Virtual and online events are becoming commonplace in the modern era. They allow businesses to reach audiences worldwide with thousands of people in different places at different times. Promoting the event requires sufficient attention to make it a success.For virtual events, however, specific strategies are to be made sure so that the online program doesn’t get lost in the race of digital era.
Use Email Marketing
Send a sequence of emails to your existing subscribers.
Email marketing is a core component of any event marketing strategy. Having said that, you need to kick start your email campaign carefully. So the first step is to think about:
* Target recipients
* Number of emails to be send
* A compelling subject line
* The body text
Ideally, you should focus your campaign on recipients that you are interested in inviting to the event. Plan out 2-3 emails prior to the event to invite, inform and remind your audiences making sure that you don’t overdo it. Your subject line needs to be carefully thought out as that is something that is shown in notification bars.
Seek help from sponsors to spread the word
If you managed to get sponsors to promote the virtual event then you should explore how you can collaborate with them to accelerate your marketing efforts. After all this is also in their best interest that the virtual event attracts relevant audiences so that their sponsorship goals are met
* Encourage your sponsors to promote the virtual event on their website, social media channels, and any other web content that they are contributing to
* Send emails to their subscriber list or write a guest post on their blog provided they grant permission
Again, you need to make sure that you work closely with them to get the messaging right. The better the copy of the marketing material that they promote, the greater the results will be.
Involve your Speakers
Use speakers at your virtual event as event ambassadors
The secret to successful marketing is getting your virtual event mentioned every chance you get regardless of it being online, through word of mouth, or any print media channels.
This is why pleasing special guest speakers into your marketing plan is also necessary. Spokespersons are sometimes the core attractions of your virtual event that audiences would love to hear, connect with, and learn from. Thus, it makes absolute sense for them to add to the dialogue being built around your virtual event.
Content Marketing
Write articles and blogs
“Content is the king” – we’ve all heard this and have seen the impact of it as a promotional powerhouse. It is considered as one of the core pillars of a strong marketing strategy in attracting visitors to your virtual event’s landing page.
Begin by publishing blogs on your website that resonate well with your target audience and also pull in healthy traffic. Next, write articles that provide genuine value to the audience base and offer some interesting information.Usage of the right keywords in your article is very important and linking back to it from your own website, you could quickly start ranking for certain keywords and generate organic traffic for the piece. This proves to be a cost-effective mechanism to generate conversion on your landing page.
Own a Twitter Hashtag
Use a unique hashtag & build momentum on Twitter
Businesses have been using Twitter to highlight their events, products, campaigns and much more for years. This is why virtual event hosts need to become a part of the hashtag revolution to get noticed.Hashtags are basically keywords or memorable short phrases used by hosts to build conversations around their events.
Once people see a tweet with your hashtag, that’s when the magic of promotion begins.
Don’t just fire bland tweets asking people to sign-up; rather,share some nuggets of value and educate your audience, motivating them to attend the virtual event to learn more.
Use LinkedIn/Facebook
Social promotion is essential.The obvious way of using LinkedIn and Facebook for your advantage is to keep posting updates about your upcoming virtual event to your follower base.If you want to go one notch up with your presence on social media, consider paid promotion. This allows you to trigger a promotion of your event to users who have visited your website before or are on your email marketing list, making a second attempt at influencing them.
LinkedIn and Facebook re-marketing use web technology to track people who visited your event’s page but left without taking any steps to register. They work to display ads to these same people using insight tags that are placed on your website or your virtual event’s landing page, in addition to helping you only invest into a targeted user segment that is of value to your business.
Track, learn, improve
Knowledge is power. You can gather a lot of data using tools like Google Analytics. Track as much as you can: What tickets are selling best? Who typically buys them? What are your most successful marketing channels?
This data doesn’t cost anything and makes you better equipped to successfully advertise your event. Accordingly, decide which tickets could be sold more on a discounted price , which marketing channels to use, which customers to retarget with your banners, and so much more.
Create Video Previews
Invest in Video. It takes time and effort but it’s worth it.
This content format is all the rage today as it attracts the audiences very fast and creative videos helps in consuming the information quickly.
Promoting your virtual event with a short video can help deliver a lot of information in a much more compelling and engaging manner.
Conclusion
Event promotion is no easy feat online.No matter how expanded your network is, or how experienced your business is, it can be difficult to get people excited about your event — whether it’s in-person or a digital event.Fortunately, there are now a variety of tools that are not only cost protective but also very convenient to use.
Create Video Previews
Invest in Video. It takes time and effort but it’s worth it.
This content format is all the rage today as it attracts the audiences very fast and creative videos helps in consuming the information quickly.
Promoting your virtual event with a short video can help deliver a lot of information in a much more compelling and engaging manner.
Conclusion
Event promotion is no easy feat online.No matter how expanded your network is, or how experienced your business is, it can be difficult to get people excited about your event — whether it’s in-person or a digital event.Fortunately, there are now a variety of tools that are not only cost protective but also very convenient to use.