How to Promote Your Organisation at Virtual Shows
Some of us may be new to the promotion of virtual shows and events… so here are 12 tips on how to do so for maximum show ROI.
For many of us, our marketing plans have been turned upside down. The event booking, content and subsequent strategies and tactics, along with our alignment with the sales team for the year have all needed to be re-evaluated.
Fortunately, we have been given a lifeline via virtual shows. As an exhibitor, virtual events can actually demonstrate clearer ROI when compared to physical shows, with content available for long-term use and arguably more efficient. We conclude this post with exactly why virtual events can actually be better and sit better within our new-look marketing plans.
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Virtual shows (anything digital) are very accessible which means potentially more awareness and leads generated. But we’re in unfamiliar territory. Many of our science-based clients have never managed virtual events before, not to mention promote one. In this post, the latter will be our focus of attention.
Let’s look at 12 ways to promote your organisation at virtual shows for maximum ROI.
1. MAKE EVERYTHING RELATED TO THE SHOW PRESENCE FUN
Without the human interaction that comes naturally within physical shows, show organisers and virtual exhibitors need to work a little harder to engage with show delegates. These delegates are going to be alone on their desktops, but that doesn’t mean that delegates need to be lonely. Twiddling their thumbs. Show guides, and your contributions within, should be engaging, sometimes light-hearted, and fun. Make it impossible for a delegate to not want to visit your virtual booth and engage with whatever you have on offer. Interactive content, 360-degree videos… do whatever you can to bring that delegate to your virtual booth and engaging with your content and organisation.
2. UNIQUE BRANDING TO BE REMEMBERED
Standing out from the digital show crowd is difficult, just like it is anywhere online. Without prior engagement and build-up, it’s almost impossible. There is, however, an opportunity here to stand out by developing a sub-brand for your new virtual show presence, and for the other virtual shows in the foreseeable future. Speak to your design team or agency about developing a sub-brand for your show presence that takes your logo, colours, look and feel, messaging and tone to a new level that aims to be seen and remembered by those just browsing within the virtual show. Give it a life of its own and be creative.
3. PRE-SHOW PROMOTION
Just like any pre-show build-up, early promotion will usually lead to better outcomes for the organisation at the show. But the difference here is that your sales teams will not conduct any of this promotion; they are likely not to be in attendance. We meet at shows for face-to-face networking, but scheduling virtual meetings might not happen so much during the virtual show - it can happen anytime. Most marketing automation software, such as SharpSpring, has a live calendar widget allowing prospects to automatically schedule a meeting with your sales team if required. The focus should be at this point, however, on promoting some of the content which will be accessible during (and after) the virtual show, such as recommendations, downloadable content and other snippets of show activities.
4. PRODUCE SHOW CONTENT (AND LOTS OF IT)
Virtual shows mean that you lose the ability to get face-to-face, and therefore, to gauge where attendees and prospects are in relation to their interests in your products. So, within virtual shows, you will have to rely on the attendees deciding for themselves what sort of information about your service offering they are looking for, if any at all. Having a variety of content readily available for access during the virtual show is vital in this respect.
Ensure that all content is packaged into accessible e-books - content that addresses all stages of the traditional buyer’s journey. Educational and product/service-focused content is certainly required, but can you offer more fun (even friendly and light-hearted) content which delegates can engage with during the virtual show? Videos are great, and so are quizzes and competitions. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel here, just take the things you would normally do offline, online. The content created for the show can be re-purposed and used in different ways before the show takes place to promote the virtual show presence and generate leads.
5. POST-SHOW FOLLOW-UPS
The need for post-virtual show follow-ups is greater than ever to ensure that organisations and exhibitors make the most of such shows from an ROI perspective. Sure, you lose the ability to meet face-to-face but you can prompt that follow-up conversation, either via Skype, Teams, Zoom… or whichever platform you prefer. This could be easily done on-the-go also. Here is where your sales team come into play.
But the follow up isn’t limited to the sales team. You can use marketing software to tailor the message dependent on whether a prospect attended the session or not, with either a personalised “thank you for downloading our content”, or a ”sorry you couldn’t attend our virtual booth, here is what you missed” message. Most presentations can be transcribed into a whitepaper or edited into a highlights package, re-purposing the content as such allows recipients to engage with content across different platforms, or view it from a different perspective. Can you personalise your post-show follow-up (via email) with some of the insight generated via the virtual event?
6. MAKE EVERYTHING ON-DEMAND
You’d think that ensuring that content is always available would be commonplace, but unfortunately, it isn’t. I cannot tell you how many times I have gone to access show-based content only to be met with a 404 page or a message to say that the content has expired with no other option to get access to the content, or in fact, any other content to satisfy my needs at that particular moment. Physical events are demanding, and often digital/supporting content goes overlooked leading to instances like the above. This cannot happen at virtual shows; ensure all your content in on-demand.
