IRL + URL: How to Blend In-Person and Virtual Events
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Written by Rebecca Miller

@funeral_z
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IRL + URL: How to Blend In-Person and Virtual Events

May 1, 2019

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IRL + URL: How to Blend In-Person and Virtual Events
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Written by Zach Napolitano

@funeral_z


7 Ways to Improve On-Site Communication With Your Team and Your Guests

July 31, 2018

Amy Barone, Sr. Director of Marketing Events & Engagement Programs at Tableau Software, shares her event marketing secrets in our A New Era in Event Marketing webinar with Harvard Business Review and AdAge. Below, she gives an inside look at how Tableau  grew and scaled a high-performance event program.


Companies worldwide rely on event marketing to build brand awareness, increase sales pipeline, and improve customer loyalty. In fact, a Harvard Business Review study shows that more than half of business leaders say event marketing drives more business value than any other marketing channel.


In-person events can be especially powerful for driving this value. As digital noise increases, consumers are craving more human connection through face-to-face experiences. It’s no wonder why event marketing grows year after year.


The reality, though, is that event marketing — just like any other marketing activity — still has plenty of room to grow. (That’s one reason we love event marketing: As it grows, it keeps getting better.) And although it may sound counterintuitive, one way to grow your in-person event programs is by blending them with virtual event options.

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Ten years later, our annual conference attracts nearly 20,000 customers and partners, our company has grown to 4,000 people, and we have a first-class marketing team with dedicated event professionals who are the best in the biz. Events have been a crucial part of our brand and help us better connect with our community, evangelize our customers, and ultimately grow our company.


Here’s how we did it:

The Value of In-Person and Virtual Events

Your first thought might be: How does that not hurt in-person event attendance? Hear us out.


When Salesforce began live-streaming parts of its annual Dreamforce conference, they sought to give people who couldn’t attend in person a taste of their massive event. Over the years, they’ve added more and more virtual experiences — which are broadcast for free — and yet their in-person attendance rates continue increasing.


Coachella, the music and arts festival that hosts 250,000 people, sold out in three days before it started live-streaming the event in 2011. When it launched ticket sales for the 2012 festival, it sold out in three hours.


I realize these examples are enormous, internationally known events, but the underlying message is the same regardless of event size or type: Giving your audience the option to attend virtually is another promotional tool. And we all know that better event promotion can lead to event program growth. It’s a way to improve visibility and gain attendees who either haven’t heard of your event before or just can’t make it.


Offering a virtual event option with your in-person event can drive growth in other ways as well. By streaming your event online, you can invite others who may not necessarily be your target consumer, but who could play a crucial role in your future events — potential sponsors, for example.


Think about the last time you, as an event marketer, considered an event sponsorship. Along with event goals, attendee demographics, and financial commitment, you likely also thought about the event overall, its vibe, and how it aligns with your company’s mission — outside of what you can find on the event prospectus. Attending the event in question is the best way to find out if there’s a mutual fit. Offering a virtual event option is a cost-effective way to share your in-person event with those who could be potential revenue streams.


Another audience that would find a virtual event option incredibly beneficial is your prospects. If you’re hosting any events for your current customers, like user groups, those can be powerful sales enablement tools. Prospective customers want to know you can support them in various ways. By giving them access to the virtual event option, you’re showing them what they could expect as a customer and boosting their confidence in their purchase decision.


While it’s clear how blending in-person and virtual events can offer great value to a company, it begs the question: What are some best practices to make sure the effort of doubling up leads to event success?


Know Your Goals

Just because having a virtual event option can provide value doesn’t automatically mean you should go for it. Like every other decision you make for your event marketing strategy, you need to first make sure a virtual option makes sense. Ask yourself: Will offering a virtual option help achieve one or more of our goals? If there’s no clear connection between a virtual option and your goals, it may not be worth the extra effort.


At the same time, offering a virtual option doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing thing. There are situations where it may make sense to host only portions of your event virtually. If you do decide to host a virtual option — whether the entirety or a portion of your event — decide what experience you envision for virtual attendees that will help contribute to your goals.


For example, let’s say you are planning to host a panel discussion followed by networking and a cocktail hour. You are part of a newer company, so your primary event goals are to increase thought leadership and build brand awareness. You recognize that the panel discussion would be an opportunity for both in-person and virtual attendees to learn from your experts and spread your brand’s message.


So you decide to offer the panel discussion portion of your in-person event to virtual attendees. What next?

