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Crafting a virtual user conference is more than just organizing an event; it's about creating a memorable digital journey for every attendee.

And as an event marketer, you know all too well that putting together an impactful virtual user conference comes with its own challenges.

The good news is that these challenges can be overcome when you have the right conference technology partner on your side. 

So let’s break down the top challenges and see how the right event tech can help you obliterate them!

Challenge 1: Crafting a personalized attendee journey

Every participant at your user conference, be it a customer, partner, or prospect, has unique expectations from your event. But without a tailored registration processes, event communications and experiences, it becomes impossible for you to engage with them in a meaningful way.

How Zuddl helps:

• Tailored registration: Use conditional logic to personalize your event registration forms as per your attendee persona.

• Data-driven outreach: Empower sales to interact with prospects and personalize their outreach with real-time and easily accessible attendee analytics - such as the information filled in registration forms, questions asked, answers to Polls, the sessions spent at most, etc.

Challenge 2: Delivering a true on-brand experience

Your brand has its own identity and voice, and your design team is probably fantastic! But even they can be stifled by limited platforms can sometimes dilute that uniqueness, making your event feel less authentic and potentially alienating your audience.

How Zuddl helps:

• Customizable touchpoints: Infuse every event detail with your brand essence.
• Diverse visual options: Access a rich library of visuals or integrate your unique designs.
• No code builders: Publish fully customized promotional landing pages and attendee emails with Zuddl’s no-code builders.
• Elevated event streams: Our branding themes ensure your event stands out and feels authentic.

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Challenge 3: Overcoming integration bottlenecks

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Data drives successful events. However, limited or clunky integration can disrupt the flow, leading to manual workflows, potential errors, and missed opportunities - aka a ‘pull-your-hair-out and scream’ situation for any marketer.

How Zuddl helps:

• Seamless integrations: Zuddl's intuitive two-way integrations ensure a continuous data stream in virtually real-time.

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• Strategic data utilization: Link CRM with event data for actionable insights, optimizing attendance and engagement.
• Real-time sales alerts: Keep sales teams in the loop when key stakeholders from an account engage, maximizing opportunities.

Challenge 4: Ensuring studio-quality events

‍The absence of a robust, integrated studio in your conference platform can be a total dampener on your user conference, rendering your sessions low-impact and your session management glitchy, with a lot of room for panic for you as well as your speakers.

How Zuddl helps:

• Professional speaker management: Conduct dry runs and coordinate with speakers effortlessly during live events.
• Content versatility: Choose between live, pre-recorded, or a blend of content, ensuring optimal quality.
• Quality content creation: Studio is a powerhouse that lets you not only stream quality content but also leave you with branded session recordings, which means your teams can use event videos for follow-up the very next day after the conferene is over.

Of course, we can go on and on, but we highly recommend you watch this on-demand product tour to see how your next virtual conference can be your most epic one yet!

With the July updates, we bring you even more control for event creation and management.

The major highlights include custom communication, better duplication settings, more integration support, and an improved registration page.

Send custom emails

Get even more control over your communications

You can now select attendees and send them custom emails from the People section. The section also has filters now - you can separate attendees by status (attended or not attended), by type (attendee or booth owner), and by custom access groups to help you choose the ones you want to email.

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More control for duplication

Keep the settings you want, leave the rest behind

When you duplicate your event or webinar, you can now choose which settings to duplicate to the new version. Studio backstage is also duplicated now.

Presenting Wistia for webinars

Push your webinar recordings to Wistia

We all know what Wistia does. If you don’t, go check out their homepage. We’ve been supporting this feature for our events app and extending it for webinars.

Yes, Wistia integration is now also available for webinars. You can now use the integrations to push webinar recordings to Wistia.

How cool is that?

An improved registration page

Draw your attendees with a slick new page design

We’ve made multiple improvements to the landing page setup. You can add an image or video as a page banner (carousels are still supported for older pages), upload a logo for the page, and the countdown timer has a new animation.

That's a wrap for now!

Want to see Zuddl in action? Book a demo today.

It seems simple enough: a webinar registration page that is simultaneously 1) engaging and simple to navigate for attendees, and 2) captures essential marketing intelligence about registrants for marketing and sales teams to nurture down-the-line. 

But a registration page and process that can accomplish both is more an exception than a norm. 

B2B event marketers can be hampered or limited in their efforts by tech that constrains customization and personalization — meaning that it can actually be extremely difficult to make the registration page look a certain way, or have your registration form display fields that are important for your business. This not only negatively affects attendee engagement but can also limit your valuable follow-up data.

Built to address these frustrations, here’s 3 ways Zuddl Webinars helps make the setup of webinar registration easier for B2B event marketers.

1. Easy branding with our webinar landing page builder

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An intuitive interface allows you to simply drag and drop elements - text, images, buttons etc. easily. Then, input your brand's color codes and select matching fonts. This ensures consistency with your overall brand identity, creates an engaging and cohesive experience for your registrants, and just makes attending your webinar more appealing!

Your TLDR takeaway:

• Drag, drop, preview, publish - no coding needed
• Choose from a variety of templates to get started
• Customize a template with your brand colors and fonts

2. Unrestricted customization with registration forms 

Most webinar platforms will allow you to capture the most salient details about your attendees such as their name, email address, company name and location. These details can help marketers personalize the attendee experience post-webinar. Zuddl's registration forms let you do so much more. 

• You can use conditional logic in forms to get better marketing intelligence

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Zuddl Webinars takes registration form customization one step further by giving you the ability to employ conditional logic in registration forms - by which we mean, the ability to show or hide form fields or sections based on the user's previous responses.

An example: Let’s say your business has a plan for enterprise customers. In your webinar registration form, one of the questions you ask could be “Are you in a team of more than 100 people?” If they answer “Yes” from a drop-down option, the next question triggered from that response could be “Would you be interested in our enterprise plan?”. If your registrant is in a team less than 100 aka not an enterprise, then this question will never be shown as it is irrelevant to them.

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This level of personalization lets you and your marketing team capture essential information on your leads that can be used by your growth and sales teams to reach out to MQLS generated from webinars, with better context as to the use-case.

• You can embed the form on your webpage instead of using a landing page - it's completely up to you 
  
  B2B marketers sometimes prefer to host the registration form for their webinars on their webpage instead of directing their users to a separate URL. This is incredibly easy to do with Zuddl - it’s literally a simple copy-paste job.

• You can even restrict emails for registration
  
  Customize the email domains you want to restrict while allowing all other domains. This means you can restrict non-business emails from being used at registration and block competitors from registering, if you so desire.

3. Integrations makes data transfer easy + enables better follow-up

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Zuddl Webinars has ready integrations with most CRMs and martech tools, such as Salesforce, Pardot, Hubspot and Slack. This means there’s no manual effort needed for data entry, there’s less error when it comes to preserving data integrity, and that you can easily surface and share data with different teams in the company for better alignment. 

