Virtual Event Follow-up
Trade Shows, Virtual Events

7 Ideas for Virtual Event Follow-Up

Many in-person events have been replaced by virtual equivalents. Virtual events may be new to many marketing and sales teams, so the follow-up with attendees and leads generated at these events might be different than the usual steps followed after hosting or sponsoring an event. Here are a few must-dos for virtual event follow-up and a few creative ideas to better engage your virtual audience after your event has wrapped.

Post-Event Follow-up Best Practices

  1. Use Data to help follow-up. Most virtual event platforms will provide you with great data around attendance at the event. How long did a person stay at the event. What actions did they take at the event (answer questions or polls, fill-out survey, attend multiple presentations). You can use this information to craft the right follow-up. 
  2. Provide summaries of the information presented at your virtual event. A quick written summary of the content is good, especially if you are creating blog posts or other content. A visual representation, either a static graphic or short video is an even better way to grab your audience’s attention. This is also great content to share out on your social media channels. Use a summary image on a giveaway item to attendees, like a mug, tote bag or postcard.
  3. Use recordings to follow-up with non-attendees. Unlike a physical event, virtual events are usually recorded and should be made available on-demand. You can use these recordings to encourage attendees that missed the live presentation to view after the fact, or use the recordings to reach out those that didn’t register. 
  4. Have your sales team call attendees quickly afterwards. The 24-48 hours following an event is the best time to follow-up with attendees as the event is still fresh in their mind and they might still be feeling that post-event glow. Your reps can ask for feedback about the event, ask what they learned and what they are interested in learning more about. 

Creative Ideas for Virtual Event follow-up

  1. Send Some Swag. Event giveaways don’t have to be just for event booths. Send a small token of your appreciation to your event attendees after the event. This could be a relevant book or a more traditional swag giveaway. Don’t have addresses for your attendees you can use Swag.com’s giveaway feature to let your attendee choice an item and have it shipped directly to them.
  2. Create a community for post-event networking. The biggest loss in moving to virtual events is the loss of networking opportunities. While you can’t easily re-create the hotel bar, you can create a group on LinkedIn, Facebook or another channel for event attendees to network, further discuss topics or help plan future events or presentations.
  3. Have presenters do a follow-up Q&A. The presenters at your event might be willing to do a follow-up Q&A session for attendees that couldn’t view the live presentation.  This can be as simple as a google hangout or Zoom meeting or a live LinkedIn video or Twitter chat can expand the reach. Whatever format you choose, it is a great opportunity for you to increase engagement with your audience. 

Whether the goal of your event is demand generation, education or community-building, good follow-up is essential. The best follow-up should be timely (soon after the event), personal and provide value. Hopefully these tips can bring the best of what is lost at a virtual event into your follow-up. 

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