Event Marketing describes the process carried out to promote an event, whether it is a presentation, a seminar, or a fair. No matter the kind of event, its characteristics, or its aim: if we do not know how to efficiently promote it or get to our target audience, all our efforts will be in vain.
An event offers a unique opportunity for users to interact with brands and get a clear idea of the approach, perspective, and personality of a business. In fact, nowadays customers are not satisfied with just an explanation of the advantages of a product or service: They want interaction in order to gain a thorough understanding of the alternative they are being offered, evaluate, and choose the correct option.
With that said, Event Marketing is crucial, as it combines an action strategy aimed at promoting, with the objective of attracting a considerable audience and achieving high ROI.
Within online events, there are several ways of carrying out virtual event marketing. Each of them has its own characteristics and requirements when promoting it, but all have been established on the same basis: the interaction of the attendees with the company.
Virtual meetings eliminate physical boundaries, allowing for geographically dispersed attendees to reunite and, thus, easily draw a bigger audience. The most common virtual events and the greatest allies of marketing specialists are:
- Webinars
- Meetings based on presentations, debates or workshops which take part online. They can be in real-time or on-demand.
In the former, interaction between participants is enabled and they are given the opportunity of receiving or discussing information concerning a certain topic through different web tools.
- Live Streams
- These are meetings or presentations that take place in real-time and are streamed.
Just like in webinars, these kinds of events also provide attendees with the possibility of interacting through chats or social media, thanks to which we can get our audience involved from the start. Although this is not true for every case, as there are occasions where participation is not possible.
- Virtual Events
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These are the most comprehensive in terms of interaction. Virtual worlds are the greatest allies for event planners, as the irruption of this new technology in corporate events has caused the emergence of immersive, innovative, and unique experiences.
- We can find companies like Virtway, which use the resources provided by virtual worlds in the best way possible, to recreate abstract situations while maintaining great realism. Thus, offering virtual events with interactive 3D avatars. These avatars mimic each of the participants and allow us to create interactive scenarios where it is possible to communicate.
The advantages of virtual events, no matter if it is a conference, virtual training activities, webinars, online conferences, or any other more complex type of meeting, are endless. Likewise, endless (or almost) existing marketing strategies, result in lower costs and a greater outreach than regular advertising campaigns.
3 REASONS TO USE VIRTUAL EVENT MARKETING STRATEGIES
Companies choose to participate in an event for several reasons. Virtual events for businesses have different aims. A small business, for instance, may go for the possibilities given by a webinar to connect with its audience, while a bigger enterprise may need the face-to-face interaction that virtual fairs offer.
However, all these events have three essential objectives that Event Marketing representatives pursue. These are the main reasons for a company to plan, organize, and promote a virtual event:
1. Build and position the brand while creating awareness
Virtual Event Marketing strategies are infallible tools to advertise your company and position it in an increasingly competitive market. Through virtual events, it is possible to increase brand awareness share ideas, and communicate directly with our target audience.
This is where social media takes on an important role. We can begin with the common Twitter and Facebook posts, but we should go a step further and take advantage of Instagram and TikTok potentials to give our audience a sneak peek of where the event will take place and who will be in charge.
It is also interesting to use social media content to include information about the event through videos, connection tutorials, registration information, or interactive guides.
2. Lead generation
Another important reason for companies to participate in virtual events is to generate leads. This is the top priority for marketing representatives, and not in vain: attracting potential clients and stimulating their interest in the offered services or products is a fundamental step for any business.
In this sense, planning a virtual event has an enormous potential to attract and generate warm leads. Without geographical barriers or time limitations, this kind of event ensures a great information exchange and has turned into a gold mine for Event Marketing.
3. Create solid relationships with the clients and increase sales
When promoting an event, the digital environment allows you to reach a broader number of users while requiring a lower investment, and the immediacy of online sources will allow access to hundreds of people who may become loyal followers of your company.
In this respect, a virtual event offers a high level of commitment with the client, as it allows highly personal interactions despite the remoteness.
Moreover, these events give us real-time access to the assistant’s data, which provides marketing representatives with useful information about ROI. Thus, giving them the chance to study and improve the quality of present and future events.
All in all, virtual events should be part of every company’s marketing strategies. And to advertise them, we should bear in mind some key objectives.
The essence of these events makes it possible to achieve these objectives, thanks to the creativity, the level of interaction of virtual events, and the possibility of consulting results in real-time. These elements ease the tasks of the Event Marketing representatives, not only when promoting these online events, but also for ensuring the highest ROI.
