This is how you host a successful virtual event!

Pandemic/Corona

Lately many physical events have fallen into the water. Simply because at the present time it is not possible for them to go through physically because of Corona. It is of course a great shame to see such a good moment to get in touch with potential customers lost. A shame, but also unnecessary! Webinars also make it possible to have this direct contact, but without the physical contact.
Besides the fact that webinars make it possible to keep your event going in these hectic times, there are even more advantages that will convince you that even when we can go back to 'normal', your webinars will continue to use to digital world to take place. Below, a number of advantages are listed first.

Cost saving

Webinars can save you an awful lot of money when hosting your event. The high costs that you normally incur to rent a location, to dress it up and to provide everyone with snacks and drinks, will all be dropped. The only costs you incur are those of your subscription to WebinarGeek! Those costs are many times lower and easy to recoup because we also make it possible to give paid webinars. As a result, you can still sell an entrance ticket for your event / webinar as you would at an offline event, only now you will have a lot more left over from the proceeds because, as mentioned earlier, you will have to incur much fewer costs.

The most sustainable solution

A webinar is also a very sustainable solution. After all, nobody has to travel to get to your event. Everyone can participate from his or her own home or office without having to travel an extra meter. That makes it the most sustainable solution, and also lowers the threshold for potential visitors to participate. They no longer have to leave the house and can participate from their easy chair! How easy is that ?!
Ps. If your event is somewhat disappointing for some visitors, you will be less critical via a webinar than if they had to travel an hour to attend your event….

Maintain the value of your event

Normally, after your event, everything is ready and your potential customer has walked out the door. You must therefore have collected enough information at the event itself to be able to provide appropriate follow-up. This is very different for webinars. Your event will continue to hold value even after the live broadcast has ended.
Because our system automatically creates a replay of your webinar, you can continue to use this recording. This way, people who missed the live broadcast for whatever reason, can still participate in your event at a later time. You can then create an on-demand webinar of the recording that later registrants, or registrants who missed the broadcast, can still follow the event at a time that suits them better.
Because participants have to fill in information (for example name and e-mail address) when registering, you have this information immediately to follow up after your event. With our integration options, you can even easily link your own CRM to WebinarGeek. This allows you to receive all the collected data directly into your own system, so that you can immediately divide these people into certain flows for follow-up.

But how do you do it?

Step 1: Invite participants

For a successful event, you naturally need participants! Sounds like a no-brainer, but it's a good point to think about and give it enough attention. You can approach this in different ways.

Registration page: You can create a registration page within our system. On this page you can post all important information about your event and the participants can register. For example, you can put the link to this page in your advertisements promoting the event to attract visitors to your event. You can use custom links to find out where subscribers come from in the statistics. Registrants receive a unique viewing link to attend your event.

Embed form: With the embed form you can place a modified version of the registration form on your own website. Visitors to your site do not have to leave your website to register, but enter the WebinarGeek system directly after registering via the embed form.

Open registration: You can also use an open registration to make participation even more accessible. You can then share a public, direct link in your event announcements, which will allow people to attend your event.

Invited guests: For a more exclusive event, you can also allow only invitees to participate. You can upload a contact list via a .CSV file in our software. With this, these contacts are immediately registered for your event and they will therefore receive the unique viewing link in their mailbox!

Step 2: Promote your event

Now that you have determined how you want participants to register for your event, you need to start thinking about promoting it to make your event as successful as possible. You can actually promote in any way that suits you. Of course it also depends on the target group and where it can be found. You can advertise on social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. Make sure you use the custom registration links within our tool (if you use the registration page)
That way you can know exactly in the statistics where registrants come from and therefore also which platform works best for you!

Step 3: The layout of your webinar

Now that you have determined how people can register and where you want to promote your webinar, you can start thinking about the layout of your webinar. An online event requires a slightly different approach than an offline event. For example, you must ensure that you know how to hold the attention of your participants. Fortunately, there are several tools that help you with this.

Polls
Use polls to really get participants involved in your event. It is a very handy way to ask for the opinion of your participants and respond directly to it live. This really gives your participants the feeling that their opinion matters.

Quiz
Create a fun quiz about what the participants learned during your event. This is a perfect way to see if the information given has actually been communicated. Announce the quiz at the start of your event to encourage participants to really pay attention and, for example, link nice prizes to the quiz so that something can also be won!

CTA and Infobox
The Call to Action and Infobox options are very suitable for putting your sponsors in the spotlight, for example. For example, via the Call to Action you can easily forward participants to a URL of a sponsor, for example, and you can use the info box to draw attention to special offers from sponsors, or to provide more information.
In this way your sponsors also have their "own place" at your event, in fact, in contrast to a booth at your event that can be missed, your sponsor now knows for sure that all participants will come into contact with the sponsor!

Q&A
Designate certain moments in your daily schedule as Q&A moments. A moment when your viewers can directly ask questions to the presenters. This also ensures a high level of engagement and is a perfect way to come into direct contact with the participants. Determine in advance how long you will allow for this per session and indicate that questions not answered in the chat will still be answered. Make use of moderators for this.

Video Injection
Use the video injection option to add fun videos to your webinar. Videos are a great way to "break" between speaking, and make it easier to keep your attention.

Step 4: Testing!

Your webinar is ready and fully set up. The only step you need to take before your event actually takes place is to test the webinar. This is perhaps the most important step. By testing you make the software more "your own", so that you know exactly where to find everything during the live broadcast, and it ensures that you will not be faced with surprises. So take this step really seriously and preferably practice with everyone who will be presenting during the event.

Step 5: Let’s webinar!

You are all set! Participants have registered, the webinar is ready and the moment to present has arrived. It is always exciting for everyone before they go live. Don't let this fool you, it is part of the game and ensures that you are sharp. Remember that a live presentation never has to be completely flawless. This is absolutely no problem and may only make it more fun for the participants. Put on your best smile, start the webinar and Let's webinar!

A successful event

With all this information, it should be possible to turn your offline event into a successful online event! Of course, we are also there to assist you. If you still have questions, you can always ask them via the chat on our website and we will be happy to help you!

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