Certain(ly) complex, but worth it
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Certain is the go-to event software for all field marketing teams across my company. It automates complex emails flows to keep registrants engaged until the main event (which could be months away), generates smart views that cater to your specific needs (approved registrations, declined registrations, pending registrations) and has an on-the-go app for check-in purposes only (it's easy to use and to add new people as they come in without registration).
Pros
- Email flow automation: Each particular registration case (pending, approved, declined, etc) can be accompanied by a sequence of emails to orientate the type of registrants on what the next steps are, or what to expect from the event.
- Registrant/Attendee reporting: Easy exports facilitate sharing information internally.
- Landing page customization (forms): Literally anything you need from the event registrant can be added to the form (from dietary preferences to shirt size, for example). Landing pages are very flexible to add many speakers, content, information, maps, etc. and are equally easy to customize.
Cons
- Dashboards: It's quite important for leadership to get a visual of what their event registrants look like (with graphs, for example). Now, Certain does not present a feature to create dashboards, so we have to export their reports and create our dashboards ourselves.
- UX when setting up an event: Now this can be quite complex, as it's not as easy to use or intuitive. Many different tabs with many different sub-items can present a confusing experience for newcomers when building an event.
Likelihood to Recommend
Certain is very well suited for any type of event or tradeshow that require specific fields from registrants and an automated email sequence to keep them engaged.
It's less appropriate for one-off events, since setting up those pages can be quite complex if you're used to the types of Eventbrite/Sympla. If you don't really build event pages regularly, I'd recommend a software that's more simple, which should address what you need.
