This article was originally published on Swoogo

We’re excited to bring you a guest post from our super cool partners at Appocalypsis.com, a lead generation & conversion optimisation tool perfectly suited for event marketers and that plays nicely with Swoogo. Authored by Vicky Dallas, Founder & CEO, this post will give you some ideas how you can drive additional leads and conversion with event marketing widgets like chatbots, countdown timers and viral giveaways. 

One of your main challenges when planning your event is getting registrations as early as possible.

You can A) sleep better, and B) focus on what matters the most, your event content and delivery, if you have registrations coming in as soon as you open registration.

The challenge is, attendees have so many great events to choose from, how can you differentiate yourself?

Your online promotion pre-, during & after your event can play a crucial part here to ensure you’re successful from the beginning.

What’s a widget, anyway?

If you’re looking to upgrade your event website, a widget is often a smart place to start. Widgets are small software tools you can install on your website to execute specific tasks.

Event marketing widgets help you increase awareness, capture new leads and improve conversion for registration through incentives.

They can be easily embedded and don’t worry, you don’t need to be a technical guru.

Don’t have the time to read through all this or you’re more the visual type of person? See some of the widgets in action:

• Demo: Instagram Like Polling Widget
• Demo: Secret Agent Chatbot Widget
• Demo: Countdown Timer Widget
• Demo: Wheel of Fortune Widget 

Okay, where do I start?

You guessed it. In order to benefit from event marketing widgets, you first of all need an event marketing strategy and online promotion plan.

Second, you will need an event website that helps you drive registrations. Check out Swoogo, if you haven’t done so already.

You need to find widgets that will resonate with your audience and demographics.

Be prepared to experiment and set up a little bit of time for the initial set-up. Appocalypsis has more than 280+ widgets to choose from and you can set them up yourself or have it all done by their team. Further down, we will show you the most popular ones used by modern event marketers.

Before you start promoting your event and giving out information via social media, think about how you can create some buzz and engagement for your event website visitors. Try to trigger emotion, energy, excitement, or anticipation about your event (and then of course, live up to the expectations when actually delivering your event).

What can I do before promoting my event?

THE INSTAGRAM LIKE POLL WIDGET

Think of a question that will engage your audience

This will also help you personalize your event marketing to better suit your attendees’ needs.

(You can see a live demo here)

THE TOP SECRET AGENT WIDGET

The second widget to recommend is a really fun one. People love fun widgets and chat bots are becoming increasingly popular.

With this “Top Secret Agent” widget, you can get people interested to learn more about your upcoming event.

(You can see a live demo here)

The concept behind this widget is that there is a secret agent who knows something that you don’t! A top secret! Once the visitor clicks on the widget you can trigger a conversation, something around the lines of:

“I will tell you because I like you. A new amazing event is coming up soon. Places are limited. Would you like to be the first to know when our registration opens?”

Visitors add their e-mail and then the secret agent (as all real secret agents would do) asks to destroy all evidence.

That is actually the close button of the widget, but added in a fun way.

What a nice way to capture new leads and differentiate yourself from your competition.

…and when my Event Website is “Live”?

So you’ve successfully engaged your visitors and got some interest for your next event. Now it is time to announce your actual event. Let the countdown start.

Wait a minute… did we just say countdown? 

Of course, we said countdown.

THE COUNTDOWN TIMER WIDGET

Countdown widgets work great for event as they create a sense of urgency. When using scarcity in your event marketing, you can skyrocket the widget’s conversion rate.

Below is an example of a bottom bar countdown widget:

According to a study from ConversionXL, countdown widgets have a 7x higher conversion rate that usual banner ads.

Why not use a countdown timer to promote your Early Bird sales?

Or have a second timer counting down the days to the actual event?

THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE WIDGET

Using gamification during your event promotion can also boost your conversion.

You could give away some discount codes in exchange for a visitor’s email address and help drive registrations, but there could be other incentives, too.

The Wheel of Fortune widget is based on the Reciprocity effect, a principle which speaks to the human tendency to give something back when something has been received.

Here are some ideas for you to experiment with:

• 10% discount, 20% discount, 30% discount
• Bring a Friend for FREE
• Free Ticket for our next event
• 2 For 1 Discount Code
• VIP Access
• Meet & greet with the key note speaker (or any other VIP)

These are just some of the 280+ templates Appocalypsis offers conversion-oriented event marketers. Make sure to check those out.

Conclusion

• Make sure you keep track of metrics and conversions. You can then improve and adjust to see what’s working.
• Event marketing widgets like the ones from Appocalpysis.com can be easily embedded into Swoogo event websites. Just a few lines of copy & paste and you’re done.
• Think about your target audience. What widgets would they enjoy? What could set you apart from your competition and what would help you differentiate yourself from your competition?