When it comes to virtual events, the work doesn't stop once the event takes place. That's when it all begins.

You can get as much as 2x or 3x the number of registrants to your virtual event. You just need to ensure the content produced as a result of your event is repurposed into multiple bite size chunks to drive those registrations through blogs, social, email and your own community.

The key is to take the long-form content and break it into small chapters or “episodes.” Content takes the shape of a story that follows a plot and slowly reveals more to the viewer with each episode.

Creating content isn't always easy, but  it doesn't have to be complicated or costly either. By costly I mean, you don't have to be hiring production companies to do this for you.

Everything we knew about how to market a physical event is now being challenged. Everything we knew about marketing a successful digital event, is being challenged too.

Anybody that is running a virtual event (be it online training, webinars, meetups) has very likely seen their leads and signups skyrocket, even if they've never run anything online before.

Your event has been launched, everyone is excited, you have received plenty of interest and registrations have started to come through. GREAT.

BUT, at some point registrations slow down and suddenly 3 weeks have gone by and you have received NO registrations at all!

You hit the PANIC button, and everyone gets concerned.

What to do?

It is fair to say that LinkedIn Groups have lost steam and have become a junkyard of spam and can hardly be distinguished from the already crowded feed.

BUT there is one group that is run properly, vetted well and always has a very good source of discussions for event professionals worldwide The Event Planning and Event Management Group.

A recent discussion on the LinkedIn group got some momentum and I thought it would be worth sharing here.

An event prof user asked the question:
I’m just starting to design our exhibition stands for next year and wondered if anyone had any good tips or tricks for attracting people to your stand?

Since it is a question we are constantly asked and part and parcel of our day to day work, I wanted to share how we approach this question and objective.

"Our contact database is the lifeblood of our event business, without it, we are nothing"

Agree? If you do, are you really getting the most out of your prospect and customer database?

You are not alone. When I ask this question to CEOs and leaders of the event industry, 9 out of 10 people give me a categorical "No" or a "I don't think we do, certainly we don't know enough from our contacts; we could be doing more with it".

If your sentiment (or that of your boss) is aligned with the statements above, read on if you want to fix that for good.

A common trend among B2B companies developing online communities around their event topics, is that the marketing team does not have any influence on the content that is generated to drive engagement. A big mistake!

No matter how good a B2B marketer you are, events are a whole different ball game and the playing field is littered with potential pitfalls that can see even the most seasoned marketing professional burying their head in their hands. Luckily for you, we're sharing the 7 most common rookie event planning mistakes, along with our great free e-book that'll give you even more insight into things you should avoid.

There comes a time in every organisation’s lifecycle when a website redesign is staring them in the face, and it’s an occurrence you simply cannot afford to ignore.

This could be for a multitude of reasons such as a rebrand, a strategy overhaul, or just that it looks increasingly dated.

Don’t sigh with despair when this issue arises, grab the bull by the horns and make your website work harder for you; turn it into an unstoppable inbound marketing machine.

Here’s how to in just ten steps:

There are many ideas event planners use to stimulate engagement during the event. Some bring comedians, others commission Cirque du Soleil style shows, hire magicians etc... You name it and it has been done, especially in North America where events get additional, hype which I think is pretty cool.

I personally see the value events don't necessarily need to be serious and academic and networky all the time. Well, what if you could invest your money in something that will actually generate excitement, buzz, shares, a twitter frenzy, awareness and, more importantly, an everlasting memory of your event?

Try attempting to break a world record title and give yourself the chance to join the likes of Usain Bolt and Richard Branson by being in the Guinness World Records book!

So you’ve got a webinar coming up and as yet, no attendees. How do you get your registration numbers to skyrocket?

A webinar is a fantastic (and inexpensive) way of showing off your event hosting skills, and your credibility within the industry of your topic. What most event marketers do to get the increase registrations is blast non-targeted, non-personalised emails to the entirety of their database, which is of course ineffective.

So here are our top proven techniques to maximise your audience.

Many companies, particularly smaller ones, find it difficult to create their own content, and instead resort to curating, reusing or even copying content from other sources. Big no no. Doing this can be time consuming (for little or no reward), risky in terms of copyright issues, and your website may not really be advanced enough to host this kind of content.

We always recommend that companies create their own unique content, and if possible host their own regularly updated blog. But if this is not a feasible undertaking – for reasons relating to time, budget, or technical capabilities – it’s better to take action and join the content publishers than take a backseat and simply watch others succeed in this arena.

There are a number of different tools you can use to create your own bespoke news portal in less than one hour. Yes you read that right - under an hour. It’s the perfect way to provide your audience (both internal and external) with relevant and industry related content that you think will add value.

Most event companies we’ve engaged with have at least an understanding that something in the industry needs to change, even if they’re not sure quite what shape this change will take. They’re all scratching their heads as to how they can achieve greater levels of awareness for their events, drive delegate attendance, and increase ticket sales – and do so in a sustainable way.

The beauty of the online community is that it checks all the boxes. It is the only clear solution. Any conference organisation that isn't thinking about developing a community, generating good engaging content, pulling rather than pushing and recognising that there needs to be a different approach, is missing a huge opportunity.

Sometimes it’s easy for the marketing team to become an island, and as a marketer your job can feel like a constant battle to prove yourself, and the value of the work you do, to the business. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Some simple cooperation can encourage other teams to view yours as an equal, and can demonstrate to your boss just how much of an asset you are.

Every one is talking about it. This is our time, the golden age of marketing is almost here, and sooner than you think if you decide to step up and take it. There is huge opportunity for marketers to engage with broader areas of their businesses, and be THE change benefiting their function and the company as a whole, but on a much larger scale than normal. The focus is finally back on the customer, which is surely where we come in, but unfortunately there are still some significant hurdles to overcome.

So we’ve talked about what not to do in email marketing – now let’s address the positives. There are plenty of quick and easy techniques you can employ to ensure the content you so lovingly crafted actually connects with the prospects you intended it for! 

Most of your B2B prospects will receive countless messages about products and services, new content, conferences, discounts, offers, webinars etc. on a daily or possibly hourly basis (depending on how freely they share their email address). As a result, the key to increasing and sustaining your open rate is to stand out by being relevant, interesting and showing a genuine desire to help. Here are our best B2B email marketing tips to improve your metrics and ultimately win more quality leads: