Planners should create unique and engaging content to combat Zoom fatigue. Courtesy of Valerie Bihet

It used to be that virtual events were under-utilized and oftentimes an under-developed option for event marketers. After 2020, that all changed. Virtual events were forced to up the ante. And new technology helped make that happen by enhancing the attendee’s experience.

While in-person events thrive on personal interactions, virtual gatherings feature interactive online sessions, live chats, polls, Q&A sessions, virtual networking spaces and gamification elements. Because of these differences, the marketing of virtual events requires a level of innovativeness and a keen understanding of the technological tools used to bring virtual events to the forefront and grab the attention of potential attendees.

Through her extensive experience as founder of Exhibi in Katy, TX, and 25+ years of event experience in oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, technology, and others, Gwendolyn Hood has managed events in 12 countries, working for and with companies like Schneider Electric, Alexion and Schlumberger. As such, she has a keen understanding of marketing project management, live and virtual event activations, convention development, KPI reporting and budget planning. At Exhibi, Hood helps exhibitors and organizers with strategies that generate real business from their events.

When evaluating the key marketing strategies for virtual events, Hood points out that the online environment is a crowded space, so meeting planners need to captivate from the start.

“For virtual, use a digital-first approach with online campaigns, creator-brand partnerships and data-guided personalization for engagement,” Hood says. “In-person affords opportunity to use digital but tap into location-specific promotions too.

Along with typical digital promotions, Hood says that community-building tactics are on the rise when marketing virtual events. This results in authentic connections, shared purpose and ongoing engagement. “This is where your audience becomes part of the message with personalized content, collabs, UGC (user-generated content) and exclusivity creating a sense of belonging beyond the event,” Hood says. “The key here is consistent listening to provide value and to adapt to your attendees’ expectations and preferences.”

Robert Brill, CEO of Brill Media, a digital advertising agency for scalable business growth, and 10 time honoree across the Inc. 5000 and Financial Times 500, says in-person events usually require planning ahead of time, which means a more deliberate decision to attend. While the barriers to attend are higher, including costs for travel and hotels, once confirmed, you can expect registrants to attend.

“By contrast, virtual events require a far lower barrier to attend, making it easier for people to register, but also easier for people to not show up,” Brill says. “So, the strategies need to be different. In-person marketing focuses on registration. Virtual events must market to registration and also follow-up reminders to actually attend.”

The audience also is likely going to be different because you’re able to target people who are further away in geography, which also means there are cultural differences. “Even within the U.S., lifestyles and personalities are very different between the South and the West or big cities like New York and Chicago vs. Los Angeles,” says Valerie Bihet, director of VIBE Agency.

“You need to take that into consideration when you are doing your marketing. These are very different people, so the words you use to talk to them need to reflect that. If you are attracting a global audience, that is even more of a diverse group so be clear about the timing and where they are in their day, which will affect who attends and who wants a recording.”

Tools to Use

A few tactics that are proven to effectively market a virtual event:

• Social Media: Post on any owned social channels about the event to your audience. Content can include visuals of the speakers, appeal questions that will be answered in the webinar and clips of past webinars.
• Ads: Post ads on channels that will reach your audience. These channels include trade publications, LinkedIn, Google Search and possibly Meta.
• Listings Services: Post the event in places people are looking for virtual events. Consider Eventbrite, Alignable, Meetup and 10Times.
• Email List: Send details about the virtual event to your email list multiple times before the event.
• Podcasts: Go on a guest podcast tour to have opportunities to talk about the podcast. Or, run ads in targeted podcasts promoting the virtual event.

“In each of these tactics you can feature speakers, past testimonials and insights that will be shared at the event,” Brill says. “Focus on the transformative value of the event in the communications.”

Brill advises meeting planners use all the available channels to reach the target attendees, as you are only limited by budget and time.

As Brill explains, email marketing will be valuable to reach people with the highest intent to attend. Run social content posts to attract the right audience. Post the event on listing services where people look for events. Go on a guest podcast tour to appeal to your audience. Get placement on targeted trade publications for promotion of the event. These are all relatively low cost methods.

“More expensive methods include running ads on LinkedIn, Meta, Google, podcasts and niche trade publications,” Brill says. “In each of these tactics you can feature speakers, past testimonials and insights that will be shared at the event. Focus on the transformative value of the event in the communications.”

