For the past two decades websites have formed a prime marketing tool.
And the trend continues to grow.
Today, the event website is a necessity.
This does not mean that you must hire a website designer and make a personalised masterpiece.
For most of the short-term events, the already established marketing websites can promote your business.
There is a fee attached to this scheme but it is a quick and inexpensive idea to expose your business to the public.
The permanent and frequently appearing events may need a bit more.
Here, the event itself is the main business and the deeper internet exposure is vital.
In this case you will need a separate domain with the full-blown event website.
Some event management companies offer such a website within their comprehensive service package.
One of the important reasons for having an event website is the event registration form. Today, the online registration forms are a norm in our everyday life. Most people have very little time to register their interest for any event by foot. They also are not that enthusiastic to wait in long queue to buy tickets. In this case, the event website is the marketing tool and can also serve as:
However, the event registration form and contact form are real indicators about the possible pre- and post- success of the event. These two pages may help you make educational guesses about:
We all would like to flood the website with information.
However, keep in mind that the event website is not the post-graduate University tool.
People want to read important facts about your event and see few snapshots of the past shows.
Small attractive embedded video, few pictures and concise description is all you need for your event website.
Avoid an expensive flash technology (if you can).
Flash is great for certain type of advertising but slows down older computers (which are still operated by many people).
For the event website you need a simple, descriptive and neat design. The same applies to the navigational tools.
A lot of web designers use scripts to create funky effects with the navigational menu.
Again, many internet browsers may not display these gadgets correctly.
Your navigational menu must be clear to read and easy to operate.
The navigational bar (menu) should contain advertising material first, then payment, registration and finally the contact form.
Your event registration form is very important. It provides a prior indication about the number of people attending. It can also offer information about any other issue you want to raise. For example:
Your event website should be simple and neat. However, your registration form must be even simpler to fill in. People do not want to spend time on writing essays in the event registration form. Also, multiple radiobutton and checkboxes can infuriate many internet users. For this reason try to keep the registration form to a minimum.
Some of the event management companies (such as Iceberg Events) offer the event website as one of their services. On the long term it is a more expensive option but sufficient for one-off events. Some businesses can get event websites as part of their featured listing within online directories. This is particularly true for tourism industry. However, more prestigious events should have their own, personalised website.