An example: By having a dedicated Slack channel for webinar alerts, Cloudsmith’s Sales team were notified when prospects that they were working to get over-the-line registered or attended, and could use this information for timely and targeted outreach post-webinar.

Your TLDR takeaway:

• Zuddl Webinars has ready integrations with Salesforce, Pardot, Hubspot + Slack
• Turns data transfer into a simple process
• Makes lead tracking simple 
• Enables timely follow-up for your Sales team - especially if you combine a highly customized registration form + a Slack integration which  means that Sales will be able to easily identify and pursue the most qualified leads

Webinar registration should be simple and effortless for organizers and attendees alike

Instead of piling more onto B2B marketers’ already full plates, webinar hosting software should be helping to relieve it. 

Zuddl Webinars, by addressing the most common headaches marketers face with webinar registration, aims to deliver an experience that is flexible, convenient and targeted to solve the day-to-day challenges marketers face.

With setup of the landing page and registration form simple to execute and easy to customize, and integrations making it hassle-free to utilize registration data post-webinar, marketers no longer need to spend hours and effort on manual activities, and can instead focus on simply building a solid webinar strategy.

If you’ve been watching our show ‘Event Heroes’ - a webinar series that features event leaders from across the B2B space, you know that we recently concluded one of our most exciting episodes yet!

Our guest speaker was Hillary Foster, who is the Global Events and Sponsorships Lead at Cloudsmith, a SaaS tool for developer teams.

Hillary brings a wealth of experience to the table. With a rich background in event planning and logistics, including stints at the Grammys and The Washington Post, she knows what it takes to create an event that resonates.

Recently, Hillary orchestrated Cloudsmith’s inaugural global virtual conference on Zuddl - Unpacked ‘23, which garnered over 1,200 registrations. We caught up with Hillary to get some insights into the inner workings of Unpacked.

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Here are our top four learnings from that conversation that are sure to help you run better virtual conferences.

Measure event success by quality and relevance

Hillary emphasizes the importance of defining clear objectives for your virtual conferences and measuring relevant metrics. She says, "To measure the success of an event, it goes beyond just saying, 'Oh, we had 10,000 registrations.' If the 10,000 people registered aren't relevant to your business, then that doesn't really matter." This insight underscores the need to focus on quality over quantity when it comes to event attendees. It's not just about attracting a large crowd, but attracting the right crowd.

Amplify your efforts with internal marketing

According to Hillary, fostering community engagement and promoting your event internally are crucial for its success. She states, "Internal marketing is as important as external marketing. Talk about your events, so people are on track, and you know, I imagine that also helps with employee advocacy." 

This approach not only ensures that everyone within your organization is aware of and excited about the event, but it also encourages them to spread the word within their own networks, amplifying your reach.

Have long-term goals for your event content (beyond the event itself)

Hillary highlights the importance of a deeper vision when it comes to your event content. She points out, "Having things that can be captured in the virtual space live on forever on our YouTube or behind gated content is really important." 

This highlights the value of virtual event content as a long-term content resource. In an increasingly on-demand world, the recordings from your virtual conference can be invaluable video assets that can be put up on your website or Youtube and continue to engage audiences and drive value long after the event has ended.

Personalize your promotions - it pays off!

Finally, Hillary advises event marketers to personalize event promotion efforts and focus on reaching the most relevant audiences. 

She says, "You want to target the people in your industry who are going to attend the events. What newsletters are they reading? What websites are they going to? What forums are they on? Those are the ones you want to target and use your paid media spend there." This approach ensures that your promotional efforts are focused and effective, reaching the people who are most likely to be interested in your event.

You can also watch the whole conversation here - it’s 100% ungated!

Usually, marketing teams work like Lego. 

Sub-functions within the marketing team - designers, content writers, webflow developers, email marketers, etc. - come together like the fitting of different Lego pieces in order to build a website, publish ebooks and articles, run webinars, and so on. It's a smooth assembly line.

But sometimes, when the interdependency within a marketing team becomes too rigid, it can act as a blocker, hindering agility, causing project deadlines or go-live dates to be delayed or even canceled, and just causing all-around frustration and stress.

This is clear in the production of a webinar, for instance. Setting up and running a webinar is reliant on the involvement of different team members and requires a lot of orchestration as is clear in the diagram below.

Who are the key stakeholders involved in producing a webinar?

To set up and run a webinar requires the effort of at least 3-4 people in the marketing team.

All in all, for the webinar showrunner, dependencies can make running webinar programs extremely stressful as any delays or absences could significantly derail the efficiency of the event. 

How Zuddl Webinars makes it simple for 1-person to set up and run a webinar

Zuddl Webinars simplifies the setup and execution of webinars, making it easier for a single individual to manage the entire process. Here’s how the platform enables self-sufficiency:

(1) Easy-to-use templates make setup of ALL webinar activities as easy as 1-2-3

Using Zuddl Webinars, the webinar showrunner can ‘own’ all the activities that occur within the webinar production process by themselves, thanks to the platform’s ‘clicks not code’ ethos. This means that all webinar assets such as the landing page, webinar ‘stage’ and email promotions can be created and customized by just one person. ‍

This entire process is made easy through visual cues of every step in the process, and simple drop-down and toggle options,  reducing reliance on dedicated technical support or IT personnel.

• ‍Landing/registration page
  
  Zuddl Webinars comes with a set of templates that you can pick from for your webinar. You easily customize the banner, and speaker information. And importantly, the registration field as per your needs. 

• Email marketing
  
  You can create multiple event-related emails using our templates and send them to your attendees and speakers from a single dashboard. This streamlines your event communications and reduces dependency on your email marketer.

                 Building each email itself is as simple as using these drag-and-drop blocks.

By using ChatGPt to populate text for straightforward emails, you can also reduce dependency on your hardworking content team.

And by automating the sending of key emails - registration confirmations, reminders to attend, and post-event communication - you can make the attendee experience a smooth one. The bonus is that you won’t have to keep checking if messages are sent out on time.

The takeaway: With the availability of these user-friendly templates, webinar showrunners can now breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that the days of painstakingly putting together landing pages, emails and webinar stages, and battling tech constraints and formatting mishaps are over.

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(2) Branding made as simple as drag-and-drop + a couple of clicks

In today's visually-driven world, the design and branding of your webinar is really important. Zuddl Webinars makes it simple for organizers to add branding directly to all your webinar assets. You can customize banners, backgrounds, buttons, forms, alignment, error messages etc. all by yourself. 

This means you can reduce revision rounds, and that you don’t need to badger team designers for around-the-clock assistance. (PS: This is not to take away from the importance of your team designer, without whom you wouldn’t have those essential hex codes, fonts, and logos to use in the first place).

