From time to time GovEvents will come across information we feel our members and audience would benefit from. Here's something we wanted to share:
Originally posted on SHOWthemes
What makes an event website great? Every event manager has asked this question. The answer to this question is something that we all know very well. It needs to be an effective source of information and communication between event organizers and participants.
But how do we make sure that our website is effective enough to make our event a success? In this post, we will discuss some of the must have elements for building a great event website.
1. A Usable Web Design
Something so simple, yet it is probably one of the most easily ignored features. No one actually looks for a usable web design for their event website. Everyone wants shiny stuff with loads of sliders, videos, images, and amazing effects.
What we need to make sure is that our event website works on all devices, it is fully functional, works on most modern browsers, and is accessible to users with special needs.
Test your website on as many devices as you can, with as many different browsers as possible. Make sure that all your forms are working. Pay special attention to ticketing and make sure it works smoothly.
2. Content
Ask yourself all the questions that any participant is likely to ask and make sure that your website answers all those questions. Sliders are awesome, but honestly speaking people don't visit your website to look at sliders. Users want information and they want it quick.
This does not mean that you need to clutter your homepage with information overload. Remember information overload can have an adverse effect. Make sure that all important information such as event venue, date, and key speakers is visible on the front page with as little scrolling as possible.
According to recent research an average web user decides with in couple of seconds whether they want to continue browsing a website or not. This is why you need to make sure that all the important information appears on the front page of your website and is visible to users as soon as they land.
3. Get Social
Adding social media buttons to your website is not enough. Make sure that your social media profiles are active. Use tools like Hootsuite and Buffer to schedule your Tweets and status updates. Underestimating the potential and power of social media is a rookie mistake. Pay attention to your audiences on social media. Each retweet counts, and every share matters.
We understand that things can be a little bit frustrating in the beginning, you may feel that no one is noticing you. We have all been there, but trust us it gets better. Reach out to your audiences on social media, search for relevant hashtags and engage with actual people. Bringing people to your website is half the battle.
Read more about social media for events with this free ebook.
4. The Power of Videos
YouTube is world's second most popular search engine, a very popular social network, a highly interactive online community. This shows just how engaging and fun videos can be.
Video is the most engaging content format with much higher conversion rates. Engage your audience with video presentations to increase your conversion rates. We are not just talking about the introductory videos, we are talking about maintaining a regularly updated YouTube channel with the latest updates.
Creating videos is not a big deal these days. If you can't think of how to produce video content for your site, then we would recommend you to reach out and hire someone. You don't need to spend huge amounts, there are freelancers for every budget available on various freelancing websites like oDesk, Elance, and Freelancer.com.
5. Customer Service
Make sure contact forms on your website are working and each query gets answered as quickly as possible.
Once again, don't ignore your social channels. Lots of users can reach out to you on social media channels make sure you are available to answer questions on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Managing expectations is key. Ensure that your content accurately reflects what the event will be. Nobody likes promises that are not delivered.
6. User Generated Content
User generated content is a win win solution to build highly engaging websites. Ask your speakers to write their own bios and ask them to share them on social networks. Allow users to submit testimonials, stories, pictures, videos, guest posts. Each user contributing any content to your website will help you reach out many potential new participants. So make sure that your website has room where you can publish user submitted content.
Ask your sponsors to contribute content to your website this could be guest posts, photos, presentations, anything you feel fits into your event's scope.
In Conclusion
We hope this post helped you plan content strategy for your next event website.
We are sure there are many other elements, perhaps more important than those we mentioned above. Feel free to tell us about what you think makes an event website a success by leaving a comment below.
