Whether it's hosting a virtual event, webinar or panel
discussion, it's important to have a marketing strategy adapted to
a fully digital offering that will support you in building rich
data. To demonstrate success, virtual events will need to deliver
high quality traffic, engaged attendees, targeted pre-registrations
and sponsorship revenue.
Here are the top 10 tips we recommend, based on working
exclusively with event organisers and helping them pivot to
virtual.
1. Don't sweat if you have less time - You will
need a much shorter time to market your event. For live events, we
would recommend at least a 12 week campaign to build attendees but
for virtual, this is much shorter, about 4 weeks.
2. If your budget has been cut, take this into
account - Because the marketing campaign is shorter (and
you are going to be using fewer marketing channels) you will
typically need less budget. Take this into account when planning.
That said, keep an element of flexibility in your budget as, with a
virtual event, there is capacity to scale up, if going well.
3. You'll be focused exclusively on digital -
Your marketing campaign is going to be 100% digital. You will not
be spending on outdoor, print, TV, radio or direct mail, so you can
save cost here to put into content, paid or organic strategies.
4. Go global - Always wanted to attract more
international visitors? Now is your chance; there is no limit on
geo-location, so start targeting more countries and time zones.
5. Maximise your existing digital channels -
Your channel mix is going to be roughly the same from a digital
perspective for live events as for virtual. Focus on search,
social, display and video, using a combination of organic and
paid.
6. Focus on creating high quality content -
Give your attendees reasons to attend. There's a lot of
content out there just now but remember "cream rises to the top".
This is what will drive your attendees and command attention in a
crowded space. Good quality content will be one of the pillars of
success for your event, so showcase speakers, themes, topics,
sponsors and the USPs that you can offer your audience.
7. You can scale quickly - Paid virtual event
campaigns on ad platforms are, as a benchmark, doubling
pre-registration numbers, reducing cost-per-registration by half
and increasing attendees by 20% (average of 70% attendance). What
this means for marketers is that they are getting more bang for
their buck and can easily scale up their campaign if working
well.
8. Use targeted messaging and innovation - As
with any marketing campaign, build this with your audience at the
core and deliver content, ads and messages using the channels they
will engage with. Cover the full funnel and use the innovations
available to you, such as responsive ads or smart bidding - this
utilises machine learning and will give you an extra bit of time in
your day. Let the machines do the heavy lifting and find you fresh,
quality new data.
9. Attendance is everything - Investing in
attendance campaigns is key. Remember to remarket and send
reminders to your audience through email and advertising to get
them to attend; ensure you include a calendar invite and send a
reminder an hour before the event starts. The good news...results
are boosted 95% due to low cost-per-clicks (CPCs)!
10. Bonus revenue generation - your
existing website traffic and lookalike audiences can be utilised to
drive revenue from exhibitors and sponsors all year round. Utilise
digital sponsorship to generate revenue from all the quality
traffic you have built, allowing you to resell your audience
through remarketing and lookalike audiences to your exhibitors and
sponsors. This delivers value for exhibitors and sponsors, by
giving them the opportunity to engage with your audience and
generate the leads they would normally have at your live event.
This is useful if your exhibitors have already paid but now can't
travel. They are still going to drive a ton of leads, all through
digital.
Tag
Digital is based in The Whisky Bond, one of
Glasgow's leading commercial hubs for creative businesses.
Keep up to date with all the business and community news
from Glasgow's IFSD by subscribing to our monthly
e-newsletter or connecting on LinkedIn
and twitter.#IFSD