Just over a year ago we used the headline, “The virtual event market will grow from $14 billion in 2018 to $18 billion by 2023”. We had used data gathered in early 2019 and focused on the conference market. Obviously released before the unset of the worldwide pandemic, this original article’s goal was to outline the benefits of virtual events because we found so many companies and business owners had not embraced or visualized how a virtual event would work in or for their business model.

In our opinion, the value and benefit of virtual events, namely summits or conferences, has increased significantly.  The world went through a steep and fast learning curve, initially begrudgingly but now most see it as a huge convenience. This makes the value to businesses even higher because consumers, clients, businesses, well let us just say almost everyone is now familiar with using the platforms. This means the introductory learning curve is reduced, and implementation and delivery has been streamlined. These elements contribute to the new eye-opening growth projections now benchmarked at $404 Billion!

“For context as to where this general market is now, the global market size of virtual events was estimated to be more than $77 billion back in 2019, according to research firm Grand View Research. By definition, this includes a wide range of tasks from traditional video conferencing, live streaming, and broadcasting platforms used for online company conferences, job fairs, large kick-off sales meetings, and similar events.  Based on what we’ve seen over the first half of 2020, it’s probable that acceleration in the space will outsize previous revenue estimates of $404 billion by 2027.

Companies in this space face relatively lower barriers to entry, particularly those focused on online event management and event promotion. These platforms enable businesses and event organizers to offer solutions to an audience that is still craving event content and networking value.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/markhall/2020/07/22/online-events/?sh=20d23124b4ba

Why a Virtual Event Should be in Your Future

What emerged from all of this is the massive growth of a category that was previously considered a less-than-ideal alternative to the real thing. Online and virtual events are now standard practice for all large and small engagements, for obvious reasons. What used to make Las Vegas and Orlando convention centers the annual destination places has been replaced with digital conferences, summits, networking, and inadvertently muted microphones. 

Most of us have experienced large industry conferences with sessions and exhibit halls. And let’s not forget the massive trade shows where hundreds showcase their products and services and it literally takes days of walking to visit all the booths or you just miss out. They do offer a great platform for one-on-one conversations, but they also generate missed opportunities and create massive follow up work.

The virtual world has revolutionized many business applications and conferences, summits, and trade shows are no exception. The Philantrepreneur Foundation (TPF) recognizes a valuable opportunity to use a virtual format to reach those that need it most and directly impact the Return on Investment (ROI) for participating business partners, attendees, and supporters. TPF embraced the virtual alternative and launched Systems Summits (www.SystemsSummits.com) fall of 2020.

What’s in it for you?

More and more industries are shifting their marketing efforts to digital events to reap the benefits of their convenience, reach, and budget friendliness. Although a lot has changed, the purpose which drives business participation has remained constant:

• Marketing your business and its offerings and
• Generating leads for conversion.

The revolutionary technology behind virtual events satisfies both these purposes and don’t forget when paired with a nonprofit (cause) you also gain the added Cause Marketing benefits such as a boost in a company’s reputation of doing good. 

The advancements in marketing are evident through social media and digital adspace.  However, some marketing and sales executives struggle to see the fulfillment of lead generation for conversion. Perhaps they are still working from an old paradigm. The rise and success of digitally based strategies and tools such as Customer Relation Management (CRM) automation, opt-in landing pages, customer funnels and click ads all provide analytical data supporting that lead generation do just as well, and often even better, in virtual environments. 

To further emphasize the benefits of utilizing virtual summits as a marketing strategy here are six detailed reasons.

1. GENERATES MASSIVE REACH

Virtual events accommodate a much wider audience by removing all geographical restraints. Important stakeholders who could not have attended the event for in-person interactions can easily login and start engaging with you 24/7. You can go beyond your local audience to potentially a global one which can skyrocket your business. After carefully choosing the category of event that best suits your purpose and target audience, you can ensure a bigger and more diverse event attendance and naturally, a larger pool of lead prospects.

2. SHORTENS THE SALES CYCLE

At a virtual event, visitors are exposed to your expertise, service, and/or given a demonstration within minutes. This significantly accelerates the sales funnel which otherwise could have stretched into weeks. By registering for the event, visitors organically pre-qualify themselves before the event takes place and can replace the first sales call — moving prospects through your sales funnel faster.

