The topic registration for events is often controversial. After all, how to establish how much your event is worth?
Choosing a good pricing strategy becomes, then, a fundamental aspect for the event to be a guarantee of success.
If you feel unsure about how much to charge, don’t panic! We’ll help you.
In this article, you will learn:
- Why is it so important to price correctly?
- What to consider when pricing event registrations?
- 3 strategies for pricing your event’s registration
Why is it so important to set the price correctly?
Pricing can be one of the most stressful tasks for an organizer, do you agree?
But it is by determining the registration fee for events that you begin to control your finances in the right way.
By putting this data in a spreadsheet, you can also plan and make sure that, in your budget, everything happens within what is expected. No inconvenient surprises.
Baixe agora uma planilha de finanças que vai acabar, de uma vez por todas, com a confusão dos gastos realizados no seu evento:
Charging little can mean losing money.
Charging too much can make prospective attendees think twice (or more) before paying.
“Can“because everything needs to be adapted to the reality of the event and, of course, of the attendees.
When you choose correctly how to price the registration fee, do attendees just use their card without hesitation?
But in order for you to determine how much an attendee will pay for your event, you need to consider some aspects.
What to consider when pricing event registrations?
Before you start stipulating registration fees for events, you need to think about some aspects:
1. Who is the audience for your event?
See if your audience is mostly students or already trained and successful professionals.
Generally, people that have already graduated and have experience in the area are more able to pay for a registration ‘a bit over the odds’.
If you put a very high price and your audience is all students, it is very likely that there will be leftover tickets.
So, analyze the profile of your audience and see if they have the means to pay for your event.
2. The topic matters!
The more current and relevant the topic, the greater people’s interest in your event.
If the content is really attractive and important for that region at that moment, you will surely sell more tickets and for a better price, which guarantees a good profit.
3. Is your event for profit or not?
Every event has costs and costs need to be met in some way. The way you price event registrations, however, varies depending on the type of event you are going to organize.
Even non-profit events, those that do not have the goal of achieving profits, have to pay their bills.
There are even those that do not charge attendees a registration fee. Generally, in these cases, the space is conceded by some company or a sponsor manages to take over all the financial part.
If your event is for-profit, you need to look at the pricing strategy that best suits your needs and those of your event.
Don’t stress. We will explain the best strategies for both cases.
4. What is the format of your event?
With the advent of new technologies, events reinvented themselves and sought to fit into new formats, going beyond in-person.
Thus, today, we have three distinct formats of events, which are:
- In-person;
- Online (audio and video streaming);
- Hybrid (unity of in-person and online);
Therefore, it is important that you have already defined the format of your event, in order to create not only organizational but also financial planning.
For example, an online event may require you to subscribe to a streaming service or purchase equipment for the broadcast, which may impact the ticket price.
In case the event is hybrid, there are the costs of choosing the venue, streaming, and other interactions between the two formats.
And of course, regardless of its format, it is necessary to understand what is the level of experience you will deliver to the attendees, which for sure counts as a great point to increase the price of tickets.
3 strategies for pricing your event’s registration
1. Based on cost
Relying on cost is the most basic method for determining the price for event registrations.
Essentially, you charge enough to cover your costs (in the case of nonprofit events) and still make a profit (in the case of for-profit events).
For this, it is paramount that you put each cost of the organization on the tip of the pencil. Once again I emphasize the importance of having an updated financial spreadsheet.
Expenses with rent, electricity, water, internet, transportation, accommodation, materials and speakers… everything related to finance should be detailed.
For non-profit events:
Once the costs of the event have been established, just divide the total amount by the expected number of attendees. Thus, you will be able to define the value of each subscription.
Example: costs of $3,000 and expectation of 300 attendees.
$3.000 / 300 attendees = $10 per registration
If your event has received any sponsorship or support quota, subtract that amount from the costs and divide the remainder by the expected number of attendees.
Example: costs of $3,000, an expectation of 300 attendees, and sponsorship quota of $300.
