Are you interested in advertising an event or starting to host regular events on your website? Have you tried the default WordPress calendar but found it unsatisfactory? If that’s the case, you might find a WordPress event plugin beneficial.
If you’re venturing into the event or conference industry, aiming to boost event visibility, or incorporating booking into your operations, WordPress event and conference plugins are the essential tools.
Given the abundance of WordPress event plugins available, how can you distinguish the reliable ones from the subpar options? How can you evaluate their advantages and disadvantages or determine if they provide good value?
We hope this article could provide you with some insights into selecting the best WordPress event and conference management theme and plugin to boost your sales and help you achieve your business goals.
WordPress plugins designed for events offer valuable assistance to businesses in coordinating events and simplifying various event-related activities. These plugins enable businesses to effectively manage tasks like promoting upcoming events, monitoring attendee participation, and collecting payments online. Given the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, hosting virtual events or establishing new ventures focused on event planning can be an excellent strategy, as it avoids large gatherings, which are currently discouraged for health reasons.
This article aims to highlight essential functionalities to consider when selecting a WordPress events plugin for your event-based business. At a minimum, the chosen plugin should provide features such as event registration, ticketing or ticket sales capabilities, an event calendar, and tools for event marketing.
WordPress events plugins can range from simple calendar additions that notify visitors about upcoming events to more comprehensive and feature-rich solutions. A fully-functional WordPress events plugin can encompass various capabilities such as ticketing functions, resource and time allocation, attendee management, and post-event email follow-up.
Even for websites that don’t need a complete event management platform, plugins like these can provide a wide range of tools to efficiently handle events at a significantly lower cost. All of this functionality is conveniently available through a WordPress plugin.
Let’s take a quick glance at some of the conference and event themes and plugins that we offer at ShowThemes:
The implementation of an online event registration system provides event managers with valuable time to dedicate to event-related tasks. Ideally, this system should automate the event registration process and offer the option for group registrations, enabling attendees to register for events and purchase tickets efficiently.
By streamlining the registration process, more tickets can be sold, resulting in increased efficiency and productivity for event managers. To achieve this, it is essential to have access to customizable event registration forms that are optimized for conversions and only require necessary information from registrants.
Online event registration also facilitates real-time tracking of the number of registrants, allowing event managers to stay updated. Advanced WordPress event solutions may even include features such as automatic waiting lists and automated registration email notifications.
A crucial aspect of an event management plugin is its ability to facilitate convenient ticket purchases for registrants. This entails offering a diverse range of payment options, both online and offline, to eliminate any barriers to ticket sales.
When selecting a WordPress events plugin, it is advisable to choose one that supports popular online payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal, as well as other methods such as e-checks, invoicing, and various credit cards. This flexibility enables event attendees to make payments using their preferred payment method, ultimately enhancing the conversion rate of your event. Our conference and event plugins are designed to provide you with all the tools you need to maximize the sales of your events.
Integrating an event and conference website plugin with ticketing platforms like Eventbrite offers several benefits:
1. Expanded Reach: By integrating with popular ticketing platforms, your event and conference website can tap into the existing user base and audience of those platforms. This allows you to reach a larger audience and potentially attract more attendees to your events.
2. Simplified Ticket Management: Integration with ticketing platforms streamlines the ticket management process. It enables you to sync event details, ticket inventory, and attendee information seamlessly between your website and the ticketing platform, reducing the manual effort required for ticket management.
3. Enhanced User Experience: Ticketing platform integration provides a seamless and familiar ticket purchasing experience for attendees. Users who are already familiar with the ticketing platform can easily navigate through the ticket selection and purchase process, leading to higher conversion rates and improved user satisfaction.
4. Secure and Reliable Transactions: Ticketing platforms often offer robust payment processing and security measures. By leveraging the integration, you can ensure secure transactions for ticket sales, protecting both your business and your attendees’ financial information.
5. Advanced Reporting and Analytics: Integrating with ticketing platforms provides access to detailed reporting and analytics data. You can gain insights into ticket sales, attendee demographics, and other valuable metrics that help you make data-driven decisions and improve future event planning.
6. Marketing and Promotional Opportunities: Many ticketing platforms offer marketing and promotional tools to help you reach a wider audience. Integration allows you to leverage these features, such as email marketing campaigns, social media promotion, and affiliate programs, to maximize your event’s visibility and attract more attendees.
Overall, integrating your event and conference website with ticketing platforms like Eventbrite can significantly simplify ticket management, enhance user experience, expand your reach, and provide valuable insights and marketing opportunities, ultimately contributing to the success of your events.
While there are so many other functionalities a plugin could offer and promote, the best event and conference management plugins we recommend are ones that have the most critical features and focus on making them seamless to use for the best customer experience.
ShowThemes’ event and conference plugin and theme aims to creating a clear and streamlined event and conference website with minimal functionalities focused on sales offers several benefits:
1. User-Friendly Experience: A simplified website with minimal functionalities allows visitors to navigate easily and find the information they need quickly. This improves the user experience, reducing the chances of frustration or confusion. Customer will achieve his/her goals on the website within minutes after scrolling through the website.
2. Clear Communication: A concise website enables you to communicate your event’s key details, such as the event agenda, speakers, exhibitors, venues, and ticket and registration information, in a straightforward and easily understandable manner. This clarity helps potential attendees make informed decisions and encourages them to take action as fast as possible.
3. Faster Load Times: By minimizing unnecessary features and content, the website can load faster. Fast loading times contribute to a positive user experience and prevent visitors from abandoning the site due to long loading times, which ultimately drives conversion and boosts revenue from the site.
4. Increased Conversion Rates: A streamlined website focused on sales helps eliminate distractions and guide visitors towards the desired action, such as purchasing tickets or registering for the event. With clear calls to action and a simplified process, the chances of conversion are higher.
5. Improved Mobile Experience: A concise website is often optimized for mobile devices, ensuring a seamless experience for users accessing the site on smartphones or tablets. This is important since an increasing number of people use mobile devices to browse the internet and make purchases.
6. Easier Maintenance: A website with minimal functionalities requires less maintenance and updates. It reduces the chances of encountering technical issues, making it easier to manage and ensure its smooth operation.
By prioritizing a concise and clear approach with minimal functionalities on your event and conference website, you can enhance the user experience, increase conversion rates, and effectively communicate your event’s value proposition to potential attendees.