Since the COVID 19 pandemic, there is an increased desire to host virtual events. Hence, the competitive rivalry between Virtual Event Platform (VEP) providers. The key to succeed in the VEP business market is a unique online event marketing strategy. The strategy must increase engagement among attendees and develop a larger network for future events. Established network will be a key step in making your VEP stand out among other competitors. Word of mouth can always be an excellent opportunity to be recognized and what better way to attract attention then to have satisfied customers. Since word of mouth today is mostly “digitalized”, social media platforms and the Internet in general have a huge impact on success of VEPs.

The purpose of VEPs is to utilize virtual event planning from onsite event planning. You can save time and resources used to find the right venue and reallocate those resources in establishing the right marketing plan. Event promotion can be done though social media marketing, email marketing, ad-campaigns and other promotional tools which will be further elaborated.

Email Marketing:

The purpose of email marketing is to promote the event through email, but also as a reminder to join the event. Emails can be used as invitations to the VEPs. Reasons to use emails as a tool to attract customers is the fact that it is affordable, easy to user and it can be targeted specifically to a certain pool of people (from larger to mid-size scale of people).
Through email you can send exclusive ads, campaigns, newsletters or general information about your VEP. Emails can be sent prior to the event for promotional reasons and to attract as many people as possible, but also after the event to ask participants for feedback and ideas of improvement. Attendees will probably appreciate the follow up email and they will feel their contribution is appreciated and will be used to enhance VEP overall performance.
It is essential to have a proper set of emails that will be distributed as part of your online marketing campaign. Those would be announcement emails for your VEP, registration forms to join the VEP and reminders prior the event.
Event insight emails are also useful to customers to see how the actual VEP comes to life and see how everything looks as a whole.
To make the marketing through emails smooth and easy, you can use automation software or CRMs, so emails are sent at a specific time to specific target audience. This way everything will be done in a timely manner.

Social media:

Social media should be a number one priority for VEPs. Nowadays everyone is constantly “online” and integrating VEPs into social media platforms will increase the awareness of online events. There are different ways how social media can be used in a promotional aspect for VEPs. First example is Instagram stories, they can drive traffic to your VEP by building hype. It can be a short video or picture, but anything mentioning your VEP can be a good way for showcasing. Second way is live streaming, if your event is hybrid, meaning if some people are attending onsite and other online. Live streaming can portrait everything in real-time and market the event on various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn. It can also boost engagement during the event and be an informational tool for everyone. Another great social media tool is Facebook events because it is used to inform audience about the specifics of the event and gives an opportunity to interact with attendees. People can like, share and comment so in the end your VEP will be very recognizable.

Influencer Marketing:

Take advantage of the powers of an influencer. With their high number of followers and subscribers they will get the news about your VEP to a larger audience. They can reach beyond your target audience and boost attendance in general. It is always useful to get outside of your audience scope and broaden your horizons. Depending on the theme of the event with the help of influencers you can collaborate with other industry leaders who can be keynote speakers during the event. Influencer marketing will boost the attendance registration because your event will look more intriguing and interesting.

Google ads:

Keywords on Google are used to rank a business or any published content against its competitors. With the help of Google ads tool, you can discover what relevant keywords people are searching for regarding the theme of your event and incorporate those keywords in your event content. Google ads can be a promotional tool for VEPs and any events that VEPs host. You can research relevant words that are related to VEPs and incorporate them into your website and content in general and this will enhance your search potential. Your VEP website will be ranked higher on the Google search page and in turn be more popular than competitor’s.

Sponsors of the events spreading the word:

When sponsors of the event spread the word about using VEPs, it benefits stakeholders, VEPs and sponsors themselves. If sponsors notify their contacts about the event, it immediately boosts the attendance list. It is crucial that sponsors provide their contacts all the information about the event, social media details and any other content about the VEP and the event. The better that everyone is informed the more successful the event will be.

Final thoughts:

To sum up there are many techniques on how to promote VEPs and virtual events. The most important step is to have all information prepared and that those details are available to potential customers. Not everyone is the same and the more ways people have to obtain the information the better. Social media platforms have a huge impact in today’s world, and they are a major word of mouth. If you want people to be informed about your VEP you should engage in all social media platforms and in influencer marketing. Influencers connect users of social media platforms and companies that wish to be promoted to those target groups.
Whichever path you choose to obtain, always know your target audience and how to appeal to them. Having all the facts does the most of the job done in marketing virtual events.