Why is Zoho Backstage your ultimate solution for event management?
Planning events for your business comes with a big responsibility. You don’t only want it to be successful, but your goal is to make it hassle-free for the organiser and attendees. Well, your worries should be placed outside the window now because Zoho Backstage is built to solve your end-to-end event planning, which saves you time and effort.
If you are an organiser, you can even wear a ball gown to your event, and if you are an attendee, entering the event is surely hassle-free.
In this article, we will be taking a tour of the following:
What is Zoho Backstage?
Zoho Backstage is an event management software launched in 2018, created to simplify the process of organising, managing, and hosting events. It provides a comprehensive set of tools to help businesses manage the entire lifecycle of an event, from planning and registration to engagement and post-event analytics.
The platform is fully customisable and is designed to cater to different types of events with three main options: In-Person, Virtual (Backstage OnAir), and Hybrid.
In-Person: This is designed for organising and managing physical and onsite events like product launches, seminars, and exhibitions that involve attendees being physically present at a venue.
Virtual (Backstage OnAir): This option is geared toward hosting and managing fully online events like webinars, virtual conferences, and online training sessions.
Hybrid: This combines both in-person and virtual event management, enabling organisers to create a unified experience for attendees, whether they are attending physically or remotely.
What are the key features of Zoho Backstage?
1. Multi-Event Support
If you are planning to create two events or more on the same day, Backstage is your number one partner because this software can support multiple events simultaneously, making it easier for organisers to oversee a series of events in a single day.
For many event organisers, managing even one event in a single day can feel overwhelming. But with Backstage, you can efficiently manage unlimited events at once without the stress.
2. Event Creation and Customisation
Every company has its own unique branding. While others wonder how they can make Backstage their ‘own’, this software will make it easy for you.
The platform allows organisers to customise and personalise the event’s look and feel to ensure it aligns with your company's theme and branding requirements. This includes matching the colour schemes, logos, and banners to make them your own. You can also create an informative yet beautiful site that shows potential attendees what they can expect at the event—these things can be done without needing technical coding skills.
3. Ticketing and Registration
A chaotic ticketing system is one of the problems that organisers always raise, but with Backstage, a streamlined registration process is the solution. This software allows organisers to activate an automated registration where both the ticket sales and registration process are ready on hand. This means that different ticket categories, including pricing structures, discount codes, and promotions, will be readily available for the attendees.
Through this process, the organisers will be able to view ticket sales, attendees’ data, and financial reports in real time.
4. Session Management
If there is one feature that needs to be highlighted in Backstage, it will be session management. Of course, during the event, the organisers have little to no time to assist all the attendees with their queries. But this platform just lets you do everything.
Attendees can view the event agenda and sessions in real time through the website that you created for your event. You can also update them should there be changes in the starting time of the event. With Backstage’s feature, you can also provide the details on how to go to the venue from their location. You can also tell them the dos and don’ts during the event. You don’t need to release separate announcements and instructions to your attendees because everything will be readily available for them through the website.
5. Attendee Engagement
Engaging attendees throughout an event can be one of the most challenging tasks for organisers, but Backstage is designed with features that ensure your audience stays connected and actively involved during every session.
Using either mobile or web applications, the attendees can follow presentations slide by slide. They can also ask the speaker a question, answer polls, and even react to the slides. Organisers can also view their attendees’ detailed insights through the post-session analytics.
6. Hybrid Event Support
True to what Backstage always promises—they’ve got your back in more ways than one, as they go above and beyond to cater to your event needs by offering a hybrid event option. If your attendees want to attend the event physically, they absolutely can. And if they want to stay at their homes, but they still want to attend your event, they can too.
You can hold your single event in a hybrid mode, allowing your attendees to choose their preferred experience: attending in person or virtually. This flexibility helps broaden your event’s reach and ensures that no one misses out, regardless of their location or preference.
7. Event Marketing and Promotion
Marketing and promoting your event can often be one of the most time-consuming and complex tasks, but Backstage simplifies this process. You can promote your events to social media platforms directly from your event dashboard. You can also send email campaigns to your potential attendees and send updates to your registered attendees.
With built-in marketing tools, this software allows you to manage all your promotional activities directly from the platform, saving you time and effort.
8. Analytics and Reporting
If you can see the post-session analytics discussed in the attendee engagement, you can also view insights on registrations, your number of attendees, their demographics, session participation, and ticket sales.
Through Backstage’s real-time reporting, you will not only monitor the success of your event, but you will also be able to assess the things that you need to improve on based on your attendees' feedback.
9. Integrations
One of the standout features of Backstage is its ability to integrate seamlessly with third-party applications. Since Backstage integrates with Zoho CRM, you can sync all your attendee data for better marketing and follow-up in case you need to invite them again to your next event. You can also integrate payment processors for easy ticket purchases and payments. If you opt to have a virtual event and your favourite application to use is Zoom, you can also integrate that.
By connecting Backstage with other tools you already use, you can optimise your workflow, improve marketing efforts, and simplify key operations.
10. Mobile Application for Attendees
If you are looking for a tool that you can manage at your fingertips, you are asking for none other than Zoho Backstage. For organisers, you can track your analytics and reporting through your mobile device. For attendees, while you can attend the event with only your smartphones, you can also stay updated with real-time notifications.
How to use Zoho Backstage?
By following these steps, you can effectively use Zoho Backstage to organise, promote, and manage your events with ease:
Who can benefit from Zoho Backstage?
Zoho Backstage is not only built for big businesses and Zoho One users. This event management software offers various plans that are affordable even for small business owners or one-time purchase customers.
Here is a list of who can benefit from using Zoho Backstage:
Corporations and businesses
Small business owners
Educational Institutions
Government and Nonprofit Associations
Marketing Teams
Zoho Backstage: A Smart, Time-Saving Solution for Every Event Organizer
Zoho Backstage is a comprehensive event management platform that provides a wide array of tools and features suitable for businesses of all sizes, not just large corporations. Just like Zoho CRM, Zoho Backstage is designed to be accessible and beneficial for small businesses, startups, and even one-time event organisers. It’s a versatile solution for anyone looking to simplify the event planning process and maximise efficiency.
Quốc Vinh, the group chairman and CEO of Le Bros, Vietnam, perfectly sums up the value of Zoho Backstage: "Zoho Backstage can be best described as convenient, advanced, and smart. We saved a lot of time—and time is money. This solution is definitely worth the investment."
If your goal is to save time and resources, Zoho Backstage is undoubtedly a top choice.
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