Virtual events have been around for a number of years, but only relatively recently have companies really started to realise their true potential. By Lilah Walker, international director of events, Marketing Options International
As well as offering tangible marketing benefits such as tracking, measurement and on-demand availability, they have particular appeal in a climate where target audiences simply don’t have the time, resource or budget to attend physical exhibitions, seminars and conferences.
As a result, we have seen virtual events used much more widely. Despite this however, there is still a degree of hesitancy from B2B marketers, not only with regard to their true value but also because they lack confidence that they can organise and deliver them successfully.
Marketing Options International has put together this brief guide to help you gain the maximum benefit from your virtual event.
1. Plan well ahead
To ensure an effective outcome, a project plan is just as important for your virtual event as it is for a physical one. Ensure you identify key milestones and track progress against your plan. We recommend a 12 week planning period to ensure that you can create engaging content, secure sponsors and exhibitors as well as being able to promote your virtual event.
2. Allow sufficient budget
There’s a commonly held assumption that staging an online event is cheaper than producing a physical event. Sure, your virtual event can attract up to five times more attendees than a physical event and the cost per lead is therefore lower. However, this is not an excuse to cut corners on budget. You want to give attendees the very best online experience and reflect your brand in the best possible light. Unlike a physical event, you can’t control the environment, but you can assure ease of access, navigation, downloading and interaction. Investment in content generation and programming will ensure the flow of your event is logical and looped for the optimum attendee experience. And remember; always build in 10 per cent contingency for those unexpected extras.
3. Promote your event
Aim to begin marketing your virtual event eight weeks prior to launch. Open registration early but don’t be surprised if this is slow initially. You’ll often witness a spike in registrations immediately after each communication – with intensity increasing the closer you get to the event. Remember that attendees won’t need to factor in travel, so you can expect to receive registrations right up until the launch. With all of these elements in mind, you should formulate a communications strategy and timeline to drip feed engaging information to your audience as you progress towards your event – releasing ‘new’ speakers, sponsors, content and forums. Also, don’t think that it’s too late to promote your event on the eve of the launch: on top of your structured communications plan you would usually implement for a physical event, consider additional promotion to your database 12 hours, two hours and even one hour before the event, with an additional communication to announce the actual launch. It’s during this time that you should gain many more attendees.
4. Content is everything
It’s far more difficult to retain attendees’ interest during a virtual event than it is during a physical event. Those at a physical event have already committed their time by travelling to and attending it, whereas with a virtual event the commitment may be significantly lower as they are at their own desk – with the associated distractions. Therefore, your content must be 100% engaging and relevant to ensure that attendees don’t simply drop out after a few moments. Kick your event off with a bang – an industry keynote or analyst is always a great way to start – setting the scene, demonstrating forward thinking and thought leadership. This will also attract more interest as well as steering the rest of the content.
5. You’re on show, so look good!
The most successful virtual events are those that both look and function really well. A virtual event that looks great is easier for your delegates to navigate. Consider how a good physical event would look, then recreate it in the virtual world with floor plans, virtual rooms and exhibition floors. A mere list of downloadable content is very dry, and your business message essential, but we are all guided by our senses. Recreating the sights and sounds of a physical event will encourage considerably more exploration and engagement. This will also add value for your sponsors by allowing them to customise their space and promote specific messages, just as they would in the physical world.
6. What do they want to hear?
As much as you will want to deliver your business message, it isn’t this alone that will drive attendance or retain interest. Carry out research beforehand to determine these key facts: what your audience want to hear, their objectives for attending (finding service providers, networking with peers, discovering how others overcame their pain points). And don’t forget to establish pertinent industry trends. By creating a community and asking the audience what they would like to hear – you will achieve significantly more engagement than if you push a message based upon an unfounded assumption.
7. Be interactive and engage your audience
To ensure a successful virtual conference, webinar or exhibition, engage your audience at every opportunity. Interactive polling is a great way to obtain feedback and generate insight from your database, which you can use to your marketing advantage later (and that of your sponsors). Equally, use interactive tools to converse with your audience and enable them to engage with your speakers and exhibitors. If you do promote interactive discussions, ensure your exhibitors know to respond in real time. Create a schedule of speaker responders to ensure fast, efficient responses.
8. It’s not over when it’s over
Once your ‘live’ virtual event has been held and your delegates have logged off, don’t stop! Consider making it available ‘on demand’ by encouraging people to log on again later to review content, download presentations and email sponsors. This is a key benefit of virtual events, because you can extend the value not only for your business in terms of awareness and response, but also for attendees by enabling them to log on at their convenience – if they were either unable to attend the live event or want to access content again. This also adds value for your sponsors as they can continue to obtain leads over a significantly longer timeframe than any physical event would offer. If you do choose to make your event available ‘on demand’, ensure that you have the mechanisms in place to capture and analyse attendee data and any new leads, as well as ensuring that your relevant contact details are always available.
9. Go anywhere and everywhere
Unlike a physical event, attendees don’t need to travel to your event and therefore, if it’s relevant, your reach can be far wider. Consider promoting your event to a national, European, EMEA or even global audience. For the latter, do bear in mind time differences and consider the best time of day to launch your live event. Obviously, you won’t be able to cover all time zones, but position the launch to maximise office hours in your key regions. For the ‘on demand’ phase this is irrelevant as delegates can log on at any time. If you do aim to reach an EMEA or global audience, consider the use of multilingual collateral and translators for your speakers. Review, analyse, and use the insight.
10. A great benefit of virtual events
The ability to track all activity and every interaction before, during and after the event is a great benefit to staging virtual events. You can gain detailed insight into the value and ROI of hosting a virtual event, including providing sponsors with a detailed breakdown of how many visitors came to their stand, how long they stayed and their firmographics. Equally, you can monitor which sessions and items of collateral attracted the most views/downloads, as well as gaining actionable insight from all interactions between sponsors and peers. This intelligence can be used to shape your future virtual as well as physical events, tailoring your objectives, messages, format and degree of interaction.
There is little industry-wide research into how many virtual events are staged or their outcome. However case-by-case studies have been conducted, highlighting their success and the enhancement that they have started to, and will continue to, make to the event industry. In our experience of running virtual events, the level of audience reach is massively enhanced, generally more closely targeted and certainly more accurately measured.
On the whole, it is those marketers who can include virtual events into their integrated marketing strategy – whether standalone or alongside or as a hybrid with physical events – who will achieve the highest ROI from their virtual endeavours.
Marketing Options International has over 25 years’ experience of planning arresting, engaging and memorable events for our clients. For more information about how we can help you, please call Lilah Walker, International Director of Events on +44 (0) 1932 233000 or email her at [email protected]
