Four Key Tips for Producing Successful Virtual Events Globally

By Ranganath Jagannath, Director, Growth, Agora

Are you wondering how to produce a quality virtual event that will attract your target audience and decision makers? 

As the world is adapting to the new rules of social distancing, I thought it was important to put together a list of the top 4 tactics you should use to ensure your virtual event is a smashing success.

Content is King but Engaging Speakers Are Key

Like traditional events, content is even more important in a virtual event because viewers are able to walk into your event as fast as they are able to head for the virtual doors.

From my personal experience I can tell you that successful events are always rich in quality and engaging content. However, the best events seem to have one thing in common: engaging speakers.

Hunting down a speaker who is truly an expert in their field is one thing but finding a speaker who is also engaging is a key tactic that is often overlooked by producers of virtual events. 

Make sure to produce content that has real value for viewers of the event. Don’t forget the main reason people attend virtual events is to learn something new. Only use engaging speakers and hosts who are comfortable talking about the subject matter.

Invest in Paid Promotion

Just like a traditional event, your virtual event should include a plan on strategic paid promotion.

Build a virtual event promotional communications plan that utilizes digital marketing, email marketing, and social media promotion. Don’t just post an event on your social media channels, sponsor the post to reach your target audience.

Virtual event communications are key so make sure to use email and social media channels on a regular basis leading up to the event. Your communications should emphasize the value of the event in every communication piece sent out. Create a strong, vibrant, and engaging landing page for the event. Overbook the event, meaning if your targeting 100 attendees, your promotional plan should strive to drive 225 signups.

Choose a Platform with Innovative Interaction Capabilities

Deciding which platform to use for your virtual event is equally as important as the content you produce. Think about the times you’ve walked into a physical event and actually were wowed by the look and feel of the event. The same can be said for virtual events that deliver quality video, audio, and interactive experiences to viewers.

Delivering quality video, audio, and interactive experience really does matter! The platform you select should come fully loaded with interactive capabilities and include the opportunity for the inclusion of branding elements on the screen. Make sure to turn the virtual event into a well-oiled branding experience, which means including branding elements prior to, during and at the end of the virtual event. 

Now if you really want to take your virtual event to the next level, consider incorporating live audio or video questions from the audience. Questions via chat are good but live audio and video questions are considerably more interactive and engaging for audiences.  It isn’t that people will stop craving for human interaction in a post covid world, they would rather attend an online event where they would be able to make meaningful human connections through real time engagement. 

Virtual events have a distinct advantage over physical events, viewers are able to instantly interact with speakers and hosts of the event via chat. Incorporate interaction elements throughout the entire event; things like emojis, poll questions and prompting the audience to ask questions via chat work extremely well. Take advantage of advanced virtual event platforms that allow audio and video questions from viewers and encourage interaction between attendees. Success can be measured against parameters such as how much percentage of event attendees were engaged by the interaction elements.   

The Event Lives on Long After It’s Over

So, you’ve spent all this time and money to produce a quality virtual event, now what? The truth is, your event has only just begun because you now have a recorded event that has the capabilities to live on for years. Think of a recently completed virtual event as ongoing branding and lead generation vehicle. While the content from the event might seem old three months down the line, it will be new for those who are viewing the event for the very first time.

Promotion is key to making sure a recently completed virtual event will continue to have success for months to come. Pin-point highlights from the event and use them as promotional items. Remember a quality virtual event has the shelf life of at least a year.

Ten tips for resellers

Some top tips for resellers in managing their business, particularly in difficult macroeconomic conditions from Arrow ECS Arrow - Enterprise Computing Solutions, a business segment of Arrow Electronics Inc. recently offered the following tips to resellers in managing their business, particularly in difficult macroeconomic conditions.

Additional guidance for resellers in managing their business, and comprehensive resources to help them grow faster than the market and faster than the competition is available at www.ArrowECS.com!

1. Do not depend on product reselling as your only source of profit. Have other sources of profit generation that supports your businesses. Successful value–added resellers must add additional value to supplier offerings to ensure a predictable and profitable revenue flow. "If I create my own service offering outside of the products, then I'm in a situation that I'm having a solutions discussion with customers, focusing on a particular methodology or service offering that I've designed," said Mike Strohl, president of Concord, Calif.–based Entisys Solutions Inc. and Agile 360, a division of Entisys. "It's a lot easier to sell products and services that way."

2. Know your customers' total information technology spend and be aware of how the solution fits into the end–user's environment with a view to fully "clothing" the sale. For example, is there opportunity for additional software, accessories, printers or personal computers? Ask questions to ensure that you are maximizing your selling opportunity. "Knowing the total IT spend is important, but you should also know and understand your customer's budget cycle and get into that process," said Strohl. "There is extreme power in being a part of that process. You know all their projects, what they can spend and where their money comes from."

3. Focus on solving business problems for your customer, not just selling them product. Anyone can do that, and solutions automatically sell more product, and are less price sensitive. "Compliance regulations such as HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), the Sarbanes–Oxley Act and others are driving purchases around security solutions," said Jim Steinlage, president of Kansas City–based Choice Solutions LLC. "I'm also seeing increased interest in solutions that offer opportunities to work remotely."

4. Leverage the resources of your value–added distributor. You are simply increasing your cost structure and making yourself less competitive if you don't take advantage of your distributor's resources and hire your own team. "Nettitude has worked with the DNS group of Arrow ECS for a number of years. We are able to tap into the specific product knowledge of Arrow ECS' technical team and partner with their sales and marketing resources to deliver targeted campaigns and drive sales," said Martin Watts, sales manager for Nettitude, a security reseller based in the United Kingdom. "This close relationship has contributed to a 25 percent revenue growth year–over–year in security products delivered by Nettitude."

5. "Focus on solutions that have a short-term return on investment," offered Steinlage. "IT decision-makers aren't into solutions with a two-year ROI right now. They are much more into the solutions with ROI of a year or less."

6. Add as much service as possible. If a project requires skills you don't have, partner with your distributor or even another value–added reseller if necessary, but don't just leave the customer looking for someone to address their needs. It invites competition into your accounts. "The smart VARs are the ones that know their own skill set, that can identify what they're experts in – and find other partners with other products and solution lines that complement their offerings," said Strohl. "There is more in that than what just seems obvious."

7. Identify new customers. VARs must engage in marketing activities to find new customers. Without new customers, VARs cannot grow, and without growth they will fail. "New customers are indeed the lifeblood of a business," said Dan Lowery, president of St. Louis-based Lowery Systems Inc. "Each year, we try to leverage the resources of Arrow ECS, such as its MPower program for the midmarket, or new service areas from IBM to identify new customers. The intent is to get new names, and grow with them. By using resources that are available to us through Arrow ECS and IBM, the cost to us is greatly reduced."

8. Leverage supplier programs that protect margins. Supplier deal registration programs are critical tools for VARs to demonstrate and protect their value. "I pay a dividend to train one person to track all certifications, rebates and sales promotion incentive fees," said Lowery. "By utilizing market development funds from various sources, we are often able to put on a first-class event at minimal cost."

9. FOCUS! You can't be all things to all people. Know your value proposition, be able to articulate it and make sure your business is organized around it. It's never been more critical for VARs to have a value proposition and be able to deliver it. Communicate your value to suppliers and ensure your distributors are supporting that effort.

10. "Know thy pipeline," said Andy Bryant, president of Arrow ECS. "You really have to get underneath the pipeline and ask, 'is this project going to go or not?'"