Effective Marketing for Your Online Events to Reach Larger Audiences

Are you hosting an online event? Once the technology is in place to deliver a professional quality webcast, you want to set the stage to attract the largest qualified audience you can. By combining account-based marketing (ABM) with existing clients, along with Google and Facebook ads to reach new audiences, you can gain attention and enthusiasm for your events, resulting in more engaged attendees. The most effective marketing strategies for online events begin with demand generation. Demand generation is an integrated approach to marketing that identifies prospects at any touchpoint and delivers content to reach them, wherever they are in the sales funnel. It is the basis of your marketing strategy to reach larger audiences.

Demand Generation Creates a Need for Your Offering

Demand generation involves identifying prospects at different stages of the sales funnel and then showing them why they need you, your event, and — ultimately — the products or services your company offers. With demand generation, you create demand for your offerings by identifying the challenges your audience faces and then showing them how your solution addresses those challenges. Most importantly, it shows them why it’s important to solve these challenges. For instance, let’s say that you provide tax services for small to mid-size businesses. Business owners may know that it’s important to pay their taxes accurately and on time. But they may not understand the consequences — including loss of revenue, tax levies, and even jail time — if they don’t pay. They might even feel they can do their taxes themselves. First, you’d need to show your prospects what they stand to lose if they try to do their taxes themselves, or worse — if they don’t file them at all. Once you’ve got their attention, you would show them how you can help through your service. It all comes down to delivering the right message at the right time.

Account-Based Marketing Attracts The Interest of Your Existing Clients

Account-based marketing begins with prospects further down the lead funnel. These are already your customers. You want them to attend your webinar or online event to build their loyalty, upsell them on products, and impart their enthusiasm to other attendees. Account-based marketing uses highly personalized tactics, addressing the pain points and solutions that your customers care about most. Both demand generation and ABM marketing with existing clients use many of the same tactics, including Google and Facebook ads, well-known guest speakers, and one-minute teaser videos.

One-Minute Teaser Videos Capture Attention

A successful online event is all about the content you create for it. And that starts before the event begins, with your promotional material. One-minute teaser videos give your audience a feel for the level of professionalism they can expect at your event and the quality of information you will share. Plus, a lengthy list of well-known guest speakers combined with one-minute teaser videos forms the perfect basis for your paid search and social media campaigns.

Reach More People with Google and Facebook Ads

Organic marketing, or content marketing, can work well if you already have an engaged audience, lots of followers on social media, and good search engine rankings for your website. But if you’d like to reach a targeted market quickly, putting some money into social media ads and paid search can really pay off. The key to successful Google and Facebook ads is identifying your target market and then creating compelling, interactive ad content that appeals to them. Then, make it easy for them to sign up for your online event by creating a Facebook event page and a website landing page where they can register.

Let the Experts at PGI Help

GlobalMeet Webcast professional webcasting software and services can help you at every stage of your online event. The Cvent Event Marketing and Management platform integrates with GlobalMeet to measure your results and expedite follow-ups from leads generated during the event. From start to finish, your events can run flawlessly with help from the pros at PGI. Contact us to learn more about our online event solutions.