MediaMath event data strategy

Discover the Customer 360 Platform

Salesforce has gathered all the must-attend sessions and activities for attendees who want to explore the Customer 360 Platform. From keynotes to interactive experiences to daily networking breakfasts, discover how you can drive digital transformation. (BTW, this event page is powered by Splash!)


All the Marketing Trends You Need to Know

- Tuesday, Nov. 19 | 3 - 3:40 p.m.
- Palace Hotel, Gold Ballroom
- Chris Jacobs, Product Marketing at Salesforce


Customers today expect personalized experiences, yet many are uncomfortable with how companies use their data. Join this session to explore the challenge of balancing personalization and privacy, and learn the marketing trends that’ll help you overcome this fundamental challenge.


A Lesson in Email Marketing for Events

- Tuesday, Nov. 19 | 4 - 4:40 p.m.
- Metreon AMC Theatres, Level 3, Theater 14
- Jeff Mancari, Email Marketing Analyst at Salesforce & Lydia Yang, Senior Email Marketing Manager at Salesforce


Email is still one of the most efficient and engaging channels for event marketing, especially when done using data-driven techniques, dynamic content, innovative design, and analytics. Join two professionals who know a thing or two about this — the Salesforce team members responsible for promoting Dreamforce via email marketing.


How MarTech Drives the Future of Engaging in Customers’ Moments

- Wednesday, Nov. 20 | 9 - 9:40 a.m.
- Palace Hotel, Ralston Room
- Joe Stanhope, VP & Principal Analyst at Forrester Research


As we all know, customers are demanding engaging, relevant, and timely experiences. To deliver this successfully, marketers must consider how their data and technology strategies can help. Join this session to learn what the future of enterprise tech looks like and how your organization can get ahead of the curve.


ABM + Inbound: How to Supercharge Your B2B Marketing Strategy

- Wednesday, Nov. 20 | 11 - 11:40 a.m.
- Palace Hotel, Ralston Room
- Peter Isaacson, CMO at Demandbase; Sydney Sloan, CMO at SalesLoft; & Nate Skinner, VP of Product Marketing at Salesforce


While many marketers have turned to account-based marketing (ABM) strategies, many are still using traditional demand generation strategies. Join this session to discover how some companies are optimizing both in a hybrid approach.


Demystifying Customer Data and the Future of CDPs

- Thursday, Nov. 21 | 10 - 10:40 a.m.
- Palace Hotel, Gold Ballroom
- Martin Kihn, SVP at Salesforce


Marketing and sales databases are overflowing with customer data, and yet many marketers aren’t sure what to do with it — but it’s critical to engage customers, build trust, and manage consent. Join this session to explore the power of customer data and how it can impact your marketing strategy.


A Conversation with President Barack Obama

- Thursday, Nov. 21 | 10:30 - 11:30 a.m.
- Moscone North, Hall F, Keynote Room
- President Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States of America & Marc Benioff, Chairman & Co-CEO at Salesforce


Attend this keynote to hear Salesforce Chairman & Co-CEO Marc Benioff chat with President Barack Obama. I haven’t heard yet what specifically they’ll be talking about, but let’s be honest — this is something you’ll never have the chance to hear again.

Image: Penguin Random House

Use the Right Event Marketing Technology

Image: Conference Matters

Now is the time to start creating a cohesive experience for all of your attendees, and it starts with your event marketing technology.


Whether people are attending on-site or behind a webcam, you have opportunities leading up to the event to create a consistent and seamless experience. First and foremost: Find an event marketing platform that works as a single registration tool.


Working in only one platform will make your life so much easier by maintaining all registrations and attendee data in one platform. If you had two separate solutions, that’s at least two versions of your email invitation, two lists to maintain, two lists to upload into your marketing automation and/or CRM systems, two tools to manage actual attendance … do you see a pattern here? Do yourself a favor: Don’t entertain the two-platform option.


Beyond registration, using a single platform starts the connected experience for your attendees. You never want one audience to feel segmented from the other. And since your event page and registration form are some of their first impressions of your event, it’s important to keep them all integrated. A single platform will ensure that your company’s brand and event theme are presented beautifully and accurately to every single guest.

MediaMath event data strategy

It’s one thing to blindly upload an attendee list from a large industry event and blast everyone (you know who you are), but it’s another to know exactly who visited your booth, who met with your sales team, attended your event — they’re the ones that are the most engaged with you and they’re the ones you should focus on the most.

