The COVID-19 pandemic has affected offline events, however, things are slowly opening up again. And offline events are making a comeback. As markets are reopening, people are keen to join in-person events with face-to-face interactions. On the other hand, others still prefer to participate in the event virtually in order to avoid travelling to venues and save money. This has led to a hybrid event strategy that blends both worlds (virtual events and in-person events).
With the flexibility of hybrid events, online events and in-person events can take place sequentially or even at the same time. Due to increased reach and scalability, this type of event offers a greater ROI (Return on Investment).
With strategic lead generation levers and actionable content, the event organizer can host the event that can bring both buzz and tangible business to your company. If you are going to host a hybrid event and boost your revenue, you are in the right place. In this session, you will find the 6 strategies that can help you to expand your hybrid event ROI.
Best ways hybrid events can deliver better ROI
#1 Plan and market your event in advance
The enormous reach that hybrid events offer is one of its most important advantages. You can invite a large number of people to the event because you are not constrained by the audience’s geographic location, level of mobility, or venue capacity. Additionally, your ROI will be higher the more attendees you have.
Therefore, promoting your event in advance is the key to boosting registrations. All of your marketing initiatives should ideally include a call to action (CTA). The best ways to promote the event include:
- Develop an attractive and user-friendly website in order to offer all essential information about your event.
- Promote your event on your social media channels, company website, and newsletter.
- Connect with industry influencers and use their channel to market your event
- Develop value-driven content (YouTube videos, social media posts, blogs, etc.)
#2 Select an interactive virtual event platform
A hybrid event includes both virtual and live audiences. That’s why it is essential to keep your audience in order to deliver a successful event. In order to engage your on-site audience, you can use interactive tools such as Q&A, surveys, and networking sessions. However, you need to use an interactive hybrid events platform in order to understand the experience and engagement of the virtual audience at your event.
Hire a hybrid event live streaming service provider that offers interactive features such as breakout rooms, polling, live streaming, and more in order to keep your participant involved and interested throughout the event. Many hybrid conference platforms also offer discussion rooms, matchmaking options, and one-to-one meetings to help participants interact with each other, sponsors, and speakers.
#3 Improve the engagement rate
Immersive engagement is the key to a successful event, whether it is live, virtual, or hybrid. To increase audience involvement and engagement, B2B marketers can employ a variety of engagement strategies, tools, and technologies. In hybrid events, you can connect audiences in a variety of ways, like:
- Include live polls and Q&A sessions in order to promote audience participation
- Conduct on-demand and live sessions to get audience feedback
- Offer a live chat feature in order to promote conversation and improve networking
- In order to assess the performance of the hybrid event, conduct a post-event survey
Engaged audiences are more likely to have fun, learn more from each session, and have a favourable impression of the hosting brand. If you want to increase ROI for your online and hybrid events, you must do all of these things.
#4 Leverage event analytics to increase the performance
Hybrid conference platforms offer the ability to track and access the performance of your event. These platforms also support better attendee tracking and insights. It offers event managers and B2B marketers information about events that were not so popular and about the successful event. Many event organizers utilize hybrid event platforms in order to capture the behaviour and preference of their target audience. This information is essential to improve the event and boost the ROI event.
Hybrid conference platforms also allow you to collect a vast amount of data on your participants, including; registrations, demographic information, the session they attended, how long they participated in the session, their favourite topic, the sponsor booths they visited, and more.
This information can help event organizers comprehend what their audience dislikes and likes and develop detailed buyer personas. Hybrid event platforms offer such insights into your audience and help to optimize event and marketing efforts.
#5 Host paid event
One of the best and most effective ways to increase ROI and generate more revenue is to host a paid event. The goal is to set your event’s price so that it will both cover your expenses and adequately justify the value your audience will receive from it. If you have a devoted following who will be willing to make purchases from you, well-known speakers, and an established event, this will be considerably simpler.
#6 create sponsorship deals
You can invest in better tools and arrangements for participants by creating a sponsorship deal. It can help you to save on the cost to organize an event.
Sponsorship is important for both you and for the band that is offering you resources. In order to convince them, you can create virtual sponsor booths, add their logos to the event banner and encourage them to provide giveaways.
Final words:-
The hybrid format can significantly increase your event ROI and provide advantages long after the event is over by lowering operations expenses, broadening reach, and giving useful data. You can maximize both your quantitative and qualitative event results by implementing the tactics mentioned in this article and concentrating on increasing attendees’ experiences, whether it is through the speakers you invite, the content you share, or your hybrid events platform.
