As we know, one of the great things about virtual events is that your content can still reach people who couldn't make it to the event itself, whether that's due to timezone or just prior engagements.
So how do we do that? Below, we've listed a few key ways to extend the life of your virtual event in order to maximise ROI and increase your brand reach.
For more guidance or to start planning your virtual event, get in touch with our Virtual Event Experts and book a free consultation.
Promote your content post-event
One of the most common questions we always get asked when running our own virtual events is 'will the sessions be recorded?'. Recording your sessions gives you an easy way to keep in touch with your delegates post-event by sending them the recordings, and also provides you with an opportunity to reach new audiences or those who couldn't make it.
A virtual event is essentially a showcase of your brand, so by ensuring your content can be accessed by anyone who wants it, you'll be expanding your reach and hopefully tapping into potential customer bases. You could even charge a small fee to access the content, creating a digital library and giving you another way to monetise your virtual events.
The answer is yes, by the way, we always record our event content. Check out the content from EventLAB 2020 for some great sessions to inspire your own virtual events!
Make the most out of social media
Social media is a really useful tool for expanding your virtual event's shelf life. Ask for feedback, engage with attendees, start conversations around topics from the event, and post the session recordings as blog-style writeups. This will help broaden your audience, retain the buzz around your event and will also drive more traffic to your site and services. We also like to post photos throughout the year using 'throwback' hashtags to help attendees reminisce and get excited for the next event.
You can also extend the life of your virtual event before it's even finished! Post during the event with key quotes, pictures and even 10-second video clips for those who aren't at the event itself. They'll feel included and are more likely to sign up next time once they see all your great content and how much others are engaging with it!
Create & share teaser showreels
Use the recorded content from your event to cut together short teaser showreels that grab the viewers attention on social media. You can centre these showreels around a particular topic and cut together short clips of the speakers opinions on the topic. Or just give a little taster on what the event had to offer.
Video content is a great way to grab attention on social media channels and drive traffic to your website or blog.
Hire Space Top Tip: Use a visually appealing, branded virtual events platform for the showreels to create consistency and appear more professional. Arena by Hire Space is a brand new events platform that's fully brandable to ensure that seamless consistency across all avenues.
Retain your attendees
Show your attendees a little love and this will go a long way in cementing their trust in your brand. Before publishing the content for the world to see, send it to your attendees in a personalised post-event email with other useful data or information from the event, early-bird access to the next event, as well as any freebies or discounts you (or your sponsors) could offer.
We also always recommend including a feedback survey in these emails. Not only are they extremely useful for you in order to hone your skills and improve the quality of your virtual events, but your attendees will feel listened to and are more likely to attend your events in future knowing they had a say in the content. As social beings, when we experience something incredible, we talk about it! Make sure your attendees talk about your event for all the right reasons and bring their friends and colleagues along next time.
Extend the event itself
Another great thing about virtual events is that they're not restricted by time in the same way physical events are.
With no venue availability (or cost!) to worry about, you can easily extend your event to span over a couple of days, or even split the event into different parts across several weeks. Doing this will keep your brand in the limelight for longer and generate excitement between each part, provided you keep up the marketing efforts and keep releasing new, exciting information to keep attendees engaged.
Splitting your event like this can also maximise the number of potential conversions from viewer to attendee; once they've seen the great recorded content from Part 1, they can attend Part 2 just a week later and immerse themselves in your brand straight away, rather than having to wait for the next event and running the risk of forgetting or not bothering.
Run competitions
We all love a competition, especially when we can win a prize! Run a post-event competition over email and social media where attendees send in their favourite moment from the event, the best photo they took, the funniest moment, whatever it may be! Then pick a winner, announce it via social media and send the winner their prize, whether that's free access to your next event, a free subscription to a valuable resource or even just something fun like a bottle of bubbly!
This will help extend the life of your virtual event in a few ways; A) people will be reminded of the event and your brand B) people will be encouraged to take part and actively engage with your brand C) reminding them of the event may even tempt them to rewatch their favourite session! You'll stay relevant and your attendees will have a bit of fun. It's a win-win!
Produce follow up content
Perhaps one of the sessions was centred around a topic that is developing and those who tuned in may want to find out more down the line. Or maybe the event session could only address parts of the topic in the allocated time. The attendees that tuned into a session are already engaged with the topic, so take this opportunity to produce more in-depth follow up content to keep your audience engaged with your brand and really position yourselves as experts in the area.
We hope this article gives you some ideas on how to extend the life of your virtual events. If you're ready to start organising, book a free consultation below with our Virtual Event Experts and we'll be happy to help.
You could also check out Hire Space 360 if you're looking for help with your virtual or hybrid event programmes; offering venue sourcing, access to our state-of-the-art online event platform Arena, help with registration technology, assistance with contracting and payments, supplier sourcing, and much more.
For more guidance and advice on how to plan unforgettable events, check out our Complete Guide To Virtual Events or Ultimate Guide To Hybrid Events.
Author
Izzie Lachecki
Izzie brings a deep understanding of the events world to Hire Space, and keeps busy by writing lots of Hire Space and EventLAB content and managing the Hire Space social media presence.
