Standalone webinars as we know them are, in our opinion, dead. Harsh, we know, but things are pointing in the virtual-event-platform direction more and more every day. The days of hosting one-off, standalone webinars are over. Two years ago, a webinar would have most-likely been hosted on Zoom. Once the Zoom webinar was over, interaction with attendees was also over.
Today, hosting a virtual event, conference, or webinar comes with many benefits. These benefits include things like cost savings, ongoing marketing, as well as the ability to consistently reach leads and prospects. Most importantly, there are ways to keep your webinars, conferences, and virtual events alive, even after they come to an end.
Ongoing Marketing
Most of the time, if you host an event, the marketing stops after the event ends (or soon thereafter).
However, when it comes to virtual events, the marketing and promotion does not need to stop once the event comes to an end. As long as the event is public, and no proprietary information needs to stay private you can continue to promote and create interest.
A great way to continue marketing efforts around an event is to create a campaign around the event for those who were unable to attend or for those who would like to re-watch event content as a refresher. In the past, there were a few options to follow up after an event, but using an overall event platform allows you to take this follow-up a step (or many steps) further.
Not only can you publish the recording of the particular virtual event for watching, but the content can be used for future events as well. This is extremely helpful for a series of virtual webinars that are sticking to an overall topic.
Leads and Prospects
Here’s the sad truth… You host a webinar on Zoom, you have registrants within the platform, and they are no longer registered for anything once the single webinar is over. The good news is that this does NOT have to be the case when it comes to virtual events today.
Host virtual events, webinars, conferences, or roundtables on platforms other than Zoom. One particular virtual event platform that allows you to continue event efforts without starting over again each time, is InEvent. InEvent is the platform that we, at Steady State Media, use to plan, promote, and host client and partner events in lieu of Zoom meetings.
Why Is InEvent Better Than Zoom?
Once you have seats and registrants for online webinars, hybrid or virtual events, you have them for one year. This means, if you decide to host a short roundtable two months after a larger online event, you don’t have to start from scratch. List-building and invitation processes are much easier and more effective within a platform made for ongoing events.
You have a list of contacts who are interested in your organization and experience. Already having them on an event list will also allow them to opt into future communications via email. This keeps already-interested individuals in the loop. Additionally, this allows organizations to continue building upon unique content creation for an audience who is already wanting to be educated on a particular topic.
This is especially relevant when it comes to future events, conferences, and webinars.
What We’ve Learned About Virtual Webinars
Once you host one event within the InEvent platform, you are able to use the platform for one full year and host other events with the same audience.
On Zoom, it is a one and done event. There is no progressive building of registrations. You must redo registration and create new lists each time you schedule an event.
InEvent allows continuous growth when it comes to virtual events and webinars. You create a long-standing brand of events instead of reinventing the wheel each time.
Many people join webinars or attend conferences to mingle and network with like-minded individuals and colleagues. With InEvent you have access to a virtual lobby. This includes access to breakout rooms as well as a chat feature for networking. Networking options within an online event makes it extremely similar to an in-person event. For this reason, once a session ends, attendees are less likely to just leave.
Overall, we are calling one-off webinars dead. Not because they aren’t worthwhile, but because progressive series of webinars is better for ROI as well as buildability.
