The last couple of years have seen a rise in the number of virtual events. Thanks to better internet and digital tools, it's easier for event managers to put together engaging activities in the virtual sphere.
But while this trend of online events has allowed innovation and creativity to thrive, it's also made it harder for companies managing these events to compete for audiences' attention. Below, we've outlined a few ways to successfully market your virtual event and help it stand out from the crowd.
Gamification
Potential customers have to choose between multiple events and they may all look similar. In order to beat the competition, it's becoming increasingly important to stand out.
Events may choose, for example, to gamify their activities and add another layer of interaction for event goers. People can complete challenges like visiting a certain number of lectures in order to gain points, and monitor their performance in a leaderboard. This is definitely a unique approach that pulls in crowds, and helps sponsors visualize their ROI.
Investing in Good Professionals
As many economic activities become 100% virtual, the help of professionals like digital marketers, graphic designers, and SEO specialists is a must. Marketing graduates understand the principles of marketing, and are trained in marketing tools like social media, videos, and other new media.
This makes them extremely well prepared to decide the most effective approach to market a digital event. Everyone can come up with a good idea, but only experts can tell whether it will work or not.
Affiliate Programs
One of the best resources for any event is a speaker well-versed in the topic. Speakers and special guests are also interested in making the event a success, and can help with the marketing.
Inviting speakers to promote the event via affiliate links might be a profitable idea for both parties. After all, affiliate marketing accounts for more than 15% of digital media revenue. Companies can even extend that affiliate program to other content creators who can work as partners, which expands the reach of your marketing push.
Creating a Vlog
It's great to collab with content creators like bloggers or YouTubers who can promote an event to thousands of their fans, but companies can also try to create their own. One way to do this is by investing in video content for promotion.
Around 40% of people who made an online purchase admit that they found out about the product or service through a Youtube video. Video is engaging, unique, and can include calls to action to give interested audiences the final push they need to sign up to a webinar or event.
Email Marketing
People believe social media is the best way to promote an event or product, but email marketing is actually 40 times more effective. However, companies have to be careful not to flood the clients' inbox, and only send news and deals that appeal to their interests.
Thus, sending a registration form for an interesting seminar might not be enough though. Companies can boost interest by adding a deadline counter for the registration to motivate the undecided, or adding more personalized touches.
Marketing a virtual event may seem like an intimidating task. As time passes however, both event planners and attendees become familiar with new platforms and ideas. We're likely to see more and newer approaches to virtual events in the coming years, and companies should know the best ways to tap into that new frontier. Digital events are the future, and good marketing is one way to cement a company's place in that future.
3 Ways Your Organization Can Win With Virtual Events
Virtual events have upgraded the way organizations are able to communicate with clients, customers, and association members, and as the world continues to emerge from the pandemic of 2020, it has become even clearer that virtual events are here to stay.
Cracking the code to hosting events online can be challenging. There are so many questions: What type of platform do you need? What technology or applications should you include? What are the benefits? Can you even customize an online event to suit your needs? And how can you make it all work? What can you do to help keep everyone engaged and fully active in what is going on during the event?
Cut all these worries down by making sure key solutions are put in place before the launch date of your event.
Overview:
Create memorable experiences
Bring the fun to engagement and networking
Let past events inspire your future content
1. Create memorable experiences
Organizations can host several types of events online, be it a marketplace and trade show for products and services, college fairs, or even training sessions and recruitment and interview preparation for prospective employees.
No matter the type of event, it is important to ensure the event is also a memorable and enjoyable experience. Don’t leave it up to chance with the hope that memorable experiences will evolve on their own. Create those moments as part of your event!
Use engaging videos and polls to get attendees talking. Post interesting event facts on virtual display boards and in chat rooms. No one likes to miss out on a good thing, so include exclusive event perks and giveaways. Use the positives of FOMO (fear of missing out) to your organization's advantage - limit the availability of a few key giveaways and display a countdown clock during your online event so attendees feel even more motivated to claim a particular freebie before they're all gone!
