Virtual events have been around for quite some time. Nowadays, first they were hyped – now they are almost common practice.
Obviously, this is due to the recent developments in the world. But without being forced into it, are you actually aware of all the additional benefits that you can gain from going virtual?
Don’t miss out and spice up your event strategy by blending in virtual events.
What are virtual events?
Virtual events are events that take place in the digital world via web-based platforms to connect people – event organizers, speakers, sponsors, and attendees – from all over the world for remote interaction and engagement. They can take any format ranging from short webinars to full-day or multi-day virtual conferences, seminars, etc. broadcasted live or recorded directly to the attendees’ screens.
Sometimes we are left with no other choice than running our events online.
But beyond the external circumstances of 2020 – why should you consider running virtual events?
Of course, you want to meet and connect with people in person and virtuality clearly has its limits here. And yes it is true, a virtual event may not be able to fully replicate the personal touch and real-time, interactive essence of an in-person event experience.
But done the right way, virtual events have the potential to elevate the value of your business. So, depending on your event goals, going virtual may even be the better fit for you.
Here are 5 benefits which you can gain from a virtual event!
1. Amplify your reach and visibility
Imagine this: all barriers to time and space are gone – going virtual equals going global.
Running an event in the digital space removes any geographical barrier and you can reach a wider audience, expanding your professional network far beyond the location of your business.
Reaching more people who match the characteristics of your target audience also increases your potential to expand your overall brand visibility and to grow your customer base.
Prospects can connect, engage, and explore business opportunities with you – no matter where they are tuning in from! And depending on your virtual format, they can do so anytime!
If your objectives include lead generation, brand awareness, and exploring new markets, then consider running your next event online.
2. Make networking easier than ever before
Putting a screen in between people instead of having them meet physically can lead to much smoother and more effective networking experiences!
This may sound contradicting in the first place. But briefly reflect on this:
Have you ever faced a crowd of hundreds of unfamiliar faces? Not knowing where to start and how to kick-off meaningful conversation? How did this make you feel?
It’s a scenario quite common for in-person events and you’re certainly not alone with your emotions if this makes you feel overwhelmed, intimidated or even a bit awkward.
At a traditional in-person event, it is almost impossible to identify like-minded people with interests that are specifically relevant to you, and to engage in a conversation with them in a fast and effortless way.
But don’t worry – virtual events come to your rescue!
They put an end to this hassle and offer the opportunity of fast, easy, and meaningful networking – among your attendees, but also between you and your attendees.
As the event organizer, make sure to use a platform that allows for sending out forms to your audience and for building attendee profiles. This way, you can get to know your attendees online before your event and identify the most promising prospects. Segment and tag them for easy recognition during your event. Maybe you want to invite them to a 1:1 virtual consultation room during a break of the main event program?
Enabling a real-time updated guestlist on your event website and providing an online messaging feature helps attendees to network in a fast and easy way – before, during, and after the actual event.
So, if making new contacts, networking, more digital 1:1 interactions and community building is one of your main event objectives, why not run a virtual event instead of in-person?
3. Get to know your audience better than ever before
Thanks to new technologies and the digital character of virtual events, it is much easier to capture additional data points about your attendees and their behaviors, which will ultimately reveal a lot about the overall success of your event.
Because everything is happening online, (pretty much) everything can be tracked and curated by the help of analytics platforms.
At in-person events it is definitely more of a challenge to obtain insightful data because not all of your attendees will make use of the digital tools that you provide, like for example mobile event apps. And you can obviously not force them into doing so. At virtual events, using the provided digital tools will naturally be a given because it is the only way for people to engage.
Additional data points that can be captured at virtual events are for example:
- real-time event performance (data on unique visitors, viewer rate, questions)
- speaker and session engagement (response rate during Q&As and live pollings)
- content usage (downloads, shares, social media engagement)
- attendee evaluations (feedback is much faster and easier to collect via a mobile event app: attendee satisfaction, content resonation, speaker performance, mobile app usage)
These insights uncover accurate answers to the questions
- who are the most engaged attendees (that is potentially the most promising leads)?
- which are the top-performing sessions?
From a strategic perspective, running virtual events feeds into your business intelligence that can further be leveraged to optimize future event and marketing strategies.
Having more insights on data is always beneficial – independent from your specific event objective.
But if you, for example, are just starting out with events as an integrated part of your marketing mix or if you are lacking in-depth knowledge and understanding of your target audience, running a virtual event can be extremely valuable to get into the events-game in the most strategic and informed way.
4. Be more efficient – save time, money, and resources
Planning a virtual event compared to an in-person event is more efficient in many ways.
The need for organizing big venues and catering is gone, event production costs are much lower. So is the pressure to find the ideal date and time for the event. And no additional expenses and time efforts for traveling and accommodation are required.
Undoubtedly, a virtual event saves everyone involved – both yourself as the event organizer and all your partners as well as the attendees – a considerable amount of time and money. It simply is a lot more efficient.
Are you on a tight budget for your event strategy? Or are you short on time and need to organize an event almost at the last minute? Going virtual gives you all the flexibility and cost savings you need in order to run a successful event given your specific circumstances.
5. Create evergreen content – save and reuse
Generally, when running an in-person event, everything content-related is pretty much done after the event has come to an end.
From an attendee’s perspective, if they can not make it to your event, they simply miss out on its content.
Virtual events offer a whole new opportunity: simply record your live event and reuse this material.
By saving your virtual event, you obtain valuable and lasting content that you can reuse in many ways without investing any additional resources.
You can for example offer the material as gated content to your audience. Give interested people (who missed the actual live event) the opportunity to watch the recording – in exchange for their contact details. This is how you can almost effortlessly generate new leads after your event.
Or you can reuse snippets of your recorded material for future marketing purposes. Using your own authentic content always wins over boring stock photos.
If you really want to root events in your marketing and sales strategy, make sure to get the maximum returns from your efforts by saving and reusing your virtual events.
Conclusion
Virtual events can perfectly complement your overall event strategy and take it to a higher level to drive your business growth.
So, acknowledging that in-person events will never lose their unique relevance and impact, you should still consider blending in and leveraging the powerful benefits of virtual events.
Many event professionals are now familiarizing themselves with designing virtual events. Of course, there are some new elements that have to be figured out, first and foremost the logistics including the whole technical set up.
But at its core, a virtual event is not much different from an in-person event.
You should still pursue a specific goal and know your target audience. Your attendees still participate for the same reasons at your event, they still want a unique experience, engage, and connect with you and among each other.
So if you want your virtual event to be a success – before focusing on online empowerment – it is crucial to deliver on the previous steps of the event journey just as much as you would when planning for an in-person event.
Here’s a short reminder of what you need to have in place first:
- set a specific goal for your virtual event
- know and understand your target audience
- focus on audience engagement before, during, and after the event
If you found this blog entry helpful, remember to share it with other event professionals.
Together we can make events easier.
