The RegOnline Report

Early-bird timing increases attendance by up to 25%.

RegOnline evaluated over 6,000 events offering early bird registration and discovered that the timing of the early-bird specials can create as much as a 25% increase in registrations. The popularity of an early-bird special is primarily dependant on the length of time for which it is available. Our analysis shows that the length and timing of the early-bird special is dependant on the size of the event being promoted.

Events over 500 attendees were found to see a larger impact if the early-bird special is not quite as urgent - running as long as 140-180 days, with the highest results achieved with a longer early-bird offer.

Events under 100 people see the highest impact with a short (sixty days or less), urgent early-bird promotion, with the highest results being achieved with the shorter offer time.

To confirm these findings, we compared the registration data for two RegOnline client events over 500 attendees – one produced by Affiliate Summit, Inc. and the other by LoanToolbox. Affiliate Summit ran a shorter, upfront early-bird promotion for its 1100+ person summit and saw a marked increase in registrations prior to the early-bird deadline that ran for the first sixty days of 180 registration days. However, the majority of registrations still came in within sixty days of the regular event registration deadline (total registration time 180 days).

Conversely, LoanToolbox ran a longer (4 months, 2 months longer than Affiliate Summit) initial early-bird period for their 2,000 person event and promoted an initial early bird discount of $300 followed by a secondary early-bird discount of $100 before going to full price. Interestingly, they were able to sustain a high number of registrations from the first through the second early-bird promotion (total registration time 210 days). LoanToolbox was actually able to increase their registrations by an additional 25% by offering a secondary early-bird discount.

So while Affiliate Summit, Inc. certainly benefited from their early-bird promotion, it is possible that they could see even greater impact by extending their early-bird promotional period to 160 days, as indicated by our analysis.

Event Planner Kat Blackburn of Executive Events in Boulder, Colorado, found the results to be similar to her experience with events using an early-bird promotion. She also elaborated that early-bird pricing is an excellent way to create a sense of urgency to register, which in turn helps her better qualify her final counts for hotel and event vendors for the upcoming event. In fact, she uses her vendor deadlines frequently to help determine when to cut-off her early-bird promotion.

So where does that leave meeting planners with events over 100 people, but under 500 people? The data is still helpful, though not as concrete. Here’s how it distributes – events sized 100-300 people trend toward the earlier, shorter, more urgent early-bird promotion to reap the best results. Events between 400-500 registrants trend toward the longer, less urgent early bird promotion with the end of the promotion running until thirty to sixty days prior to the event.

We took another look at the data to see if the cost of the event had any impact on timing of the early bird registrations. This analysis found that the average registration cost for events both groups – events under 100 and events over 500 - is within $20 of each other and further indicated that event cost is not a factor in when or how long to run an early-bird promotion.

That still leaves a sort of “no man’s land” for events between 300-400 participants. The data shows that these events are more reliant on the nature of the event for the impact of early-bird pricing and do not fit either trend identified for smaller and larger events.

So to maximize registrations for your events, you’ll want to follow these rules of thumb: If you have a small event (less than 300 attendees) – promote early and urgently for sixty days or less. Larger events of 500+ attendees require less urgency and more registration opportunity time – up to 120 days. Plus, it is recommended that you let the early bird offer go until 30-60 days prior to the event for these larger events.

Watch next month for the magic number on the discount amount that drives early-bird registrations.