Adam Asks: 2014

Monday 29 December 2014

Fail to convert, convert to fail?

Today maybe somewhat boring but nonetheless important - Converting prospects into participants.

As an event / company / business, whatever you run, you want to convert anyone that comes looking in your shop. For an organiser, decreasing drop off rates and getting anybody who clicks into your entry form registered should be of utmost importance. This is why I love working at ACTIVE.

At ACTIVE we have the same business model as our customers, I always say we only make money if you make money so we provide you with the tools and technology to reach your goals.

Lots of people don't think about the potential participants that click into your form but for whatever reason, don't complete their registration. Now it is not always the "event window shopper's" fault... They may have a crying baby in their hands, they may have to x the screen as their boss is walking by, they may be out with the lads for a few drinks and can't navigate the form - Whatever it is you want to get their entry fees paid. But how? Here's where we come in..

ACTIVEworks Endurance has a couple of handy features you may not even know about:

1. Abandoned Shopping Basket Email:
This is simple but effective, should a participant click into your form they have to do so through their ACTIVE account or Facebook page, which means ACTIVE capture their email address and recognise they have shown interest. As the organiser, you can switch on these emails to send to "incomplete registrants" 4, 48 & 72 hours after they exit the form reminding them to enter.

2. Prospective Registrations Report:
You can also download an excel file of these window shoppers and send them a personal email asking if they need more info before entering, if something but them off entering or if they just didn't have time there & then to fill out the form.

....And my personal favorite, wait for it ***drum roll***

3. Mobile Express Registration:
You may have read my previous post on this but in a nutshell, mobile express registration can be turned on for your event. This means that participants from a mobile device can register with just two clicks, pay there and then and fill out the form when they are the comfort of their computer. We did our homework, only 11% of people who clicked into a form from a mobile device paid for their entry there and then - that's where express reg was born from. Speak to your Account Manager about turning this on.

All in all, conversion is key - track it and utilise the tools we give you to make the most out of your registration system.

Thanks for reading!

Adam O'Connor

Tel +44 (0) 2075540932

Mobile +44 (0) 7860 595869

Friday 10 October 2014

Why settle for the rest when you can work with the best?

For once, I’m going to cut straight to the point, today I will be writing about how 3 companies are helping change the way event organisers in Ireland become more profitable, more cost efficient, attract more participants & generally maximise their potential.

The solution I am recommending is a no brainer, work with 3 giants in the events industry & become the event organiser you always wanted to be. RunIreland.com, The ACTIVE Network & JustGiving have joined forces to give you the optimum platform for you to make your event a success. Imagine generating more participation through marketing exposure, Managing your participants through the best entry system on the market & then turning your participants into fundraisers as soon as they sign up.

RunIreland.com

My personal pride and joy. I’ve seen R.I. grow ten fold over the past five years to where it is today – a website with over 600,000 unique visitors in the last 12 months, former winner of the prestigious Eircom Spider Awards (biggest online community voted for by the public) & the go to place for runners in Ireland to find the events they love to do.

What does working with us mean? Rather than just having a simple listing on the calendar, take advantage of utilising ACTIVE’s new entry system ACTIVEworks Endurance to unlock whole new channels of marketing support. Whether its Facebook posts, tweets, press releases, monthly newsletters, we are to help spread the word for organisers who work with us.

ACTIVE Network

A few years back before we partnered with ACTIVE and I moved to London to work in ACTIVE HQ, It’s what I always aspired to do. I remember looking at ACTIVE from the outside and being blown away, the innovation, the product development, the team structure all combined to make me dream of one day working with a company on ACTIVE’s level, I guess dreams do come true. The vision we have as a company is to make the world a more ACTIVE place and through our state of the art online registration systems and participant management technology, that’s exactly what we are doing.

Many organisers might just want the basic run of the mill excel download of entries that some of the other service suppliers in Ireland provide. That’s all fine and dandy but at the end of the day, if you can work on the same platform as the likes of IRONMAN & Electric Run for the same price, with much more tools, functionalities and support.. why not have a look? It’s no surprise that ACTIVE are the market leaders in the U.S. but also in Ireland.

Between our sales team, our Account Management Team, Technical Support Specialists and Marketing Experts - This is what we do, this is what we live and breathe.

JustGiving

The online fundraising technology company who are already growing in stature in Ireland. Having spent a couple of hours over at the breath-taking JustGiving offices last week discussing Ireland & the Irish events market place, a few of things stood out to me from their team:

- - They are the best at what they do.

- - They are industry experts in the charity and fundraising market

- -They are the only one with the innovation and market leading technology development as ACTIVE & ACTIVEworks Endurance

- -They are 100% driven, dedicated and focussed on delivering their product and service to improve the way Irish events raise more money for their chosen charity

We sat back and had a chat, we wanted to align JG, ACTIVE and R.I. to give our event organisers a platform they cannot refuse.

What did we come up with? The answer is simple: RunIreland is the vehicle which drives participants to your event, from there they register with ease and are managed through ACTIVEworks Endurance & from there directed to optionally set up a fundraising page on JustGiving. More entries, more power & more money raised – win, win, win.

