Event registration for internal events
Internal events often throw up different challenges when it comes to registration. Here’s some of the things to look out for along with potential solutions.
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.
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.
Feature Highlight - Domain Restriction
Domain restriction. It’s a great way to make sure employees registering onto your internal company events use their work email and not a personal one.
Domain restriction is a great tool for internal company events that want employees to register using their work email and not a personal one.
It’s not restricted to just one domain, so if your company is part of a group, each with separate email domains, that’s no problem as you can add multiple domains that are allowed for the registration process.
If you run internal company events, think that this would help with your registration process, and would rather see it in action than read about it, please get in touch.