Virtual event platforms are one of the most popular services of the digital age. With most companies trying to provide ease and comfort to their audiences, they are switching towards these online platforms for any sort of solution. Keeping this in mind, this blog is more of a quick guide to hosting your virtual event successfully.
Going virtual has become a necessity in the events sector. A customized attendee experience is necessary for any event, whether it be live, online, or hybrid. It takes a ton of planning, communication, promotion, and analysis to do this.
Platforms for virtual events are quickly integrating into marketing technology stacks for businesses. As a result, we observe a sharp increase in businesses offering platforms for holding events. This makes it harder and harder to choose the platform that best meets your company’s demands. Let’s start with a quick introduction to these platforms.
Virtual Event Platforms: What Makes Them So Popular?
Virtual events are events that happen over the internet. It means there’s no sort of traveling, staying, or venue selection involved in hosting these events. This makes them very important for the audience, as they are very easy to join from any remote location.
There are a variety of different types of virtual events, like webinars, virtual exhibitions, trade shows, conferences, and much more. An event platform is essential for hosting any type of virtual event. Some of the most popular event platforms as per the current trends are Mixhubb, Zoom, Zoho Meeting, and others.
What Are Different Types Of Virtual Events
Virtual events are of different types. Depending on the type of event audience and the session requirements, sponsors select their event platform type. Some of the most popular types are –
Workshops
- Workshop and roundtable hosting platforms are generally lacking in comprehensive virtual conferencing features because they are made for small gatherings. The good news is that you can skip them altogether for little interactive gatherings.
- It consists of multiple event lobbies for providing personalized experiences to event attendees.
- also consists of the creation of customizable landing pages.
Remote Working Platforms
- It is also known by the name of online video conferencing tools. Platforms for virtual events that bring together remote teams are available for distant workers. Building relationships among coworkers in a remote workforce is not an easy task, as any manager will attest.
- It is mostly used by the HR department for conducting interviews of new candidates and for other purposes as well.
Webinar Sessions
- Webinars are simply short forms of video presentations that take place over the internet. It is the real-time interaction between the speaker and the attendee. Webinars are of two types namely – live sessions and recorded ones.
- Webinars consist of lots of engaging features to attract the target audience. Some common features include live demos, real-time feedback, live polling, and much more.
Elements Of A Virtual Event
Here are some of the most promising features or elements of a virtual event.
- The event website is one of the most crucial aspects of virtual events. The website is the place where all sorts of registration take place.
- Landing pages come next in the line. These pages are the face of the event before it actually begins.
- The platform features such as live polling, Q & A sessions, slide show presentations and others are very engaging and effective means of two-way communication.
- Post-event feedback and surveys are valuable for the sponsors to collect user feedback. In addition to this, it helps in increasing the credibility of the brand in front of event attendees.
- Email marketing is a very conventional and effective form of inviting a target audience to your event. You can fully customize your emails and add your brand logo and name to the invitation mailers.
Importance Of Virtual Events For Engaging With Audiences
For engaging with the target audience in the best possible way, you need a virtual platform. Here are some of the points that will show you their importance –
Making Strong Connections
Strong and authentic connections are very important for the creation of a sales funnel for companies. Strong networking allows you to target a global audience and create a deeper level of understanding. Unlike in person, your audience is already familiar with social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Without relationships, no virtual event can succeed. Your primary statistic for tracking should be interaction metrics.
Engaging With Sponsors
Your event’s sponsors are its lifeblood. A new era of event sponsorship is starting with virtual events. Today’s event planners are often aware of digital marketing, but they have never used it. In order to increase participation, your sponsors are essential. Reduce the learning curve and make your virtual options clear.
Tips To Measure Your Event Success
- There were no difficulties in your ability to host a virtual event. What’s next? The success of a virtual event must be measured using specific metrics, just as the performance of an in-person event is assessed by determining particular marketing elements.
- Organizations must collect event data and evaluate it in order to improve their engagement strategy, tools, budgets, and investments, as well as their event management procedures.
- Reviewing post-event data is necessary to assess the success of a virtual event. Identifying key performance indicators is crucial. Analyze the advantages such as income produced, sales made, brand equity, information exchanged, attendees enrolled, and more based on your metrics.
Wrapping Up
Events like virtual exhibitions, trade shows, town hall meetings, and others are influencing audiences at a deeper level. With so much to offer the online audience to create strong connections, these platforms are game changers in the long run. For virtual events, you shouldn’t keep participants seated for longer than two hours at a time. To organize and execute a fantastic event, employ your usual planning strategies. Even though virtual events may not feel the same, the more you treat them like a real events, the better.