virtual events

The global health crisis caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic has scrapped all in-person events and conferences. The event industry is now setting up online and remotely-managed events for sharing knowledge, transferring information, and expanding networks. In India, event organizers are setting up these virtual events and reaching a wider audience cost-effectively. Conference event apps are becoming popular in offices whereas home desktops are becoming the new venues for summits and expos.

The popularity of virtual events has changed the dynamics of event marketing. In 2020, event organizers need some effective inbound marketing strategies to run successful virtual events. Inbound marketing of events is now evolving towards lead generation, brand awareness, and thought leadership.

Here’s how you can create your own inbound marketing strategy for organizing virtual events during the post-COVID19 era.

Establish Goals and Set Timelines

To begin with, your inbound marketing campaign needs definitive goals. These goals must encompass the aim of setting up this virtual event. While establishing the goals of your inbound marketing campaign, you can easily map how the event would be managed and organized. As you outline the digital roadmap of your virtual event, there are several aspects and technical factors that get identified. It is also important to set up goals to attain certain organic traffic or increase it in a specific way. You can also set expectations for generating leads.

After establishing the inbound marketing goals, you need to create a timeline that visualizes the execution of multiple components of your virtual event. You need to set hard deadlines and establish priority levels for every action item of the virtual event. Knowing the must-haves and the time-intensives is essential for a good inbound event marketing strategy.

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Assess the Outreach of Speakers

Start assembling a network of experts that can not only conduct the virtual event of your topic properly but also bring along a major chunk of audience. Top social media influencers relevant to the subject of your virtual event need to be the key speakers. They will bring their own viewer-base to the event when those millions of subscribers and followers get notified about these events. To be a bit creative, you can also consider reaching out to your peers. Some informal engagement can also generate good interest among viewers. It can also lead to instinctive buy-ins.

Promote the Virtual Events Creatively

When you are ready with the event speakers, it is time to promote your virtual event. You can add the event to the regular editorial calendar of your organization. Then can check the social media presence of the virtual event. Make sure that you leverage the power of all social media platforms. The more your event surfaces these platforms, the higher will be the turnout.

You can start with an organic promotion where you do not over-promote the event but mention it online among the targeted user communities. To find the best ideas for organic promotions, figure out some topics closely associated with the theme of your virtual event. These topics can cover the storyline of your event. They can also help you create a supporting blog content that gets published in the same time period.

Social media posts can boost your inbound marketing and encourage more people towards sign-ups and email subscriptions. The promotional content shared on these social channels is your key stake in the inbound marketing process. Some pop-up forms and catchy site banners can go a long way in advertising your virtual event. Every online user can get interested in your event if these ads are witty and powerful.

Another important tool for inbound promotions is the digital toolbox of the world: a website. In the current state, it would be only possible that people would visit the website of your event and your company before registering for the event. After having the website ready, you must ensure that employees of your organization promote this event across all their personal and professional circles. You can categorically have the sales team of your organization email the links to the event sent to all business associates and clients. You can create social groups on WhatsApp and join conversations on LinkedIn to keep your event a hot topic online.

Run a Post-Event Analysis

A good event marketer can also make great use of conference event applications. While you save the budget of setting a physical in-person event, there can be some investment done in developing mobile applications exclusively for virtual conferences and online events of your organization. These mobile applications can offer a stable and reliable platform for streaming the virtual event. At the same time, you can run statistics on the use of these apps during the virtual event. From viewer feedback to engagement time, you can analyze the data collected over these parameters.

These strategies can lead you to a strong inbound marketing campaign for your virtual event. As cities start to reopen in a phased manner, inbound marketing can also become less difficult towards the end of this year.

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