing and start ups.

The most important thing is for us to stay passionate, enthusiastic and together as a team. We meet and talk regularly which helps us stay connected and keep on track. We are ready to take Mitingu to the events industry and know that we can make a positive impact.

Our message to any other start ups or in fact anyone at all reading this is to keep the faith and never give up!

Charge for add-ons at your events

We realise building a great event registration and comms platform isn't about what we think are great features, the most important opinions come from our current and prospective users.

You talk and we most definitely listen.

We've had a number of requests to be able to charge for extras at an event at the same time as registering to attend. Some examples of this include accommodation, gala dinners, breakout seminars and merchandise. We wanted to separate this from the actual registration cost, so we came up with the idea of allowing the organiser to set up a question in the registration form that could have a price attached to it. If selected by the attendee, then that price (including tax if applicable) would be added at the checkout stage.

We wanted to do it this way as it avoids having a long list of registration options to cover all the different permutations if things like gala dinners and break out seminars are part of the event.

Contact us anytime if you'd like us to talk you through this or any other feature. You can also find out more here.

We hope you like it. There's more exciting enhancements and integrations coming soon.

Zero to hero #1

Growing a startup...the hard, but fun way

When we launched Mitingu, our online event registration and communications platform in January 2015, we were all super enthusiastic (we still are) about what we had created and how it could bring something new to the business events market.

There could even have been an element of "if you build it they will come" in the way we were thinking. Lesson 1 - that just doesn't happen if nobody knows about it!

We quickly realised that without money to support ongoing marketing communication programmes that you've got to do it the hard way and utilise the resources that you've already got.

There's a balancing act too. It's important to develop your product or service to a state where it's usable and sellable, but you need to tell people about it too. At Mitingu, the only investment we've had has come out of our own pockets, so we've had to manage funds really carefully. At this point, it's worth saying that we have gone out and found other income streams whilst we build Mitingu so that we can pay our mortgages and feed our families...there's no shame in that.

I'll get to the point!

I have decided to share our experiences in growing our start up, including all the high and low points from today. Here goes...

Our first target - £20k per month revenue by march 2016

How we get there and what we've learnt so far

We have a great product, we know that from user feedback. We just need to get it in front of more people.

We've tried a number of different marketing channels and I am convinced that a combination of them all is the way forward. I've read lots of stories about people no longer doing any outbound activities and getting plenty of business coming in via the social media channels. I take my hat off to them. In our case, it's definitely a combination of getting a consistent message out there and staying active to keep the pipeline growing. The best bit of advice I was ever given in my early sales days was to keep activity levels high and success will come.

Here's what we've used so far...

Emails - do your research and send out personalised emails which show the recipient you have taken the time to look at their business and tailor your message to show how your product or service can help them and their business. Talk about them, not you.

Blog - Blogging is new to me, but it definitely works. Don't expect a huge following or response overnight, but keep posting relevant and interesting stuff in tune with your market and you'll start to see some growth.

Ads - We've used Google Ads and Twitter Ads and we're going to give LinkedIn and Facebook a try. Google Ads are great, but if you're in a competitive market like us, they can get pricey. Make sure you've got your strategy right and keep a close eye on what's working and refine where necessary. Twitter Ads are more affordable and have shown some really encouraging results so far.

Networking - It can be pretty daunting walking into a room full of people you've never met before. This is something we're just about to start, so I'll feedback soon. It's one of the best ways to get your story out there, so bite the bullet and go for it. The few events I have attended so far have resulted in leads and actual business, so I am sold on it.

Demos - Selling the demo and not the product or service has also been a good route for us. There is no hard sell and if you've done your homework, then your prospect has a real need for your product or service and if you tailor the demo to that requirement then you'll win more than you lose.

Social media - We've focussed on Twitter and have seen some promising results. It has taken time to build the right following, but it's something we will be sticking with. LinkedIn is also something we plan to ramp up as it's one of the first places people in business refer to.

Those are just some methods we've used so far. We've also have some great referrals, face to face meetings, but the point here is to use what's available to you without spending money you don't necessarily have.

We'll keep this transparent, so at the end of the month I'll put up where we are against our target and what has worked for us and what hasn't.

Have a great month.