A great way to find new leads and to try to drive new traffic to your site is to host an online event. Digital events are perfect for reaching out to your community and potential customers because they don’t require people to go anywhere, or do anything, besides tune in on their computer or their phone.
Figure Out What Kind of Event You Want to Host
There are wide variety of events that you can host online, including webinars, question and answer sessions, networking events, and fundraisers. For example, as a web design firm in Miami, a good choice for us would be to do a webinar that explains some aspect of our work.
Once we’ve picked what kind of event we’d like to host we need to ensure that it'll be enriching and useful for participants. Web design tends to be intimidating and mysterious for a lot of laypeople, and it’s in our best interest to show people that there are tools available to help them launch and manage their online projects successfully. Because of that, a webinar that’s designed to teach people a few important basics of web design, with a short pitch regarding how our help can simplify the process for them, makes good outline for what we want to do.
Make Sure the Content is Focused
People who tune in to your event from their office or home don't have to stick around if they get bored or decide that they’re not learning anything new, so it’s especially important that your event has clear and focused goals, and that communication is direct and concise. It’s much better to produce 10 minutes of gold than to drag something out for half an hour because you feel like it should be longer.
Don’t Skimp On the Marketing
While our experts work on putting together a quality presentation we need to make sure that people know about our event, and that they understand how it can benefit them.
Timing is Everything
One of the most common mistakes in this process is not taking enough time for the message to get out. It’s not outrageous to announce your event a few week ahead of time, so that there’s time for people to build interest and to fit it into their schedules.
Another way to use timing to your advantage is to host events regularly in a bi-weekly or monthly rhythm, so that you can accumulate regular attendees over time who can help you get the message out for future events.
Start With Social Media
One of the most powerful tools at your disposal is social media marketing, most importantly Twitter and LinkedIn. Here are a few simple tactics you can use in the run-up to your event to bring in more participants.
Twitter - Search relevant hashtags to find out who’s talking about your subject, follow them, and chat with them about the industry (not specifically your event). Read their work, send supportive messages, and then invite them to attend a few days in advance. If you’re charging for the event, these are people who you might want to let in for free. These new industry connections are a vital part of expanding your authority in the industry and they’ll help you reach the entire industry’s community.
LinkedIn - LinkedIn is an excellent platform for posting short posts about your work and industry news. Putting up a few posts mentioning (but not outright selling) your event can be very helpful for engaging people from your existing professional network.
Market with Substance
Whether you’re using social media, email, ads, or direct messages to promote your event, it’s always worth it to give people a little taste of what your event is going to do for them. A short tutorial, or a quick video giving people a free bit of interesting information works like a teaser trailer to catch people’s interest, and to show that you really do have something to offer them that isn’t just a glorified commercial.
Hosting any old online event isn’t difficult, but doing it well is a massive challenge. It’ll take multiple attempts before you start being successful, and that’s fine. Just keep trying new things, and don’t be afraid to talk to a professional to help you get started.