Perfect & Scale Your Virtual Event Marketing
If an event hasn’t been cancelled or postponed over the past few months, it’s been transformed to a virtual event.
This shift to digital events has made “virtual event marketing” a new buzzword. It's become so prevalent that 51% of marketing professionals think that virtual event marketing will become a norm post-pandemic.
But event organizers, sponsors, and exhibitors are challenged by a unique differentiator of live events: the increased level of commitment.
Think about it. When you plan to go to a live event, there are generally multiple costs involved. From tickets to transportation costs, from colleague dinners to hotel lodging, there’s a heightened level of commitment involved. For a virtual event, attendees don’t feel this same level of commitment. In fact, the attendance rate for virtual events is a mere 44%.
In a world where a virtual event, class, or conference exists for pretty much everything, how can you make your virtual event stand out?
We’re offering up our 4 best tips for scaling your virtual event marketing.
Drive Virtual Attendance With Content
At a time when traditional buzz is harder to build, content may be just what you need to draw people to your virtual event.
Rather than simply ramping up social media activity, email blasts, and blog posts the week before the event, consider building out a more robust content strategy that begins months prior to the event. This also gives you more time to experiment with alternate content channels and concepts. Have you considered a vlog series, weekly live-streams on Instagram, or behind-the-scenes newsletters?
As for the event itself, content is just as important. One of the primary reasons people attend conferences in the first place is to stay on top of the latest information in their industry. It’s just as important to make sure you’re giving attendees reason to believe their attendance is worthwhile — whether that’s giving them the chance to hear from industry experts or offering them exclusive content they couldn’t receive elsewhere.
Identify The Best Venue and Host
Wait, venue? We’re still talking about virtual events, right? By venue, we mean a livestream platform from which you can broadcast information, and by host, we mean key speakers and industry experts that will be presenting.
There’s several factors to consider when choosing a streaming platform, like the cost, the amount of attendees your event will have, and where your audience is the most. Here are some commonly used platforms:
Similarly, you’ll also need sponsors for your virtual event. Just like with in-person invents, you don’t have to solely rely on ticket sales to foot your bill. You can accommodate sponsors at virtual events with virtual spaces, virtual booths, and sponsored-rich content in which a sponsor hosts their own session.
Make Room For Print
Considering everything else about virtual events is pretty much digital, it helps to add in some sense of tangibility. And because you’re saving so many other items you had budgeted for — like event space and catering costs — you’ll most likely have some room to splurge in other areas. Offering some cool swag not only enables you to bring your virtual event to life, but also incentivizes people to sign up.
Plus, there’s no better way to make an event seem real than to keep remote attendees engaged with physical welcome gifts, printed materials (such as event schedules), attendee gifts, and more. In addition, direct mail may even help you persuade high-value prospects to sign up for your event or conference.
Leverage Event Data
Measuring the success of your virtual event will help inform future business decisions. Tapping into event analytics can help justify spend and provide new insights.
It’s important to monitor specific key performance indicators (KPIs) and find answers to important questions. What livestream session holds the most people's attention, and for how long? How many average connections did an attendee make?
You can also analyze characteristics of your attendees. Often, virtual events attract more diverse attendance pools due to the lower barrier to entry. You may find new prospects you would’ve never discovered with your in-person event.
Conclusion
Virtual events will never be able to fully replicate in-person ones, but we can take comfort in the fact the fundamentals stay consistent. With goals of networking, generating leads, and giving and receiving education — just to name a few — virtual events can still allow brands to drive business results.