Curated by: Luigi Canali De Rossi
 


Monday, February 1, 2010

Live Event Promotion, Management And Marketing: Guide To The Best Web-Based Tools And Services

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To organize, coordinate, promote and manage live events, whether physical or online, there is a new emerging set of web-based event management tools that can truly help and augment your communication and marketing efforts. But how do you choose among all these services which one is best for you? In this MasterNewMedia guide you will find out which are the best web-based event management tools out there and what characterize them through a set of comparative tables and mini-reviews.

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Photo credit: Claudia Schoene

Online event management tools also offer great support for selling and distributing your live event tickets. What is interesting about this, is that you don't lose any money in case you don't sell any tickets or nobody shows up. In fact, web-based event management tools generally charge you only when a ticket is sold. While there can be some small additional fees that cover credit card payment processing or optional premium features you use, if you don't make any money these event management and ticket selling services will not charge you any money either.

Another positive aspect of managing your events online via these services is that you are the only one who is in charge of setting up your event. You have total control. From the name of your event to the color of the tickets. You can decide virtually anything and tailor the event in a way that perfectly fits you, your brand and your organization.

In general, these online event management tools are characterized by this set of basic features:

  • Registration: Organizers can set up customized online registration forms to help people confirm their presence and buy tickets to attend the event.
  • Invitations: Organizers can manage contact lists to send e-mail invitations and schedule important communications with attendees to notify if the event has been canceled, moved, delayed, or else.
  • Ticketing: Organizers can handle online payments using different solutions like credit cards, checks, PayPal (if supported), and also offer discounts, special offers and promotional tickets to drive purchases.
  • Promotion: Organizers can promote their event on their own web sites using embeddable widgets or by leveraging social media sites to spread their message virally. If permitted, registrations can also be remotely operated and processed so that prospected attendees can register without even visiting the event page.

While these are just the basic features that all online event management tools support, there are more specific and unique features that really differentiate some of these services from the others. To help you identify the best online event management tool for your needs, I have setup here below a set of comparative tables and individual reviews to help you check and identify your ideal online event management tool.

Here are the specific selection criteria used to compare these different services:

  • Customize event page: Personalized web page, optionally branded with name and logo
  • PayPal support: Integration of the PayPal payment platform to your event.
  • Social media promotion: Marketing tools to promote your event using social media sites.
  • Website promotion: Embeddable badges or buttons to promote the event on your web site.
  • Analytics: Reports and statistics about the status of your event. Payments received, registrants, etc.
  • Free trial: Free-of-charge version of the service to test for a limited period of time.
  • Price: Cost of the service / tool.
  • Pro features: Advanced set of features available with premium accounts.

 

 


Online Event Management Tools - Comparative Tables




 


Online Event Management Tools



  1. EventBrite

    EventBrite is an online event management tool that will help you set up and handle every event you are organizing. By creating a personal, customizable website for your event you can share all the info with attendees, give them directions to the place and also conveniently sell tickets to the event. Invitees are allowed to pay with credit cards, Google Checkout or PayPal and you can track all payments and registrations using your personal dashboard. Also available is a range of social media marketing tools to help you promote the event on social media or your own website with embeddable badges. EventBrite is completely free for free events or the service will charge you a fee of 2.5% of the ticket sale, plus $0.99 per ticket sold.

    http://www.eventbrite.com/





  2. EventsBot

    EventsBot is a web-based event management service that helps you create, manage, promote and sell your events. You just create a standard registration page where your attendees can buy your tickets and join your event. Available payment options are PayPal and Google Checkout and you can track all the payments and registrations from your dashboard to always have the state of your event under control. No promotion through social media is possible, though you can display a embeddable badge on your web site to advertise your event. EventsBot is completely free to use, but if you want access to advanced features like event page customization, offline payments, remove ads from your pages, apply extra fees to tickets and more, you need to switch to the Premium account which will charge you a standard fee of 2% for every ticket sold.

    http://www.eventsbot.com/





  3. Amiando

    Amiando is an online event management tool that helps you create and organize your events. You can build a customizable event page in a few steps where attendees can register to your event and also promote your free event via Facebook and Twitter. However, if you need to sell tickets, you need to switch to a Pro plan where you also get PayPal integration, detailed reports to track registrations and payments, premium support, offline payments, and more. Amiando retains 2% of the cost of the ticket sale. No website promotion is available.

