General FAQ - Managing Profiles

Profiles contain contact (name, position, email address, etc.) and profiling (demographics, product interest, business category, etc.) information for current and past attendees, and individuals who might attend future events.

Profiles may be potential attendees, previous attendees, existing customers or members, exhibitors, sponsors, etc.

A new profile is created automatically with every new registration entered into the database.

Each account has its own database of profiles.

Each account database enables separation of the contact information of different companies or divisions into different accounts.

The Difference Between Profiles and Registrations

A profile contains the information about an individual that does not change from one event to the next.

A registration contains information about an attendee that is specific to one event.

If an account's customers or members attend more than one event, the profile database should be used.

The profile database collects and stores information from one event to the next.

The profile database avoids asking the attendee to re-enter information with each new registration.

Setting Up Custom Profile Information for an Account

Each account has its own profiles database.

The account structure must be established prior to setting up custom profile questions for an account.

The account structure must be finalized before custom profile questions are set up.

Custom profile questions must collect profiling information that is independent of any event.

Custom profile information is determined after the account structure is finalized.

Example accounts include a Technical Group account and a Marketing Group account.

Example custom profile questions for a Technical Group account might include:

• Select job classification (IT, developer, webmaster, other)
• Select areas of interest (Software, hardware, networks, other)

Example custom profile questions for a Marketing Group account might include:

• Years of experience (>20, 15-20, 10-15, 5-10, <5)
• Media used (TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, email, other)

In the example cases, answers to each custom question provide more detailed information about a specific profile.

Answers to each custom question are independent of any single event.

Bad examples of profile questions are:

• Are you bringing a guest?
• Will you attend the pre-event dinner function?

Event-specific profile question answers may change from one event to the next.

Event-specific profile questions should be created as custom registration questions.

Custom profile questions should not be created from the bad examples.

After questions that should be stored with profiles are decided, custom profile questions can be created.

Custom profile questions can be created up to 30 questions of any type (including pre-defined answer options) for an account.

Custom profile questions are created in Account Settings > Custom Profile Data.

Managing Profile Information

The profile database can be managed independently of a single event.

Click the Profiles tab to search for an individual profile record.

Profile records can be searched using QuickSearch or Query Profiles.

Select a record to view or modify.

Profiles contain the following information:

• Contact information
• Other information (custom profile questions)
• Alternate address
• History

Sending Messages to Profiles

A user can send email messages to individual or groups of profiles.

Common messages include:

• Invitations to an event
• Solicitations to exhibit or sponsor an event
• Reminders to potential attendees who have not registered yet
• Routine communication (newsletters, etc.)

Allowing Profiles to Access Information Online

Profiles can use their username and password to access their personal information online.

Profiles can access personal information online to make modifications to a profile record.

Profiles can also access personal information online to register for an event.

The username and password combination must be unique.

The username and password combination is created in one of these ways:

• The planner sets up the online registration form to collect a username and password. In this case, Certain validates that the username is unique in the database, before accepting the username request.
• The planner assigns the username and password when they create the registration (manually or via data import).
• The planner has the Certain automatically generate a username and password when the profile is created.

Any comments about this Help topic? © 2020 Certain, Inc.

Note: Help topics may include features about to be released.