How to promote a virtual event, according to marketers

In 2020, as brands adapt to remote working, they are also learning to change their personal events to online programming only .

When surfing the web on any given day, there's a good chance you will see at least one post, one e -mail, video, or social media feed that promotes or covers an online event.

And, while some brands are temporarily changing their event tactics, this new adjustment has allowed companies identify some of the great advantages of online events For example, unlike physical events, virtual events , such asWhether live broadcasts or webinars , activate your to gain notoriety with an international audience, period.

At this point, it looks like events online aren't going away anytime soon. But, with the popularity and need for online events in 2020, the landscape has become quite competitive. For any given event, there are a handful of competing webinars, live broadcasts, or Q&A that cover similar topics.

If you are one of the many brands that turn your in-person events into virtual events, how do you promote them to maintain attendance? And, in a sea of ​​virtual events now being promoted at the same time, how do you stand out?

ters Tell All: How to promote your virtual event

To answer these questions, I spoke with a handful of specialistsAre marketers who have experience in these tactics. Here are their five tips.

1. Be clear about what the audience will see.

Setting expectations and what your in-person event will involve is always an important promotional tactic, but it becomes especially important when you are promoting a virtual event.

"Set expectations! Not all virtual events are the same and your audience will likely want more details on what they'll get," says Juliana Nicholson, Group Program Manager at users.

"Will the audience be able to ask questions live? Is this event tactical or higher level?" asks Nicholson. "Set the stage to make sure the good people sign up for your event and then feel satisfied with the experience they have when they show up. "

In addition to explaining what will happen therehen your event, Clara Landecy, Associate Marketing Director in our Dublin office, notes that you should also send emails or messages to remind registrants why they signed up.

"Have a strong goal or 'why' for the event," says Landecy. "Leverage the 'why ' in reminder emails about the event to remind people why they signed up in the first place. "

Reminding registrants why the event might be of use to them will refresh their memory about it and increase the likelihood of them showing up.

2. Take advantage co-branding opportunities.

Co-branding, also known as co-marketing, is another common and effective marketing tactic that also works well for virtual events The strategy involves a partnership with another brand or a sponsor to create the event and jointly inform your public when and where he can attend.

"I am a strong believer in co-branded webinars," says Emily Raleigh, senior director of brand marketing and strategic partnerships. "We have had major success in promoting live and virtual events with a three-pronged partnership approach: one brand partner, one community partner and for startups. "

With this three-pronged approach, Ral eigh says: "the brand partner adds credibility and can help us find great speakers for the event. The community partner helps attract attendees, because they have strong ties to the specific ecosystem that we are targeting and our end user trusts them, so if they say an event is worth their time, they are very likely to disappear. "

Another marketer who echoed this sentiment was Henni Roini, reEMEA marketing sponsor.

"If you have speakers from other organizations, be sure to ask the thought leader or brand to promote the event - or its session - on their channels, "said Roini.

In addition to asking brands affiliated with your event to market on their channels, you can also encourage event marketing through a lead sharing agreement. A lead sharing is all about allowing a brand that you co-market with to get the same list of leads that you got with a co-brand, event or campaign.

"A lead sharing will motivate your event partner to generate inions. It will not only increase inions, but you will likely have a lot more net new contacts left," says Roini.

3. Allow speakers and staff to promote your event.

In addition to working onith other brands to promote your brand don 't forget about all the people who can help you too. These people can include loudspeakers, those in your network, and employees in your company. The more people post about an event, the more word of mouth marketing will be.

While you can just ask your employees, colleagues, and speakers to share a link to the event's inion page, it helps to take it a step further and send them items like as images, videos, tracking URLs and event coverage to encourage a variety of different promotions and allow them to share it quickly.

"Whatever speakers are, internal or external, offer them items that they can use to promote their session. This will make them much more likely to continue promoting, " says Roini .

In addition to providing buttocks andto your team and speakers, you can also create incentives, such as contests, that reward individuals for strong promotion of the event.

"If you are able to create a buzz around the event or get employees to promote the event is a win-win for everyone, " shares Roini. "If you really want to invest in employee advocacy, there is a ton of great software out there to automate the process. "

4. Segment event invitations for different audiences.

While a marketing manager may want to attend your event for a reason, a new recruit in a business may attend the event for another reason. If your event covers a number of general topics, consider segmenting your marketing tactics by different groups and demographics .

email marketing is oneareas in which audience segmentation could be simple and effective.

"If you are planning to promote via email, ask yourself: 'Is the value proposition the same for the whole list? ' if not, you can segment and customize emails to better highlight the value this event attracts different groups of people, ”advises Roini.

5. Track your promotional tactics.

Whenever you need to of time or resources to promote an event, you'll want to track the results of your marketing tactics.

Why? If one time-consuming promotional tactic falls flat, while another simple strategy generates inions, you can adopt the most effective strategy for promoting upcoming events.

To find out which tactics work best, Roini suggests using a number of tracking URLs to isolate the provenance of the events. inions or event traffic.

"When asking employees, sales people, event partners or anyone else to promote the event, ask them to use UTM links or make sure sure that you are able to follow the inions. This will help you determine where you should put your efforts next time, "says Roini.

Creating a marketable virtual event

Promoting an event online is similar to marketing a physical event. However, there are a number of key differences. Although you can promote an event online to a larger audience. larger than a physical event, you will need to remember that the online event landscape is competitive.

Even if your event is useful and informative, there may still be a dozen or so. 'similar events offering similar content.

In addition, if the objective of thehe promotion of a physical event is to get the public to buy a ticket, the goals of most online events are to get people to sign up for the event, reminding them to log in and asking them to follow up on calls to action - like buying a product - after the event.

Since many online events are affordable or free, asking someone to register and watch the event without having to buy a ticket can take more than time and effort.

Ultimately, the goal of promoting an event online is to highlight and remind the audience who, what, how, and why behind it. Noting these factors in your marketing will not only show the audience how and why they will value them, but it will also separate your event from those that might be similar.

Even in the planning phase of the eventnt , thinking about how you are going to promote it could help you create a marketable virtual experience that is worth visiting.

For example, if you choose well-known opinion leaders to organize an event, it will increase your promotional results and the success of your event. Or, if you take a co-branded event, the content will be marketed to two audiences - rather than just your own.

For more tips on coordinating and planning a virtual event that people will actually want to participate in, check out this helpful blog post .

Editor Note: This article was originally published in June 2020 and has not been updated for completeness.