The takeaway: Using these Canva-like editable tools, you can reduce dependency on your design team. You yourself can make your webinar look on-brand and aesthetically pleasing in a short amount of time.

‍(3) A smooth run-of-show as a default, freeing you up to focus on engagement‍

Webinar organizers usually have a lot to juggle during the live webinar. You need to keep your speakers on track as well as the host. Visual aids (if any) need to be shared on time. The Chat has to be moderated. Polls need to be launched. 

Normally, you’d need at least one more extra person from your team to help coordinate all of this and make sure that the webinar is on track. Zuddl Webinars can replace that person.

• Pre-setting your run of show with Scenes: Using the Studio tool, you can pre-upload intro videos, presentations, and transitions and compose them into scenes.  These are then pushed live during the webinar - you can move from one scene to the next just like you would from one Powerpoint slide to another: with a simple click. 

• Managing guest speakers: With Studio also being a virtual green room, you can communicate directly with your speaker(s), and coordinate webinar logistics. 

The takeaway: Studio capabilities give you better control over your run of show, leaving little room for error during your livestream. This means that you can fully concentrate on making your stream more engaging.

From dependency to efficiency

With Zuddl Webinars, gain more control over the entire setup and execution of your webinars than you’ve ever had before. 

The platform tools enable you to carry out many activities by yourself, without having to keep going back and forth between team members. This in turn allows you to have better control over timelines and output, thereby improving efficiency.

‍TLDR: Here’s a quick breakdown of how you will reduce team dependency with Zuddl Webinars:

• ‍Landing page builder
  All you need to do is drag-and-drop to build.
  This means your team developer can take that much needed power nap without worrying about getting a flurry of Slack messages from you.

• ‍Email marketing
  Ready-made templates + a scheduler for all emails
  The team email marketer can take time off to meditate 

• ‍Canva-like branding tools
  Upload + drag-and drop pre-set brand fonts, logos and colors
  Your team designers can breathe a huge sigh of relief.

• ‍Studio
  Scenes + Backstage means you’re the only showrunner you need
  All your marketing teammates can go peacefully about their day

So, go on. 

Make your life as a webinar organizer 100 times easier.

Hello there, tech enthusiasts! Have you blocked out July 26, 2023, on your calendar yet? If not, it's high time you did. The AWS Summit New York is on the horizon, and it's shaping up to be a landmark event in the world of cloud computing.

A broad spectrum of learning

The AWS Summit New York is a treasure trove of knowledge. With over 115 sessions spanning a wide range of topics, there's something for everyone. Whether your interest lies in AI, machine learning, databases, or serverless technologies, rest assured you'll find a session that piques your curiosity. And who better to guide you through these sessions than AWS experts, builders, customers, and partners?

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Keynote by Swami Sivasubramanian

One of the highlights of the event is the keynote speech by Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of Databases, Analytics, and ML at AWS. Swami will delve into the innovative ways companies are leveraging AWS to revolutionize their industries. From the latest advancements in infrastructure, data, and AI to strategies for optimizing IT spending, Swami's keynote promises to be a wealth of information.

Hot topics to explore

The AWS Summit New York is a hub for the latest trends and innovations in cloud computing. With discussions on AI & Machine Learning, Data & Analytics, Storage, EC2 Compute, Serverless, Containers and Functions, Database, and DevOps & Developer Productivity, you're sure to stay ahead of the curve in the tech world.

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Networking opportunities

Beyond the learning opportunities, the AWS Summit New York also provides a platform for networking. Engage in meaningful conversations, share insights, and build connections that could lead to future collaborations.

Expo and AWS DeepRacer League

The Summit also features an Expo where you can see cutting-edge products and the latest solutions from sponsoring partners. And for those with a competitive spirit, the AWS DeepRacer League offers a chance to build and train a reinforcement learning model and compete for prizes and glory.

AWS training and certification

The Summit provides opportunities for AWS Training and Certification. Learn from AWS experts about real-world cloud scenarios, validate your cloud expertise, and gain practical experience.

In a nutshell

So, what can you expect from the AWS Summit New York? A day filled with insightful sessions, a keynote speech by an industry leader, discussions on trending topics, networking opportunities, an exciting expo, and even a racing competition!

In the world of B2B companies, the power of webinars to generate leads is undeniable. 

Back in 2022, a whopping 57% of B2B event marketers declared webinars as their preferred format for lead generation. 

But hold on – there's a catch. 

These same marketers raised concerns about a growing trend: attendees are losing interest in traditional one-way monologue style webinars.

Is it really that surprising? Think about it – with attention spans dwindling, people now prefer bite-sized content. And in a sea of webinars, why would your target audience choose yours if it sounds like just another run-of-the-mill option?

So what’s the secret to running webinars that are relevant to today’s buyers?

Here are 3 killer tips shared by Aarthisri Srinivasan, Events Marketing at Sprinto HQ.

Tip 1: Keep webinars short, tactical and focused

When we asked Aarthisri what Sprinto has learnt from experimenting with webinars and finding success, one key takeaway that she shared was that an event marketer needs to think of a webinar as if it’s competing with a TV show.

Which means, its duration cannot be longer than a typical 30-minute show. Not just this, Aarthisri also suggests keeping the session super-focused. 

“We take one tactical problem - attack it properly - with four questions.” she says.

Tip 2: Plan your webinars a quarter in advance

Why? Because this is the sweet spot that ensures your planning is not too dated, yet it gives you enough lead time to get your ducks in a row.

“We do it quarterly just so that our planning isn’t too dated to adapt any feedback, but just enough to get the right speakers and plan out the email campaigns.” states Aarthisri.

Tip 3: Pick topics your customers WANT to hear

When it comes to webinars, a unique topic of actionable value is critical to event success. In a sea of clutter, attendees will only notice your webinar if there’s something compelling enough for them to spend their time on.

Aarthi’s approach to finding topics that work is split into 3 tactics. 

“I look at like all of these industry, credible sources, communities, recognized communities which security leaders look at.

#2 -  Existing customers: Analyze the calls that they have with the CX team. See what exact problem that they are having.

#3 - Analyzing peer content - see competitors.”

Hope you found these 3 quick tips helpful! You can watch our whole conversation with Aarthisri in this link.

June has been a big month at Zuddl, with the long-awaited launch of Zuddl Webinars!

We also have an all-new organization structure with the Teams update, and some more support features for you.

Presenting Zuddl Webinars

Try our latest product — sign up and get streaming!

Webinars lets you start streaming quick and easy, with all features you need to make your program a success. Get customizable registration forms, built-in video production tools, a variety of third-party integrations and much more.

Along with the free 30-day trial, we have a variety of paid plans available and you can choose one that fits your needs.

Interested? Get started here.

Teams for your Organization

Get more structure to your Zuddl events with Teams

Now you can create multiple teams within an organization, to make it easier to manage multiple events. You can create them from the common dashboard, and directly add members to each team.

