On January 19th Keystroke will be releasing some big updates to Link2events, our online event management service for Act! users first released in early 2020. Link2events was the second product in our Linktivity Suite, and the last to get a major overhaul.  

What is Link2events?
For those unfamiliar with Link2events, it is an online service that helps users organize training or promotional events, while integrating the sign-up results into Act! and automating the reminders and follow-ups needed to optimize turnout.

Specifically, Link2events does the following:

• Creates the activity in Act, as well as a group to organize the registrants
• Creates and publishes an online sign-up page for the event that captures the registrant details and adds them to Act! instantly
  • new contacts are added to the database, put in a group for the event, and then linked to the activity in Act!; while existing contacts are added to the group and activity 
  • the history of each new or existing contact is also updated to reflect their sign-up details
  • provides each registrant with an individualized sign-up code, presents them with an Outlook invite for the event, and then emails them the event's "join link" or location details
• Sends an automated event reminder and follow-up
• Allows organizers to know precisely the anticipated turnout in advance, and prepare according

Huge Cost Savings
One of the key selling points of Link2events is that for only $10/month it allows subscribers to use cheaper online "meeting" services like GoToMeeting & Zoom, but get all the feature perks of pricier webinar services that can cost 5-10x more per month - for example, compare the price difference between GoToMeeting ($19-26/month) and GoToWebinar ($79-309/month), and you'll see the sharp cost contrast between them. And these higher priced services still don't integrate with Act! like Link2events.  

New Improvements
Fast forward almost two years, and we've incorporated a lot of customer feedback and feature requests into this recent rebuild, and we think Act! users are going to love the improvements. While some of the changes to this service are "under the hood", there are some major features being added this week, including the following:

Additional Act! fields in the sign-up page

• Previously only two fields were available with Link2events forms, Contact & Email, but now all the primary Act! fields are quickly accessible, along with the ability to add custom fields to your sign-up page, as well

 Additional formatting options 

• Link2events now allows you to choose from two different page styles, default or compact, with both styles being mobile responsive. Extensive customization controls are included with each style, including colors, fonts, borders, backgrounds, images, you name it.
• We also added a new "Preview" feature to see your customizations as you apply them
• We're also adding an MC Editor to the Event Details section to support greater text formatting options there too, including hyperlinks, and embedded media like videos.

Adding support to prevent duplicate sign-ups

• Link2events sign-up forms already include Captcha security by default, but now we're suppressing duplicate sign-ups, as well, to provide you with better accuracy 

Online tracking of sign-ups

• Adding a "submissions" tab at the global and event level to display all the sign-ups, providing you with better online visibility and management of the results. 

Create an event from an existing activity

• This feature will not only save our users time by allowing them to import existing activity details from Act!, but will be great for those using virtual meeting services like Zoom or GoToMeeting. Visualize this new workflow:
  • These people create an event online with Zoom or GTM
  • This service generates an ICS for the user to add to their Outlook calendar
  • Act! then converts that Outlook invite into an Act! activity
  • Link2events will then import the date, time, and location details of that activity when it's selected
• We had a lot of requests to build Zoom & GTM integration into Link2events, and this activity picker effectively supports this.

Include Link2calendar within the sign-up pages

• One of the exclusive advantages of the Linktivity suite is the synergy between the products. For instance, Link2quotes allows you to include your Link2calendar address within a quote, as well as a survey from Link2forms. Well, now the Link2events sign-up pages can add a Link2calendar banner at the bottom of the sign-up page, allowing new prospects to book appointments with you while signing up for an event.

Creation of a new Teams tier for Link2events
Teams tier will include the following new features:

• Support drip email campaigns before and after the event. Currently, Link2events only supports one reminder before and one follow-up after, so this new drip feature will significantly increase the program's capability.
• Supports PayPal payments for events so that our customers can host paid events and collect payments at sign-up
• Supports assigning ownership of an event to another user 

Additional Team Benefits
In planning for this release, and the Link2shrink service expected next week, the development & marketing team have decided subscribers to a Team tier of any Linktivity product will enjoy the following benefits at no extra charge:

• Link2shrink functionality within whatever product they subscribe to a Team tier with. For instance, Link2calendar Team subscribers will get the Link2shrink upgrade feature that allows them to convert any calendar URL to a shorter Link2shrink URL. Same deals with Link2events Team, Link2quotes Team, and Link2forms Team Editions.
• Owners of QuickMeets and QuickTasks that want to sync their data through the Linktivity servers will get this service free of charge with any Team Subscription. Each service was originally priced at $36, which means an upgrade that can cost as little as $60 will feature $72 in additional services.

Summary
Whether you're a financial professional planning Lunch-n-Learns with prospects, or a small business trying to promote a new product, public webinars are unquestionably a great way to promote your products & services, as well as to generate new leads. Link2events can help you every step of the way to optimize turnout, increase ROI, and furnish you with a database of new leads to convert.  It's one of the many advantages of being an Act! user. Sign-up HERE for your Free trial today.