12 Mistakes Marketers Make When Planning Virtual Events

Virtual events are a great way to connect with prospects and customers, strengthen relationships, and showcase your products or services. That said, planning a successful event can be a challenge! To help you avoid pitfalls, we've put together a list of 12 common mistakes marketers make when planning, executing and following up after virtual events.

Mistake 1: Skipping goal-setting

Before you start planning the details of your event, it's important to first define your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs).

What do you want to achieve with this event?

How will you measure success?

Setting clear objectives and KPIs will help you stay focused and ensure that your event is aligned with your business goals. By benchmarking what you're trying to achieve, you can track your progress and make adjustments as needed.

Mistake 2: Ignoring opportunities to showcase your brand

Every touchpoint is an opportunity to showcase your brand in a unique way. Make sure you're taking advantage of all the brand touchpoints for your event, including promotional assets, the event registration page, the direct mail kit and more. 

Consider linking to a video or other content to introduce your brand before the live event:

Mistake 3: Arbitrarily selecting a date and time

When planning your event, think through what will work best for not only your company, but also your audience. Consider where  your audience is located and what time would be most convenient. Are they in-office or working from home? Check your data against lesser-known holidays to ensure no conflicts. If you’re relying on your sales team or executives to drive registration, avoid  quarter-end periods. By thinking through the calendar, you can maximize registration and ensure that your event is well-attended.

Mistake 4: Assuming a RSVP ‘Yes’ means your work is done

In a perfect world, all registrants would attend and engage during your events. With busy calendars and personal commitments, you need to follow up multiple times with your guests to ensure they show up. So, it's important to keep your event top of mind for attendees. Send out at least two reminders the week of the event to keep attendees engaged and excited for what’s in store.

Corrina Owens sees lots of success keeping the sales team engaged and excited through calendar holds and reminders:

 Mistake 5: Not partnering enough with sales

Collaborating with your sales team on the invite list and outreach helps ensure that you are targeting the best accounts for your company. Also, with the sales team’s buy-in that you’re focusing on the most important prospects, they will play an active role in event follow up, which can lead to deals accelerating and closing faster. While it might take a bit more time and collaboration, in our experience, shared goals will lead to more successful events.

The marketing team at Snyk lets sales drive registration first for these high-touch enterprise events:

Mistake 6: Not leveraging your C-suite 

Titles matter. Leverage your executive power to personalize invites, provide thought leadership, speak/moderate and more. Executive involvement can add a touch of prestige to your event and increase attendance.

For example, ask your CMO to open the event and moderate a breakout discussion with prospects and customers:

Mistake 7: Allowing your speakers to wing it 

Given the high-end nature of these events, make sure your speakers have adequately prepped their content and practiced their delivery. They should be familiar with the attendees and know whether the event is more casual or formal. A mismatched speaker can ruin an otherwise great event.

Mistake 8: Under-thinking the format

The run of show serves as a blueprint for the event's organization and flow. It outlines the timing and sequence of all elements of the event, including tastings, presentations, breakout rooms, and transitions, ensuring that the event runs smoothly and on time.

A well-planned show flow is especially important for virtual events because attendees may be joining from different locations and time zones, making it essential to stay on schedule to ensure that everyone can participate in all planned activities. Additionally, virtual events often require more technical setup and coordination, and distinct event blocks help ensure that everything is properly timed and executed.

purple cork’s recommended event format. The best hour of the week!

Mistake 9: Forgetting your audience

No one likes to be pitched, especially when they’re not expecting it. So before you jump into sales mode, put yourself into your attendees’ shoes and think about what they’re looking to get out of the event. In most cases, they want to network with their peers, bring takeaways back to their organizations, and have fun. Resist the urge to make it about you and your event will be a success. If and when your attendees have a great time, there'll be plenty of opportunities to follow up with them afterwards to share more about your business. 

Mistake 10: Missing the opportunity to ask questions and capture live feedback

Capturing candid feedback is essential for deal progression as every touchpoint is an opportunity to learn more about your prospects. Assign someone to capture live feedback, especially in the smaller breakout room discussions, and use it in external event follow-ups and internal event debriefs. Share the feedback from specific accounts/contacts with your sales team to help them progress deals.

Account Executives also enjoy these smaller group chats to get to know their prospects in a more personal way:

Mistake 11: Skimping on support 

We’ve all attended events with a distracting tech glitch. Don’t let your attendees remember your event that way! Make sure you have a tech expert on hand for effortless and impressive production. Even better, bring in purple cork productions to run the show!

Mistake 12: Patting yourself on the back too quickly

The work isn’t complete once the event is over. Debrief with your team and vendors to talk through what worked and opportunities to ensure you continue to improve your event execution. Also don’t miss the opportunity to gather valuable feedback from your attendees for next time. Practice makes perfect!

Looking for support with your virtual event strategy? purple cork has planned and executed thousands of virtual events with the world’s best marketers. Reach out today to get started!