As more and more events are looking to move online, it has become more important than ever to make sure that if you choose to do so, you’re creating a great experience. Taking an event that might have traditionally been held in person and moving it to an online platform can be a bit tricky, but there are some major benefits in making that happen. As long as you have done your research and know how to keep your audience engaged, you can make it truly special.
Here’s some tips for moving your live event online.
Raise your marketing efforts
While you might have been able to get by marketing your event with posters, some social media promotion, and word-of-mouth, marketing an online event is a little bit different. Social media will become your way of reaching new people and encouraging them to share information and interest about the event. This might mean that you have to increase your ad budget and consider which platforms would be the best to promote your event.
Promote on several channels
Likewise, once you have nailed down which channels would be best for you and how you want to go about promoting your event, you’ll want to think about which channels will reach your ideal attendees. You’ll want to consider their demographics, interest, and the likelihood that they will be on a certain social media platform. It’s not worth your time, effort, and budget to market on LinkedIn when you are trying to reach a younger generation to attend an online concert. On the other hand, you also want to make sure you’re not missing a group of people that might be interested.
Send out info to join
Once your attendees have filled out their billing information with WordPress event plugins, you’ll want to make sure that you have a dedicated email that gives them everything they need to join the event at the right time. This will most likely include your typical information at what time to join, but it should also include a link to the content (and potentially a password to encourage people not to share it with others for free). You might also want to have chat support available in case anything goes wrong and attendees need help logging on.
Run a test
You’re also going to want to run a test to make sure that everything is in place for you to run the event without a hitch. You’ll want to set up sound and video equipment and make sure that there won’t be anything blocking the performers or speakers. Just taking a few minutes before can help you determine whether you need to make adjustments before things start in order to make it the best event possible.
In summary
Moving your event from a stage or conference room to online doesn’t have to be difficult, but it does require some creative thinking and being willing to try something new. By planning ahead, you have the opportunity to still run an event that is successful and satisfies attendees.