Though brief, that simple interaction with with the chef took the night beyond just an excellent meal.

Find Opportunities for Engagement

Image: Google Books

When it comes down to it, the goal of any event is to grow and nurture the relationship between your guests and your brand — whether you’re promoting a product, building community, or looking to increase brand awareness.

With your attendees now able to choose the event registration type that works best for them, you can begin planning the event-day experiences. Like I said above, the experiences should be cohesive, meaning they should be connected and work together. But they won’t be the exact same experience. One important thing you can do to further blend them is to enable interactions and engagement.


Here are a few ways you can help your in-person and virtual attendees connect:


1. Ensure everyone has the same event materials. If you have any event programs, speaker presentations, or supplementary documents, make them available to both in-person and virtual attendees.


2. Let virtual attendees participate in the Q&A session. Make sure someone is moderating the virtual questions and chiming in with those questions regularly.


3. Integrate social media. This is more and more common for events today, but still worth calling out. Nearly 85% of people with internet access use social media, so it’s a way to both connect people and enhance your event strategy.


4. Enable conversations post-event. Start by repurposing content from the event to produce videos, audio clips, or blog posts. Send that content to both your in-person and virtual attendees with an invitation to continue the conversation on social and through a community hub.


In-person events have certainly proven their value in driving business results and satisfying consumers’ needs for face-to-face experiences. But like every other marketing activity, event marketing is constantly changing. Blending in-person and virtual experiences to create an event hybrid is one way event marketers can lean into this ever-changing operation, reach new audiences, and explore new growth.

See Splash in action to discover how the right event marketing platform can enable a cohesive event experience, no matter where attendees are located.

Meet Splash on Land

We’ll be on the showroom floor at the Moscone Center Tuesday through Thursday, introducing product and feature updates, including the latest on our integrations for Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Pardot, and more.


Meet Splash at Sea

Join Splash on the California Spirit, the luxury yacht owned by the San Francisco Giants, on Wednesday evening. Just minutes from Oracle Park, you’ll learn how to bring the wind back into your event marketing programs, enjoy happy hour, and return back to land to join the party at Dreamfest. Apply to attend here.


Secure your spot to connect with us at Dreamforce. Splash is so excited to attend, and we can’t wait to meet all of you.

MediaMath event data strategy

This is when having accurate event data readily available and synced between sales and marketing systems becomes crucial, so that executives, sales teams, and the marketing team are all on the same page. Event data is shared weekly or even every other day, so everyone has a clear understanding of things like RSVPs and check-ins, and can adjust their communications or follow-ups accordingly.

Post-event page made with Splash

This way, guests didn’t have to worry about memorizing each other’s names or drawing a blank when they turned to chat with the person next to them, and we also got to show off  our product in a natural way.

Takeaway #5: If you don’t know how events are performing, you can’t make them better

When the MediaMath team goes to determine the ROI of an event, they’re able to track and attribute opportunities and future deals to a prospect attending the event.

And from a budget perspective, they’re also able to look at data from all events over the course of a year and see which opportunities and deals are associated with people who attended. This helps them determine which events are working or what they should adjust, and where they should continue investing their marketing dollars.

Even if your event doesn’t require a full seating chart with assigned seats, think about how you want the flow of your event to go, and how you can create natural opportunities for meaningful connections.

Image: designworkplan

•   A sense of privacy: a completely private and closed off room for dinner proved to be an extremely crucial element. At one of the venues, an open section in the room allowed noise to disrupt the flow of conversation — making it feel less private and less special of a night compared to dinners that were completely closed off to the public.

6. Create the best guest experience possible

At the end of the day, throwing events mean nothing if you’re not providing value to your customers.


At our conferences, we provide “Tableau Doctors” on-site that help customers or prospects with any questions about our product. Not only do these one-on-one appointments empower customers to engage with us in a meaningful way, they’ve also been the critical to driving event ROI.

Want to dig deeper into MediaMath's event data strategy? Watch the full on-demand webinar (with a bonus Q&A!) here.

author

Rebecca Miller

As a Senior Manager of Marketing at Splash, Rebecca creates programs that help event marketers understand the importance of scale and how it translates to event goals and business results. A Chicago native, Rebecca recently traded the harsh winters for yearlong sun in the Arizona desert, where you can find her on running trails, in the pool, or at a patio cheering on the Chicago Bears.

Our latest event marketing guide has a galaxy of on-site tips and best practices. Start exploring The Universe of Events.

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