This is the second article in a series about building the foundational pieces of your virtual event strategy. ICYMI, learn how to define your event goals. Next up: We’ll talk about the best KPIs for measuring success.
Webinar, podcast, virtual workshop, virtual happy hour, virtual summit … the list of events you could run from behind a computer screen could go on.
But just because the options are (virtually) endless, doesn’t mean you should pick whatever sounds fun and run with it. Yes, now is a great time to experiment with events, but it’s still important that you run events with strategy and structure in mind — and this starts with your event goals.
Your goals should dictate — or at least play a huge role in — choosing what kind of virtual event to run. Let’s look at how some of the most common event goals influence this decision.
Whether you’re running a live, virtual, or hybrid event, event goals are event goals. (At a time when things are changing all the time, we can all rely on event goals to stick around — for better or for worse.) So if your live events were canceled among everything going on, it doesn’t necessarily mean your goals were canceled too.
In part one of this series (and in one of our latest guides on becoming a webinar whiz), we shared five of the most common event goals: increase thought leadership, build brand awareness, generate new demand, impact revenue, and improve customer retention.
After defining your event goals, it’s time to figure out what kind of virtual event to run. Disclaimer: What we include here is by no means an end-all, be-all. We’re aiming to share examples of what could work based on your goals and give you a starting point to build out your virtual event strategy.
If your goal is to increase thought leadership, you are looking to influence and inspire your target audience. This is the time to position yourself as an expert and share what you know with the world.
Try gathering some internal and external thought leaders to host a virtual panel discussion on a topic impacting your industry. By keeping this conversation at a strategic level and industry-focused, you are building the credibility and trust needed to move a prospect through the buying journey.
Pro Tip
Get your audience involved early on by asking them to help guide the direction of your event. Find out what they’re thinking about or questions they have to influence what your panelists discuss. It’s as simple as adding a “What do you want our panelists to address?” question to your registration form. This takes some work off of your plate and encourages them to actually attend the event after registering.
If your goal is to build brand awareness, you are looking to make your company recognizable to new people within your target audience. And that early on, it’s important to showcase your expertise without being promotional.
To help get the word out, round up a few well-known partners and host a traditional, co-branded webinar that helps your audience better understand a challenge they’re facing and actions they can take.
(Yes, using your solution should be an action they can take. No, we don’t recommend getting salesy and pitching it on the webinar. Keep it high level.)
Pro Tip
Webinars are one of the most (if not the most) popular virtual event formats. Even if you experiment with other formats, statistics say you’ll end up hosting a lot of webinars. Do yourself a favor: Create a branded theme in your event marketing platform specifically for webinars. It’ll make your life so much easier every time you need to create a new event.
If your goal is to generate new demand, you are looking to add more qualified leads to your marketing database. The keyword here is “qualified.”
Host a fireside chat with one of your customers to tell the story about how they exceeded their business goals and expectations. Sure, your solution was one of the ways they did so — but tell the rest of the story too.
By marketing this kind of event with the right messaging (for example, How ABC Company Tripled Sales Amidst a Global Crisis), those who register are already more qualified because they more likely see the need for a solution — or at least know they have a challenge to overcome.
Pro Tip
This kind of virtual event provides a great opportunity to extend the life of your content. In your post-event email, include a link to more content that enhances the story your customer told. My go-to choices: the customer’s formal case study or a blog post that highlights some of the high-level product features your customer uses.
If your goal is to impact revenue, you are looking to support sales and drive new business. Here’s the thing: All event goals eventually flow into impacting revenue. Even if your primary event goal is to boost brand awareness, you ultimately want to drive revenue. So you need to figure out if impacting revenue is actually your primary goal. If it is, you’re probably working with a very targeted group of high-value prospects that are fairly close to a purchase decision.
These are the people you want to wine and dine — literally (but virtually). Send your guests a wine flight and then host an event where a sommelier provides a virtual wine lesson. Or send guests a meal kit and ask a professional chef to join for a virtual cooking class. Tap into that creative superpower of yours. I know it’s there.
Pro Tip
Because there’s not usually a ton of educational content during these events, your follow-up email needs to be on point. Use it as an opportunity to send any materials from the event (like information on the wines or the recipe you made), but then connect that back to the real reason you’re following up: to continue your prospect’s buying journey.
If your goal is to improve customer retention, you are looking to keep your current customers happy and loyal.
Host a virtual user group event where they can share feedback and experiences with you and likeminded peers. They will leave knowing their voices matter, and you’ll leave with tons of ideas for your product team.
Pro Tip
Of course, your team should be responsible for managing the event build and marketing. But let your customers lead the charge. If you’re starting a San Francisco user group, for example, recruit one of your power users in that region to be the user group’s leader and determine what to present.
Okay, quick recap: You’ve defined your event goal. You’re on your way to choosing what kind of virtual event you want to run. Sounds to me like you’re on a roll, and I know everything that comes next — building, marketing, and hosting the event — will go off without a hitch.
But it doesn’t end there. That’s right — I’m talking about measuring the success of your virtual event. And of course, the event KPIs you use all come back to what you defined at the very beginning: your event goals.
So in the third and final part of this series, we’ll talk about making sure you have all the metrics you need to prove event impact and ROI.
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