All members added in your organization are added to the General team by default. The organization owner and the admins are added to all teams by default.

Assign your participants

No need to check in anymore — assign registered users directly

The check-in status has been removed to simplify the event setup. Earlier, to perform actions like assigning people to rooms or making them booth owners, you had to check them in first.

Now you can do this directly for all registered users, without the added step.

Virtual backgrounds

Apply virtual backgrounds all across Zuddl Events

Now you can find the virtual background option whenever you turn on your video feed — in Expo, Rooms, or the Stage. Upload a background image from the Branding setup and it’ll be available for use throughout the event.

For the Networking venue, virtual backgrounds are limited to the background blur option.

Live analytics for Studio

Keep an eye on your event analytics, even from backstage

For events with Studio as backstage, organizers could only access live analytics from the attendee side of the event. With this update, you can view live analytics directly from the Studio backstage.

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You’ve probably noticed that webinars are more popular than ever.

They’ve skyrocketed from a once-a-quarter marketing activity to once-a-month. 

And for good reason.

Today, everyone’s looking to better their work, their skills and knowledge.

But everyone’s also short on time and attention.

The solution? Webinars are unrivalled as quick, effective learning tools. 

In a short 30-40 minute webinar session, your target audience can get snackible lessons, digestible takeaways, new skills, and walkthroughs. That window of time is also a perfect opportunity to show them just how much they need your product or service.

In fact, the best webinars can generate conversion rate averages of 19%.

And this is precisely why you just can’t afford to mess up.

Eminem said it best: “You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow, this opportunity comes once in a lifetime.”

Your best shot at not messing up: a dry run for your webinar.

Here's everything you need to know about conducting one.

In this blog post

• Why it’s important to not skip over a webinar dry run
• How far in advance should you schedule a webinar dry run?
• What to have in place before the dry run
• Who should attend the dry run?
• Webinar dry run agenda

Why it’s important to not skip over a webinar dry run 

A practice session ahead of your live webinar can expose cracks or gaps that are not noticeable during your planning process or on a Google Doc, such as malfunctioning audio settings on your speaker’s laptop or not having enough talking points for a 40-minute session. You can gauge timing, test audio and video equipment, refine slide transitions, and ensure smooth coordination with co-presenters.

It’s the difference between nudging registrants further down the customer journey, or losing them forever to competitors with better webinars.

How far in advance should you schedule a webinar dry run?

 At least 7 days prior to the go-live date.

This will give you enough space and time to make any required changes.

Any less and you might not have enough time to straighten out the kinks. 

For instance, if you identify that your webinar ‘script’ - by which we mean the storyboard of talking points used by a speaker and moderator - is too short, you and the speaker can work on adding more meat to it. This could take a couple of days, especially if you are both in different timezones.

What to have in place before the dry run

1. A storyboard of the talking points that will be discussed during the webinar (key to this is creating a targeted abstract - read more about this here)

2. Slides or a deck that will be presented during the webinar. These should be proofread before the dry run.

3. A webinar platform that makes your life as the organizer easier. You should have already set it up with your branding - overlays, logo, backgrounds etc.

‍Who should attend the dry run?‍

• You, the organizer
• The moderator
• Your speaker(s)
• An additional member of your team 

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Webinar dry run agenda + what to check at each stage

Let’s jump right in.

1.  Before the webinar starts

Ensure that your speakers are confident about using the webinar platform.

What to check:

• Test that your speakers logins to the webinar platform are working 
• Check their audio and video settings
• Ensure that speakers are comfortable using the platform. Either ways, walk them through how they can present their deck or share their screen, how to change slides, answer questions and participate in the chat.
• Show speakers how they can reach out to you for help during the webinar if they need to
• Double-check that you are able to record the webinar

2. Hit ‘record’ before you start with the presentation run-through

3. Run through the presentation

Use your storyboard to navigate through the different stages of the webinar as if it were live.

1. Welcome the audience + housekeeping announcements
2. Introduce yourself and the speakers
3. Hand it over to the speakers to share their presentation OR use the different talking points specified in your storyboard to move the discussion forward
4. Q/A time with the attendees
5. End the webinar and collect feedback

What to check:

• Timing: Ask the additional member of your team to time the session. If it’s severely under or over the allotted time, you’ll have to make adjustments.

• Branding: Sometimes the backgrounds or overlays you prepped ahead of time just don’t work when you see them live. Check if any need to be replaced.

• Flow of content
  
  ‍Visuals: Does the information on the slides sync with what the speaker is talking about? Do your visuals support what is being said? Is there too much text on screen?
  
  ‍Content: Are there any points during the presentation/discussion that are unclear? Your team member should flag areas that may need additional clarification or identify slides/visual content that needs more polish.

• ‍Audio/video quality: Are there any glitches in the video? Any lags? Issues with audio like an echo?

• ‍Polls and engagement: Driving interactivity during your webinar is critical, and polls are a great tool for this. So during the dry run, identify which points during the session, would a poll be most useful for the audience? (Note: Don’t be afraid to begin launching polls right from the start of the webinar) What poll questions can help drive the discussion forward, or interject some energy? Who will launch them?

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• ‍Links/resources: Are you planning on sharing any supporting material during the webinar? If so, who will be sharing it? Will it be shared in the Chat? 

4. Don’t skip the Q/A portion

Run-through a couple of seed questions to help your speakers understand what that portion of the webinar is like. If during the live webinar your attendees are hesitant to ask questions of their own, ask your additional team member to ask the seed questions to get the ball rolling and encourage others to speak up.

What to check:

• Are there any questions that the speaker wants to discuss? If so, include them in the seed questions.

• Are there any questions or topics to avoid? Discuss what to do if these come up during the live webinar. For instance, if your webinar tool allows moderation of Q/A questions submitted by the audience, ask your team member to block these unwanted questions.

5. Post-mortem of the dry run + share the recording

After the dry run, talk through the issues that were flagged with the team so that everyone is on the same page about what needs to be done.

Action items:

• Share the video recording of the dry run with the speaker, so that they can review it later. 

• Talk through contingency plans in case of audio/video malfunction, loss of connection to the internet, what to do with hecklers, or any other scenarios that may arise while presenting. 

• Arrange for another dry run if the team and the speaker feels that it is necessary.

And that’s it! Keep in mind these steps when conducting your dry run to fine-tune it.

Free resource:

‍Here’s a simple checklist that you can use to keep your dry run on track and help identify malfunctions and issues.

Don’t leave anything to chance

By allocating time for a thorough dry run, you can iron out technical issues, fine-tune your content and flow, and deliver an exciting and interesting experience for your target audience.

But keep in mind that no matter how carefully a webinar is planned and rehearsed, something may still go wrong with it. We’re all human. So if you do make a mistake or a little mishap occurs, acknowledge it and keep going. Your audience is just as human as you are. And if the webinar turns out to be a complete disaster, reassure your audience that you will email them an improved recording as a follow-up.

