With Coronavirus overpowering the event industry, it is a good opportunity to consider hosting an event online. It is easy for your event to get out to potential consumers who would be interested and help to build up your event. Virtual events are also a cheaper way to host an event, as well as helps to gain customer trust and engagement from the comfort of their homes.

Strategy

There are important aspects to consider when it comes to planning a virtual event. Like any other event, it is key to have a virtual event strategy in place to make your event go well smoothly. It is important to understand who you are targeting. Who is your event aimed at and what challenges and goals are they facing? This will create a strong substructure in creating a successful virtual event.

Branding

It is essential to be consistent with your visual branding. Always keep your logo and brand colours consistent so the consumer feels involved with your brand and that the brand is not separate from the virtual event. For example, the Twitter bird has always been blue, highlighting that the repetition of the same colour can strengthen brand awareness. You want the same for you event; the colour scheme should not be any different from your brand to the event.

Mobile platform

Many attendees of the event will be attending your virtual event on their mobile phones; therefore, it is important to optimize your event for mobiles as well as tablets and laptops. Make sure the text is readable from a large or small screen with a platform that supports these devices that your stakeholders will be using.

Ticketing & Donations

If possible, you may want to consider trying to earn revenue for a donation of some sort. If it fits your online strategy, you can try and raise some money at the end of the event, during a break or the option to donate when the consumer buys a ticket for your event. You may want to look for a ticketing partner to track who has paid. You may want to still do this method is your event is free, just to keep up with how many people want to join your virtual event and communicate with attendees.

Virtual event planning

• Make sure you have a good team to help you research different strategies and take the time to attend virtual events and take notes to help reflect back on.
• When choosing the topic for your virtual event, be sure to remember that content is key. The consumers are attending to learn something. When it comes to your topic, make sure it’s not brief, make it interesting and different to the other event topics. As well as this, make sure the content you are delivering is relevant to the topic of field.
• Once you know the topic, you should find the right formatting to use that will be successful to your audience (eg: Panel,Q&A,interview,Presenter).
• If you are hosting an online event with hired speakers, make sure they know exactly what you want to discuss with the audience. Be sure that your speaker already has the knowledge of what you want to discuss. Be sure to research the right speaker for your event.
• It is important to think about what time and date you want to run your event. Research is there are any other events out there on the same day and pick a date that you know has no other events running that day. Think about when your audience will be free and when they will be less stressed out from work, to take the time to come to your event. Make sure your event does not go on for hours. Liberty Marketing said: ‘Any longer, people will start to loose interest in the event’.
• Make sure you choose the right platform for your event depending on your budget, features, attendee number and resources. A great platform can include Hopin, an all in one platform for planning online conferences, offering virtual reception to breakout sessions, mainstage and networking events. Your event can have a timer which you can set for each person to mingle with before moving onto the next conversation. If it goes well, you can connect with that person and receive their contact information.
• Make sure you keep practicing before the real event happens! (Practice makes perfect)
• Be sure to market your event in order to reach out to the right consumers. You can promote your event through social media, with many types of content to post such as: Posters, Blogs, Hashtags, images and videos to keep your audiences peeled and engaged. If you have an email list, you can promote your event personally to your subscribers. You should also market to those who are interested and remind them that it’s happening soon.
• Create a post event follow up, this helps keep attendees coming back to your next virtual event. You can send out a survey and send them regular content through email.

Virtual events are a great way to engage with your consumers all over the world. There is a lot of planning in place in order to make your virtual event a success. However, with these tips in place, you will be thriving to a successful virtual event.

References

https://www.eventbrite.com/blog/tips-and-tricks-to-hosting-a-successful-online-event/
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/run-successful-virtual-conference
https://99designs.co.uk/blog/tips/branding-colors/
https://www.creativebloq.com/advice/virtual-event-tips