Ecommerce websites follow a particular format. Or, at least, that’s what comes to mind when you think of common online store features. Products, shopping carts, and a checkout process — right?
But this doesn’t describe the entirety of the ecommerce experience.
You can also find ecommerce stores taking the form of paid directories or online booking systems for events or appointments.
And like typical ecommerce stores, these event planning businesses also require proper tools or plugins. After all, there are plenty of event planning services to automate.
In this guide, we discuss how event management businesses can benefit from plugins, how these plugins help them cater to their target market, and how you can add a calendar plugin to your WordPress website.
- Why You Need an Event Management Business Plugin
- Types of Companies That Benefit From Event Calendar Websites
- Creating an Event Calendar Website in WordPress With a Plugin
- Final Thoughts: Build an Event Planning Business With a Calendar Plugin
Why You Need an Event Management Business Plugin
Here are a few reasons why a startup event planning business would benefit from using an event management business plugin:
- Keep things organized. Taking appointments or bookings means you have to keep a lot of data — and ensure it stays organized. A calendar plugin automates this process and lets your event planning company focus your resources elsewhere.
- Ensure your clients secure a spot. If you manually add bookings to a spreadsheet, it leaves too much room for error. Automating this process with an event management business plugin means appointments go directly onto your calendar when they’re booked.
- Protects against overbooking. Similarly, a booking plugin tracks the booked slots and helps you avoid booking a single time slot twice.
Types of Companies That Benefit From Event Calendar Websites
What small business can benefit from an event calendar website?
You may think of singers, musicians, and the whole entertainment events industry. Entertainment websites can definitely benefit from an event calendar in streamlining their operations.
But that’s not all. There are also other types of events and businesses where you can use calendars and full event management tools:
- Social events — Wedding DJs, nightclubs, and event planners can use an event calendar on their websites to speed up the booking process.
- Service industries — Florists, caterers, bounce house rentals, party planners, wedding planners, and any other business entity that makes money from event design, trade shows, or other service-based business structures.
- Doctors’ offices — Doctor offices, dentists, and therapists can use these tools for appointment scheduling.
- Spas and massage parlors — Spas and massage parlors can also enable potential clients to book their desired slots.
- Fitness instructors and gyms — If you manage a gym or are a fitness instructor, you can use website calendars in multiple ways. You can use it to make money from gym memberships or appeal to your target audience with individual workout classes.
- Online instructors — You can book attendees to online classes using calendar plugins.
- Webinar hosts — Corporate events, fundraising drives for a nonprofit, social media webinars, LinkedIn summits — you name it. Event calendars help you register attendees and participants for all of them.
Creating an Event Calendar Website in WordPress With a Plugin
As a small business owner with a WordPress website, you can easily add an event calendar to your website using a decent plugin.
A top performer in this category is The Events Calendar for WordPress. It lets you manage small to big successful events with ease. You can create events, add tickets, host virtual events, and run successful marketing for your events using the robust tools it offers.
Key Features of The Events Calendar:
- Showcase the upcoming events chronologically or with photos, maps, or summaries.
- Highlight featured events.
- Configure recurring events.
- Insert the calendar/booking features via a shortcode.
- Import events from other calendars via CSV files.
Pricing of The Events Calendar: Free version is available with limited features. Paid plans start at $99/year for one website, which include premium support, custom fields, and more.
Adding the Events Calendar to Your WordPress Website
Here’s how you can add The Events Calendar plugin to your WordPress website.
1. Log in to your WordPress website.
2. Go to Plugins > Add New.
3. Search for The Events Calendar.
4. Click the Install Now button.
5. Once installed, click Activate.
6. On the next screen, click either Accept & Continue or Skip.
You’ll receive an activation email at the email address associated with your WordPress website. Click the link in that email to activate the plugin.
You’ll then be taken to a getting started page for the plugin.
Creating a Calendar for Your Event Planning Business
Let’s create a calendar.
1. On the getting started page, click Create an Event.
You’ll be taken to a window that looks like the Classic Editor for writing blog posts.
2. Fill in the details for your first event, including a title and description.
3. Scroll down and fill in the calendar-specific details:
a. Start and end time.
b. Venue location.
c. Organizer information.
d. Event website.
e. Event cost.
The created event will look like this on the front end when published.
You can add more events and view all scheduled events in your website calendar. The free version offers a day view, a list view:
…and a month view:
Final Thoughts: Build an Event Planning Business With a Calendar Plugin
No matter the type of business you run, ensuring your website is equipped with the appropriate event management business plugin is key.
Like you have social media accounts, a well-thought-out business plan, and a solid business name, you also need a way to book appointments. And a calendar plugin is the way to do that.
Want to support your event planning business with a robust ecommerce presence?
You can build an ecommerce website that works for your business with StoreBuilder. It’s a quick and easy way to launch a new online store and keep your startup costs low. Select a template and go.
Check out StoreBuilder to get started today.
