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The advantages of getting people to register and join your virtual events are obvious. Larger audiences mean more opportunities to leave lasting impressions through engagement and larger turn outs result in more lead generation. But with so many people experiencing virtual event fatigue, how can webinar hosts and event runners ensure that they capture as many attendees as they can? Today on the Prequel, we're going to cover 10 key actions you'll want to consider to get more attendees to your virtual events.
Action 1 - Let your audience shape the content you plan on showcasing.
Now this may sound obvious, but it's easy to fall in the habit of focusing on what you want your customers to hear. However many event creators find the most success when they host content about topics their attendees are actually asking for.
Gather some initial information about your potential attendees through email, feedback surveys or word of mouth to help shape the agenda for your event. If your data shows that your audience is primarily interested in 3 topics, focus on those! After you run your first event, you can start a Poll and ask your audience what they would like to see on the next event.
Action 2 - Provide the agenda in advance
There are many different opinions on how long a webinar or virtual event should be. While this mainly depends on your agenda or run of show, we generally recommend your event be between 40-60 minutes.
For events longer than 30 minutes, it helps to provide your audience with an agenda so they know what to expect AND what to look forward to. You can add the agenda as a placeholder message, or you can upload a custom background image for your event that your attendees can reference.
Action 3 - Use promotions and CTAs
Folks love to feel like they are getting something of value after watching an event. Offering exclusive gifts or special access to your attendees is a great way to make them feel special and more likely to attend future events. Identify the moments that matter during your event.
Create a list of things you want your audience to walk away with after the event and craft activation points throughout your event to satisfy those goals.
Action 4 - Send email and calendar reminders
Increasing the frequency of reminder emails leading up to the event dramatically increases the total amount of registrations. Attendees can add events directly to their calendars from your event or their email confirmations. You can event activate email reminders so that folks who registered for the event get a reminder 24 hours and 1 hour before the event.
Action 5 - Use engagement features!
Sequel.io has tons of different features that allow you to engage with your attendees. Chat is the most familiar and frequently used feature that allows attendees to chat directly with others, or send chats publicly to everyone. Q&A allows your attendees to ask questions publicly to the Presenters and Hosts on stage. And creating polls allows you to collect relevant information directly from your audience which makes them feel heard.
Action 6 - Host a Networking Hub
Using Sequel's Networking Hubs allow you to create breakout sessions centered around the content covered during your event is a great way to increase engagement with your audience. These sessions can either be used to have attendees collaborate amongst themselves or be can be focused on a single host that communicates with attendees. For a closer look at how you can use the networking hub to build community around your brand, check out our Prequel, "How to use the networking hub for community building".
Action 7 - Tap the right host for your event
Picking the right host can make a huge impact on your event. Depending on what kind of event you plan on producing, you may want to consider utilizing an external thought leader or expert on your event topic. Or, simply pick someone with a big personality! Folks like these have a way of keeping viewers engaged just by being themselves.
Action 8 - Staff and train your moderators
Moderators and circle owners help keep your event from going off the rails. Depending on how many interactive features you plan on using like the chat, polls and Q&A, you'll want to staff an appropriate amount of moderators so that each one has their own delegated roles and responsibilities. Similarly, you may need multiple circle owners depending on how many Networking Hubs you plan on hosting and how many attendees you expect to join them. For more information about roles and responsibilities of moderators and circle owners, check out our Prequel "How to run a webinar".
Action 9 - Be ready to promote a follow up event
Before you even complete your first event, naturally we recommend that you start thinking about the sequel. Creating follow up actions throughout your event can prepare your attendees for what to look forward to in future events. And at the end of your event, tell them when the next one is and give them a preview of what to expect and how to tune in.
Action 10 - Iterate and test what works and what doesn't
There's always room for improvement on your virtual events, especially if you're running it the first time, and that's OK! Take note of the things that worked really well so you can replicate them in the future. But most importantly, document the challenges you faced. For example, if you had unexpected number of attendees who were contributing a large amount of chats and your one moderator was struggling to keep up, next time consider adding two.
There are tons of strategies you can leverage to make sure all your events are successful but we recommend starting with these.
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