Skip to content Digital events are becoming ever more relevant and so for organizers and platforms holders, times are exciting. With this new interest comes competition in the world of virtual events, however, and Forbes predicts that both in-house and third-party digital events will continue to undergo exponential growth over the next year.
This means that digital event planners and platforms are going to need to market their wares in creative ways in order to find their way through what is becoming an over-saturated market. Finding that ideal strategy is a matter of looking at trends in the wider marketing arena and matching them.
Learning your niche
Finding you out who you appeal to, and for what reason, is key to forming a cogent strategy. Look at your product strengths to start this process. Are you a fully-featured organizer that uses, or offers, a platform with lots of different features and functions?
Or are you more akin to the classic marketplace platforms, like Zoom and Skype, which – as CNN note – have gained popularity for their simple format? It’s really important to know your market and this is important within digital events. Look at your client base, and clients you want to start providing a service for and decide on what sort of events you can offer – this will allow you to focus your marketing spend in a much better fashion.
Be proactive
Entrepreneurs assert that proactive marketing is absolutely key for all B2B businesses. As a platform provider for digital events, that includes your business. It’s a good piece of advice – an over-saturated market means that it’s easy for customers to find good options, and more difficult to make sure they find the best option in yours.
It’s important to get a wide spread of marketing avenues, primarily through social media, but also through classic marketing networks. Most importantly of all, perhaps, is efforts made through search engine optimization, and having organic growth in that area of marketing.
SEO matters
Marketing for digital events is a different ball game to what it was a year ago. An increasingly lucrative market means huge amounts of competition, and it’s going to show in the difficulty of ineffective marketing. In many ways, returning to basics is the best way to proceed. Identify your niche and market it in a positive, natural way.
SEO should hold huge importance in your marketing strategy. According to figures reported by Moz.com, only 2.8% of people will click on sponsored results in their searches. Thankfully, modern SEO values webpages that naturally emphasize the quality of their content and products.
SEO rankings are increasingly influenced by the promotion of organic content – that is, content and webpages that are written not to look into the technical specifications of a search engine algorithm, but sound human. When planning your website and online advertising content, focus on this factor. Look to naturally show just why your platform is right for your niche; the keywords and search terms you want to get involved with should come naturally.
The bottom line
What will have to change is the marketing mindset. The fundamental questions in the coming years will not be how to deploy this or that new technology, but how to can solve fundamental marketing problems, such as how to earn consumers’ trust and how to create experiences that are more impactful, useful, productive, and beneficial.
Back in the 90s, markets were still based on linear value chains dominated by one or two industry giants. We are quickly moving from a world of hierarchies to one dominated by networks and ecosystems. That changes how we need to develop and grow.