7 Game-Changing Tips To Promote Your Next Virtual Event
Promoting a business looks different today than it did just a few years ago. Customer engagement looks different. That’s why brands are always on the lookout for innovative ways to connect with their audiences. And recently, one of the strategies that have been popular for this is the concept of virtual events. A virtual event helps a business engage with and understand its customers better. Besides, it also helps customers understand the brand better. So, it’s a win-win!
Hosting an event seems like an overwhelming task in itself. Is it the same in the case of a virtual event too? How can you promote your virtual event so it adds value to your brand? Well, we’ve got answers to all your questions right here.
Let’s start with addressing the basic question – do you really need to take virtual events seriously?
Does your brand really need a virtual event?
One of the oldest documented versions of a marketing event is the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. This was a stellar example of experiential marketing. Since then brands around the world have been hosting in-person events to invite new business partnerships and to connect with their customers in a more meaningful way.
But the pandemic forced brands to go online with their event marketing efforts. That was when more and more brands experienced the merits of virtual events. And this set the virtual event trend in motion. The fact that nearly 40% of the events planned for 2022 were expected to be virtual events proves the fact that this trend is here to stay.
A virtual event allows businesses big and small to get up close with their customers from around the world. Besides the obvious benefit of networking at a bigger scale, what are the real perks of holding virtual events for your business? Here you go:
High-quality leads
Webinars are among some of the most popular types of virtual events. In a survey conducted by Statista, 89% of marketers reported that webinars are the best sources of qualified leads. And according to them, webinars also have the lowest cost per lead. Anything that adds value to your lead generation efforts is going to be a worthy addition to your marketing plan. So a virtual event is a worthy addition.
Community-building
Forming a community is the surest way for a business to break communication barriers and build long-term relationships with its customers. Strong community-building efforts lead to word-of-mouth marketing and the increased brand awareness that comes with it. Brands that have a strong community are also those that manage to create and maintain customer loyalty.
Hosting a virtual event is a good way to break the ice and start conversations with your customers and thus build stronger communities. You can effortlessly tie your social media pages and marketing email list to your virtual event. This helps in strengthening your community-building strategies for the long term.
Help businesses save money
Businesses get to choose from simple live sessions on Instagram or Facebook to large-scale virtual events conducted on event-hosting platforms. In most cases, businesses end up saving a lot of money in the process in comparison with hosting an offline event. B2B marketers report cost savings of up to 97% with virtual events. So, as you strengthen customer engagement you also get to save some of your marketing budget.
These are just a handful of the many benefits a business can reap from hosting virtual events regularly. To tap into one or more of these advantages, you should have a strong virtual event promotion strategy in place. From where you post to what you post, everything matters. So, are you ready to hear about the most effective tips to promote your virtual event?
Virtual event – 7 tips to get the word out
1. Choose the right type of virtual event
Virtual events do not always mean going live on YouTube or Facebook. While these social media live sessions work, they are just the tip of the iceberg. To really benefit from a virtual event you should be sure that you are choosing the right kind based on your objectives. Here is a brief, not exhaustive, list of virtual events you can host for your business.
- Webinars – these are web seminars where you bring in industry experts to discuss specific topics. Through webinars, audiences get to learn something new and brands get to show their expertise in a particular field.
- Virtual exhibitions – as the name conveys, these are online exhibitions that let people browse through a gallery of products or services offered by the brand, virtually. These are handy while introducing a new product line.
- Virtual conferences – they take webinars to the next level. There are multiple sessions planned as a part of a virtual conference. There are often many speakers and participants.
In addition to these, hybrid events are also becoming quite popular. They combine the merits of in-person events and virtual events. It is particularly useful for global brands looking to involve their customers from all over the world.
As you can see, the format, the value created and the end results are all different for different types of virtual events. So, based on your requirements and budget, choose the right virtual event format for your brand. And once you do, the first step is to create an event landing page.
2. Create an informative and interactive event landing page
An event landing page is a must-have, especially for a virtual event. It educates your audience about the event and will also be the most effective pitstop in your sales funnel.
To ensure that your event landing page meets its goals, below are some essential elements to add to it:
- Details like the time, procedure to join, registration fee details (if any)
- Information about who the event is for, and what kind of value it creates. This section convinces customers that the said event is worth their time.
- Sign-up form – this will be a section that collects essential customer contact information like email id and phone number. It is one of the most crucial components as it helps in accurate retargeting later on if the customer chooses to leave without registering. And it also helps you add to your lead database.
- Finally, there should be a clear CTA. For a traditional event, the CTA can lead customers to pick up their phones and register for the event. But for a virtual event, it’s better to keep the registration procedure online. The fewer the number of clicks for registering for the event, the more likely your customers are to register.
And since this will be a virtual event, social buttons add so much more value to the event landing page. If customers are intrigued by your event, they will share it with their friends on social media.
