8 Steps to Host a Successful Virtual Event

In this episode, I talk about:
✨  why you may want to consider hosting a virtual event for your business
✨ 8 Steps that will give you a good starting point to plan and host a successful virtual event

If you're reading this and you'd like to plan out a virtual event for your business, then this episode is for you!

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Transcript

0:00

What's up everyone? Welcome back to the marketing Nomad show. It's your favourite marketer and podcast host. My name is Prit, welcome to episode number 79, where I'm going to be telling you how to pull off a successful virtual event for your business. In this episode, I'm gonna go over why you may want to consider hosting a virtual event, not just that, I'm also going to be going over eight steps that I do have for you to pull off a virtual event for your business. Okay, now, yes, let's get into why I think you should consider hosting a virtual event. Now, I think the first reason is really obvious. And that is, given everything that's happened in the last two years, people are just a lot more comfortable attending events within the confines of their home. Not just that, I think that, you know, it helps them feel safer, people are not yet that open to being in extremely crowded places. And you know, there are a lot of regulations locked down. And even with respect to like Visa requirements, reefer visa restrictions, all of those things are happening are still in progress at the moment, as we are recording this podcast episode. So just keeping all of those in mind, hosting a virtual event might actually be a better alternative for your business, not just that if you have audience from like, maybe different parts of the country or different parts of the world. Like I said, given the visa restrictions, given the lock downs, all of those things, it just might be easier for you to host a virtual event. And I guess it's also I would say, a lot more accommodative to the audience that you have. Okay. So these are a few reasons why you might want to consider hosting a virtual event rather than an in person event. Of course, like I'm saying, I'm recording this podcast, when, when things are still a little uncertain, and all of those things. And, of course, I do hope that things get better and stuff like that. But at the same time, you know, people in the last two years have just been so accustomed to getting everything at their doorstep or within the confines of their four walls, that it's definitely something that is a trend. That was pretty unexpected. But at the same time, also, I guess, with, you know, the delivery services that people do have, it was also expected, but I think that the pandemic fastened the rate at which people were accepting virtual events, and you know, things being with things like them attending events, and them still experiencing life within the confines of their own home, if I can say that. Okay, so yeah, those are all the reasons that I do have for you. Now, let's get into the eight steps that I have for you today. Okay. The first and foremost step is, what exactly is your goal for hosting this virtual event? Okay, why are you hosting this virtual event? Are you doing it? Because you want to gain brand awareness? Are you doing it because you want to make yourself look like an industry leader? Are you you know, trying to launch your product? Are you getting people to attend? Are you trying to make sales? Are you trying to get people to refer you, there are so many different reasons why you might want to host a virtual event. And the minute you gain clarity on why exactly you are hosting this virtual event, it becomes that much more simpler and easier for you to structure the content of your entire virtual event. And you know, if you have to bring on speakers, it's just a lot more easier for you to plan out your entire virtual event, if you have a goal in mind, okay, and you become that much more laser focused. Like, for example, if increasing brand awareness is your only goal for the virtual event, then you know, you're probably not going to be bringing on other brands into your web conference, right? So like I said, there are different reasons and different ways that you can go about a virtual event. But having a goal can help you narrow down and make you detail out your virtual event that will actually help you achieve your end goal. Okay. So that is number one. Number one was, what is your goal? Now, number two is choosing your platform. And this not just I don't just mean you know, whether you want to do it on Zoom or YouTube or any other, you know, conference platforms there are available. They don't really come to my mind at the moment. But I also mean how exact Is this virtual event going to be? Are you going to pre recorded and then kind of post that it is live? Or are you going to let people know that this was pre recorded, and you can access it anytime it's a virtual event, but you can access it any at any given point throughout the day, or are you going to actually have a live virtual event that is happening in real time. So you've got to figure all of these things out. And different platforms offer different packages, and different I guess I would say, say specifications of how they can host your virtual event. So understanding the nature and how you want to pull off your virtual event might actually be a very good starting point. Now, for example, I'll just give you an example. If you want to pre record your lot, your virtual event, but you want to make it seem like it is live, you can use a feature that YouTube has, it's called the premiere feature where you put it as a premiere. And it is as though your video is live, even though it's actually pre recorded. And you've uploaded it onto YouTube. And YouTube gives a premiere page, there's a live chat box that goes on when your event goes on, like the video goes live, even though it is pre recorded. So understanding the nature and how you want your virtual event to be is a good starting step for you to figure out which platform you want not just