One of the most stressful parts about event registration is making sure you get paid on time! It’s nice to tell an attendee that payment is due on a certain date, but getting that payment in can be a lot of back and forth.
Obviously a great registration software with automatic billing and payment plans can help solve this problem, but not every attendee will sign up for an automatic payment plan, and will prefer to go in and pay on a due date.
You can use your event software to set up an automatic email to send to an attendee about an upcoming payment, but what do you say in this email? What is the best strategy and text to use to really drive the payment due message home and ensure a payment is made.
People, by nature, don’t enjoy spending their money. A great email with an effective call to action and the right information, will help the payment process along. It seems as though it would be pretty simple, but there are some general guidelines to keep in mind when putting together this email, which I’ve outlined below.
I promise that if you write effective payment due emails to attendees, you will…
- See an uptick in payments within 3-5 days after the email is sent.
- Have less than 10% of attendees bugging you with questions and clarification.
Your email needs to include the following information:
- Provide updated information about the attendee, including balance due, what they are ordering, and their payment history, if any. Our clients have seen more support calls come in when they don’t include this information. Providing these details makes it really clear what is happening so an attendee doesn’t feel compelled to call you to ask these questions.
- Make sure you mention in the email how they can pay – which credit cards are accepted, if you accept checks, how to send those in, etc. You can avoid many emails of “how can I pay?” or “do you accept credit cards” by including this information in your email.
- Include any important dates so it is CLEAR when this payment is due. Again, lower support emails! If you send out an email “Please pay $200” vs. “Please pay $200 by April 1”, you will lower confusion.
- Make sure you provide a clear LINK to their online account so they know where they can go to pay, and can click a link from the email instead of trying to find the website and their registration. Use “call to action” like words to make it clear “View Invoice”, “Pay Here”, “Make a Payment Now” are all clear and to the point.
- Easy to find contact information to get a hold of you IF they want to. It’s best to just make sure that if they hit “reply” it will go to the right person, but in the signature of the email, include an email address and/or phone number so they don’t have to search how to contact you (and then be annoyed once they get you on the phone that it took forever to find your phone number).
Payment Due Email Template
Email Subject: We’re waiting for your Final Payment for EVENT on DATE
Dear Name,
We are excited to see you this April for EVENT NAME!
You currently have an outstanding balance of: $2,075.
Full payment is due by March 31.
You can pay your balance easily by clicking here and logging in to your account. You can pay with credit card or electronic check. Please login and make your payment before the payment due date!
The email we have on file is support@nightlyregpacks.com. Please use this email to login to your account. If you have trouble logging in because you don’t remember your password, simply click the “forgot password” button and you will be prompted to reset it.
Below you will find your current order and all past payments we’ve received.
| Name | Price | Status |
| Friday Night Gala | $75 | Not Paid |
| Application Fee–>Application Fee | $100 | Paid |
| Event Registration Fee | $2,000 | Not Paid |
This is your payment history:
| Trans ID | Method | Date | Amount | Status |
| 44768 | eCheck | Tue, Nov 6th 2016 | $100 | Approved |
Your current balance is: $2,075
We look forward to seeing you in a few weeks at EVENT NAME!
Thanks,
Event Staff
(111) 111-1111 ex. 222
event@event.com
Why is this email effective?
You’ll notice that the email employed all 5 points mentioned at the beginning of this post.
- It notes the balance due+ payment history.
- Includes a link where they can pay.
- Contains important due dates.
- Provides a link + instructions on how to login to their account, including the email they registered with.
- Contact information is easy to find in the email signature.
Focus on the beginning of the email.
Note that the beginning of the email contains the MOST important information. It mentions there is a balance due and the due date. This will engage the reader and help them understand this email is asking them to do something, so instead of spamming it, they will scroll down to figure out how to complete payment.
Most people don’t read an email in its entirety. Make sure you capture their attention and it’s clear immediately that they need to do something. This will help to lower your non-payment rate.
Make sure it’s personal.
A great event software will make this easy. Every spot in the email that has a CAPITAL and Bold word is where in Regpack, you can put a token. This will allow you to create a basic email template and then populate the specific information for the person receiving it, without actually manually doing this yourself.
So to make the admin side of this easy you just have to filter for any attendees that have an outstanding balance. And send this email to them. The system will automatically add their name, email address, balance due, payment history and whatever other personal information you want to include.
People tend to overlook emails that seem like they are “bulk” or not personal. This quick tool will help make sure your email is read and personalized to the reader, but without all the work it would take without software!
Conclusion: Writing a great payment due email for your event registration!
It is a pretty straightforward process to write a great email letting attendees know they have a payment due. The winning combination for an effective email without going crazy sending them all out is a great event software!
Event management software can help automate much of this process while keeping your registration going and the payments rolling in!