Selling all seats is what every conference organizer is after; countless elements and a lot of hard work is involved in the planning of an event to make sure every detail is perfect, but none of it matters when event organizers ignore a very basic consideration being: if your participants can't afford your event, they won't attend your event. Luckily, there are a few pricing strategies that can be implemented to make sure pricing isn't going to stop you from reaching your desired event turn out and they are as follows:

1. Period-Based Pricing

Period-based pricing is a common practice in the events industry whereby registration fees are defined by how early or late each participant registers for your conference. These periods of registrations are usually divided into Early, Normal, and Late, with an increase in price from one period to another respectively.

Period-based pricing is usually implemented to encourage participants to register early for a conference, giving conference organizers solid data to act on early when making arrangements for accommodations, venue, catering and other services as required. And as some service providers may impose higher fees for late notice changes in quota, it's only fair that some of the cost is borne by those late registrants, hence the price increase for the late registration period.

It's important to remember though that period-based pricing is not a matter of simply reducing the price; a discount of $10-30 on a multi-day event or conference is not likely to prompt any participants to quickly make a decision and purchase an early bird ticket.

The price difference needs to be significant enough for participants to purchase, but not too cheap so you're still able to make profit. Which is why it is recommended that you reduce the early bird ticket price by up to a quarter of the ticket fee to really entice participants to first see value in the savings they're making, then purchase a ticket right away. For example, if you are charging $500 per ticket, it is recommended that you offer an early bird rate that's between $375 to $400.

Resourceful event organizers can strategize multiple ways of making that quarter that's been reduced off of registration fees back in no time. For tips on maximizing your event ROI, read this article.

2. Differentiation of Fees

It's advisable that conference organizers come up with a registration structure that's profitable but also thoughtful. Price affordability can be perceived differently by different groups of people. In academic conferences, for example, the financial capabilities of students, university staff and field experts aren't equal, thus creating registration types that apply lower rates to groups of lower financial means (of your target audience) is due to ensure they can attend your conference too.

Similarly, it's very important that the same differentiation of fees structure is considered when organizing international events. For example, while your registration fees are considered affordable to Americans, Europeans, and certain Middle Easterners, participants from developing countries may beg to differ. This contrast in perceptions due to the economic landscape of such countries needs to be observed when creating a pricing scheme to make sure pricing isn't restricting certain groups from attending your event.

2.Discount codes

If students (or any other low-income segment) aren't your main audience, making up only a small percentage of your event's expected turn out, a discrete way to offer discounted fees for this small segment is by creating discount codes/vouchers and offering them through private channels like personal emails. This guarantees low-income segments are able to afford and attend your event's registration fees in a discrete manner without the need to advertise cheaper tickets to all of your registration segments.

MeetingHand allows you to implement all of the above-mentioned pricing strategies in a breeze. For more information on our customization, user-friendly and all-inclusive platform, contact our team today at sales@meeitnghand.com