More to come on this, watch this space!

As always thank you for reading.

Adam

Monday 18 August 2014

Mobile Express Reg - why is it so valuable?

Quite exciting news that more and more events are contacting me to find out more about mobile express registration, and we can see these two click entries coming in already! This is just a quick note to let you know that it is us that needs to turn this on for your account so let me know if you’d like to switch it on.

The main question being asked is why is this such a game changer & how will it benefit you?

-34% of people we’re coming to ACTIVE entry forms on a mobile device.

- Only 11% of these potential participants completed the transaction from a mobile device.

- The solution: enable 2 click registration and let them pay for the event there and then on their phone but allow them to fill out the form whenever they are at the comfort of their computer.

We aim to make the world a more ACTIVE place, and we’ve just made it easier J

Drop me a line if you would like to discuss further.

Thanks & Regards,
Adam O'Connor

Ireland Account Manager

The ACTIVE Network,

00 44 2075540932

Mobile - 00 44 7860 595869

Connect on LinkedIn - uk.linkedin.com/pub/adam-o-connor/78/307/ab/

Have a read of my Event Organiser Blog - www.adamasks.blogspot.co.uk/

Find us on Facebook - www.facebook.com/runireland

ACTIVEworks Endurance video

Technical queries:
emea-support@activenetwork.com

+44 (0) 8700 841 480

Monday 7 July 2014

Adam Asks The Brandon Bay Half Marathon - Why ACTIVEworks?

As a first time event organiser I can safely say that without the brilliant system that is ACTIVEworks, our whole online registration process would have been far more complicated and stressful. From the very off, Adam O Connor has been with us every step of the way, even during out of office hours and over weekends. He has helped us with every query from set up to category changes to emailing participants, making our life so simple and freeing us up to focus on the more immediate aspects of our event.

ACTIVEworks has provided us with a user friendly, simple to use and super effective system to use for our online registration process. It comes with some really super tools which allow us monitor everything from t-shirt sizes to gender and age of entrants. I really can’t emphasise enough how simple and effective it is to use, and how quickly Adam comes to aid us with any new queries we may have about the system. Being totally new to event organisation & management, ACTIVEworks has been a dream to work with and I have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending it.

Yours in sport,

Damien Finn,

Secretary,

The Brandon Bay half marathon & 10k event committee.

Monday 30 June 2014

ACTIVE Network - Client Testimonials

Here at ACTIVE we’ve put together some of the feedback from our clients about our services and the new ACTIVEworks Endurance platform. See below some of the testimonials we received– if you have any similar feedback, please get in touch. We always take on board what you think / have to say, so we can continue to make the world a more ACTIVE place.

Click here to see the benefits of ACTIVEworks & the links to set up a free account.

One month after we launched Judgement Day, we were delighted to see 53% of runners were part of a team. Team participation is something we were desperate to increase & ActiveWorks allowed captains to recruit teamates with ease. We switched on pre-paid teams and were amazed to see 15% of our revenue came from people buying places for friends without knowing who was definitely in.

- Mark Buller, Race Director, Judgement Day.

“British Military Fitness has been using ActiveWorks for the past year. The team functionality has been extremely beneficial in increasing the size of each team created, giving them an identity to rally around and has substantially contributed to an increase in revenue of 150% over our last three events.”

Sarah King / Head of Events / British

Military Fitness – Major Series

“Our entire event was built from the ground up with social media in mind. We want participants to be social when they register, form teams, etc. Our courses are set up to encourage photo opps and we don’t put professional photographers on the course because we want people to take photos with their own phones and share them online. ACTIVE’s registration software is fully integrated with Facebook so when people sign up, they can post to their Walls and recruit friends.”

Dan Hill, Founder, CEO, Electric Run

“ACTIVE’s special offer emails, newsletters and online promotions have increased our web traffic over 400% during key marketing periods. With ACTIVE’s help, we’ve produced simple and effective targeted marketing campaigns to their database of participants – a great asset when introducing a new event to the market.”

Hugo Pettit, Marketing Manager, Threshold Sports

We were attracted to Active Network is that they are committed to innovation, invest in their technology with the purpose of providing the best in class solution. They are market leaders, and have very thorough on boarding and ongoing training and support in place. The system does most of the things we need, and where there is a shortfall on need, there is a commitment to work with us to produce a solution.

The implementation process involved a number of meetings, and on site training sessions for the event and supporter services departments and then ongoing training and support. Nick & Michael coordinated the training and it was obvious that they knew what they were doing. Also, thank you Maria from the technical team, who is always helpful!!

The participant and donor experience has been very smooth – and this has led to an increase in income (through increased sign ups) and enhanced reputation. We are 25% up on registration numbers YOY with many more JustGiving pages activated. The team recruitment tool is brilliant, not only for getting more people to the event, but for our ability to send team fundraising comms.

Our corporate partners have reacted very positively to the new user experience. The time saved by using smart technology is considerable – across many departments.

Holly Lyons, Events Manager, The Prince’s Trust

As always, get in touch if there’s anything you need.