Whether you’re hosting a small webinar with clients or throwing a community-wide potluck, your goal as an event marketer is likely the same: to get the right people through the door. 

But how do you know what catches your target audience’s attention, and how do you incorporate it into your marketing materials?

Understanding what resonates with your audience, meeting them where they are, and using innovative marketing channels are all key elements of an effective event marketing approach. This guide will help you glean new insights into your target audience’s motivations and leverage them to boost RSVPs. Let’s get started!

1.Reach out to social media influencers

You’re likely already leveraging social media to promote your organization’s events, but you might be overlooking one of the most powerful assets social media has to offer: influencers. With thousands or even millions of people tuned into their accounts, influencers provide a valuable opportunity to boost your organization’s visibility and attract attendees to your upcoming event. Influencer marketing is projected to reach $21.1 billion.

While influencers can be difficult to contact, much less book as a marketing partner, you can try these strategies to secure their support:

• Start small. It’s probably not realistic for your organization to go after the most popular influencers right away, but you have a much better chance of engaging influencers with a smaller following. 

• Leverage your existing connections. Partnering with an influencer you already have a relationship with is more likely to succeed than starting from scratch. Gauge if your organization’s staff, audience, or board members have any connections with influencers and if they would be a good fit for your marketing campaign. 

• Make appealing partnership packages. Ensure the marketing partnership’s value proposition is clear from the beginning by offering appealing benefits. For instance, you could highlight the brand exposure that accompanies working with your organization, as well as offer incentives like VIP invitations to the event.

• Offer them creative input. Remember that, while the marketing campaign is for your event, you’re still using an account tied to your influencer partner’s brand. Make the collaboration a true partnership by offering the influencer significant creative control over the marketing content. You could offer them multiple options, such as a guest blog post or a social media takeover, to ensure that you’re both happy with the campaign outcome. 

Influencers present a golden opportunity to market your event but remember that they should only represent one part of your larger social media marketing strategy. It’s also important to produce engaging, informative content that resonates with your audience. Structure your influencer marketing plan to align with your existing social media content plan to ensure a cohesive experience for your audience. 

2. Embrace video marketing

If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine how valuable a video can be for your marketing strategy! With short-form video’s above-average ROI of 30%, your organization has a lot to gain from adding video content to your event marketing plan. Here are some simple ways that you can implement video content into your event marketing approach:

• Create event teasers. Build excitement around your upcoming event by sharing short videos teasing aspects of your event, such as behind-the-scenes clips of the venue, the food, or your keynote speaker preparing their speech. 

• Use existing event footage. If you’re marketing a recurring event and have exciting footage from one of your past gatherings, leverage it as marketing material.

• Share event recap videos. Even after the event, your footage can be useful. For instance, you can use footage that shows the overall atmosphere of the event and highlights your organization’s success. 

• Leverage live streams. Many social media platforms have free live-streaming capabilities that you can use to interact with your target audience. If your event features a guest speaker or entertainer, consider hosting a live-broadcasted Q&A-style interview about their part in your upcoming event. 

Not a cinematographer? No worries—you don’t have to be to get started. Ensure that you invest in a smart device that you can record on, a fast internet connection for live streams, and video editing software so your content looks professional. 

3. Use ChatGPT

AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, are becoming more prevalent, and it’s easy to see why. With some practice, you can use ChatGPT to optimize your event marketing approach and content by:

• Streamlining the content creation process: From generating FAQs to email subject lines, you can use ChatGPT to conquer writer's block and write engaging content.

• Finding relevant facts: Using ChatGPT-4, you can ask the AI to comb the internet, cutting down the time required to research effectively.

• Leveraging live-chat support: Use a GPT-powered chatbot as a resource for event attendees who might need a quick answer to a question. If it doesn’t know the exact answer to a question, ChatGPT can provide the event coordinator’s contact information to direct them to the right point of contact.

• Collecting feedback: After the event ends, you still have valuable data to collect from your attendees. Rather than a static feedback form, ChatGPT can ask questions conversationally, yielding more nuanced feedback from event attendees for your future use.

The sky’s the limit with ChatGPT, and it’s getting more advanced every day. Take some time to explore its capabilities—you’re sure to get some use out of it for your marketing campaign.

4. Personalize your marketing emails

Email is a tried-and-true organization marketing tool, but are you using it to its full potential? Your audience gets dozens (if not hundreds) of emails a day, so it’s your job to cut through the clutter and grab their attention. 

The best way to do this is through personalization, which involves segmenting your audience based on shared characteristics, such as their engagement history, demographics, and geographic location, and developing different email streams that align with their preferences. For instance, when planning an event, you might reserve in-person invitations for supporters living within your general area and send virtual invites to those living outside of it. This attention to detail will help boost engagement. 

To segment your email lists, automate your efforts with a powerful CRM and email campaign management software. Maintain data hygiene within these systems by continually updating relevant contact information. Doing so will help you stay up-to-date on your target audience’s interests.

Next Steps for Starting Your Marketing Campaign

Now that you have these tips in your back pocket, you might already be picturing your future marketing campaign. Before you begin, remember to set achievable goals that position you for success. Start with clear objectives and break them down into actionable steps to add nuance to your campaign. Don’t forget to keep your organization’s vision for the event as your primary focus and build your campaign around it. Before you know it, you’ll have RSVPs flooding your inbox!

With a primary focus on empowering their customers and fostering a strong community, Cloudsmith's webinars have become an integral part of their growth strategy.

Through their webinars, Cloudsmith brings together experts who share their knowledge on pertinent industry topics such as container optimization and software supply chain security, demonstrating the company’s commitment to staying at the forefront of industry advancements.

In this manner, Cloudsmith is able to serve as a trusted advisor as well as create opportunities for meaningful engagement that benefit both customers and the company’s sales efforts.

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Here are 3 things that have helped Cloudsmith run successful webinars:

1)They make webinars look and feel polished

Cloudsmith uses Zuddl Studio’s ready-to-use collection of backgrounds, banners, and lower-thirds, and an easy-to-use interface to customize their branding.

This result? — A visually stunning and cohesive experience that reflects the brand’s professionalism, and contributes to a high average time spent at each webinar.

2)They make data-based decisions to optimize strategy

With UTM-tracking, they are able to identify which marketing channels drive more registrations than others in real-time and lean into those top-performing promotions immediately. Routing marketing campaigns directly to Zuddl’s webinar landing pages helps them improve results too.

Additionally, by customizing the registration form on their webinar landing page, Cloudsmith captures important attendee details. Using analytics, they identify which timezones the majority of attendees are from, and make an informed decision on the best time to hold live webinars so as to attract maximum turnout.