platform, I guess you also have to understand the tech requirements that you need, you know, the microphone, whether you have all of those resources on hand or whether you have to buy them or rent them out. So get a subscription also, like for example, if you are having more than three people, of course on your virtual event, then maybe you have to invest in the higher paid subscriptions of the platform, so many different ways that you need to think about this. And these are just a few examples. Okay. So when I say platform, I don't just mean platform. I also mean every aspect that comes along with the back end of the technical side, yes, not the back end, I guess I would say the technical side of hosting your virtual event. Okay. Now, number three is the day and date and I know you're probably going to look at me and like okay, well, what's going on the day and date is so obvious, I'm obviously going to pick a day and date. But that's not actually what I mean. What I mean is, you have to pick an appropriate day and date, okay, you have to pick a day and date and time. Sorry, that actually would be that I wait. I'm trying to think of how to say this. Okay. Um, so basically, what I mean is, when you pick your day, date and time, you need to make sure that your audience is actually receptive to your virtual event at that date and time. Let's say for example, I'll give you an example. You are hosting a web conference of industry leaders. Okay. So there's a moderator, therefore, other speakers from different companies, and probably one of your team member is also going to be a part of the conference. Okay. So if you host that event, on Sunday afternoon, a really lazy Sunday afternoon, your audience is probably not going to tune into that. Okay. I mean, it's a lazy Sunday afternoon, right? And here you are trying to kind of put things on work. And you know, people with a very good sense of work life balance, they're probably going to say, oh, no, no, no, I'm out. This is not No, I need my space, I need my time. So the day date and time that you do put out there needs to be at a moment that your audience is actually going to be receptive to the goal of your virtual event. Okay, so that is absolutely crucial. And you also need to check out if it clashes with any other major events that are going on, that your audience also might be interested in. And you definitely don't want to be clashing your event with maybe, you know, mega sale that's going on somewhere else as well. And it's just, you don't want to split your audience and due to all of those things, so it's just always better to understand and if it's a public holiday, is your audience going to be receptive to the goal of your virtual event? So that's just very important to know and understand. Okay? So when I say date, date and time I don't just mean setting, a date, date and time it has to be the appropriate Day, Date and Time For You or event. Okay, now we come to number four. So number one was what was your goal? Number two was the technical aspect of your entire event number three was the date and time. And number four is going to be your agenda. So when I say agenda, I definitely mean, you know, figuring out who's going to be the host, who's going to be the speakers at the event, what exactly are you going to be doing at the virtual event? What exactly are you going to be talking about? What is the sequence of events that are going to happen in that virtual event? You know, is it going to be all speakers? Or is it going to be multiple speakers or one speaker? Or is it just going to be a product launch where you just have pictures of your product, and then you want to talk about your brand mission, your vision and about you as the business owner. So there are a lot of different ways that you can go about it. But understanding how that entire event is going to unfold is definitely a very, very good step to take at this point. It's kind of like how you would do for an in person event as well, just that, for a virtual event, the only difference I guess, I would say would be that you need to make sure that your audience is not going to be bored, okay, because they're going to be sitting at their desk, in their homes or probably at their workplace. And as much as possible, you need to keep some sort of variety in the sequence of events, you need to keep it as I guess I would say it needs to be a format that they would actually stick around till the end. Because it's that's I guess the difference between an in person event and a virtual event is that when it's an in person event, you know, there's body language, there's like human to human interaction that's happening live, all of those things, there are people walking around, there's a lot of activity going around around you. So naturally, your attention stays a little bit longer. So as much as possible, the sequence of events, they need to be pretty smooth. For your virtual event. It needs to flow like one leading to the other. You need to I don't want to say you know, a story, but it has to be a story. Like, I don't know how else to explain it. It needs to take your audience on a journey. Wow. Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to say. I was kind of like struggling to find the right words. But yes, you need to take them on the journey, okay, of your entire event. So there needs to be a flow to your event. What Yes, okay. And now I'm in the flow. I was like, I was really wondering, like, how do I say story, but not in the way of a story because, you know, it's not technically a story, but it's like leading them in the flow of the event. Okay. So all of those things, you want to make sure that you are also setting expectations, you are letting people know what exactly they can expect, if it is 30 minutes of talk time by one speaker. And then you have three speakers, you want to let people know that, hey, you will be investing a good two hours of your time, this is where it breaks down. And you know, be as specific as possible, the more expectations you set, the more willing people will be to come to your virtual event. Okay, because