It’s been a tough and turbulent 12 months, and while we all may yearn for the return to face to face meet ups, which will come, in the business world the growth in this space has opened the door to a wealth of new opportunities and yesterday afternoon spottydog communications hosted a #SpotlightOn how businesses can go about selling to clients through E-meets.
From the event, delivered by keynote speakers Clare Muscutt, Entrepreneur and Founder of CMX Experience, Darren Lester, CEO at Specifiedby, and Matthew Suddaby, spottydog client portfolio director, we’ve collated some of the key takeaways on how you and your businesses can up your game when it comes to delivering a show-stopping E-meet.
Value for attendees
“What is it they want from an event?” A key point identified by Clare Muscutt and it’s something all three of our speakers raised, was to make clear it’s important to consider the value your attendees will be getting from attending your E-meet. There are a bounty of webinars and events to choose from at the moment, but to really make yours stand out you need something that cuts through to the attendee.
In his experiences Matthew Suddaby highlighted the importance of having a “nice variety of speakers who attendees could engage with,” noting they also created an “alternative narrative” rather than a direct sales push.
Another way to create value and capture the interest of attendees is in the detail. Darren Lester pointed out that “webinars shouldn’t just be a product, (you) need to dive into detail, share insight (and) help potential customers with their problems.” This approach will not only keep the attendee engaged, but if your purpose is to make a sale it could help lead to that outcome.
Previewing and when to advertise
Darren, who has been using webinars to create sales leads for almost 5 years, described the importance of getting attendees into the marketing funnel. “It’s our job to think how we get people into the funnel and through towards the purchase. Top of the funnel is where most webinars are focused and are great for lead generation.”
So how do you get people to come to your webinar? Sharing insight on previewing an event Clare described how it is important to “articulate the value a person will get from coming along,” and that “having known voices and brands on board create traction.” If you have that crowd drawing speaker, a great piece of content available, or an impressive subject to talk about, these will all give great value to a potential attendee, giving them an reason to attend.
Something which is also crucial is the timing, with all speakers pointing out the ‘sweet spot’ to start advertising an event is normally between 3 and 4 weeks before it takes place. Any earlier and people may forget it’s on, any later and potential attendees may already have full calendars.
Using the right platform
As Matthew Suddaby pointed out “choosing the right platform is really important,” and this is an important consideration when planning your E-meet. There are several platforms out there, which sometimes may be a bit overwhelming, especially if you’re delivering your first E-meet. Speaking of hosting E-meets and the platforms he uses Matthew explained that “Zoom and (Microsoft) Teams has underpinned this movement, (they’re) now a central part of what we do.”
Sometimes though, especially for big events, Zoom and Microsoft Teams won’t quite cut it, and from someone who’s had experience in hosting large attendee virtual events Clare noted that platforms such as Hey Summit or Webinar Jam might be worth looking into.
Capturing interest post event
You’ve successfully delivered a great E-meet but there’s one thing missing. You notice a drop off after the event and everything goes cold. How can you make sure that interest and engagement continues after the event has finished?
In his wealth of experience Darren has grown to recognise what keeps attendees coming back for more, he mentioned that having a call to action, or allowing attendees to download a piece of content, can make sure that they leave the webinar with something to take with them, or something to think about and act upon in the days to come.
Getting materials into people’s inboxes after the event can be a key part of making sure your webinar remains relevant in an attendee’s conscience. One way to do this, shared by Clare, is to “think about how you can connect your CRM to your event.” If you have this set up then any follow up content, feedback surveys or even just sharing link to watch the event back again (useful if they didn’t have time to attend) can be sent straight to attendees, ensuring the noise continues in the days that follow.
E-Meets are here to stay
It’s all happened so quick, this sudden shift from in person meetings to peering into people’s living rooms and home offices on a Zoom call. In person meetings will return and will still be a key part of business, but E-meets have shown businesses the speed and flexibility an online event can give you. Look at Clare for example, she openly admitted when it first went digital she really struggled. But now, after embracing the platform and what it brings, she speaks virtually all over the world. She also went from 5,000 connections on LinkedIn to having over 15,000 followers, thanks in part to E-meets.
And for Darren, someone who’s been fully immersed in the art of digital meetings for a number of years, makes a great point that “people do buy direct from webinars,” making the case that E-meets will still have a place when the normal business world can open up again.
It was great to host our first #SpotlightOn event of the year and having three great speakers talk about their expert experiences was a real bonus. To get your hands on a copy of our step-by-step E-meets guide you can request a copy by filling in your contact details below.
We have a bumper year of events coming up this year, so make sure you sign up to our mailing list and be the first to know about our next #SpotlightOn event.