7. ASSIGN SHOW AMBASSADORS EARLY ON
As the Marketing Manager in charge of the virtual show - whether you are exhibiting or running your own virtual show - you will likely be left on your own to promote. Some of the ideas within this post will certainly help achieve this. But sometimes, you need a helping hand - without your sales team in full capacity, this can be difficult. Look to assign a member(s) of your sales team as ambassadors to help you generate interest for your content at your virtual booth. Sharing content on their social media profiles is a good start. Look further afield to your media partners, keynote speakers and other influencers - can you bring them onboard to help with the promotion?
8. CAPTURE ATTENDEE DATA/REQUEST DATA FROM ORGANISERS
You might feel that it is more difficult to generate leads via virtual shows and events compared to their physical counterparts. But this notion is incorrect. Digital will allow for lead generation to happen seamlessly via forms and gated content and the follow-up can be immediately provided you have accessed the appropriate contact details. Make sure all of your content is gated - asking for more information for heavyweight content (decision-based content) rather than lightweight content (awareness-based content). This is also the aim with your post-event promotions: to capture more data about your prospects.
If the show organiser is the same owner of the publication you have your bookings with, ask if you can still contact the pre-registered show audience digitally. Also, speak to the show organiser about accessing attendee data - as an exhibitor, you will be within your right to ask this question. So everybody that was registered to go to the event (your target audience) could potentially be contacted by yourself and your team.xLet’s look at 12 ways to promote your organisation at virtual shows for maximum ROI.
9. RUN DIGITAL ADS ON THIRD-PARTY CHANNELS
When promoting your show presence and content, digital advertising via third parties should not be overlooked. In fact, it is likely that your ROI will be generated via such tactics. Promoting your events on owned channels is recommended, but you will likely not see the same return as you will see from accessing a brand new audience and pool or potential prospects via paid media. Publishers and media vendors have a range of sponsorship and tactical offers available to help promote your content at virtual shows to their targeted list of subscribers - featured content, email marketing and banner advertising are the most popular.
10. MIX THINGS UP - GO FROM DIGITAL BACK TO PHYSICAL
Virtual shows offer the benefit of accessibility, as well as a range of those factors that make virtual shows so viable, yet, they still cannot replace the connections made via face-to-face. The follow-up process, once cold leads have been generated, should always be geared to achieve this personal connection. But I also feel that physical touchpoints can also be reached with the help of the virtual event presence.
In this respect, the virtual show objectives should always look to reach delegates and prospects back offline to where B2B business is still conducted. Face-to-face. Marketers can begin this process by requesting physical contact details - address and telephone - so that direct mail and other traditional marketing (such as sending freebies and physical brochures) can happen. Aim to mix things up from the start - never forget the very nature of B2B relationships in this industry.
11. ENCOURAGE SHARING (OF EVERYTHING)
Social environments - such as social platforms - are breeding grounds for the passing on of content between people. Virtual events have this at its advantage as the shows themselves are individual platforms that will allow for the sharing of virtually anything and everything. Make it easy to share your content with your registrants and attendees’ followers and friends within their networks. Offering incentives to do so over accelerates this process. Interactive content, freebies and competitions/games often does the trick. Each event-based touchpoint should include a subtle CTA for this sort of sharing.
12. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION IS PRIORITY
Events management company, Freeman, correctly state: “The days of passive audiences are over — audiences are more likely to engage with brands and organisations when it’s a two-way conversation. Consider tapping into a second screen solution to accompany the virtual or hybrid event. Try interviewing an attendee and letting them be the star during a streamed session, or get a large group involved in a dynamic chat room. What matters is letting presenters and audiences have the most intimate relationship possible.” No event dialogue within the physical environment is one-way but virtual shows will feel one-way by its very nature. Aim for two-way dialogue at all costs - the leads you generate will never become clients/customers otherwise.
MULTIPLE EVENT/SHOW PARTICIPATION FOR ROI
This post contains twelve considerations for promoting your science-based organisation within virtual events and shows They will all contribute to generating positive ROI for the investment you will make within such events.
The biggest factor for consideration when deciding to run virtual events, however, is to run a large number of them. The investment you make in creating content and creating processes - and mastering the above - to promote your presence can be used over and over and over at no extra cost. Every piece of content can be repurposed and made available to use on-demand for each show - making this content available via more virtual shows, and increasing the number of prospects engaging with this content, is key to the success of your virtual event strategy.
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.
