It is hard enough to be hosting and planning a virtual event. Having a sold-out virtual event, with all your attendees participating, is also a challenging task.
Although there are roads, you could take to ensure you have complete attendance. There are umpteen platforms and channels available to event organizers such as ourselves to promote and engage our audiences. In this article, we shall be looking at a comprehensive list of actionable tasks that will guarantee attendance at your virtual event.
- Choose your topic wisely
The first stage of planning should involve intensive research into the type of content consumed. Should it a conversation or a training session?
After this exercise, you would have zeroed in on your target audience and a topic that your research points will be well received. With the content and target audience, you would know the format of virtual events most preferred. This way, you can host a panel discussion, a review or a thought leader training session, and get maximum attendance.
2. Time Zone compatibility
Once you have the topic of your virtual event, you must pick a date and time. This step is crucial in garnering attendance, as it must at a time where your target audience from across the globe will not have trouble attending.
3. Create relevant content for audiences
Never underestimate the power of a good content marketing strategy. Now that we have a virtual event, we must focus all energy on attendance. People register, but participation is not guaranteed.
Create content to educate your audience about the chosen topic. Share information, but place cliff hangers. The content you create, be it blogs, posts, articles, podcasts or YouTube videos must not give away everything. Ensure your creators circle back to the virtual event and encourage attendance through them.
4. Engage through content
Now that we have a content library. It is up to marketers to plan and place them across platforms and channels to ensure that all verticals of your target audience can access it.
Create an engagement calendar where you ensure engagement with your audience periodically. Be it daily, once, or twice a week, your audience needs to be aware so that they can comment, share, or like. Creating a space for your audience to interact will create engagement opportunities.
5. Create audience engagement
Engagement is one thing, but acknowledging the participation empowers the audience. Once the audience registers to your event, shares your event, gets others to register, you can present them with badges or titles.
This acknowledgment encourages people to take part in activities that promise an incentive. This way, you can turn your audience into event marketers.
6. Speaker turn Brand Ambassadors
While recruiting or choosing speakers for your event, ensure that they are subject matter experts. This way, the reach of the virtual event extends to all those following your speakers. Make your speakers the brand ambassadors for the virtual event. Encourage them to participate and engage through their platforms to guarantee more participation. The speakers could share your activity and have a dedicated content bucket assigned to be used on their platform, leading their audience to register for the virtual event.
7. Enlist your Event
The internet is brimming with online events, making it cumbersome for the audience to find the right virtual event to attend or engage. To avoid the clutter and present actual value-added events to the audience, list your events in platforms with a good following. List yourself on the Speaker Engage event directory, and you will stand out as a verified virtual event.
8. Early bird registration perks.
Give away freebies or value-ads to those who register and attend early.
Through your social media marketing or e-mail marketing campaigns, push out giveaways for all those who register for your event in the first week. Promise them collaterals or incentives once they have logged into the virtual early as well. This way, you encourage people to sign up soon and have maximum attendance right at the beginning of your virtual event.
These are just a few steps you can follow to ensure maximum participation. Here is an e-book that has all actionable steps you can take to ensure your event follows all the best practices out there.
One way to ensure your team has an easy time organizing, planning, and communicating through the events, sign up to Speaker Engage and save your time. Speaker Engage is now available for a free trial for 30 days!
Here is an e-book that has all actionable steps you can take to ensure your event follows all the best practices out there.
[contact-form-7 404 "Not Found"]
