Are you in the middle of planning your first virtual event? Do you want to learn more about what goes into planning a virtual event that will convert? If so, then you need to learn all that you can about virtual event production.
Doing so can help you generate more high-quality leads for the event, as well as help you create a hybrid event that will give your participants more value. It’s all about planning your virtual even the right way.
See below for an in-depth guide on how you can set your virtual event up to be a home run with all of your participants.
1. Locate the Interested Group
No matter what type of business you run or the topic of the virtual event you wish to throw, we guarantee that there is a market for it; there’s a group out there that wants what you’re selling!
That said, you need to specify what group that is, where they can be found, and how you can market your virtual event to them. We’d venture to say that a successful virtual event is 80-percent about the marketing you place into it.
Take the time for you and your team to create buyer personas for your virtual event. These are imaginary avatars you create to get inside the mind of interested customers. to get higher sales conversions, you need to invite people to your virtual event that are genuinely interested in what you’re selling.
Here are some questions you can ask to determine your target market:
- What are their biggest pain points? How can I solve those for them?
- What material can I cover that will solve their issue?
- What offers can I throw into incentivizing them to attend?
- Where can I host the virtual event that will convert?
- Is my target niche savvy enough with technology to pull this off?
2. Flood Your Itinerary
Put yourself in the shoes of your target market for a second. If you came across a flier for a virtual event, what would incentivize you to attend it?
First of all, you would want to view the list of speakers. Who will be attending? What topics are they going to cover? What background do the speakers have?
The itinerary is everything in an attendant’s mind. If you can fill it to the brim, then you’re offering your participants the maximum value for their money. They’ll learn from experts on a wide variety of subjects, all of which leads back to the products or services that you offer.
That itinerary can be put on a flier and sent out to wherever it is that your target market hangs out.
For example, let’s say that your company sells customer relationship management (CRM) software. Your ideal client is business owners, as they’re the ones that would be deciding whether or not to purchase that for their sales staff.
You could host a virtual event on small business growth with speakers who have started and grown a successful company in many different industries. This directly correlates to the CRM software product that you sell and will help you convert more sales from those that attend.
3. Make it Interactive
If you’re being honest, you’d probably have your hesitancies about attending a virtual event. People see value in physical events; it seems more tangible to them; it makes them seem like a part of a bigger cause/group.
The easiest way to combat that with a virtual event is to make it as interactive as possible. That will take a bit of brainstorming on your end.
You can use polling features to let the crowd voice their opinion. You can have participants use the comments to ask the speakers questions they can address during the Q&A portion of their speech. Your speakers can use videos and graphs to drive their point home to everyone.
Be sure to visit this page to learn about more things to do on a live stream and keep your viewers engaged throughout the event.
4. Plan Several Giveaways
When’s the last time that you were able to sit down in a room for three or four hours straight and listen to someone else talk? It can be even more unbearable when that person is on the other side of a computer screen.
Thankfully, nothing can energize your audience faster than some awesome giveaways! Plan these out ahead of time and try to disperse them throughout the event.
To have someone enter to win, you can have them text a specific word such as “sale” or “bonanza” to your Instagram account (just as one example).
5. Keep a 1/2 Ratio
Like we just mentioned, it won’t be easy to keep your viewers engaged if you’re requiring them to sit down for 3 hours or more at a time. They’re likely to log off at some point.
The key to virtual event production is maintaining a 1/2 ratio. In other words, you have one break for every 2 hours in your event.
So if you have four hours’ worth of speakers, make sure to sprinkle in 2 30-minute breaks. You might be able to get away with just one break, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Take the Time to Plan Your Virtual Event Production
Now that you have seen an in-depth guide on virtual event production and everything that it entails, be sure to use this information to your advantage.
Take the time to browse our website for more articles on virtual events, as well as many other topics that you will enjoy.