Hood explains that the best online tools deliver value to meeting planners and the audience. Focus on applications that make your life as a meeting planner easier including automation, engagement, data collection and segmentation.

“The biggest overarching challenge is outpacing competition,” Hood says. “Outside of direct competitors, a broader ecosystem of entities compete for the same attention – content, algorithms, time, ad saturation and budgets. In addition, other distractions are platforms, fatigue, not having a dedicated location and ROIs.”

Brills sees one of the biggest challenges is that people will register and then not attend. So, meeting planners will have to continuously market to the guests who register. These audiences will need ongoing follow-up.

“To make this marketing effective, meeting planners will need to send emails to attendees, provide calendar links so the event shows up on the attendees’ calendars and continuously post on social media,” Brill says. “Run retargeting ads to attendees as a reminder to attendees.”

Bihet advises that for the marketing content with virtual, you need to emphasize the digital engagement and convenience of attending. With virtual events you are focusing on exclusive content, interactive sessions and the networking without barriers because of the larger reach.

“The key message that gets them to want to attend is different for each medium so you have to play up the value of that platform,” says Bihet, who sees social media as the easiest and most far reaching marketing technique to use. Partnerships with influencers can get you even more of a reach beyond who already follows your pages. Plus, people believe in people more than brands these days, so having an influencer who resonates with the target audience could help you attract people you may not already have connected with the brand.

“For email marketing, there are types of software to choose from like ConstantContact, Hubspot and MailerLite,” Bihet adds. “There are many virtual platforms that also have a marketing component to them. Both of these are now incorporating AI to make the writing and messaging even easier based on the settings you have for your event.”

Diane Lyons, CMP, DMCP, president of ACCENT New Orleans Inc., says that adapting content delivery for virtual events demands diverse formats and approaches. “Marketing materials should emphasize the value of the content being presented, such as keynote speakers, workshops, panel discussions and interactive sessions that attendees can conveniently access from the comfort of their own devices,” Lyons says. Since April 2020, she has organized various virtual programs, each offering unique and memorable experiences. One standout event that’s a personal favorite of hers is an online fundraiser for a nonprofit dedicated to melanoma research. This fundraiser featured a group of doctors who also happened to be talented musicians, forming bands to raise funds for the cause.

“What made it special was the seamless integration of cameras and setups, creating a television-like production,” Lyons says. “Viewers were treated to interviews with the participating doctors, as well as heartfelt testimonials from patients, underscoring the importance of their support. Notably, without the expenses of a physical venue, we doubled our fundraising goal, a gratifying achievement for everyone involved.”

Lyons also orchestrated a three-day virtual showcase promoting New Orleans as the destination for an event last year. It felt akin to stopping by a booth, where attendees could explore city highlights through engaging videos and receive real-time assistance on accommodations, transportation, dining and more.

“Periodic reminders about the event in New Orleans served as gentle nudges to register, making for a dynamic and effective promotion strategy. It was terrific and different,” Lyons says.

One of Lyons events combined virtual and live elements. The presentation highlighted the plight of the wetlands in South Louisiana, where they seamlessly integrated live presentations with pre-recorded footage showcasing the region’s natural beauty and ongoing restoration endeavors.

“Featuring five experts from around the world, our event facilitated interactive Q&A sessions, enriching the presentations and fostering meaningful engagement,” Lyons says. “Participants not only gained valuable insight but also left with a profound understanding of the environmental challenges facing Louisiana’s wetlands. By blending these elements, we crafted an immersive experience that resonated with audiences globally.”

Common Mistakes to Avoid

There are two common mistakes Hood has noticed meeting planners make as it relates to marketing virtual events. First, they are one-size-fits-all, impersonal promotions that miss the mark and leave attendees confused. And second, they have no nurturing or follow-up plan, allowing momentum to fade.

“Personalized, targeted marketing that resonates and fosters community through ongoing engagement should be a priority,” Hood says.

Brill also has seen meeting planners not put enough effort into the event, and their creative content isn’t compelling. The lack of effort usually shows up in a lack of strategy.