$3,000-$300 = $ 2,700
$2,700 / 300 attendees = $9 per registration
For-profit events:
To make profits at the end of the event, your income must be greater than your expenses (costs).
In this situation, it is also essential to subtract the amount of the sponsorship quotas from the expenses.
After seeing the remaining expenses, calculate the registration amount for each attendee that would cover your costs.
Example: costs of $10,000, an expectation of 200 attendees, sponsorship quota of $5,000
$10,000-$5,000 = $5,000
$5,000 / 200 = $25 per registration would be enough to cover all your costs.
Therefore, if you want to make a profit, you just have to add any amount to that registration.
The final price would be $40, for example.
This strategy can work if you have a guarantee of the minimum number of attendees who will attend your event.
But be careful! Your variable costs (such as meals and employees) can lower your profit margin unexpectedly.
And if a competing event matches or beats your prices, you risk losing attendees – and the $$ that goes with them.
Which brings us to the second method for pricing your event: competitive pricing.
2. Based on the competition
To be sure that the amount of the registration fee will cover the costs, you can also look at the price of competing events and charge a similar registration fee.
This strategy can be quite effective if you want to compete with a widely popular event in the same area.
After all, you want to convince your potential attendees to sign up for your event instead of choosing the competition, right?
When analyzing the competition, it is essential to pay attention to three aspects:
- Registration fee;
- Behind-the-scenes;
- Ways of charging.
Regarding the registration fee, it is necessary to know how much the competing events are charging. Thus, you will have a base to set the price of your event.
But, like every pricing strategy, there are also risks associated with this approach.
That’s why you should not only analyze the amount charged for each registration. Also pay attention to the behind-the-scenesof this event!
If you can get detailed behind-the-scenes information that covers your competition’s budget and expenses, you can measure whether their reality matches yours as well.
Let’s explain it to you better.
With the help of sponsorships, many successful events manage to offer structure and materials of high cost and better quality to their attendees. But they still manage to charge a low price for their registrations.
All this is possible only because there were sponsors available to help the event.
If you rely on the ticket prices of the competition, but do not have the same income from sponsors as them you may end up losing money.
So, be very careful! See, first, if this strategy applies to your event.
A valuable tip is to invest in high-level speakers. Good speakers attract good sponsors.
It is also important to see the competitors’ way of charging. Do they only charge for registration? Or do they charge for registration + submission of papers + participation in short courses?
Imagine that competing events only charge through registration.
If you choose to charge for registration and for participation in each activity (minicourse submission of papers, workshops), the attendee may have a hard time evaluating which event is best for them.
It’s like trying to compare a cell phone to a pineapple. There’s just no way. They are very different.
By following the competition’s billing model, you give potential attendees a chance to compare your event to others.
And that’s where you need to find the differentiator of your event.
After analyzing these 3 points, what would be the right strategy to set the registration price? To find this answer, you should look at the most critical element of both strategies that we’ve presented: the attendee.
3. Added value
The value-added pricing model focuses on the customer, that is, the event’s attendee.
Quite simply, the added value is the perception that the attendee has about your service (event).
Under these conditions, the attendee analyzes the benefit-cost ratio of your event.
In other words, it’s how much the attendee thinks your event is worth.
If your event offers activities that add value to the attendee, they tend to pay more to enjoy the service, since they consider it important.
In the area of events, this perception is normally influenced by factors such as:
- Tradition of the event;
- Quality of the work presented;
- Local;
- Speakers level;
- Quality of the website and system used;
- And many others!
Everything that adds value to a service generates a differential. And this differential can be decisive so that people want to attend your event.
If you have already set the ideal amount for your event registrations, congratulations! Now it’s time to plan the next step: ticket sales.
Choosing a payment method that suits your needs and the reality of your attendees is essential.
Offering different options such as credit and debit cards usually increases the chances of selling.
Did you like this article? Which of these strategies is best for you and your event? If you haven’t created yours yet, click on the banner below and start your journey with Even3!
