Tips for Creating Engaging Virtual Events

Creating engaging virtual events is a great way to bring in-person events online while being able to deliver value to attendees and growing your business.

You’re able to save on event costs and get around operational restrictions (such as COVID-19) which makes virtual events all the more appealing for companies looking for ways to go digital.

Organizing an event for remote participants obviously has its challenges but, with the right event management tool, you can create engaging virtual events with ease. With this in mind, in this article, we’ll share some actionable tips to help you organize and launch your own virtual events.

Types of Virtual Events

In the broad sense of the term, virtual events are simply interactive, online events that bring industry experts together to talk about a topic that informs your audience or solves a problem.

All sorts of companies can organize virtual events – whether they sell products, services, training programs, or memberships. Similarly, businesses can host events to attract targeted leads, generate buzz, create networking opportunities, and establish themselves as an authority in their niche.

Here are some popular types of virtual events:

• Online classes and workshops
• Virtual conferences
• Webinars
• Interviews and performances
• Conferences and shows

And here are some examples of virtual events:

5 Tips for Creating Engaging Virtual Events

Here, we’ll step through some actionable tips on creating engaging virtual events for your business and share some tools to help you get started.

#1: Get the Word Out About Your Virtual Event

Once you’ve decided to take your event digital, the first thing you need to do is get the word out about the upcoming virtual event. This will help you convince more people to attend the event and drive online registrations. It’s also a great way to encourage past attendees to register for the virtual event.

Here are some actionable tips to keep in mind:

Determine your virtual event’s key selling points and create a clear value proposition. The Art of Conversation event, for example, does this by highlighting the purpose of the event and explaining who it’s for.

A huge benefit of running a virtual event is that you can maximize your digital event marketing efforts. From a practical standpoint, this means you should share the virtual event’s details via social media and email.

• Use social media posts and the “stories” format to get the word out about your event.
• Leverage word of mouth marketing by encouraging speakers to tweet about your virtual event or share event details with their Instagram followers.
• Be sure to use event hashtags in each social media post so it’s easy for prospective attendees to stay informed about virtual event updates.
• Send your mailing list the virtual event details along with a limited-time discount on tickets to drive registrations.

#2: Use the Right Virtual Event Solution

Using the right event solution for your virtual event can help you streamline online event registrations, ticketing, and marketing, saving you considerable time and effort.

At the bare minimum, good event management solutions for virtual events come with online event registration, attendee management, and built-in marketing features. Event Smart lets you create an online event registration website to manage registrations and sell tickets online for your virtual event. It’s the easiest way to set up and manage your entire virtual event.

One of the standout benefits of using Event Smart is that the platform works seamlessly with video call services like Zoom, Join.me, and Google Hangouts. This way, you can connect your conferences, webinars, and live streams directly to your event management solution.

Here’s a quick look at some of the key features on offer with Event Smart and how you can use them to power your virtual event:

• Online event registration. The platform comes with registration forms right out of the box to help you gather attendee information and automate the online event registration process. You can create individual questions or question groups to keep things simple on the back-end.
• Ticketing. Event Smart’s ticket selector lets you create and display multiple ticket options to registrants. You can share registration  details, the price per ticket, the remaining number of tickets per ticket type, and much more.
• Email marketing integrations. To automate the event registration process, you can use the Mailchimp integration to quickly transfer attendee information to your mailing list. This way, you can reduce manual work and automate your email marketing efforts.
• Confirmation emails. Event Smart lets you customize and send email messages and notifications to registrants and attendees for each event.
• Event calendar. You can use the built-in event calendar to showcase events in a calendar layout. This is especially useful for companies that organize multiple events or recurring events.

Be sure to check out our recommendations for hosting virtual events with Event Smart for more information.

#3: Include Live-Streamed and Pre-Recorded Content

When hosting virtual events, you need to think about how you’ll deliver the event content to attendees.

Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to include both live-streamed and pre-recorded content in your virtual event. You can share on-demand content after the virtual event to generate leads for your business. In addition to this, attendees can also access it whenever they’d like.

Zendesk, for example, created a Relater digital library after their 2020 virtual event so visitors could view the presentations on-demand:

Here are some ideas on how to include a mix of content in your virtual event:

Encourage session speakers to pre-record their presentations. This way, you’ll have a library of video content to help you generate leads. Have your high-profile keynotes host live-streams to encourage people to register for the event. For example, you can have one or two live-streams per day along with a few pre-recorded presentations.

#4: Set Up Activities for Participants

One of the major problems event organizers have with hosting virtual events is the apparent lack of in-event activities for participants. They’re important for keeping attendees engaged with the event rather than encouraging them to tune out.

Tools like Zoom and Join.me have built-in features that let you set up Q&As, polls, and surveys for your events. This is a great way to encourage in-event participation and keep attendees motivated throughout presentations. In addition to this, you can also share downloadables before the event to keep attendees busy. For example, you can create worksheets, handouts, or sponsored collateral for your virtual event.

Depending on the type of event you’re hosting, you might even consider using tools like Slack, Discord, or Reddit for pre-event or post-event engagement. For example, you can host AMA (ask me anything) sessions with keynote speakers. Alternatively, you can set up polls and surveys on Twitter or Facebook.

#5: Create Virtual Networking Opportunities

Successful and engaging virtual events incorporate elements of live, in-person events that appeal to attendees, such as networking opportunities. Creating virtual networking opportunities is important because it delivers immediate value to attendees. This is a great way to encourage more people to attend the event and build an online community around it.

Consider creating a Facebook Group or Twitter List to facilitate virtual networking opportunities. This way, attendees can connect with other event participants before, during, and after the event. You can also set up a Slack channel or Discord channel for your virtual event to enable chat features for attendees. For example, you can organize the chats by topic or by networking goals.

Conclusion

Creating engaging virtual events is great for all sorts of businesses whether they’re used as an alternative to in-person events during a global health crisis or to save on event costs. It helps to take the time to plan out your virtual event and choose the right event solution to power it.

Looking for a powerful event solution to organize and manage your virtual event? Get started with Event Smart today!