20 Tips to Maximise Your Virtual Event Strategy
The events industry has evolved significantly over the last year. Have you?
The fluctuation of lockdown levels brought about uncertainty in the live events space causing many corporates and their internal events teams to embrace virtual events. If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of the two and have approached the above one of two ways:
One, you’ve decided that Zoom and Microsoft Teams are good enough to reach your audience and found them extremely cost effective, so you’ve pulled back your budget and thrown out your event strategy. Or two, you’ve invested in the equipment to level up your event approach and even sought professional help to maximise time with your online audience. If you identify with one, call us immediately! If you relate to two, congratulations, this rapid guide to maximising your virtual event is just for you.
Here are 20 tips for your next virtual event strategy. Book a consultation with our event professionals if you get stuck:
- Be intentional, don’t fidget.
- Plan through the lens of the camera, delivered on a device.
- Virtual minutes feel shorter than IRL minutes – use them wisely.
- Commit to the techstacks you’ve already invested in and exploit them hard.
- Defined routes to market and consistent use of platforms will bring expediency and cadence … could we simply ‘switch it on’ like a Twitch stream.
- Keep it real, practical, and creative – be in the audience’s environment when planning and delivering projects.
- Keep the opt-in approach front of mind. Would your audience tick a box asking for this content to be shared with them in future?
- Curate content for the end user … lessons from Teachable / Udemy / Patreon.
- Shift from ‘pushing’ content to ‘co-creating’ content with your community.
- Commoditise the community. Virtual channels must fill sales pipe, look at lessons from YouTube – creators earn if their audiences return.
- Your exco and internal experts are Virtual assets. Create value for them through scale/reach and ROI and skill them up to shine.
- Foster a Channel vs Event mindset. Over time these will separate but for now the line remains blurred.
- Rediscover the power of email and plugging into CRM models.
- Don’t be an expert, be an experimenter.
- Listen to your audiences through the power of analytics and constantly evolve to meet them where they’re at.
- Find your audience’s natural preferred ‘home’, ‘cadence’, and ‘style’. Once that happens nuances and creativity will become your differentiators. #opportunityeverywhere
- Streaming channels will improve, bandwidths will improve, last miles will migrate back to workplaces and away from homes – and the ground will be firmer under your feet to level up again.
- Platforms will gain from the network effect and will become as common place as emails and social media platforms. Fringe platforms will be for very specialist experiences.
- iPhones IOS privacy settings and removal of third-party cookies will make reaching the end customer more difficult for digital marketers. Virtual solutions could be an excellent alternative place to build real relationships at scale.
- Finally, while technology may be the tool, remember that people are the connections. You will do well to keep humanity, humility, and humour on the script to steer away from ‘cold’ communication and engagement strategies.
Visit our blog for more tips and insights on maximising your events in a virtually driven world: https://www.wrxgrp.co.za/latest/