As more virtual events take place and the events industry continues its evolution, there is a need to embrace new revenue and marketing channels.

One of the amazing things about virtual events is they can be used as both a revenue and marketing channel. As a revenue channel, virtual events can capture audiences that don’t have the opportunity to attend in-person.

As a marketing channel, virtual events are a low-cost way of delivering value while giving a sample of what’s to come: another outstanding streaming event or an engaging in-person meet-up.

Imagine hosting a short virtual event with a notable speaker. Without the costs of a full conference, the virtual event can be free with a simple registration process.

As a result, you’ve already captured contact information for people who could pay for your next virtual event. They may also be interested in attending in-person and making face-to-face connections.

For a full-fledged virtual event, remember to price it so that attendees will recognize the value that is being offered, and they can choose between virtual events and in-person events at the price point and amenities that best match their objectives.

Hype Your Events With A Highlight Reel

If you’re lucky enough to have done virtual events before, your best marketing asset is already available to you and waiting to be put to use.

It’s a common practice for conferences to create one or more high-energy videos to promote their events. You just happen to have all that footage already captured and ready for editing.

A bit of music, laughter, insights and inspiration cut together with some graphics is all you need to show that your virtual events are a fun and valuable occasion to be a part of.

While speaker headshots may show who is speaking, they won’t add the personality of a voice, cadence, humour and passion of your speaker on-camera. Use it!

As virtual events continue to evolve, event marketing needs to change to display all the learning, engagement and excitement that’s taking place. 

Whether the attendee chooses to attend virtually or in-person, your marketing needs to reflect the tone of your events.

Registration For Virtual Events Is Your New Lead Generation

Marketers are always looking for incentives to exchange with potential attendees for their contact information in order to continue the marketing funnel. If you have run a virtual event, you have a video and presentation package ready to be offered.

Using PheedLoop, registration can be deployed as a lead capture tool. If a customer or potential customer wants access to a piece of content, they can go through the registration process in order to unlock some or all of the content of the virtual event. 

Enticing Your Audience With Content

While we recommend keeping registration as quick and painless as possible, this is an opportunity to capture some key information, especially an email address, job title and the attendee’s priorities or objectives.

Keep in mind that most virtual event platforms (including PheedLoop) will automatically capture any streamed video. Event marketers will have a library of videos and accompanying speaker presentations to entice attendees.

Not unlike an e-book in other industries, speaker videos and presentation files are the carrot that you can dangle before attendees. As a bonus, they give the attendee a pretty good idea of the final product.

Speakers Can Be Your Best On-Camera Promoters

In most cases, speakers truly care about being part of a successful event. They want people to see them speak and raise their profiles in their communities, as well as ensure that they’re invited to speak again next year.

In addition to giving speakers everything they need from a technical perspective, you can also arm them with all the information they need to promote your next event, which may also be among their next speaking opportunities.

Podcast-style Or Free-flowing 

Not everyone is a fan of scripted podcast ads, but they deliver the needed information and call to action for the audience. A speaker may be more comfortable promoting in their own words and style.

As an event organizer, you know the power of a captive audience. When you speaker says that the best way to learn more or to meet more people is to attend in-person or sign up for the next virtual event, your audience (and future customers) will be listening.

Conclusion

Virtual events will change not just how valuable educational content is delivered, but also how it’s promoted and marketed.

If your content is automatically being captured, virtual events are an easy way to collect and show off the tone of your offerings. 

Running a low-cost virtual event as a promotional tool and using registration as a lead capture tool is the all-important way to leverage all the captured content that has been collected.

Thanks to virtual events, all the resources and tools needed to market your online and offline events are readily available. Put them to good use!