Many events are going virtual. But are you still hesitating? Out of several reasons, one thing may concern you most–will sponsors continue to support your event if it’s virtual?
Fear not! Based on the 100+ recent virtual events that have partnered with Whova, we’ve compiled a few tips that will help you show good ROI for your event sponsors.
1. Give sponsors a virtual presence at your virtual event
Since everything is digital in a virtual event, it’s easy for your sponsors to upload videos or even hold virtual coffee chats while live streaming. They can showcase their products or company with your audience, and build connections with attendees via the virtual meetups.
Put the video or streaming links on your event website or event app, and send an announcement to your attendees to let everyone know about them.
2. Add the sponsor banner to the session streaming page
Similarly, in a virtual event, the session streaming or presentation video page will be one of the most visited pages by your attendees. So make sure you add the virtual event sponsors’ banner there. If you use an event app like Whova, they will be automatically added to that page.
3. Add the sponsor logo and banners to the emails you send to attendees
It’s likely that you may send more emails to attendees in a virtual event about various reminders or instructions. These are perfect chances to promote your sponsors. Simply add the sponsor banners or logos to the end of the emails. If your email software allows making templates, it’s better to create a template that has the banner. It will save you a lot of time and will ensure that you won’t forget to include it.
4. Present event sponsors with deep data about their target audience
Some event apps such as Whova, can display the full list of attendees with the enriched profiles. Make sure your sponsors know about how to browse the attendee list and their profiles. It will largely help the sponsors to target relevant people, and send private messages to them to generate business and contacts.
5. Use gamification to make the sponsors more memorable
Everyone loves to have fun at an event. When you incorporate games or fun activities into your event, it’s a good opportunity to promote your sponsors.
For example, you can organize an online scavenger hunt by giving every sponsor a magic number. The attendees need to talk to every sponsor to collect their numbers. The attendee who collects all the numbers earliest wins the game.
While everyone is home at this time and having trouble adjusting to new routines, you can even suggest for sponsors to host sponsored leisure activities like virtual wellness classes and cooking classes! Activities like this will make it easier to bring people together and give them more to talk about even after the event is over.
6. Send Sponsored virtual swag bags
Give your sponsors the opportunity to include their promotional materials in the swag bags. For example, it can be online coupons, shopping credits, free ebooks, or free trial period of services.
Since all the offers are digital, the sponsors can easily track the usage, and it gives virtual conference sponsors a unique follow-up opportunity after their event.
7. Allow sponsors to share product brochures or job postings
Besides getting business opportunities, many companies sponsor events for recruiting purposes. If that’s the case, you can make this easier for sponsors by setting up dedicated discussion groups for every sponsor based on the company or by the job department (or both!). If your event platform supports it, creating a job board on your event website or event app could also easily connect the recruiters and the job seekers.
8. Increase your attendee size to help sponsors gain more visibility and brand awareness
With the event going virtual, you have a chance to dramatically increase the attendee size. This is because 1) after cutting off the venue and catering expenses, the ticket can be cheaper; 2) the attendees don’t need to travel anymore and can participate in the event anywhere. At the same time, more attendees won’t incur higher costs as is the case in face-to-face events. If you can arrange to have more people to participate in your event, the event will definitely be more valuable to the sponsors.
9. Inform the sponsors about the results
Your event report is a great way to showcase how beneficial the event is to the sponsors. Some event apps such as Whova automatically generates the sponsor report for you. It contains information such as how many impressions each sponsor gets. Make sure to share it with your sponsors and let them know the value your event brought to them. The sponsors will be happy to see their ROI in numbers.
Make it Easy for your Virtual Conference Sponsors to Get High ROI
Going virtual doesn’t mean your sponsors get a lower ROI. With these tips, there’s so much you can easily do to make sure your sponsors walk away with more than they ever could’ve hoped for.
If you need help with setting up your next virtual event, contact us today.
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