We all have participated in various physical events at some point in our lives. Be it as students scouting universities at an education fair, college graduates looking for jobs at a job fair, or employees sourcing talent at a career fair, we have been a part of such events. However, the age of the internet has enabled organizers, exhibitors and attendees to meet online. Thus, companies are able to increase b2b lead generation through virtual events.
The internet has catalyzed the evolution of many things and trade-shows are no exception. More companies, institutes, and governments are resorting to digital events to reap the benefits of their convenience, reach, and budget-friendliness. Additionally, 87% of marketers consider the opportunities generated by virtual events as a success factor.
6 Ways Virtual Events Help Increase B2B Lead Generation
Although a lot has changed, the purpose driving trade shows has remained constant:
- Marketing your business and its offerings
- Generating leads for conversion
The revolutionary technology behind virtual events satisfies both these purposes. While marketing is quite clearcut, many companies have trouble with lead generation. However, if you go virtual, you can explore a lot of opportunities.
Here is an overview of how going virtual with your event can increase b2b lead generation.
1. Generate Massive Reach
Your online event can accommodate a much wider audience by removing all geographical restraints. Therefore, important stakeholders who could not have attended the event for in-person interactions can now easily log in. You can go beyond your local audience to potentially a global one which can skyrocket your business. Then, you can host the best event for your audience and goals. This way, you can ensure a bigger and more diverse event attendance and naturally, a larger pool of lead prospects.
2. Shorten the Sales Cycle
At a virtual event, visitors are explore your service, look at demonstrations, and can close deals right there. Therefore, this significantly accelerates the sales funnel. Otherwise, the whole process can take weeks. By registering for the event, visitors also pre-qualify themselves long before the event takes place. So, attending your event can take the place of a first sales call — moving prospects through your sales funnel faster.
3. Double as a Marketing Channel & E-commerce Platform
The dynamic nature of a virtual event opens up quite a few options. If you’re looking for a wider audience and higher volume of content download and sharing, you can set up an event with low or no participation costs. This widens the net you cast and catapults chances of lead generation.
Alternatively, you can charge a small admission fee along with a fee for access to specific content like presentations or live webinars. This can bring in additional revenue whilst bringing some exclusivity to your event. The VIP access vibe can work well in your favor if it resonates with your corporate values and the target audience you are looking to attract.
With a virtual event, it’s obvious that you can seamlessly market and position your products to relevant audiences. What tops this is that if required, you can integrate an e-commerce engine enabling visitors to buy products there and then which allows you to generate revenue in a short amount of time.
4. Deliver 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 expect a reply in 30 minutes or less. Therefore, live videos, tweets, and webcasts are becoming increasingly popular. Virtual events are designed for such interactions through instant chat, social sharing, on-demand webinars, and live Q&A sessions.
Webinars themselves are great opportunities to develop leads as you can share 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 event’s reach and loop in more participants. In addition, they build a lead nurturing environment. Thus, someone is always available to answer a prospect’s query. People are more likely to engage with you if you take the guesswork out of the process and online events help you achieve this leading to more conversions.
5. Enable Data-Driven Tracking To Increase B2B Lead Generation
Post-event reports can shed a lot of light on the event’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. They can help in improving content for the next event and even your B2B marketing strategies by showing you what worked and what didn’t. For instance, you can 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. Plus, the reports also furnish data collected from visitors at registration for your sales team. 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.
Best of all, our reporting features allow you to access data in real-time.
6. A Virtual Event is Not a One-Time Affair
The best part of going virtual: your engagement does not have to end with the event. You can keep the doors to the virtual event open for days after its scheduled time has passed. This allows your content to be available for consumption, storing, and sharing for much longer. Even if your reps are not available to immediately answer the queries generated by latecomers, you’ve still left the door open for an additional stream of prospects to access your event and reach out for a transaction.
Furthermore, you retain the contact information of prospects and registrants even after the event. Then, you can send educational/promotional material to them. Then, you can convert them into valuable leads
Conclusion
Have you noticed the recent mushroom growth of professional seminars and virtual fairs around you? With virtual events, the options for lead-generation and lead-nurturing are endless. If you clearly present the message you wish to portray and match this message to your event and audience, you stand a very high chance of turning attendees into valuable prospects.
