4 ways to increase your virtual event ROI using in-event features

If you’re like most event professionals, you’re looking for ways to increase the ROI from your virtual events. After all, organizing a virtual event is no easy task, and it can take just as much time and effort as planning a live event if your selected platform cannot provide you with a Fully Managed experience. But there are ways to boost your return on investment, and we will share four of them with you today. Keep reading to learn more!

Branding

Branding is possibly one of the most significant ways to increase your ROI on virtual events. Virtual conferences must ‘feel’ like they belong to your organization, just like in-person events. This isn’t possible if the virtual platform you are using only allows you to update a small logo in a corner. Your attendees will feel like they are visiting an event put on by the platform that is sponsored by you rather than an event put on by your organization. 

That doesn’t work to increase your ROI. 

It would be best to show your attendees that you are the content expert and that they should look to you for expertise in the field and thought leadership. You must earn and build upon trust in your brand, and that doesn’t happen when the attendees can’t tell who is responsible for your fantastic event. 

Here are some critical ways to brand your virtual event: 

• Update not just the logos but any background images and coloration throughout the event space. Featuring your brand’s colors and imagery that matches your organization goes a long way in making the event space feel like it is yours. 
• Continue this with your welcome or “thank you for registering” email. The messaging, links, images, coloration, and language must fit within your brand. The welcome message is one of the first interaction points within your virtual space, so it is particularly critical to get it right! 
• Pre-event communication should follow the same rule as your welcome email. These are great ways to feature your top sponsors. You can use deep links to drive pre-event traffic to their booths so that they can run specials and get traffic that has no access to sessions yet. This means they can increase their lead gen and allow you to drive more revenue from your sponsorship packages. 

Sessions

The sessions are the meat and potatoes of most virtual conferences. Attendees rarely come to events for sponsors, though they are an added benefit. The sessions are where attendees learn about new topics or hear the latest information, so often those are what they ultimately attend your event for. 

While there are some unique best practices for virtual content, some of the best practices from your in-person events can transfer over to your virtual platform to help you drive revenue and increase your ROI. 

Here are some great options to maximize your use of your virtual sessions and drive your ROI: 

• Take advantage of sponsored sessions! These sessions allow your sponsors to gain helpful insight from the audience through polls or an attendance transcript while also bringing brand awareness to your sponsors. Don’t give these valuable spaces away for free in your sponsorship packages! 
• Use some of the sessions for demonstrations or sales sessions. Always make that the session description lets your attendees know that it is a sales session, as that can be a significant point of frustration with your attendees if they think it is a learning experience and they are receiving sales pitches. 
• Take advantage of the virtual experience and leverage commercials or video advertisements. This is one of the most potent ways for sponsors to communicate with your attendees and still is underutilized. Let your higher-tiered sponsors take advantage of this excellent opportunity to expand their visibility! 

The sessions and session area of your virtual conference is a great place to improve your ROI for your virtual event, despite many event organizers not considering their sessions to be a great way to increase their event revenue. 

Main Lobby 

When customizing your platform, your main lobby is often one of the only places you think of. This is often the first place in your virtual conference that your attendees will visit once they enter your event, so it is essential to make sure that it is intuitive while still including all the aspects that they would expect to see with an event from your organization. 

It is often one of the best places to generate interest in additional products, sponsorships, or driving connections with your attendees. Here are three ways to maximize your use of the main conference lobby to increase your ROI:

• Keep the branding consistent! If you are having a blended in-person and virtual event, ensure that the virtual conference lobby matches the in-person conference lobby. This will help your attendees feel part of the same event despite the distinct experiences. Intentional consistency in your brand will help to drive thought leadership and keep you top of mind with your attendees. 
• Take advantage of introduction videos. This is a great way to create human connection and point attendees to areas of the conference that you want to emphasize. 
• Sponsor Ads are another excellent tool for the main conference lobby to increase your revenue. With logos in the main entrance, higher-tier sponsors can link directly to their booths or web pages to drive higher traffic to their spaces. Increasing the availability of leads and the likelihood that traffic will increase is a great way to increase the price of your sponsorship packages. 

Booths

The booths and exhibit hall are often where the bulk of the money is made for your organization, especially when it comes to virtual conferences. 23% of event management companies state that sponsorships are their events’ primary revenue source. You want to ensure that booths are a significant focus when considering your virtual platform. 

Here are four great ways to take advantage of booths to increase your ROI from your virtual conference: 

• Create different sponsor levels and feature them in your exhibit hall. Take advantage of varying size virtual booths or sublobbies to emphasize your higher-tier sponsors and allow them the easiest access to your attendees. 
• Create a giveaway booth for your attendees. You can use any number of items, including gamification scores, raffles, or more! This will drive your attendees towards the expo hall in general and, depending on your prize, may increase your revenue directly due to raffle ticket purchases. 
• Have an info booth that details important information for your attendees. This can include information about the services you provide and any information they may need to enjoy your virtual conference! 

By following these four tips, you can start to see a boost in your ROI for virtual events. But if you want to take it one step further and maximize your revenue potential, consider partnering with a company specializing in Fully Managed services as part of the virtual event platform. At vConferenceOnline, we offer just that. Click below to schedule a demo today to see how we can help increase your virtual event revenue and make the entire process easier for you.