With virtual event becoming the new-normal, marketing them is the new challenge. Every day our inbox is flooded with invitations to attend yet another masterclass, cooking demo, seminar… and what have you. As a result, everyone is familiar with the routine of logging into yet another zoom, google meet, whatsapp group call, Facebook Live or the lesser known, more niche services like
- Cisco Webex
- Microsoft Teams
- GoToMeeting
- BlueJeans
- Meet Now
What makes these virtual events more attractive is that that they are super easy to implement and even easier to attend. With so many virtual events taking place everywhere, Organisations now have an alternative to physical events which is perceived to be less expensive and what’s more! presumably has a smaller carbon footprint.
But the questions that arise here are, is organising these virtual events really a cake walk? Why did we not opt for virtual events when we were shedding moolah on physical events? Why did we ignore webinar invites in the past?
Let’s just say, circumstances beyond our control have brought us to this point and it’s about time we all knew how to manage these altered circumstances.
Now what is left to be figured out is how to market virtual events successful. Frankly, the competition is cut throat in this field. Everyone is busy promoting their “exclusive webinars”. Whenever your target audience visits their social media account, their news feed is filled with ads calling out to register for webinars and other online activities. So, in these circumstances how to make your event stand apart?
Let’s check out the steps you can follow to get the desired numbers for your webinar too:
- The Right Platform– With plenty of virtual event hosting platforms available in the market to choose from, it gets difficult to choose the one which ticks all the boxes of your requirement. Don’t get overwhelmed! A little research will help you out. You can take the free demos and check out the features yourself.
- Identify Audience– The first step is to identify your target audience, the sooner you will identify the right audience to target the better will the outcome of your campaign.
- Creative Designing- Let’s face it creatives like EDMs, Banner ads, and Landing Pages are your mode of communication with your target audience and their content is the deciding factor for the audience! It may take you a few attempts to come up with the perfect pitch, but the end result is always worth all the hard work.
- Registration Page- If you want to adopt a systematic approach to collecting the valuable lead data, registration page is an imperative! A dedicated registration page can be a one stop spot for your potential audiences to not only register themselves hassle-free for the event but to get all the updates regarding the event at a single place.
- Social Media- People are spending more and more time online, making it the perfect platform to advertise your event. Everybody does paid advertising on social media, but if you want to have an edge above the rest make sure to look to specialized features on social media platforms. For Lead Generation of professionals you can use LinkedIn, where you can target audiences better. Likewise, Facebook is an ideal platform to retarget those who have visited your website once.
- Follow ups- Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your job is done after the registration process. That’s just half the battle won! You need to give registrants follow-up calls in order to confirm whether they will turn up for the webinar or not, even after the follow-up call you must send them reminder mailer or SMSs with the joining link to make the joining process easier.
- Post Implementation- Well your work doesn’t end with the webinar. You need to keep in touch with your audience even after the event. Send out those thank you and missed you mailers with the recording links in it. That way you continue to engage not only with the attendees but also with those who gave your virtual event a miss.
That said, it’s not as easy at looks? If virtual event planning is not your key area of work, consider outsourcing to an organisation for whom Virtual Event Marketing is an expertise area. Give your Virtual event the advantage of tried and tested methods, your event will surely sell like hot cakes! we are just a call away.
