How to improve your inbound marketing strategies through virtual events

Virtual events bring people together to discuss topics that are of interest to the attendees. When you host a virtual event, you create an online space for your audience to participate in real-time and engage with you directly. It’s as simple as sitting down at your computer or phone and opening an online video chat app like Google Hangouts, Skype, or FaceTime. However, to know how successful your event was and what your chances are for future events, look for other ways that virtual events can improve your inbound marketing strategies. Like using specialized virtual event platforms. In this article we’ll go through some important strategies inbound marketing can add to your virtual events as well as some benefits of hosting virtual events that you may not have thought of before. 

Inbound marketing as a strategy

The primary goal of inbound marketing is to guide customers through the different stages of purchase in order to increase brand awareness, generate leads, strengthen customer relationships and increase customer loyalty for the brand, product or service you are offering. 

The great advantage of online events is that you can accelerate your inbound marketing efforts in an event that lasts only a couple of days. You generate interest, build business validity through content, capture new lead information and close sales. All this on the same platform, saving you money and time. 

But what does this have to do with events and especially with virtual events?  

In inbound marketing, there are four stages that each contribute to your customer's buying cycle: 1) attention, 2) interest, 3) desire, and 4) action. You can take the same stages to your virtual event to make the most of the resources and attendees to your event. 

First, for your event to be successful and for you to be able to convert attendees into customers, you must be very clear about the topic and the objective of your event.  Creating interest in a specific topic must be your main goal, since this will be your point of attraction to gain your potential customers' attention and later the conversion and loyalty of your attendees during the event.   

Then, once you are super clear about what your potential customers are interested in and why they are attending your event, you’ll have to prepare how you are going to cover their needs during the event. Keep in mind that it is important for your business to choose the proper content you are going to share. You can upload and share short videos, e-Books or infographics. This material will be your tool to leverage your convert your potential customers into clients. At the same time, with a specialized virtual event platform, you will be able to interact with attendees through trivia, surveys, sweepstakes, which will generate a better experience and will lead you more easily to the loyalty path. 

Finally, it is important that you use the marketplace to finalize your strategy, therefore, the content you share during the event should also be focused on the sale of your product or service, show the benefits that the customer acquires once they buy your product or service, why it is useful or why they should buy from you and not from a competitor. Prepare different price plans, unique event discounts among other strategies to boost your sales. If not, you can also take advantage of the event to collect many leads and then start a marketing campaign. 

4 Benefits of Hosting Virtual Events 

1. Inbound Marketing ROI with Virtual Events 

Virtual events are perfect for growing your inbound marketing strategies. They’re low risk and high reward, allowing you to expand your audience and build communities without picking up any additional overhead costs. Plus, they can be scaled up and down accordingly. Businesses can use virtual events as part of their digital marketing campaigns to grow their online presence and attract new customers. They can also host virtual events to help strengthen their brand and improve employee retention and engagement. For example, you can use virtual events to create content around a specific digital marketing strategy. If you’re trying to grow your email list, another virtual event could focus on how to attract new subscribers. Alternatively, you can use virtual events to discuss conversion strategies and ways to improve customer service. 

2. Create Brand Awareness Through Community Building 

One of the biggest benefits of virtual events is how they can increase brand awareness. With the ability to host online video chats, you can create rich, visual content that tells your story and highlights your products and services. You can also create training videos, customer success guides, and more to help educate your audience on a particular topic and grow your customer base. By hosting virtual events, you have the opportunity to build communities and generate ongoing brand awareness. 

3. Improve User Experience (UX) Through Q&A Sessions 

Virtual events can also be used to increase your UX. When you host virtual events, you have the opportunity to provide curated content that teaches your audience how to use your products and services. This can improve user experience, and in turn, increase engagement rates and customer retention rates. 

4. Host Networking Events to Build Connections and Grow Your Audience 

Another major benefit of virtual events is that they’re great networking tools. In addition to creating short, concise content (to attract a large audience), you can also use virtual events as a way to meet new people and build connections through online networking. 

Wrapping It Up 

Virtual events are a great way to build your brand and generate new leads. They’re low risk, cost-effective, and scalable, allowing you to experiment with new content types without worrying about the overhead costs associated with marketing campaigns. Events are a great way to give your audience a look at who you are and what you do. The best part? They don’t take much time or effort. With virtual events, you can shape your brand message, create high-quality content, and build a community within minutes. Now that you know how virtual events can help grow your inbound marketing strategies, it’s time to get started. With the right setup, you can create engaging virtual events with minimal effort and investment. Keep reading to learn more about how to host successful virtual events.