An event is just like a brand. It needs credibility, authority, and recognition to draw attention and convert regular users into long-lasting participants and even loyal fans. If you consider the last concert you went to, would you promote it to others? Would you consider going to an event organized by the same promoter again? If so, the organizers did a great job satisfying your needs and transforming you from a regular user to a loyal customer and brand ambassador. This should be your aim.

However, events are not always as simple as concerts and mass gatherings. They can be a small workshop, a webinar, or just a business networking lunch. Moreover, events allow you to find new business partners and customers and promote your products or services. Of course, an event is only as successful as its promotion. And behind every good promotion is an outstanding event website. However, to draw participants, this website needs to be masterfully built and include all the necessary ingredients.

As usual, we are here to help. Today, we will discuss why you need a website for your event, how to build one, and what are the crucial features that will make your event website successful.

Why Do You Need An Event Website?

Many brands are promoting their events simply on their websites. That’s a great start, as it transfers some of their credibility and authority into the event. However, a single webpage is way too small to address all the points an event website otherwise covers. In other words, an event requires way too much content to be able to fit on a single page.

Promoting your event on your website is also mandatory, but it should redirect to the event website rather than a single page. In marketing terms, the website banner is a lead generator, while the event website is where the users will convert. They have entirely different tasks.

By dedicating an entire website to the event, you are allowing users to get more information. This way, they can make an informed decision and have realistic expectations. As a result, you will have much higher customer satisfaction rates.

However, you also subconsciously show that your event is genuine and worth their time. No one registers an entire website and takes the time, resources, and effort for an event that’s not going to be organized to perfection. This extra effort is actually one of your biggest advertisements.

Furthermore, the event website creates an entirely new customer journey, which is essential if you want to increase your positive responses and registrations.

Still, you need to build the website as an event website. So, there are a few things to consider when starting this endeavor.

How to Build an Event Website?

Building an event website requires more than just putting some elements together. You must understand your audience’s distinctive needs, the event’s specifics, and much more. So, before you start creating, make sure to find out what will draw the crowd and what their motivation is. For example, if you are creating an event for business owners aged 55+, a more clean and sophisticated look is in order.

On the other hand, if you are inviting Gen Z college graduates to a job introduction event, you need to make it more colorful, cheerful, and inclusive. You can also add more technically advanced features, but that’s not particularly wise with the older generation.

On the other hand, you must also consider the venue, the size of the event, and, most importantly, its theme. This will make choosing the right template for your event website much easier.

1. Choose a Proper Template

WordPress will be your biggest asset in creating an event website, as it takes less than a day to build and refine it. It’s even easier if you use the proper template. So, choosing it will be your first crucial task.

When considering a template, you must address the event’s theme. For example, if you are holding a professional event, a casual template won’t do.

Regardless of what your template’s theme is, it’s wise to choose a flexible one so you can make your event website brandable. Thus, you need to be able to change colors, fonts, layouts, and as much of the template as possible. This will give you a lot of freedom when creating your enchanting customer journey and enticing Call to Action.

Most importantly, however, the template must be straightforward and to the point. It must represent your customer’s journey and nothing more. So, check out WordPress’s templates and take your time browsing through the library. Don’t hesitate to start from the top if a template does not meet your expectations. This is a process, not a swing and a hit.

2. Make your event brandable

Making your event brandable will help you reach more people. This means it’s wise to treat your event just like a product but with a different goal. When building your website, make sure the event has its own logo, slogan and its own catchy Headline. Of course, all of these should not contradict your original brand logo, but instead, it should pay homage to it. In other words, using the same colors, schemes, and visual elements, you can find the middle ground between creating a new brand and using your own authority and credibility to help your event grow.

Your association with the event is crucial, as you can see. However, the point is that at some moment, this event will start bringing you new customers, revenues, or partners. It would be an advertisement for your brand and company, not the other way around. So, ensure the website is brandable so it can live a life of its own.

3. Add some essential pages

Just like any website, your event website must also include some essential pages.

• The homepage

The homepage, as usual, will be the gateway to the potential participants. This is where their journey will begin, so you need to make it extra persuasive. The homepage should give a clear overview of what the reader should expect from the event. The main goal of the home page is to drive the users to want further information.

Still, the homepage should say everything essential about the event—the time, place, price, and how to get tickets or register. It should also give a short presentation on the speakers, topics, and sponsors. In other words, it should act like a synopsis of the entire website.

Naturally, it should end up with a powerful CTA that will entice the visitors to enter the Registration page.

• The About page

The About page must aim to tell the users about the background of the event. Who is behind it, what is its aim, and why now? This is where you should make your affiliation known. Use storytelling to illustrate why you created this event and what you want to achieve. As you can imagine, people will not sign up to help you earn more money and customers, so make sure the goal is audience-oriented.

• Schedule

The Schedule page is a page that many events simply skip. They think that it can be covered on the homepage in a dedicated segment. While this may be true, usability suggests creating a separate page where users can easily find the panels and speakers they want to hear. This is a logical step in the customer journey, so devolving it into a short segment will be highly underwhelming

• Speakers page

The Speaker page is another thing you must add if you want to help your event grow. Usually, event organizers refrain from creating such a page if the speakers or performances are renowned. While this is OK, if you invite Jamie Oliver or Shakira, in most niche business events, speakers are relatively unknown. So, make sure to create a personalized profile for each speaker. Include their name, biography, honors, achievements, and, of course, the topic they will discuss. Make sure to create anticipation when presenting the title of the topic.

• Registration Page

The Registration Page is essentially the checkout page. It is the end of the customer’s journey when visitors sign up for the event. The most important aspect of this page is to be straightforward. Visitors will expect clear instructions on how to secure a spot.

Moreover, it should also clearly indicate the price, payment options, and deadlines. The easiest way is to embed a registration form and collect all the necessary information.

However, if you are working with a promoter, make sure to add a direct link to their checkout page.

• Venue page

The organizers often forget this page. If your event is online, indeed, the venue page is obsolete. However, if you are gathering people’s lives, they must know where they are going. On the Venue page, you must provide all the details of how one should get to the event, where it will be held, and any additional information. It’s wise to give directions, a map, some public transport connections, and estimated taxi prices. Finally, you should mention the parking situation around the event. If there are no reserved spots, you must advise people to take extra time so they can find a free spot elsewhere.

Indeed, this will all be in an email, but long emails often remain unread, so it’s far better to create one email that redirects to this page. This way, visitors will have no excuse not to hear your advice.

• FAQ

The FAQ page is perfect for answering burning questions quickly and straightforwardly. Moreover, it is strictly driven by long-tail keywords, so it will make your event even more visible through search engines.

The FAQ page will allow you to minimize direct contact with potential participants who want quick and decisive answers to their questions rather than browsing your entire website. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be ready to answer any and all questions if users want to contact you directly.

• Contact page

The Contact Page is the final page you must add to your event website. This will give participants the chance to contact you directly if needed. Sometimes, they have unique circumstances that need your attention. Other times, they just feel safer knowing there is someone on the other side. Regardless of the reason, the Contact page will allow your attendees to connect directly to you, while you will gain higher credibility in exchange. It’s a win-win.

4. Integrate a registration and ticketing system

This is one feature that any event website needs. A ticketing system is a must if you are not working with a promoter. Otherwise, many users will simply refuse to pay a price for a promise of getting tickets several days later by mail. Today, users expect to get their product right away, especially when this product can be digitized and provided on the spot. So, a ticketing system is not just a suggestion. It’s a must if you want to increase your conversions.

Moreover, an integrated registration and ticketing system has way too many benefits for you to skip. First and foremost, you won’t have to pay a percentage to a promoter. This may sound like a small thing, but if you are expecting thousands for your event, even a small percentage fee will turn into thousands of dollars of lost revenues.

Furthermore, integrating a ticketing system will streamline the process. You won’t have to personally communicate with every single buyer, and you can focus on organizing the event rather than just printing out tickets.

Not to mention, there are over a dozen outstanding WordPress plugins that can integrate such a system.

Most importantly, however, the entire process will be much easier for the buyers, enticing them to finish the purchase rather than waiting for a back-and-forth with the organizer. This will drastically increase your event’s participation.

5. Make it SEO-friendly

It’s true that SEO optimization takes at least several months to kick in and give results. That’s not a reason to skip it. Having a well-maintained and SEO-friendly event website will eventually allow you to climb in search engines and increase your overall outreach.

Furthermore, this will ensure no one will overshadow your event by bidding on your name. You should always be on top of your game, as many competitors will try to redirect users to their own events. So, if you are not a major player yet, you must prepare a budget to counter their bidding attempts.

Thus, a better SEO will make this entire effort much more cost-efficient.

Finally, if your event is successful, you’d want to make a second one. Why would you pass the opportunity to draw more participants and gain more authority, revenues, and loyalty?

So, make sure to optimize your keywords, meta-data, and overall website usability. Make it your business to upload only high-quality content, regardless of whether it’s copy, images, or video.

6. Promote Social sharing

Finally, when your website is done, ensure you urge every user, guest, and presenter to share your event. Make it as effortless as possible. Place social sharing icons everywhere, and make sure to add at least one CTA in this direction. You can even offer a small discount on the price of sharing your post. This, however, will only be profitable if the person sharing the event is an authority figure in your niche.

Make sure all the speakers are engaged in the promotion and they actively share their panel on every social media.

What about the website infrastructure?

Having an event website will only be profitable if the infrastructure behind it is reliable, fast, and well-maintained. This is why you need HostArmada for your event website. Our hosting services will provide you with lightning-fast website speed, state-of-the-art security features, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Imagine landing on an event website that loads slowly or is entirely unreachable. This will not only deter you from registering but also hinder the organizer’s credibility. So, you need a trusted and proven partner to ensure your website is always ready to meet your users’ demands.

Thanks to our cloud hosting, overloading your server is practically impossible. If there is a sudden surge of interest in your event, we can handle it so your website can do its thing and convert those users into attendees.

Now, all you have to do is figure out how big your event is going to be. If it’s a major event with thousands of participants, we suggest a dedicated CPU server. This will give you all the necessary resources, but more importantly, it will grant you unparalleled security over your information.

If you are expecting only several hundred participants, you can use shared cloud hosting. However, we strongly recommend getting the Speed Reaper pack.

If you are planning a small event with just a few dozen participants, the Start Dock or Web Wrap will be sufficient.

Check out our plans and pick the one that best suits your needs. If you have any doubts, our team is ready to help. Just contact us.