How To Run A Successful Online Fund Marketing Event – Part One
In a world gone digital, your event may need to follow. So, whether because of lockdown, or simply because it makes more sense, your next fund marketing event could well be online.
And this will increasingly be the case in the future as, more than ever, people want to attend digital events – either live or on repeat. That’s because investors have changed, and a large percentage are now faceless – as you only encounter them online or on the phone, rather than face to face. And this means they increasingly have a non-linear investor journey that consists of multiple digital touchpoints.
And one of these touchpoints could well be a digital event.
This is the first in a two-part series on how to run a successful online fund marketing event. In this first post I’m going to concentrate on planning.
You’ve probably heard the saying ‘fail to plan and you plan to fail’. Cliché it may be, but it’s also true – as you can’t hope to run a successful event without a proper planning process. This can be split into five main areas:
Topic
This is arguably the most important part of successful planning, as the subject you choose will dictate how popular your event is. The big lesson here is to pick a topic that your audience wants to hear, not what you want to tell them about. And in the digital age you can choose a good topic quite easily – by looking at the questions people are asking you, and analysing your existing content to see which topics received the most comments likes, etc. This information is all available within your organisation, you just have to look for it.
Technology
What tech should you use to run your event? For many, the answer to this is Zoom, but there are other options out there, such as GoToWebinar, BlueJeans and ON24. These all have their own advantages, although given the ubiquity of Zoom it may be hard to look past this option – as pretty much everyone has it set up.
However, if you’re running a big event, where you want multiple topics discussed across breakout rooms, you could look at products like Cvent that are designed for larger and more complicated online meetings.
Distribution
How do you get your event out there? The most obvious – and effective – answer is through your email list, as these people are already interested in what you do, so will be most likely to attend. And you must plug away with this – you can’t just rely on one email, as people are busy and likely to forget. So you must follow-up with reminders, and also remember to remind those who have registered to attend, right up until a minute or so before you go live.
But the wider you spread your net, the more you will boost attendance. So you should also distribute through social media, put it on your website, and even through syndicated content – so other sources can use content from your event to send out to their own audiences.
Speaker
Your choice of speaker can be a tough one, as someone who would be good at an in-person event may be unsuited to an online version – as talking into a screen with no live audience can be difficult for many. So, whoever you choose must be comfortable in presenting online and be ready to prepare themselves properly – both in terms of using the technology and being confident in what they are going to say.
Rehearse
When you see a truly memorable live event – be it in business, music, comedy or anything else – you can guarantee it’s been rehearsed to death, no matter how spontaneous it may appear.
So, it’s crucial to rehearse your whole event so that it all works when you actually go live.