3. DOUBLES AS A MARKETING CHANNEL AND AN E-COMMERCE PLATFORM

The dynamic nature of virtual events for presenters, sponsors and exhibitors (if available) opens several features at your disposal for lead generation and sales which could include:

• Immediate content download and sharing
• Direct sales link to products (ecommerce sales grew 44% in 2020)
• Direct product demonstration link
• Direct appointment link
• Automated real time database generation

If you’re looking for a wider audience and higher volume just having virtual access widens the net cast and heightens chances of lead generation. Your products are seamlessly marketed and positioned to relevant audiences. Plus, you can integrate an e commerce component enabling visitors to buy products which allows you to generate revenue in a short amount of time. Is that ROI?

4. DELIVERS INFORMATION THROUGH INTERACTIVE CONTENT

People love real-time communication, and this also applies to their professional interactions. According to The Social Habit and Jay Baer, 32% of users who have ever interacted with a brand on social media expect a reply in 30 minutes or less. Therefore, live videos, tweets and webcasts are becoming increasingly popular.

Virtual presentations (webinars) are great opportunities to develop leads by sharing freebies (like e-books) with visitors to warm them up and then position benefits in an environment with very few distractions. These tools help extend your reach and loop in more participants. They also build a lead nurturing environment where someone is always available to answer a prospect’s query through the convenience of digitization. People are more likely to engage with you if you take the guesswork out of the process and virtual events help you achieve this leading to more conversions.

Virtual events that are designed for such interactions use chat boxes, social sharing, on-demand webinars, live Q&A sessions, and an external community for extended interactions. See example of dedicated speaker page below.

5. ENABLES DATA-DRIVEN LEAD-TRACKING

Customer relations management (CRM) can be done automatically.  How many business cards will need to be entered into a customer management system? NONE! Every visitor to your presentation or exhibit can be automatically entered and stored in a data base, even if they don’t initiate a chat. That is a massive ROI and saves extensive amounts of office work. There will be post-event reports to shed a lot of light on the event’s and your booth’s performance. They pinpoint statistics like:

• Number of attendees
• Content views & download volume
• Number of interactions
• Volume and value of transactions performed
• Number of applications dropped

These figures can be used to uncover crucial insights, help improve content for the next event and show what worked and what didn’t. For instance, it will identify where participation spiked in your webinars and develop related content to keep participants tuned in during your next event. These figures are helpful in gauging both the quantity and quality of leads generated. The reports also furnish data collected from visitors at registration for your sales team to pursue. A data-driven approach based on visitors’ level of engagement in the event can be monumental in determining the sales stage that they lie in. This eases the lead qualification process and maximizes event ROI.

6. A VIRTUAL EVENT IS NOT A ONETIME AFFAIR

This is the best part of going virtual and ROI: your engagement has an extended marketing shelf life. For example, Systems Summits offers lifetime access to their presentations. You still have an open door to build an additional stream of prospects. You can continue to accumulate contact information of prospects and registrants after the event, by having a value-driven call to action (CTA) embedded in your presentation via links or handouts.

With virtual events, the options for lead-generation and lead-nurturing are endless. Have you noticed the recent mushroom growth of professional seminars and virtual fairs around you? Now you know why that is.

FAQ – SYSTEMS SUMMITS

Setup Time required: How long does it take to upload a video to Google Drive?  That is it.  Systems Summits handles all the technical aspects of making your presentation available to the public. Compare that to travel, setup and breakdown time required for live events.

Time Required:  Systems Summits uses prerecorded presentations created in advance which brings us to another perk. How much time do you spend on marketing and what is the ROI? Developing an effective virtual presentation is worth the time investment because of its long-term shelf life. Of course, you will respond to inquiries and follow up on leads but isn’t that a part of the process.

What is the ROI? If you are not already active in the digital marketing arena, then you need to be. Do you want to gain global exposure? Do you want to be recognized as an industry expert and authority in your field? For the price (or less) of a 7-day ad campaign, your company receives marketing assets and a professional presence.

Attendance Projections:  All summits are only as powerful as the speakers they have. With the growth of virtual events so has the attendance ratio. However, in Systems Summits HOT TOPIC Episode 2 we outlined how to speakers can maximize the ROI and it all is impacted by collaborative marketing.  

Next Steps – Add SYSTEMS SUMMITS to your marketing strategies

We invite your company to reap the benefits of convenience, reach and budget friendliness provided by a virtual platform.  Is your target audience solopreneurs or independent business owners, such as coaches, consultants, or speakers, just to name a few?  The Philantrepreneur Foundation’s Systems Summits was designed to provide tips, tools, insight, and resources they need for success.

To learn more visit: www.SystemsSummits.com

Questions? Contact:

Dr. Victoria Boyd, President: VBoyd@PhilantrepreneurFoundation.org