Promoting Your Business With Virtual Events
Virtual events are hands down one of the best platforms to promote your business. They allow you to reach the audience in a way that in-person events can never do. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many businesses have shifted to virtual networking platforms for hosting their events. What started as a necessity has now become the go-to strategy of many businesses.
Virtual events have a lot to offer when compared to in-person events. If you are a business person or an entrepreneur and you have not yet benefited from the many plus sides of hosting virtual events, then now is the right time to do so. The virtual event industry is booming and can give your businesses a big boost.
Keep reading the blog to learn more.
Top 4 benefits of promoting your business with virtual events
Virtual events can give a big boost to any business interested in marketing its products and services. Here are the top 4 benefits you will avail by shifting your events to a virtual networking platform:
1. Reach a global audience
The biggest benefit of shifting your events to virtual spaces is that you can easily reach a global audience. Any person from any part of the world can tune in to your event and become a part of your community. On the other hand, an in-person event is always limited by location and geography.
Only the audience that lives near the venue can join your in-person events. Virtual events give every person with a good internet connection a chance to join your events. This broadens the scope of your event and promotes diversity among the audience.
2. Accommodate the maximum number of people
In-person events are also limited by space. The venue can only accommodate limited number of people. When many people come to the venue, it becomes densely packed, and we learned in 2020 that this could increase the chances of someone acquiring the covid virus. The good thing about a virtual event is that you are not limited by space.
Virtual networking platforms are scalable and accommodate the maximum number of attendees. You can simply expand the registrations and allow as many people to join your session as you like. Thus, you promote your business to more people.
3. It is much more convenient for the audience
Another audience-friendly benefit of virtual events is that they are a lot more convenient for attendees. First of all, attendees won’t have to drive all the way to the venue to attend your event; this saves them time and fuel. The second benefit is that it is a lot more convenient to tune in to your live sessions from home/office.
Many of your attendees might have children at home. It’s not always possible to leave them at home with a relative or trusted person. By hosting a virtual event, you make it possible for them to join your virtual events while taking care of their kids.
4. It is much more convenient for your speakers
Virtual events are convenient not only for your audience but also for your speakers. These days, everyone has a busy schedule, and driving to a venue might be too time-consuming for your speakers. By hosting a virtual event, you allow them to provide value to attendees while in the comfort of their homes.
Furthermore, speakers can be late to the venue due to bad weather, traffic, and other issues beyond them. This won’t be the case in a virtual session, as they can simply log in to their setup and start the virtual session. This makes your sessions much more productive in comparison.
Creating a virtual event for your business
When it comes to creating a virtual event for promoting your business, there are a number of possibilities. Many people think that they can only benefit from hosting a virtual event if they are in the entertainment or public speaking field; however, that’s not the case.
1. Educational webinars
Creating online courses and educational webinars for the promotion of your business is quite in fashion these days. Creating educational webinars accomplishes two things, first, it provides information and value to the customers, and second that it allows you to market your products and services to the customers seamlessly.
It doesn’t matter what products and services you offer to your customers; you can create educational courses and webinars for anything. Here are a few examples:
- SaaS products and services – You can create educational webinars instructing customers on the proper use of your product or software.
- Food services – You can offer online cooking and baking classes to interested customers.
- Beauty products – You can offer skincare and beauty tips to your customers via webinars.
- Fitness specialists – You can offer workout and nutritional advice to attendees.
- Healthcare professionals – You can create educational courses on proper health and wellbeing.
The reason why you would want to create a webinar for your business is to generate leads. You can ask the attendees to leave their email addresses and phone numbers when they tune in to your educational webinar. Using the webinar, you can demonstrate how your services work to the participants.
You can also hire specialists in the field to demonstrate the product for you. This will lend credibility to your brand or service.
2. Online conferences
Online conferences are a go-to way to reach a worldwide audience and generate leads. You can hire speakers and moderators to present value and content to the participants. Even if it’s feasible to rent a venue, online conferences are worth a shot. This also provides an opportunity for experts to promote their own work in the field.
Identifying the best platforms to host your virtual events
Hosting virtual events doesn’t take nearly as many experts and dedicated teams as in-person events. Hosting virtual events is cheaper, convenient, and adds more value and productivity to your sessions. If you are looking to host a virtual event, there are many tools and platforms at your disposal.
Many of these platforms offer free services, while others have a fee and an array of extra features such as analytics and performance tracking. Depending on your budget and demands, you may choose any platform. You also have to consider where most of your audience resides.
For instance, if you have gained enough followers on Facebook and where most of the traffic lies, you can host the event on Facebook Live. Similarly, if your YouTube channel has generated desirable traffic, you might want to consider going live on YouTube. Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, and GoToMeeting are other options at your disposal.
Promoting your virtual event to interested participants
Promoting your virtual event is very important to raise the number of attendees. There are many ways to do so; here are some marketing ideas:
1. Identifying your audience
The first step is to identify your audience. You don’t want to market your products and services to a demographic which doesn’t care about them. That’s why you should create customer profiles based on metrics and market your virtual event to them. Marketing to the right people will ensure maximum participation.
2. Creating a landing page
Having a well-designed and descriptive landing page is very necessary. Every marketing campaign of yours should lead people to the landing page so they can sign up for your virtual event. Make sure your landing page is enticing and includes relevant details like the time and date of the event, agenda, payment options, etc.
3. Marketing through email
Email marketing is one of the best ways to entice people into joining your session. Start sending newsletters to customers and everyone who consents to receive emails. Your email marketing strategy will go well with your social media campaigns. You can also offer customers a short trailer by sending them a sneak peek of the upcoming event.
4. Marketing through social media
Social media is basically free promotion. You can create posts and hashtags related to your virtual event and tell your customers to share. Your customers will basically be marketing your virtual event for you. Some popular social media platforms for promoting your virtual event are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
5. Self-promotion
You can ask your speakers and moderators to do self-promotion on their social media accounts. This will ensure that their fans tune in to their sessions. Fans will prefer listening to any news regarding the virtual event from the speakers themselves. The majority of the speakers will be already sharing details regarding the event. However, you might have to instruct some of those.
Final Word
Virtual events are a great tool to promote your products and services. They generate leads, and people take a lot of interest in them when your business provides value and quality content. No matter what kind of products your business offer, the virtual event industry has something for everyone.
When hosting a virtual event, ensure that you choose the right platform and precise marketing strategies to reach the desired audience.
Have you found the blog post helpful? If you have any other queries, let us know in the comment section below.
