Companies spend weeks on a promotional campaign, then send everyone to a slow registration page with fifteen fields, and many visitors leave before they reach the submit button. The registration page is where the whole campaign turns into a number. Anything wrong with it wastes what you spent on promotion.
This guide covers what must appear at the top of the page, how many form fields you actually need, what builds trust, designing for the phone first, handling Arabic and English, and what should happen after someone clicks “Register”.
The rule we start from in our projects is simple: every field, paragraph and image should either answer a question the visitor has or move them closer to signing up. Anything else can move to another page or go.
What visitors should see before they scroll
The first screen, the part visible without scrolling, decides whether people stay. Within a few seconds they should find:
- The event name and one sentence on the benefit: what attendees will leave with, not a generic slogan.
- The full date and time: day, date, start and finish.
- A precise location: the hotel or hall and the city. “Dubai” alone is not enough, because crossing the city at rush hour affects whether people come.
- The price, or the word “free”, with what the price includes.
- One registration button in a clear colour with specific wording such as “Book your seat”, repeated at the bottom of the page.
Everything below supports the decision: speakers, a short agenda, who the event is for, and FAQs. Order them by what your audience actually asks, which you can learn from the emails and calls you received for previous editions.
A short form: the fields you really need
Every extra field costs you sign-ups. At registration, ask only for what you need to print a badge, stay in touch and understand the audience. Everything else can wait for a follow-up email or a pre-event survey. For most professional events these are enough:
- First name and last name, as they should appear on the badge.
- Email address.
- Mobile number with country code, if you will send WhatsApp or SMS reminders.
- Organisation.
- Job title, ideally as a drop-down if you need to segment attendees.
- A clear consent box for communications, not pre-ticked.
Questions about company size, budget or interests can go in the confirmation email as an optional step. Fewer people will answer them, but you won’t lose registrations over them. If you need to know about dietary needs or access requirements for people of determination, ask one optional open question rather than a long list.
Field tip: ask for the name “as you’d like it on your badge”. It prevents badges printed in capitals or with shortened names, and saves you a queue of corrections at the door.
Trust signals
Visitors are handing you their details, their time and sometimes their money. Before they do, they want to know the event is real and well run. What reassures them:
- A clearly named organiser with a real contact route and phone number.
- Speaker photos with names and titles, used with their permission.
- Partner and sponsor logos, again with permission.
- Photos or a short clip from the previous edition, if there was one.
- A one-line note on how their data will be used, with a link to the privacy policy.
- A known, secure payment page for paid events, with the cancellation and refund policy spelled out.
Phone first, both languages
Designing for the phone
Most visitors to event pages in our campaigns arrive on a phone, because they tap the link inside WhatsApp, LinkedIn or Instagram. Design for the phone and then expand for desktop, not the other way round. In practice that means:
- Text that reads without zooming, and buttons easy to hit with a thumb.
- The right keyboard for each field: numbers for the phone field, the email layout for email.
- Compressed images so the page loads quickly on mobile data.
- No pop-ups covering the form.
- Testing on a real device before launch, all the way to the confirmation email.
Arabic and English
Don’t put both languages side by side on one page. It doubles the length and confuses readers. Build two complete versions with an obvious language switch, each in the correct direction, right to left for Arabic. Then check that:
- The form accepts names in both Arabic and Latin script, and your badge printing system supports Arabic fonts.
- Error messages are translated and never appear in English on the Arabic page.
- Dates are written unambiguously, for example “Tuesday 18 November”.
- The confirmation email arrives in the language the person registered in.
Confirmation page, email and calendar
Registration doesn’t end with the click. The confirmation page and email are your first step towards getting that person to the venue. The confirmation page should say clearly that registration worked, explain what happens next, offer an “Add to calendar” button and make it easy to invite a colleague.
The confirmation email should summarise the details, include the address and a map link, carry a QR code for entry if you use one, and explain how to change or cancel. For setting up QR entry without queues, see our guide to QR badge check-in.
The calendar file deserves care. Offer an .ics file that works with Outlook and Apple Calendar, plus a direct Google Calendar link. Put the full address and map link in the entry, and set the time zone to UAE time so the slot doesn’t shift for anyone travelling. People who put the event in their calendar are more likely to turn up, which we cover in our guide to reducing no-shows.
Common mistakes that kill sign-ups
| Mistake | Why it hurts | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Forcing account creation first | An extra step and a password nobody wants | Register directly; make an account optional afterwards |
| A hard visual CAPTCHA | Many people fail it on a phone | Invisible spam protection from your form provider |
| Date or venue missing from the first screen | Visitors leave to look it up and don’t return | Key details at the top of the page |
| The form clears after an error | Nobody retypes everything | Keep entries and show the error beside the field |
| One link for every campaign | You can’t tell which channel worked | Tagged links per channel and partner |
| Heavy images, slow page | Phones give up before it loads | Compress images and test on mobile data |
If traffic itself is low, the problem sits upstream in the campaign. Start with our eight-week event marketing plan.
Quick checklist before you launch
- Name, date, venue, price and the register button all show on the first mobile screen.
- The form has no more than six required fields.
- Arabic and English versions are complete, including error messages.
- The confirmation email arrives within a minute, with a calendar file and map link.
- You have registered yourself from two different phones before launch.
- Tracking links are ready for every channel and partner.
If you’re preparing an event and would like us to handle registration and entry as part of the production, get in touch.