Kimp Tip: As you can see in the above example, visuals like images and videos make your event landing page more engaging. While doing all these keep the design mobile-friendly.
To create mobile-optimized visually-engaging landing pages for your next virtual event, sign up for a Kimp Graphics subscription.
3. Leverage email marketing
About 76% of marketers find email to be one of the most effective tools to increase registrations for events.
- You can use marketing emails to notify existing customers about the upcoming virtual event.
- For customers who register their interest in your event on your virtual event page, you can schedule targeted campaigns to keep them informed of important dates pertaining to the event.
- You can also use your emails to talk to your customers about the presenters/speakers at your event. You can have one email summarizing all of them or a single dedicated email for each host. These emails help customers understand their hosts better. And therefore they help maintain their interest in your event.
There are plenty of such ways to use email marketing to help your virtual event gain momentum.
Kimp Tip: Informative emails like those talking about your events have a lot of text content. To maintain the structure and establish a clear hierarchy use the right colors and legible fonts to break down the information. The below email does that without too many distracting elements.
4. Social media won’t let you down
Social media helps increase the visibility of your event and also brings in more registrations. Data shows that about 60% of virtual event organizers rely on social media to increase participation.
Updating existing customers through regular posts on your brand page and reaching out to new leads through social media ads can help your virtual event gain traction.
While posting about your virtual event on social media, have a strong content plan in place. Promotions here can happen on an ongoing basis all the way until the event date.
- Start with a teaser that builds anticipation over your upcoming virtual event.
- Create a brief sneak peek into the what, when, and where.
- This can be followed by a series of posts that talk about the hosts and the takeaways from the event.
Social media also sets the stage for conversations surrounding your virtual event. Check the comments section to see if customers have queries about the event. These queries give you plenty of new content ideas to create around your virtual event.
Remember to pin important event-related posts until the event date so that visiting customers will stay informed about the event.
Kimp Tip: If it is going to be a recurring virtual event you can create a separate brand style guide for the event campaigns. Of course, you cannot deviate too much from your original brand identity. But finalize everything from a logo (preferably a derivative of your existing brand logo) to color schemes for your event promotion. You can then consistently promote your event in an omnichannel way, without losing continuity.
Finding it tough to handle the additional design workload that comes with event marketing? The Kimp team is here to help.
5. A banner for your website visitors
Pinned posts on social media have two roles to play: they announce the event to new customers and those who already know about the event will know exactly where to go for further information. Website banners play a similar role. So, come up with event-specific website banners.
These do not have to be elaborate ones. A simple eye-grabbing banner with a convincing copy is all it takes to attract the attention of your website visitors. Your landing page is there to give them all the details.
Within your website banner, remember to incorporate your event colors and event logo if you have one. Adding a countdown to your event and switching the banner occasionally keep things interesting.
6. Tap into the potential of influencer marketing
Partnering with influencers has its own perks. And in the case of event marketing, these advantages become even more evident. Influencers in your niche as well as those in umbrella niches have audience bases that overlap with that of your brand. So, collaborating with them means that you reach out to new leads and that too, relevant ones. These are the kind of leads that are more likely to convert.
You can collaborate with your influencers to help promote your event-related posts on their social media. Or you can also host a quick social media live session or use Reels and Stories to promote video announcements of your virtual event.
All of these efforts help increase your reach and therefore increase participation in your virtual event. This strategy is particularly useful for small brands trying to win the trust of customers through virtual events. People are more likely to trust recommendations from their favorite influencers than trusting a random social media ad they come across.
7. Post-event marketing counts
Most brands get it right until this stage but there is one thing they overlook. And that is – post-event marketing. Yes, how you talk to your customers after the event matters. A lot!
Wooing them before the event and then suddenly not talking about the event afterward will not really help them feel the impact of your event.
You can have a simple “Thank You” banner on your website, like the one below.
- You can also send out an email to all the participants thanking them for taking part.
- And to those who did not attend, you can send a few snapshots from the event so that they’ll know what they missed and be sure to participate the next time.
- Recap posts on social media have this effect too.
All of these marketing efforts made after the event help nurture the new leads gained through the virtual event. And they also help get concrete conversions benefitting that benefit your brand in the long run.
Now that you know about the types of promotional materials that help you with virtual event marketing, you can always look for inspiration from big brands that have done it. Check out our other blog post that talks about the marketing magic behind the success of Expo 2020 Dubai.
One Kimp subscription is all it takes to promote your virtual event like a pro
As you can see from the above promotion tips, you will see a surge in the design requirements for your brand as the event gets closer. So, to make your virtual event a real hit, you need to have a solid design plan in place, like a design subscription where you get unlimited designs and can make unlimited revisions. With a design subscription in place, you can experiment with all kinds of marketing channels and marketing designs to boost awareness about your virtual event.
What are you waiting for? Kimp’s free trial is just a click away.