3)They drive leads for sales + enable targeted, timely follow-up

Customizable registration forms that capture company and job titles help identify how many attendees are potential customers. This crucial information, combined with Zuddl’s Salesforce integration, enables their sales team reach out post-webinar with better context.

Also, by streaming directly to social from Zuddl and downloading the recordings and posting them on Cloudsmith’s YouTube channel, the company has been able to consistently generate thousands of additional views after the webinar is over.

Read the complete case study here

Summer is heating up, and so is Zuddl in the latest Grid® Report by G2! With 65+ badges across 8 categories, this is our best recognition yet!

As always, let’s start with the highlights:

Leader

(Category - Virtual Event Platform, Asia Pacific Event Management Platforms)

Products featured in the Leader quadrant of the Grid® Report are highly rated by G2 users and boast significant satisfaction and market presence scores.

Easiest To Use 

(Category - Event Management Platform)

This is awarded to the product ranked as the most user-friendly in the Usability Index as per ratings within its category.

Easiest Setup

(Category - Virtual Event Platform and Webinars)

This is based o G2s Implementation Index and reflects the product that has earned the highest Ease of Setup rating in its category

Best Support

(Category - Event Management Platforms, Event Networking & Matchmaking, Mobile Event Apps, Event Registration and Ticketing)

This is awarded to the product that has earned the highest Quality of Support rating in its category based on G2’s Relationship Index.

Why do G2 awards matter?

Because they are based on what actual users have to say

Rankings on G2 reports are based on data provided to us by real software buyers. These rewards are a result of positive reviews from verified users compared to similar products in these categories. 

For inclusion in the report, a product must have received 10 or more reviews. 

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Big wins in the webinar category!

In the webinar category alone, Zuddl has been awarded 10 badges, including highlights such as:

• Best Usability 
• Easiest Admin
• Best Relationship 
• Momentum Leader 

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Other noteworthy wins for Zuddl this summer:

• Best usability
• Easiest to do business with
• Best relationship
• Best support
• High performer

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We want to take this opportunity to thank our customers for the continued support!

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What happens in Vegas… is certainly worth your attention. 

And it’s no exception with CCW (Customer Contact Week), Las Vegas. Every year, CCW provides a valuable platform for vendors, business leaders, and CX innovators to come together, fostering opportunities for connection, collaboration, and networking.

This year’s edition will be CCW’s 25th, and will kick off on 19th June at Caesars Forum and go on until 22nd June. Going by the agenda and speaker line-up, this year’s edition promises to be a cracker of an event for CX industry leaders!

But instead of just taking our word for it, you can read this article to see if CCW is worth your time. So without further ado… here’s what you can expect from CCW 2023:

The major takeaways

Boost your customer strategy 

Join over 3,000 world-class customer contact and CX leaders for a chance to explore a wide range of trends and opportunities in the customer experience landscape, right from keynote addresses and informative summits to hands-on workshops.

Stay updated with the latest developments in CX

Leverage the opportunity to gain extensive knowledge about the digital revolution in the CX realm and  groundbreaking technology that’s revolutionizing how organizations engage with their customers.

Psst… here’s a link to the complete agenda.

Get CMP certified

Take the Contact Center Leader Exam and walk away with a CMP certificate - Fun fact: Leaders who demonstrate excellence in CMP Certified competencies have a significantly higher likelihood of surpassing performance expectations.

Who’s headlining?

The main stage headliners at CCW 2023 is quite the smorgasbord of talent from diverse walks of life. 

Here’s a quick look at this illustrious list:

• Abby Wambach: Soccer Legend & NYTimes Best Selling Author. Abby Wambach is a renowned soccer player, Olympic gold medalist, and FIFA Women's World Cup champion. 
• Armando (Pitbull) Perez: Grammy® Award-winning Musician & Entrepreneur. Pitbull is a globally recognized musician and entrepreneur. 
• Timnit Gebru: Founder, Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute. Timnit Gebru is a prominent figure in AI research and ethics.
• Jenn Lim: CEO and Co-founder, Delivering Happiness. Jenn Lim is the CEO and co-founder of Delivering Happiness, a company focused on creating happier workplaces. 
• Mark King: CEO, Taco Bell. Mark King is the CEO of Taco Bell, a fast-food chain that needs no introduction.
• Jon Dorenbos: NFL Long Snapper & AGT Finalist. Jon Dorenbos is a former NFL long snapper and finalist on America's Got Talent. 
• Rebecca Jarvis: Chief Business, Technology & Economics Correspondent, ABC News. Rebecca Jarvis is a renowned journalist and correspondent for ABC News. 
  

How to register?

You can either choose to purchase a General Admission pass, All-Access pass or a 2-day vendor pass. More details are available in this link.

Also, come meet us?

Event Heroes Cocktail and Dinner

Before the hustle and bustle of CCW takes over, come join us for an evening of good company and great conversation. No formalities, no agendas, just a chance to hang out, meet fellow event marketers, and enjoy some tasty food and drinks together. 

When and where is the Event Heroes Dinner happening?

June 18, 2023 | 6 PM - 8 PM PST

Brooklyn Bowl, Las Vegas

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Picture this — you are the new head of your association’s event planning committee and there is one event left on the calendar: your annual conference. It’s the biggest event of the year, but you’re not certain if you can top last year’s turnout.

After all, there are a lot of aspects to manage, including recruiting speakers, finalizing the session schedule, and choosing a caterer. But there’s one aspect that trumps them all — registration. If your association members can’t find their way around your online registration page, you won’t be able to maximize attendance. 

Fortunately, there are a few registration page tips you can store in your back pocket:

• Post relevant event content
• Create clear user pathways
• Design your registration form for mobile
• Test for accessibility 

While creating and editing your registration page and form, consistently reference what your visitors want, need, and expect from your online presence. If you’re uncertain about specific technical or design elements, ask yourself if the element would improve your visitor’s overall experience. That said, let’s explore some registration page optimization tips!

Post relevant event content

Keep your end user in mind when creating your registration page. In other words, avoid burying your must-know information under organizational facts or unrelated content. Instead, make your event content easily accessible, so visitors can find what they need when they need it.

Here are a few must-have items to include:

• Agenda: Let visitors know when and where the event(s) will take place so they can plan accordingly. If your event is virtual, like a panel, consider adding a countdown clock to increase anticipation. 

• Registration form: Post a short form for attendees to register. Include the necessary fields like contact information, account information, and dietary requirements if applicable. Keep this form brief and accessible (more on this below).

• Pricing information: Be upfront about how much your event will cost. Mention the registration fee, cancellation policy, ticket options, and discounts. 

• Short description: Provide your visitors with a couple of sentences to describe your event. Just make sure your description explains the event’s purpose and who should attend so visitors have enough context to understand. 

• Images: Include professionally polished photos of your organization members or leaders to catch the eyes of potential attendees. You could also use candid photos from previous events to highlight memories you’ve shared with your community. 