    http://www.amiando.com/





  4. TicketLeap

    TicketLeap is a web-based service to organize and manage your events. You can create a customized web page to allow attendees to register and buy the tickets to your event. You can track all registrations and payments and also get detailed reports and the state of your event through the integrated analytics feature. To promote your event you can also embed a "Buy Ticket" button on your own website. Other features offered by TicketLeap are: buy tickets over mobile phone, print branded tickets, generate custom survey forms, and more. For each ticket sold, TicketLeap charges you $0.97, plus 3.99% extra for credit cards payments and $1 extra for online tickets sold at $10 or more. No PayPal integration, nor social media promotion features are available.

    https://www.ticketleap.com/





  5. RegOnline

    RegOnline is an online service that you can use to create, manage, promote your online event and also sell tickets to your attendees. You can set up a customized web page with all the details of your event and available ticketing information. Payments are supported either via credit card or PayPal. To track registrations and payments you can take advantage of a reporting feature that helps you monitor the state of your event in real-time. RegOnline charges $3.95 for each registrant to your event, notwithstanding the cost of the ticket itself. Social media promotion and website promotion are not available.

    http://www.regonline.com/





  6. EventArc

    EventArc is an online event management service that provides automated ticketing and online registration for events of any size. You can start a customized web page to share all the information, availability and pricing details of your event with attendees. Your custom design can also be saved as a template and re-used for any other event in the future. Registrants are allowed to pay with credit cards or PayPal. EventArc provides also a real-time reporting feature to track attendees and ticket sales. The service is free for free events or you are charged a variable fee depending on the ticket price and the payment solution you choose to adopt. No website or social media promotion features are available.

    http://www.eventarc.com/





  7. EventBee

    EventBee is a web-based service to create, manage and promote your event. The service can also take care of all the ticketing process, from printing to selling. You can start by setting up a custom event page branded with your logo to share the information about your event, give pricing details and offer registrants to buy the tickets. Attendees can either be offered to pay using credit cards, Google Checkout, PayPal or EventBee integrated payment system. To promote your event, you can display links or embeddable buttons on your own website or use popular social networking venues like Facebook or Ning. Every organizer has also a facility to monitor ticket sales and registrations in real-time. For each ticket sold, EventBee charges a $1 fee.

    http://www.eventbee.com/





  8. Acteva Express

    Acteva Express is an online service to create and manage your events. With Acteva Express you can build a custom web page to allow attendees to register and buy tickets for your events. To handle payments with credit cards you can either use your own existing merchant account or opt for the Acteva Payment Management Service for a 3.75% flat rate per transaction. PayPal and Google Checkout are not supported. Each event organizer has a tracing and reporting feature to monitor all registrations and payments processed. Acteva Express charges $0.99 for free event tickets and prices are variable for other type of tickets. To access pro features like marketing tools, offline registrations, promotional discounts or multiple payments options you need to switch to Acteva Plus or Acteva Pro.

    http://www.acteva.com/





  9. Ennect Event

    Ennect Event is an online event management tool that allows you to create and organize your event by taking care of all registrations and payment processing annoyances. You can build a custom web site for your event where you share all the info, display a registration form and offer different pricing options to attendees like group discounts, promotional codes, donations, and more. You can also have different web pages to share maps, bios, pictures, slideshows, schedules and all other kinds of information. Only credit cards and checks are accepted for payment. PayPal and Google Checkout are not supported. Event organizers can track and monitor the performance of their event through real-time reports that display the updated state of payments and registrations. Ennect Event costs $400 per event plus a 5% fee for credit cards payments. Website promotion tools and social media marketing features are not available from Ennect Event.

    http://www.ennect.com/event/





  10. EventWax

    EventWax is a free online event management tool that you can use to organize and promote your event. Just build a custom web site to allow attendees to register to the event and submit their payment. Credit cards are accepted and PayPal is fully supported by EventWax. To promote your event you can also display the registration page on your own existing site, but you have no social media marketing features at your disposal. No reporting feature to track attendees and received payments is also available.

    http://www.eventwax.com/





  11. Eventioz

    Eventioz is an online event management tool that you can use to setup and promote your live events. You can quickly create a customizable website for your event where you share all the event info, the list of attendees and allow people to buy tickets. Attendees can either choose to pay via credit card or Paypal and you can always track not only payments, but also registrations, traffic on your custom website and more. The service also allows you to promote your event on major social media sites. Eventioz is free to use for free events, and the service will charge you 5.99% of the ticket price for each ticket sold.

    http://eventioz.com/




Originally prepared by Daniele Bazzano for MasterNewMedia, and first published on February 1st, 2010 as "Live Event Promotion, Management And Marketing: Guide To The Best Web-Based Tools And Services".

Daniele Bazzano -
 
 
 
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posted by Daniele Bazzano on Monday, February 1 2010, updated on Tuesday, May 5 2015


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