Digital Event Hosting

With the world still social distancing and working remotely, “digital events” have become much more widespread. There are virtual museum tours, digital comic book conventions, virtual book signings, and so much more. In fact, digital events and product promotion go hand in hand, ensuring that businesses can still connect with their audience even in the post-COVID-19 world. With that being said, you do need to know a few things about pulling off a digital event. We’ll walk you through those in this post.

Event Type

First, you need to decide what type of event will work best for your situation. When it comes to digital events and product promotion, you’ve got quite a few options. Some of these include:

• How-to/product demos
• Behind-the-scenes tours
• Training/instructional courses
• Interviews
• Conferences/trade shows

Choose Your Technology

Once you’ve decided on the type of event, you need to start thinking about technology. Different platforms, channels, and tools are better suited to particular types of digital events and product promotions. Here’s a quick breakdown:

• · Digital Discussion: Opt for tools like Reddit, Slack, or Discord. Twitter will also work here, provided you can keep things under character count. Facebook’s new chat rooms may also be of interest.
• · Story Sharing: Instagram and Facebook are the top story-sharing platforms, but don’t neglect newcomer TikTok. Note that these also work for live streaming.
• · Webinars/Demos: Zoom and YouTube Livestream are two of the more popular options, but others include WebinarNinja and 6connex. These can also work well for conferences and similar digital events.

What’s Your Strategy?

Another critical element when planning digital events and product promotion is the strategy underpinning your efforts. Give this some thought, as it will impact everything from the experience you offer attendees to the degree of success that you see from your efforts.

You’ll need to answer a few key questions here. For instance, what experience do you want to deliver? Will it be interactive and dynamic, or will it be static? Do you want your audience to be able to ask questions or is it going to be more of a one-way presentation? How will you handle access – is the digital event free, or must attendees purchase a ticket? Will the event be live? Will you record it for later sharing? How will you tell if the event was a success? What KPIs will you track to measure success?

Timing Is Everything

Choosing the time is another critical element for digital events and product promotion. This ties into your audience in many ways. For instance, if you’re interested in networking with local business owners, then hosting the event during standard business hours in your immediate time zone is a good idea. However, if your audience is even a little bit international, you’ll want to consider their time differences and find ways to make it convenient for everyone to attend. This could include offering a multi-day event, offering on-demand access to portions of the even, and more.

Get the Word Out

No digital event is successful if people don’t know about it. How will you promote it? Social media is a great option, but don’t neglect email, your regular newsletter, and even your website itself. If the event will be particularly relevant or large, consider PPC and social ads to help raise awareness.

Be Prepared for Problems

Tech problems will crop up, no matter how prepared you are. Be ready for them. Check and then recheck everything from microphone and speaker functionality to your Internet connection and presentation software.

Here’s to Success

With a little bit of planning and prep work, you can use digital events for product promotion, to connect with your audience, to build interest, and so much more. From virtual trade shows to behind the scenes tours of your facility, the sky’s the limit.