MARKETING VIRTUAL EVENTS ONLINE: MEETINGS AND MORE

As marketing speakers and futurists, we’re frequently asked: What’s the best way to market and promote online meeting and event programs? Luckily, the answers are nowhere near as complicated, costly, or time-consuming as you may think. Simply click on the photo below to download a handy guide to online and virtual meeting event marketing that we put together for our friends at Meetings Today magazine.

Looking for a short summary? Like marketing speakers and advertising gurus know, some of the simplest ways to promote and advertise online conferences and virtual event programs are as follows:

• Get creative with programming and content formats, whether you look to create exclusive fireside chats, host VIP invite only roundtable dinners, or live stream online cooking classes and wine tastes for viewers.
• Crowdsource input, feedback, and contributions from your audience, which not only allows you to quickly and cost-effectively scale efforts, but also get audiences more involved and boost the amount of content that you can be producing.
• Leverage word of mouth marketing to reach the widest audiences, capitalizing on influencers’ and thought leaders’ reach to help you spread the word, and offering these individuals incentives to share and talk about your online gathering.
• Add surprise cameos and guest appearances from notable individuals who’ll surprise and delight meeting attendees, and get your guests talking, while also adding unique perspectives and insights to these programs.
• Capture content from your gathering in video, written, and podcast format, then build archives and online platforms where this information can be shared and passed along by potential attendees, and used to drive media awareness and attention.
• Provide audiences with unique benefits and takeaways for your attending your program, using preexisting content or covered discussions to create eBooks, whitepapers, video training couses, and more that you can distribute and share all year round to raise attention and awareness.

Clearly, there are many unique and original ways to promote digital and hybrid meetings, or online event and conference programs. Don’t forget. The more creative and unique you are in how you choose to package and present these offerings, the more successful that you will ultimately be.