Learning and development remains a powerful feature for any event. Incorporate visual and informative material that event attendees can access and download for future use. Creating memorable experiences also comes from setting the stage for your entire event. Host your event on a virtual events platform that will allow you to create customized and interactive virtual spaces that attendees can explore. See what a customized virtual environment looks like for yourself!
2. Bring the fun to Engagement and Networking
Creating opportunities for engagement and networking during an online event is important. But what can sometimes be overlooked is giving a boost to engagement and networking opportunities by including a little fun.
2.i. Amplify event conversations with social media integration
Host your virtual event on a platform that will allow integration with your preferred social media networks. Not only can you use social media to generate conversations around your organization, you can also use your social media network to generate excitement for your virtual event; feeding audiences’ interest in the event topics, as well as in the event host and invited speakers. By skillfully using social media networks, you can put in the necessary groundwork that will help you to build a community around your virtual event before the event launch date.
Once you have integrated your social media networks with the virtual events platform, you can keep the conversation going on social media networks by leveraging your event community during the virtual event! Create event hashtags, and unique event gifs and images so attendees can get involved in the social media conversation by sharing event gifs and images and by using your event hashtags to tag what they have shared. Include polls and roundups about popular moments and sessions when sharing live content from your event. Post shout-outs to highlight sponsors and do the same for attendees who have won quizzes and prizes. And most definitely, re-share relevant content from event attendees.
Combined, these tips will allow your event community to connect and engage in event conversations across multiple online spaces, while allowing you to tap into ways to amplify key conversations around your online event!
2.ii. Keep event fatigue at bay with gamification
Here is another major point to consider: it can become challenging for attendees to maintain focus during virtual events, especially after a few hours. Infusing dashes of fun into your virtual event is an important way to combat event fatigue and is something you absolutely need to plan for. Event gamification is an excellent way to revive attendees and keep them engaged throughout your event, so be sure to host your event on a virtual events platform that has capabilities for gamification.
To maintain interest during your virtual event, you could include interactive moments for question-and-answer sessions where attendees can talk to each other and to event speakers. Q&A sessions could even include event trivia questions displayed on a score board and exclusive event prizes for attendees who answer questions correctly.
2.iii. The power of avatars as part of gamification
Attendee avatars is another engaging feature of event gamification. In addition to allowing attendees to choose and refine the look of their avatars for the event, you can also allow attendees to level-up and customize their avatars even further by winning event prizes, or by gaining bonus features as rewards for purchasing certain items if you intend to include retail opportunities as part of the event. To encourage more engagement, you can go the extra step by making avatar photos available to attendees so they can share the images on social media!
2.iv. Expand engagement and networking with custom virtual event environments
There are other things you can do to bring the fun to engagement and networking. Create customized spaces for meet-and-greets and professional networking. These spaces could be a virtual café, a cocktail lounge, or any virtual environment you choose. You could also allow attendees to create or upload digital business cards that they can exchange with ease in a virtual world. Again, you will need to ensure you find a virtual events platform that will make it possible for you to customize the virtual spaces for your event and allow you to really enhance opportunities for networking and engagement.
Ultimately, by incorporating the right tools and strategies to include fun and counteract event fatigue, you will be able to facilitate two key things for your event: opportunities where attendees can expand discussions on topics they have just learned; and openings for breaks and chats to enable online attendees to fuel their interest and stay motivated for the next session.
3. Let past events inspire your future content
Virtual events are a treasure trove for content! From evergreen content, blogs, whitepapers and social media posts, the end of your virtual event is where new content begins. Use your past events as an inspiration for creating future content.
Popular event sessions and attendee feedback about those sessions are good sources for topics for blogs and social media posts. A comparative review of your most successful event with one that was not quite as successful could become an interesting blog or whitepaper. Sharing reviews from event speakers and select attendees can be another layer of content that offers further insight into the overall event experience.
Producing content based on past events will extend the conversation around those events and will also help to generate audience interest in events to come. Furthermore, creating feature content of this nature is ideal for organizations seeking to position themselves as thought-leaders in their field.
