Since the outbreak of the pandemic, it’s undeniable that more and more people around the world have turned to the Internet for a huge range of things. From shopping online to communicating with loved ones, from working and studying to attending meetings, many parts of people’s lives suddenly shifted to a virtual setting.
And while many people have, indeed, returned to their pre-pandemic lifestyles—including going back to physical offices and workplaces—something remains true: virtual events continue to be a success.
Even the PR industry, known for its reliance on in-person collaboration and communication, is not immune to the booming trend of virtual events. But how can you ensure that online gatherings are always a triumph?
Keep reading as we unveil five tried-and-tested virtual event marketing strategies that drive attendance, engagement, and success.
The Benefits of Virtual Events
Before we explore how to make your virtual event a sold-out affair through targeted marketing strategies, it’s important to answer the following question: Why should you hold a virtual event in the first place?
Let’s look at three benefits of this event modality.
Increased accessibility
Consider an old-fashioned, fully in-person event from the perspective of an attendance with a disability. Likely, they will be asked to travel to a place that might not be within easy reach of their home and that, perhaps, might not be well-equipped to cater to people with diverse mobility, cognitive or neurological needs.
A virtual event, on the other hand? It can be entirely accessible—all your guests need is a device connected to the Internet. And, with added tools such as closed captions, sign language interpreters, three way calling, and more, virtual events can truly be inclusive and user-friendly.
More Cost-Effective
Another reason why virtual events are so popular is because they are much cheaper to organize compared to traditional, in-person ones. When you add up things such as venue hire, catering, tools and equipment, furniture, and on-site staff, you’ll soon realize that the final cost can be exorbitant, whether you plan to organize a relatively small meeting about personal branding or a much larger one that discusses less niche topics.
Not to mention the fact that, in the frustrating but sometimes inevitable case that your event needs to be canceled, you stand to lose all the money that you have already put down. Not ideal, right?
In the case of an online event, on the other hand, the financial expenditure can be kept to a minimum without the event itself suffering from it. Just make sure that you have all your event technology and digital tools up and running, and you can do everything digitally instead of manually—from initial planning to marketing, from event material to post-event surveys and feedback forms.
More Sustainable
Lastly, and as a follow-up to our previous point, it’s worth mentioning that choosing to go virtual as opposed to in-person also means choosing a more environmentally friendly approach to events.
These are just some of the ways in which you can reduce your environmental impact by running a virtual event:
- Digital and paperless: A virtual event lets you do away with cumbersome, costly, and sometimes frankly useless paper brochures, flyers, handouts, and similar.
- No need to travel: With attendees joining the meeting without the necessity to get on the road, the total carbon footprint of the event will be minimal.
- Reduced food and water waste: Because a virtual event doesn’t need any type of catering (not even a coffee break!), you’ll be able to cut down on the inevitable waste that serving food and drinks to dozens, if not hundreds, of people generates.
Top Marketing Strategies to Boost Virtual Event Attendance
Now that you know what benefits you stand to gain from virtual events, let’s explore five excellent virtual event marketing strategies to make sure your next gathering is as successful as you’re hoping and that you provide the top-quality customer experience that your guests expect.
1) Adopt a Before-During-After Approach
Did you know that, to properly plan physical events, you normally need 6 to 12 months? There’s a huge amount of work to do, and it all starts with zooming in on your targeted leads and nurturing them so they find the prospect of participating in your future events enticing.
Things, however, are easier if you go down the virtual route. You’ll still want to identify your target audience, but the overall turnaround time is much quicker—you’re looking at one to three months. Why? Well, you don’t have to find and book a venue, and there’s no need to hire suppliers and other staff to help on the day(s) of the event.
However, even in the case of online events, you must ensure that you follow a before-during-after approach.
Here’s how:
- Before the event: Make sure you have identified your specific audience, created your registration page, and taken to social media to promote your event.
- During the event: Ensure that you post about the event on social media in real-time to create a sense of urgency and engagement both with your guests and wider audience. In parallel, you can also share downloadable content, launch fun and interactive activities, and even use live chat or a chatbot to help answer people’s questions and/or facilitate Q&A sessions.