the more information you can give them, the more comfortable they are with their time investment, because they know exactly what you know what's going to happen in your virtual event, they know, okay, two hours is not just gonna be wasted, I'm actually going to get something out of this, or the events are so interesting that I really do want to invest my entire time. All right, and when it when you've kind of figured out your agenda. So the next step is to reach out to your speakers to reach out to all the people who will be involved in the event. So your speakers, your host, your moderators, if necessary. And then if there is any, like, you know, if, for example, you are doing a product launch, and maybe you need someone out there to help you switch out the product to help you with your entire process. All of those things come under Step five, if you need approvals, maybe you have to send invites out. So this will be done a little bit in advance because it takes some time for your speakers to actually get back to you and say yes, okay, I approve. And then maybe there's a little bit of back and forth on what your expectations are for the speaker to speak at the event. And you know, there's a little bit there's usually a little bit of back and forth that goes on at this point. And then of course, they accept your invitation and then that's definitely a process it does take some time. So don't worry got to factor in the amount of time it takes to bring the people on for your event, okay, then we come to step number six. So once you've got the approvals, you have your agenda all set, everything on the back end at this point should be perfect, you know, you should have your resources all laid out, you should have an understanding of your budget, you should have a very good understanding of the investment that you will be making, or you've already made to keep those backend stuff in place. Okay. And that's when we come to step number six. Step number six is to promote it every single place. I'm not kidding, like, if you have few people on your email list, let them know it's happening, your social media platforms, even when you're meeting people in person, and you think that they're a good fit to be your audience, definitely let them know, don't hesitate from promoting. I know, one of the biggest hesitations that I see with my clients especially. And, you know, business owners, of course, is that they think that by promoting too much, they might annoy people. And here's the thing, you know, when you have an event, and, you know, you kind of give a heads up, I think that setting expectations is like the best thing ever, like, if people are on your email list, and probably you've never emailed them, or you probably email them once a month with a newsletter, you might want to let them know, Hey, we have this event coming up, there'll be a higher volume of emails on our end, if you are not interested, you can subscribe off of getting information from the virtual event, but you will still be accessible to the other emails that come from us. Okay, so that's usually a really good thing. I always believe that setting expectations and letting your customers and your audience know what's going to happen and what to expect is always a good place, especially if you feel scared that they might get annoyed, the same thing you can do with your social media platforms, whenever I have a launch, I always give a heads up on my social media profiles, I let them know, Hey, I've got a launch coming up, there's going to be a higher volume of me talking about my products, and me actually selling what I do. And you know, like my services, and you know, that generally has given me a very positive response, like people know, okay, well, she's gonna be promoting, and either they are interested or you know, this day a little bit clearer. If they're not, they're not really into what I am offering at the moment, okay, but setting that expectation really helps them stay with you long term, they might not be interested in the event, but they will hang on to your business. And they will be really, really, really respectful that you actually considered their thoughts and their feelings. Okay. So yes, I guess, in conclusion to that, I think I want to say that, yes, I do understand where you're coming from, when you say that you are worried. And that's a really good sign that you are worried about your audience, you know, getting pissed off or getting upset or frustrated, that shows that you are a really good business owner, because you care about them. So I'm just saying that you put that care into actionable steps and just set expectations and everything should be okay. All right. So when you are promoting, you know, encourage people to attend the event, you know, let them know why they should attend the event, not just why they should attend. But what exactly is making your entire event so different? What makes it, you know, the most awaited event of the year, and you can also talk about the benefits that they will get from the event. This is something that I have personally done for my own virtual events that are hosted over the last three years and talking about the benefits, like what exactly will be achieved by the end of the virtual event has been a game changer, because the minute they understand, Okay, well, sometimes they'll read the agenda, and then there'll be like, okay, yeah, well, this speakers talking about this, that speakers talking about that. But when you actually list the benefits, they're like, Oh, hey, I can learn this. This is how this will make a difference to my life. That is how this speaker is going to change how I view life or how I, you know, make a difference to my life. So as much as possible, especially with your flyers and your online announcements, you want to mention the benefit, okay, what are they going to get out of your virtual event? And sometimes, it might not really be an actual educational benefit. Like for example, if you are holding a product launch, then maybe you want to host a very special giveaway that Will, that's a benefit to only the people