How to Create an Engaged Digital Audience Before, During and After a Virtual Pharma Event
learning about your audience - and knowing some simple tips, will help you continue to offer your audience value during events.
Virtual and hybrid events are part of today’s pharma marketing landscape and most likely here to stay for some time yet, if not for good. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed people in the way of virtual events but you don’t want people getting bored of them.
With many people talking about digital event fatigue, how can you stand out and get people to register and more importantly, keep your audience engaged before, during and after the event? Here are some tips from our team to help you along the way.
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Prior to the event
Build interest in your event to ensure you get the right people to register. If no one wants to attend then there is no point in hosting an event. You wouldn’t have a party if you knew no one would be there - it’s like having everyone RSVP.
Social media campaign
Have a social media campaign on your own social media platforms that links to your landing page. Make sure your message includes what the event is about? When the event is? Where is it? Why is it important for you? Why should you not miss this event? How to register (easily and quickly) – you don’t want to lose people at this very important stage by making it complicated to sign up.
Third-party social media
Try a third-party social media campaign to promote the event, include a link to your landing page (SharpSpring) – but choose the media partners carefully. Your specialist agency can help you with this. Include information about the event in specialist e-newsletters with an image and short text box, with a link to your landing page.
Targeted e-blast
Consider a targeted e-blast to promote the event and drive registrations. It’s a good idea to consider not only emailing your own list but also using a third-party media vendor so that you can get some new names to participate.
Make sure the e-blast goes to the right audience. There are third party media vendors who offer clear segmentation geographically, by company type, job role etc. We can help you create an e-blast that stands out and gets people excited about your event. Just ask!
Video promotion
Depending on our budget and how much time you have to prepare for the event, you may also wish to consider things such as promo videos, with a few clips of the venue, speaker(s), sneak peeks, a teaser of the topic etc. We can help you create short event promo videos – let’s get creative!
During event
On average, people have quite a short attention span during presentations, which also applies to virtual events. The attention span of a typical audience lasts about 7 minutes before you run the risk of losing them. You might get 10 minutes if the topic is especially of interest, or just as little as 5 minutes if you end up being presented in that sleepy post-lunch period.
Think TED Talks and the 18-minute limit. Of course, when we’re dealing with scientific and technical topics there is usually an audience that is interested and invested in the topic and the likelihood is you have their attention for longer, but it’s good to keep these studies in mind and maybe break up the presentation with one of the below tactics to ensure you keep them engaged!
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Encourage questions (Live Q&A)
You want your audience to know that you are skilled in the topic you are discussing. When you encourage the audience to ask questions and are able to answer them it shows you know what you have been talking about.
Use a chat function
Some people get uncomfortable talking out loud. Make sure not to forget about the entirety of your audience - including a chat function will make sure these people are still involved. The chat function helps ensure you don’t miss questions you might not be able to answer during the live session. This chat function could provide some information about other topics people want to know about.
Create live polls
Live polls give you instant data to measure. You get in-the-moment feedback without having to wait around. You can measure the ROI right away and maximise the attendee engagement. It adds a little extra.
Tell stories
This will help you engage with your audience on a more personal level - meaning you can connect with your audience. Telling stories helps your audience understand the concept and message better, as well as remember it. Try making it funny (yes – even pharma professionals like a good joke!).
After event
People say that failing to prepare is the same as preparing to fail. Equally importantly we should say: Failing to follow up is preparing to lose them. Make sure your follow-up is timely, interesting, relevant and to the point. Thank them for participating, and ensure you remind them why it was important for them to attend and what happens next. Tell them about any relevant future events as well.
Make sure that you reach out to those who registered and were not able to attend on the day. Maybe also consider rebroadcasting and offer a couple of alternative dates. The recorded event link will also do if a rebroadcast event is not possible. Why not also going back to pre-event techniques and maybe do another social media and e-blast campaign on “Hey, guess what you have missed?” This is where you can use those tactics utilised during the event itself, such as the chat feature. Use those questions you couldn’t answer at the time to follow up with. Orientation Marketing can help you with all stages of event preparation and subsequent marketing tactics. Please get in touch!
For more on strategic marketing approaches to shows and events in the pharmaceutical sectors, and how we can help you, visit our section on event support.