If you’re already a HubSpot user who is promoting an event online, it can be very tempting to jump straight into using Eventbrite due to its native integration with your marketing automation platform. While I would say that more often than not, this is a good call, I must warn you that there are different things that must first be considered regarding your event and what your organization prioritizes around it.
So, before you go off and start building out your campaign in Eventbrite, there are a few things you’re going to want to answer to make sure you’re in the right tool.
Question 1 – Am I comfortable having people register for my event on something other than my site?
If not, you’re not alone and this isn’t a total deal breaker. Along with being able to create a live Eventbrite page where people can go to, you are also given the option to embed an iframe of the registration page on your own website. This way, you can seamlessly send people from the main event page on your own website to another site page to start the registration process. You will want to consider mobile rendering if you end up doing this. Here’s a great forum with answers on how to avoid this issue.
Question 2 – Am I ok with not having 100% control of the design of the registration pages?
Because Eventbrite is a third party application and because there is no “premium” account that you can purchase to get rid of any and all Eventbrite branding, you’re stuck with a few orange logos here and there. If that’s a deal breaker for you, then it’s a good thing you didn’t get too far into the process! If you’re ok with sharing a little bit of the glory then you’re in luck because while Eventbrite doesn’t let you get rid of their logos, they do let you customize just about everything else on the registration page! Be careful though, too much customization may hurt the overall responsiveness, look and feel (see final note in attached article) of your registration page on mobile devices, so be sure to test out everything you do before go live.
Question 3 – Do I have one event to promote or multiple?
If multiple, do you value event-specific data? Eventbrite allows you the option to group multiple events onto one registration page where it is up to the registrant to correctly select the location/date/time that they would like to attend. While easier for the person creating the event page, it opens you up to registrant error while also limiting the amount of event-specific data you can collect. If this data is important to you, consider duplicating your event pages to establish unique registration pages for each event. This will allow you to track event-specific traffic, sources, registrants, form submissions, attendees and so much more.
Question 4 – If I’m selling tickets for money, am I okay with not collecting the actual sales until after the event?
Eventbrite normally doesn’t release money collected by ticket sales for events until after the event is over. This is done so that if any ticket purchaser requests a refund before the event date, Eventbrite has your money to give back to that person instead of theirs. Now, you can request an advanced payout from the event management system but that may or may not work for the amount you need so be sure to do your research here.
Eventbrite is an extremely powerful and popular platform that most marketers will find to meet their needs easily but if you have particular areas that you can’t budge on, it’s always good to find out if a platform works for you before diving too far in. If you find that Eventbrite does provide what you’re looking for then you are ready for the next step which includes properly setting up your Eventbrite account profile and registration page(s).
If you have any questions regarding any areas of the series laid out, please feel free to leave a comment in the sections below or email me directly at mherschberger@revriv.com.