• Video: Post short, shareable videos from previous events to build hype so visitors can visualize the event experience. Or, post bite-sized, enthusiastic informational videos explaining the event’s value. 

• Social proof: Use social proof as a marketing tool for your event. Compile responses from the previous year’s attendees and (with their permission) post ones that will inspire potential attendees to make the jump and register. ‍

• Share link: Make your registration page shareable, so that current attendees can reach and invite their network to join them.

Creating share links also increases your reach as potential attendees may not know about your event, but their friends or colleagues could nudge them to register. Therefore, add both a share link to your registration page and include a description and link to your registration page on social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

Create clear user pathways

Now that users know the gist of your event, double-check that they can perform the necessary steps to register. Make it easy on them by creating simple user pathways that seamlessly take them from A to B, or from your informational page to the registration form. 

Follow these best practices to ensure that your interested website visitors become registered attendees:

• Add color contrast. Light gray menus or text against a white background can cause visitors to strain their eyes, misunderstand, or abandon a registration page altogether. Keep your details legible with optimized color contrast. 

• Minimize drop-down menus. Instead of drop-downs, opt for clear and specific CTAs to lead visitors to a dedicated registration form. 

• Use well-placed CTAs and buttons. Call-to-actions (CTAs) anticipate visitors’ needs and provide an accessible way for them to complete the next desired step with descriptors like “register today” or “secure your spot.” 

• Use a sequential heading structure. Sequential heading structures create a clear visual hierarchy. For example, your H1 title could be “Join Us for Mental Health America’s Spring Conference” with H2 titles beneath detailing the conference schedule and keynote speaker profiles. 

Once you’ve thought through each of these design and informational components, double-check for consistency across your registration page and form. Match your page’s look and feel to the rest of your website and your registration form. That way, visitors don’t feel misled when signing up.

Design your registration form for mobile

Did you know that 90% of users access the internet with their mobile devices? So, even if you’re creating your registration page on a desktop, you’ll need to optimize your registration form for mobile to prevent potential attendees from excessive scrolling, pinching and zooming, or even page abandonment. 

Now that your visitors have made it to the registration form, keep them engaged with these mobile-friendly best practices: 

• Eliminate unnecessary fields to decrease scrolling. Simplify your forms so that they take as little time as possible and are not distracted from completing them.

• If your form is long, include a progress bar to indicate the next steps. If your form requires visitors to set up a login, for example, show it's only one of three total steps. 

• Validate errors and mark mandatory fields to remind visitors not to skip any. This way, visitors don't have to scroll back through and edit previous fields once they’re finished. 

• Autofill inputs when possible to save visitors time. Autocorrect and autofill pop-up features improve the user experience by keeping it straightforward and quick. 

• Use a single-column layout when creating a multi-step form. Double-column layouts can be daunting and misleading for mobile visitors with a narrow screen, so keep your information streamlined in a single column instead. 

• Keep your payment processing straightforward. As the last step in the registration process, recommend visitors use scanning apps to simply scan a secure photo of the front and back of their card and decrease the need for manual user input.

In comparison to a desktop user’s average range of 13 to 24 inches, mobile screens are 4.7 to 6.7 inches. That said, keep track of how many touchpoints you’re asking your visitors to input, and minimize them where possible.

Test for accessibility 

What’s the best way to ensure your form’s usability? By testing it and making needed adjustments. An accessible form is not only optimized for general user experience but also is inclusive of everyone. Here's a guide to making inclusive and accessible forms:

• Optimizing desktop keyboard navigation. Be sure all forms are accessible via keyboard in case visitors are using a broken trackpad or assistive technology.

• Avoiding time limits. If your form is longer, stay away from including time limits as these can be overwhelming for some visitors.

• Including video transcripts for any relevant media. If your registration page has a video or audio component, make sure visitors with hearing impairments can access it.

Recruit volunteers to test out your registration form and page and gather actionable feedback to make necessary changes. Attempt to recruit a large and diverse sample of participants to gather as much feedback as needed to be confident in your page’s accessibility and overall user experience. 

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By keeping your registration information brief and relevant, visitors can easily sign up for your event and eagerly await its arrival. Creating clear user pathways, optimizing for mobile, and testing for accessibility will ensure you solve problems before they arise while prioritizing your visitors’ user experience. 

No matter the size of your organization, the life stage you’re in or how much money your company is putting behind events, one common factor that must be dealt with is getting everybody internally on board with your vision and plan as an event marketer.

But as you already may know, this is no cake-walk. 

Dealing with human beings in a business context comes with its challenges - no two individuals are alike, let alone two different functions within a company, making collaboration and ever-challenging endeavour - friction and resistance are sometimes just a part of the game.

So does this mean you just accept the fact that alignment is a bummer and run your event anyway? 

Of course not. Without proper collaboration, succeeding in events is almost impossible.

In our recent edition of Event Heroes, we spoke to Ashley Maurus, Director of Experience Marketing at Quantum Metric. Ashley has been passionate about planning and organizing things since her childhood! 

Currently, she is at the helm of all the marketing events that Quantum Metric runs in North America, and has a wealth of experience in collaborating with internal stakeholders.

In this article, we’ve shared 5 tips from our conversation with her that can help you run better events by getting that crucial internal buy-in.

Tip 1: Overcome Resistance Through Trust and Communication

When we asked Ashley why collaboration is difficult, she highlighted that it’s never easy to sync with different personalities, functions and goals, but trust and communication can go a long way.

"At the end of the day, buy-in is very much built on trust. " says Ashley. “When you're met in those times of resistance, maybe with somebody clashing with your idea, ask why - get to the root of where that resistance is coming from." 

"Because so often, I think we finish that story in our mind for that person. It might be something completely different. [Getting to the root of resistance] is just a moment of connection to really bridge that gap."

Key takeaway: By actively listening and understanding your internal stakeholders, you can establish trust, laying the groundwork for a collaborative relationship.

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Tip 2: Align Goals and Objectives

According to Ashley, alignment of goals is the key driver of event success, and it must be done well before the actual event. "It's doing that upfront work - getting everyone aligned, making sure that everyone's in agreement on the goals, the ‘why we're doing this’, and the ‘who's the audience’.”

Highlighting the core aspect of alignment, Ashley states: “I think it's just understanding what the goal of each of those departments will be, and understanding what they're trying to accomplish and aligning that goal with yours.” 

Key takeaway: When goals and objectives are aligned, collaboration becomes smoother, leading to more efficient and effective outcomes.

Tip 3: Leverage Your Existing Customer Base

Ashley emphasizes the importance of leveraging existing relationships by pro-actively collaborating with your customer success team, an often overlooked internal stakeholder.

Highlighting their importance, Ashley says “In my opinion, they’re arguably the most crucial because they're responsible for getting your existing customers to your event, which means you know the people that are going to sell on your behalf - and that's where the real magic happens.”