“They don’t give people enough time to register for the event, or the events aren’t promoted with best practices,” Brill says. “The communications are not persistent enough. People are seeing 5,000 to 10,000 messages per day, so to make an impact it’s important to send a lot of messages in a lot of different formats to breakthrough. Chances are the meeting planners may believe they are hitting people over the head with messages. In fact, it’s likely your target audience isn’t seeing enough of the messages.”

Bihet agrees that some meeting planners are waiting too long to start promoting and marketing virtual events. Even if it’s virtual, attendees need to clear their schedule. Bihet recommends promoting virtual events at least two to three months in advance.

“If you were doing hybrid you would start promoting six months in advance, so half that for virtual is good,” Bihet says. “ I see some doing only on month notice for virtual and it’s just not enough to get strong attendance. At the minimum, you can do six weeks but that will affect your attendance too.”

The content of a virtual event must be highly unique. Unfortunately, this isn’t happening a lot, and so registrations fail. As Bihet explains, you cannot present the same content other people are putting out there. It’s redundant and your audience won’t need to hear the same thing from another source.

“Make it unique if you want to stand out and customize it to what your target audience wants to know and learn,” Bihet says. “Also make registration for a virtual event as simple as possible. The longer they have to fill out forms or walk through multiple screens they will abandon out of frustration.”

And remember that when the creative is boring, it doesn’t share the transformative value of the event. Potential attendees don’t see the speakers, the topics and the networking opportunities that will make the event valuable.

“A big opportunity that not enough virtual events are leveraging is live video. Live video promotions in places like TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube can attract many attendees,” Brill says. “Any company with a routine set of events should consider starting a podcast. The combination of live streaming and podcasts creates community and a built in audience to promote upcoming virtual events.”

Bihet adds that it is so very important to really know your target client personas. As she explains, it’s a very small margin for error hitting the right audience based on their interest and demographics, so you could result in having the wrong person attending because the marketing language or platform was unclear.

“This isn’t as hard of an issue with in-person events, which is usually more expensive so people are really very committed to the event and making sure it’s a fit for them,” Bihet says. “With virtual, they don’t always go as in-depth to review the event before signing up (especially if it’s free or they could get a recording) so you may get the wrong person attending who doesn’t hit the event goal in a way you wouldn’t with in-person.”

In addition, Bihet says the virtual events space is facing continuous Zoom fatigue, as we are seeing more and more in person events. “While virtual is part of the annual event strategy, it’s not usually people’s first choice anymore,” she says.

Technical challenges like relatability, security and data privacy are also a continuous issue that meeting planners face. In addition, virtual attendees now, more than ever, want to know what their data is being used for — particularly if you have Europeans attending a virtual event because the privacy and data gathering laws are different than the U.S.

“Meeting planners also have to put in more effort to get people to interact with each other and think more creatively in virtual events than if you were in the same room,” Bihet says. “Also, measuring the success is more challenging online than in person. You don’t always get to see their faces and actual live expressions and reactions to the content the way you do at an in-person event. That format provides more immediate gratification or opportunity for fixing something if reactions are poor or troubling. It’s more complex to figure this out online.”

Looking ahead, Hood predicts data will reign “supreme” within the world of virtual events. “AI will be a useful sidekick,” Hood says. “And interactive, data centric campaigns will tease and integrate seamlessly with the virtual experience.”

Bihet agrees that with the integration with AI in more platforms, the meetings and events space will see more personalized marketing messaging for people based on their behavior. For a while, meeting planners have been able to tailor information presented to them based on what they view on the company or event website. Now planners can put that data into AI to start crafting language that’ll speak directly to their concerns. Using AI will only get more in tune and widespread.

“The gamification opportunities and platforms will continue to evolve as well. It’s an effective way to get people involved and engaged remotely so I see these continuing to grow and provide new ways for us to connect,” Bihet says. “On-demand content and hybrid options will also get more efficient and easier to access as well. As much as we like to be in-person, it is not always logistically possible, so hybrid is here to stay.”

Lyons adds that overall, the future of virtual event marketing is likely characterized by innovation, personalization and immersive experiences across digital platforms.

“Meeting planners and marketers will need to stay agile and adapt to evolving technologies and consumer expectations to effectively promote virtual events,” Lyons says. “And drive attendee engagement in the years ahead.” I&FMM.