6 SIMPLE WAYS TO PROMOTE YOUR VIRTUAL EVENTS IN 2022

6 SIMPLE WAYS TO PROMOTE

YOUR VIRTUAL EVENTS IN 2022

A Guest Blog Post By Itamar Gero

Live videos take care of two critical business needs: immediate interaction and better conversions.

By 2022, they’ll become even more crucial as more marketers include them in their strategies and definitely don’t want to be left behind.

When you create virtual events, you not only leverage the benefits of live engagement but also gain access to new potential consumers and a way to market your products and services online.

But like every digital marketing tactic, you generate buzz and achieve results only if you approached the project correctly.

Success happens when you have a strategic plan that responds to the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing, especially where the promotion of your event is concerned.

So, let’s get started.

1. Create Landing Pages That Convert

Create a page dedicated solely to the event where everyone can go and learn about it.

A well-crafted landing page can convince readers or potential attendees to get excited about the event and eventually sign up.

Attract people by adding high-quality photos of your speakers or performers.

Add relevant videos and other forms of media to establish curiosity.

Provide the following essential information:

Event Time and Date
Event Description
Agenda
Speakers
Sign-up Links
Sponsor Information
Secure Payment Options (if necessary)

2. Use Email Marketing

One of the best ways to advertise your event is to implement an email marketing campaign.

Send out newsletters or a link to your landing page to your email list to build anticipation among your captured market.

Here are some best practices you can use when implementing your email marketing campaign.

Narrow your audience

Curate your email list and send invitations only to your target audience.

Being thoughtful of who you send the email to is going to be important in the success of your email campaign.

Sending to more people does not mean you’re going to get more registrations.

A curated email list will yield better engagements or sign-ups and fewer opt-outs.

Have a simple but clear call-to-action

What you don’t want to happen is for a user to open your email and wonder what they’re going to do next.

Links and buttons should be clearly visible to make it easy for potential attendees to follow your desired action.

Send the email at the right time

Promote your event 3 to 4 weeks in advance; some events that require less preparation, you can choose to send out invites two weeks before the event.

Sending an email reminder the day before the event is also important as it’s a way for you to fight attrition and make sure that your registrants don’t forget to attend.

Make sure it follows current compliance standards

Because your promotional email contains a commercial message, it must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.

It protects consumers from fraud and marketing they’d rather not receive.

Send a follow-up email

Once your event is over, don’t forget to send a follow-up email.

Reach out to the attendees for the last time by sending a thank you note.

You can use this opportunity to get feedback or promote another event.

3. Create Contests Or Have Giveaways

You could run a variety of contests on your website or social media channels, but your tactic will depend on what channel you’re going to use.

For example, when it comes to Instagram, leverage the visual nature of the platform by building your contest around people posting photos.

Create a hashtag they can use or have them include something related to your event in their photos.

Make your terms and conditions clear, and don’t forget to include a prize that people actually want.

Another idea is to use email to give your subscribers some perks.

This adds an exclusivity factor as this offer is limited to subscribed users.

Give out discounted tickets or freebies that they could only get if they’re on your email list.

4. Optimize For Search Engines (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) enhances your web page so that it’s primed to rank high on search engines for keywords that are relevant to your campaign.

SEO results and website ranking don’t happen overnight.

If you don’t have the resources or lack the know-how, agencies specializing in SEO services will allow optimization of your landing page, helping you focus on the live event instead of its promotion.

SEO is about:

Knowing what queries your target audience use and using the right words to lead them
to your page.

Creating the right content that aligns with the keywords or queries that the user is
looking for and that can boost brand awareness.

For example, an event cooking and recipes will have people looking up “culinary events” or “live cooking events,” so insert those phrases in your page when creating your content.

In 2022, however, your keywords also need to be conversational queries.

Voice search is gaining appeal, so people are speaking more than they’re typing.

With Google working on LaMBDA, an advanced AI model designed on dialogue, your keyword research needs to focus on longtail, conversational, question-type terms.

5. Use Social Media Platforms

Aside from search engines, leverage the power and reach of social media to promote your virtual event.

Plan a catchy copy or have your team design an engaging event poster that you can post on all your company’s social media accounts.

Explore which platforms are right for your target audience and your live event:

Facebook.

Facebook has Facebook Events where you can post your event and easily
share it.

They also have a feature that lets you track registrants.

Linkedin.

An appropriate platform to promote events to a more professional audience
since you can use ads, groups, or promote on your own company page.

Twitter.

hashtags are an effective way to gain attention and shares.

Use Twitter to spread the word to people who might be out of your scope.

Twitter is also a good medium to update people about what’s happening before or during the actual event.

Instagram.

The visual medium is ideal for sharing teaser images and engaging attendees or potential attendees with stories containing behind the scene videos or
photos of speakers and event preparations.

6. Ask Your Speakers To Spread The Word

Request your speakers to do a bit of promotion.

Some keynote speakers will promote themselves automatically, however, some may need a bit of a push.

Provide them with the complete information, including when to start an announcement on their social media pages.

Your event sponsors could also be tapped to promote the live-streamed event.

Keep audiences informed, engaged, and excited

Work on your promotion strategies consistently up until the start of your event.

People who registered should continue looking forward to the day of your event.

So keep them engaged, or else they will forget about your event.

Sustain the connection and engagement by sending a “thank you” email after the event.

Add a link to a full recording of the live stream because some of your attendees may want to rewatch it.

You can also make the virtual event accessible to those who did not make it to the event but cut the running time down to suit those who will watch it for the first time.

With 84% of people likely to buy a product or get a service after watching a video, repurposing your live stream into a short video makes good business sense.

A shorter video of the live-streamed event also ensures attendees that they received the more exclusive content.

For 2022, optimize your videos for clip markup and seek markup.

Google introduced these new structured data types to help you come up with key moments from your videos.

And they will eventually become crucial to ranking for key terms.

Promoting and advertising an event requires time, but the result will be worth it.

As long as you run a consistent and solid promotional campaign and make sure to keep attendees interested, you’ll likely see favorable results from this marketing strategy.

Meet Itamar Gero

Itamar Gero is the founder and CEO of SEOReseller.com, a global white label SEO and digital marketing solutions provider that empowers agencies and their local clients all over the world.

When he isn’t working, he’s traveling the world, meditating, or dreaming (in code).