- After the event: This is where your email marketing efforts (see the next point) need to shine. After your event, don’t simply assume that everything went great. Update your website and social pages, share UGC content and highlights (preferably in video format), and send out post-event questionnaires, surveys, and feedback forms. Take stock of what your guests have to say about your event, and use it to improve your next one.
2) Leverage Email Marketing
Effective communication is vital for virtual events, and email marketing can be a great tool to carry out many communication-related tasks, including:
- Promoting your event
A month or so before your event, start promoting it with a teaser email. The first message should offer just a sneak peek into what the guests can expect to pique their curiosity and nurture their interest in finding out more.
- Sending resources and materials
Follow up with a more detailed email that includes some helpful documents for your attendees to peruse ahead of the event to get familiar with the topic—whether it be the future of artificial intelligence or something more technical, such as choosing the best VoIP integration with Hubspot.
- Enabling guest registrations
Once your potential attendees have been provided with all this info, it’s time to show them how to register for the event. To this effect, you should send another email with a link that takes them straight to the event registration page.
- Sending reminders
About two weeks before the event, send your first email reminder so that even the busiest attendee doesn’t miss the date. Follow this with another two or three reminders the closer you get to the big day.
- Sending thank-you notes
The event is over, so now it’s time to send thank-you emails to all your attendees. You can also send “sorry, we missed you” emails to those who didn’t show up.
- Collecting feedback
Separately, about three days after your event, send an email with a survey or questionnaire to capture your attendees’ feedback. Remember to keep it short and sweet!
- Teasing an upcoming event
Have you got a new event in the pipeline? Then, email is, once again, the best way of promoting it.
3) Create an Event Landing Page
A landing page is another crucial component of your virtual event marketing strategy. Consider it a sort of virtual event platform where your target audience hangs out before—and, potentially, even during—the event itself.
A spotless landing page that keeps visitors coming back usually features:
- Captivating (not clunky or slow-to-load) visuals that include a combination of images and videos.
- A title that hooks the visitor right off the bat.
- A subtitle or short explanation of the benefits the attendee is set to gain from the event.
- A brief outline of the event: when it’s going to take place (time and date) and what the event agenda is.
- A more detailed blurb that describes the event topic and teases more about it.
- Any information on the event’s sponsors (if there are any).
- Social proof, in the form of customer reviews—even better if they come from guests at your previous events. If you have never organized a virtual event before, then you can still incorporate more generic customer reviews about your brand and its products/services.
- Link to the event’s registration page, which should be as simple and seamless as possible.
- Shareable social media icons so that interested parties can share the event with others.
- A concluding, unmissable, and exciting call-to-action to bring it all home and seal the deal.
4) Make It Social
As we mentioned before, social media can be a huge help when it comes to boosting attendance and engagement for your virtual event, making it a truly immersive experience. Some of the best platforms in this sense include Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.
The specific channel where you’ll be promoting your event will largely depend on the nature of the event itself, combined with the nature of your business and the industry in which it operates. For example, if you’re running an event for B2B professionals centered around the topic of virtual contact center solutions, then LinkedIn is almost surely the best choice.
If, on the other hand, your event is aimed at your customers and wants to offer them a behind-the-scenes view of how your company manufactures its products, then Facebook or Instagram are probably your best bets.
5) Share an Enticing Teaser
It’s nearly time for your event—exciting, right? Now is your chance to generate some buzz. One of the best ways to achieve this is via a captivating video teaser—something along the lines of a movie trailer.
However, just like with all the best movie trailers, you don’t want to give away any spoilers, so it’s important to keep it short and simple. Your aim, even before boosting event attendance, should be to entice your target audience to find out more about your company by checking out your website and social media pages. This will drive more traffic and awareness to your brand, which is a great way to generate that buzz.
For example, if you have three guest speakers, tease one of them and hint at the fact that there will be more. Then, as the event approaches and you have signed up a good amount of attendees, you can slowly start revealing a bit more—though never too much!
Key Takeaways
In a world where remote and hybrid work is undoubtedly the new normal, running a virtual event is second nature for many businesses. If yours is one of them, then our guide to the best virtual event marketing strategies will have certainly helped.
From mastering email marketing to nailing your event landing page, there are many things you can do to boost your target audience’s attendance at your virtual events. What are you waiting for? Start now!