No matter which type of content you decide to create, or the format you choose to use, always make sure your content is relevant to your audience.
Remember, when facing the challenge of hosting a virtual event in the best way possible, break everything down into achievable goals. Motivate your audience with memorable experiences. Bring in the fun! And draw your inspiration from the lessons your have learned. Breaking it down this way will help your organization with its strategy to win with virtual events.
From virtual events to hybrid conferences, the event industry is evolving rapidly. Virtual events have taken center stage as businesses see the ROI and wide range of audiences they can attract through virtual events. As companies start to partner with virtual platforms, certain virtual event platform features are more important than others.
“What businesses need to keep in mind is that not every event is the same and not every virtual event platform is the same. Businesses that are looking to add a virtual element to their event need to find the right virtual event platform that will deliver all their needs and help them reach their objectives from the event,” says Stephen Handisides, V-Unite CEO.
So, what are some of the most important virtual event platform features for your virtual event?
Top 10 Virtual Event Platform Features To Look Out For
Here are 10 of the top virtual event platform features to consider before choosing your virtual event platform.
1. Gamification
People love a little competition. Ensuring a virtual event platform has gamification features is an excellent way to ensure your audience's engagement during the event. With attendees constantly checking the leaderboard, participating in polls, downloading content and participating in other opportunities, you can definitely ensure audience participation at your event. Additionally, gamification also allows for attendees to interact and compete with one another which further enhances networking opportunities among peers.
2. Automation
Automation will only help make your life easier. It’s important to have a virtual event platform where most things are automated such as uploading speaker data, event pages, and other processes. Not only will this help to streamline the virtual event planning and execution process but it will also bring the overall costs down.
3. Social media integration
This is probably one of the most important features a virtual event platform needs to have. You will want your attendees to post and share your event on their pages before, after and during the event. Having this integration for easy sharing during the event is especially important so they can share the event's content in real time and generate more buzz around your event and business. It’s important to make sure this platform accommodates most social media platforms for all attendees.
4. Networking opportunities
One of the main reasons for people to attend a big conference or event is the networking opportunities that come with it. Therefore, the virtual event platform must have as many networking opportunities as possible. These could include breakout rooms, networking sessions, chats and any other opportunities to facilitate a conversation between attendees during the event.
5. Virtual exhibition booths
Virtual booths allow sponsors, exhibitors and other participants to connect and engage with attendees. Attendees can engage with relevant booths and have the opportunity to take away content to research after the event is over. Virtual booths are a great way to share content and increase exposure for a business.
6. Repurposing and sharing
You will want to be able to re share your content. Once your virtual event is over, you should be able to save content to be used in the future or on-demand viewing. This is an extremely important advantage as you can continue to generate buzz and intrigue more of your audience to want to join your next event.
7. Live streaming
If you’re planning to have speakers and looking to broadcast videos and other sessions, a live streaming option is a must. Most virtual events have live streaming options for their audience to view content in real time. This is extremely valuable for engagement and networking during Q/A sessions after guest speakers and other hosts have presented.
8. Customization
When it comes to hosting your event, you want to make sure you can design your event with your own branding. You should also be able to personalize the event with your designs. This means that the virtual event platform should allow for white labeling to make your event your own. A virtual event should have your audience feeling immersed in the experience you provide for them, therefore you should be able to customize it to your design potential.
9. Customer support
Having customer support during a virtual event is a must. Remember, not everyone is technologically savvy and some attendees may need some guidance during the event. Additionally, having customer support will enable you to fix any problems that may arise and ensure a smooth event. This is also a great way to gain additional feedback for improvement.
10. Reporting and analytics
The reporting and analytics feature helps you understand where your audience was the most engaged, what you did right and what you could improve on in the future. It could also be a good idea to see if the feature allows for integrating analytics platforms like Google Analytics.
The bottom line is to find the virtual event platform that works for your business. It’s important to take your time when looking at your options. Virtual events are here to stay, and partnering with the right virtual event software is key to successful experiences.
V-Unite is the platform where virtual and hybrid event experiences connect you with your audience, wherever they are.
