A few months back, nobody would’ve even thought about numerous national and international events getting cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following specific schedules, various events used to return every year. The pandemic has turned the world upside down, due to which, event organizers are either postponing or cancelling their events. However, this problem has been resolved by many through the virtual commencement of their events.
To some, going virtual is still a difficult task, as many organizers are not properly prepared to digitize an event on such short notice. Most of them do not possess the required equipment or the knowledge for organizing such events on digital platforms and are thus, forced to postpone or cancel it.
However, with the help of technologically advanced tools, going virtual has become a lot easier for one and all. Conducting events on virtual platforms possesses various advantages, the top six of which has been mentioned below:
1. You Reach More Audiences
In the case of physical events, organizing companies have to calculate the ratio between the investment and the possible return. And, for relatively smaller companies with insignificant travel budgets, things get even more complicated.
While organizing a virtual event, companies do not need to worry about such things, as the total investment goes way down compared to physical events. And, amidst all this, companies get to reach out to potential audiences and build strong relationships with them.
Many big and small companies have shifted their scheduled programs to virtual platforms. Adobe shifted its annual summit to digital, which drew 17,000 people and the company’s official website received 450,000 visits on the very next day. IBM also shifted its annual Think Event to virtual and it drew 90,000 attendees, which is four times higher than the company’s in-person event.
2. You Earn More Media Coverage
Due to the global recession, media outlets are also shrinking, due to which many media organizations are hesitating to send staff for covering physical events. Thus, organizing physical events will limit the media coverage to be obtained by it.
You would also be wrong if you think that the media outlets aren’t looking to cover anything else outside the ongoing pandemic. Many journalists are looking for stories other than COVID-19 to keep the audiences aware of all the things happening around them.
If the event is hosted on digital platforms, then the media outlets get to run the story around it, without even spending anything that is required for covering physical events. This will encourage various media organizations and will help your company gain much-needed media coverage.
3. Digital Content Can Be Tracked
On some occasions, the results obtained from virtual events can lead to the content calendar of an organization for the rest of the year. Such events yield a lot of information that just cannot be consumed at once. Results obtained from the panels and keynotes can be repurposed into various formats to ensure that the audiences get to consume the content in different ways.
Releasing content online brings in a lot of benefits when it comes to tracking it. Physical events reveal which sessions are being each attendee, however, with virtual events, one can never track which session has resonated with each attendee. Audience segments can be organized to generate demand from the attendees and also content can be displayed alongside keynotes during virtual events. This will help in post-event working and creating a relationship between digital marketing and event marketing.
4. Marketing Can Be Widened
While organizing physical events, organizers, or event managers focus completely on the arrangement and successful commencement of the event. This shifts their focus from the bigger picture, due to which they tend to neglect the creation of a multi-channel exposure for the audiences. They get so consumed to the deadlines that they oversee the long-term tactics.
Hosting virtual events do not require the physical effort that is required while hosting a physical event. Thus, it allows the event managers to relax and put more focus on long-term goals.
5. Reach Of The Host (Hosts) Increases
The host/hosts of a virtual event can help a lot in engaging the audiences and casting a positive impact on their minds. Due to the availability of a real-time feedback system, the host can modify or re-shape his tone to make sure that the audiences get to enjoy a pleasant time. This demands creativity, smartness, and a fine sense of humor from the host/hosts.
The host’s main goal is to catch the attention of the audiences and increase brand awareness. Since virtual events do not impose any limitation on the number of audiences, the host will be able to spread the brand’s awareness to a large number of people.
6. You Reach Out To The Sponsors
Attracting investors/sponsors is one of the biggest revenues that an event can drive. It can be efficiently done by creating a great buzz around the event and engaging a larger number of audiences.
With virtual events, you can personalize your company’s strategies to draw the attention of particular investors or sponsors, so that your business can flourish.
However, the recent scenario regarding sponsorship for events has changed over the past few months. Many companies have stated that sponsors are offering 1/4th or half of what they used to offer for physical events.
This has led to a bit of concern for the organizers, yet this deficiency in investment can be compensated due to the low budget required for conducting virtual events. Once the sponsors witness rise in the engagement drawn by the virtual event and proven ROI related to it, they will start investing more for the next virtual events. With the help of URL analytics tracking, the sponsor will be able to create customized customer journeys through the internet trail of any virtual event attendee.
These points will certainly help your business to stay afloat in this competitive market. Virtual events have brought in benefits to many companies, and your company can be the next.