attending your virtual event. Okay. And on that note, that brings me to step number seven. And as much as possible, you want to make your entire event very engaging, okay? Because like I said, when it's an in person event, there's a lot of activity going around you as a person if you are in the audience, but when it comes to an A virtual event, there's just not a lot of activity going on around the person, because they're usually in their home, when they're watching this or at work. And that atmosphere, it can really detract their attention from you. Yes. So as much as possible, you want to make it engaging, you want to keep asking questions in between your virtual events, and encourage people to answer them in the chat and encourage people to talk to each other in the chat. You can even ask people to stay sorry, share a screenshot of your event, and then share it on social media pages, you can host a giveaway, you can host a lucky draw. For the people who have stuck around until the end, there's so many different ways that you can go about creating an engaging event. But the most that I have found personally to be like, really, really engaging, is asking questions in between, you know, related to your topic and getting people to talk to each other in the live chat. And it doesn't have to be really complicated. You can even ask, well, like, where are you from? Or what time? Is it in the location that you are in? What is your name, put your name in and your job description? Or put your name in? And how old are you or put your name in? I mean, of course, people might not be receptive to that. So you have to be careful, depending, like I said, it depends a lot on the virtual event that you are hosting. Like if you're hosting a probably a, a meet and greet dating event. That's virtual, then yes, of course, if you were a relationship coach, and you want to do something of this sort, then yes, you know, that would be a good idea to say name and age. And then if you were hosting a product launch, then maybe you want to tell people well name and maybe where they're from, what location they're from, and one exciting thing about their country or their city, you know. So as much as possible, you want to get people to talk to each other in the live chat, you want to get people to interact with you, as well. Don't forget to ask them constantly to reach out to you for any questions, and that you will have a support team looking out for their questions as well. All right, so that is number seven. And number eight, I guess kind of ties in with promotion. But it is also super important. And that is reminders like you have to make sure that you are reminding people that hey, there's this event, it's coming up, here it is, please do attend, we really want you there, these are the benefits, these are the transformations that you will see in yourself after attending this virtual event. Okay, and one other like, I guess I would say eight B is after your virtual event is done. It doesn't mean that it's a done and dusted deal. What I personally have done in the past is make it a lead magnet. Okay, that's like a super, super easy and awesome way to grow your email list. So what you would do essentially is, for example, you have created the video of your virtual event, right? Now what you could do is either put it on YouTube, okay, make it unlisted, where people who have the specific link can, like can watch it. And then to get the link, all they have to do is give you their email address, and then you will send the link along to them. Okay. So this is usually good if like, for example, you've had a product launch. Or if you've had like an amazing web conference with industry speakers, and you know that people want to hear this, they probably may not have been able to attend it when it happened live, but you know that they really want to invest that time in taking a look at it. And yes, in those situations, it would be really, really good for you to create a landing page for it. Explain what happened at the event, get their email, and then show them the video. So many different ways that you can go about it. You can even put the video on your website, if that allows it and create like the sign in page for that exclusive content. All right, so that actually forms some sort of a lead magnet for you as well. So the virtual event doesn't just help you increase your leads. If if that was the case, because I'm pretty sure that when people are signing up for your virtual event, they definitely do give you their email address. So in a way even hosting a virtual event is It's sort of like a lead magnet. But it doesn't have to stop there, it can continue being a lead magnet even after the event is over. All right. So yeah, that is how you would pull off a very successful virtual event. Like I say, with all my marketing tips, it's always good to understand that these tips are a good starting point for you feel free to tweak them according to your industry, your niche, the kind of event that you are launching, or you are pulling off as well. And you know, the resources that you have on hand, the resources that you do not have the resources that you don't have access to, and of course, your own restrictions, limitations and your strengths, all of those things. Okay. Now, of course, if you need help with figuring out how to, you know, pull off a successful virtual event for your business, this is something that I can absolutely help you with. I am offering one on one power hour consultations at the moment. They are in the description box. It's basically 60 minutes of me answering your questions, and it's quick relief for all of your marketing and business questions. Of course, I am also offering long term marketing consultations as well. Like for example, if you need me for the entire period of creating and planning and developing your virtual event. I am also available for a service like that as well. Alrighty guys, thank you so much for listening all the way up until here. I hope you guys are doing super, super, super awesome. I will catch you guys in my next podcast episode. Goodbye.