“There's nobody that's going to be stronger at selling your product than your existing customer base so we always pepper in at least a few customer brands at our events - just to be an extension of our team and really that proof point sharing their real life experiences using the product in a way that we can't because they have that trust behind it.”

Key takeaway: Collaborating with the customer success team can help leverage existing customer relationships to drive sales and build trust at your event.

Tip 4: Engage Your Partnership Ecosystem

Another overlooked function, according to Ashley, is the partnership team and ecosystem which can really strengthen your brand when it comes to events. Of course, to successfully have them onboard with your plan, it’s important to understand what your partner brands’ needs are and why they would want to participate in your event. 

“Your ecosystem, your partner network is so key in B2B Tech but especially in the startup world. It's going to strengthen your brand. Each brand really participating expands your audience reach.”

Key takeaway: Collaboration with your partner ecosystem can help you get multiple brands to participate in events, thereby expanding the audience reach and enhancing your event’s credibility.

Tip 5: Acknowledge Internal Marketing Efforts

Ashley points out that sometimes the internal marketing team is taken for granted, assuming they are already on board with your event marketing efforts, but that is not always the case. Without the support and cooperation of the internal marketing team, you could be left isolated and alone in your efforts.

“I mean I like to think everyone has events at the center of everything they do but that's not the case - you know there's other marketing activities out there. So I think just an acknowledgment of that sometimes with your internal marketing team or even if you have some sort of shout out system within your organization - just giving them those kudos every once in a while really goes a long way.”

Key takeaway: Recognizing the efforts of your internal marketing team and giving them the kudos they deserve can foster a positive and collaborative environment.

So you see, the right perspective can go a long way in helping you collaborate better with your internal stakeholders, and in turn, run successful B2B events.

Webinars: where marketers splurge on everything but the most important element - the abstract.

You know this is true. 

In the rush to complete a laundry list of tasks involved in producing a webinar - landing page, speaker selection, social media promotion, email blasts, etc. - the abstract receives far less attention and care than its due. But this is a mistake that could be costing you.

A strong abstract can give your webinar the best chance of succeeding by attracting the right ICP and generating interest and curiosity, while a badly-written and poor-quality abstract will confuse or turn people off and reduce attendance. 

So we should be aiming to write really, really persuasive abstracts, instead of settling for mediocre ones.

What exactly constitutes a strong abstract?

In today’s world of information overload, people are making snap decisions about what to pay attention to and what to ignore. So think about the abstract as a big billboard advertisement: if it’s done well, it will get your ICP’s attention. 

 To “sell” your webinar to prospective attendees, a powerful abstract must:

• Communicate why this webinar topic is important and distinctive clearly; don’t write a mystery story that leaves it to them to figure out.

• Highlight why the speaker or their perspective matters - why should your ICP take it and take you seriously?

• Spell out the value that attendees will receive by attending the webinar. This sets up expectations so when people do attend, they get what they were hoping for.

Easier said than done. 

Writing this requires both creativity and strategic thinking. There’s a lot of information to pack in about the speaker and the topic, whilst playing on your ICP’s challenges, motivations and goals. But here’s a framework that can help:‍

A blueprint for crafting a powerful abstract

Step 1. The headline 

• Ask an interesting question
• Address a specific problem or goal - the more focused, the better
• Use ‘How to’ or ‘Steps’ to show the value the attendee will get
• Add personality when possible
• Convey it in 12 words or less‍

Templates:

• Is your [function/issue of concern] strategy really working?
• How to [achieve a goal] in [timeframe] without [a pain point]
• The do’s and don’t of [an issue of concern]
• How to [achieve a goal] in [number] of steps
• [Number] ways/strategies/tips/secrets to [achieve a goal] in [current year]
• [Topic] trends changing the way we [something you take for granted]‍

Examples:

• The do's and don'ts of webinar landing pages
• How to double attendee turnout at your webinars in just 5 steps
• 10 new strategies to help you easily build a pipeline for webinar guest speakers
• On-demand vs. live webinars: Which is better for MQL generation and why
• 5 ways webinars will change in 2024 

Step 2. The introduction

• Get straight to the point - no fluff or generalizations. Don’t tell the reader what they already know.
• Set the context by establishing the pain points. Your reader is looking for someone who understands their challenge or problem.
• Or prompt curiosity by asking a question that asks readers to a) re-examine the status quo b) ask themselves a question that they should be asking
• Convey this in 1- 3 sentences

Examples:

• Here’s a great example by Cloudsmith: “Containers and Microservices architectures are no longer the new kid on the block, and it may be time to take a fresh look at your ecosystem.”

• Or this by Mindtickle: “It’s time for sales leaders, enablement, and ops to align on one common purpose: increasing revenue productivity. But how do you go about doing it?”

• And this by Common Room: Building one-on-one relationships with community members is one of the most rewarding and impactful parts of leading a community program—but how do you scale to meet member needs when one turns into one hundred thousand? And how do you manage an ever-growing pack of internal stakeholders to ensure they understand (and contribute to) the value of your user community?

Step 3. The rest of the body

• Having established a pain point or prompted curiosity, use the rest of the abstract to build trust and interest

• Use bullet points to give the audience an idea of the talking points that will be discussed in the webinar. Keep it short and crisp to make it skimmable.

• Always keep in mind your intended audience - do they prefer stories or facts? Would they want demonstrations or just recommendations? 

• Use industry-specific terminology to set the expectation that you’re already attuned to your target audience.

• Highlight your speaker’s domain expertise and industry experience to substantiate credibility. If you can quote any details pertinent to the pain point/goal discussed in the webinar, even better.

Examples:

• Another one from Cloudsmith:
  
  In this session SLSA experts from across the industry gather to discuss the practical uses of the framework and address topics such as: 
  What controls are included in the specification and why 
  Real world developer approaches to software supply chain security 
  What's working and what's not working in software supply chain security 
  ‍
  Featuring: Isaac Hepworth, Group Product Manager, Software Supply Chain, Google

• And here’s a description about a webinar titled ‘Is the MQL dead? by Drift that provides background for the talk and highlights the specifics that will be covered:

• Here’s one more example that gets everything right

‍Drive better impact from a well-written abstract

We hope that if you take away anything from this piece, it’s an understanding of why your webinar abstract deserves as much time and care - or more - than the other activities in your webinar production laundry list. 

Stick to this 3 step blueprint and you’ll be able to set the stage for a compelling and engaging webinar experience that drives positive results, such as increased attendance, participant engagement, and post-webinar actions.

Presenting our May updates - with even more control and support for all your event needs.

Elevate your landing page with new widgets, get additional help with our brand-new video guides, make your speakers more reachable with social media links, and record your sessions with our improved interface.

Widgets for the landing page

New custom widgets for your landing page

We have two new custom widgets for your landing page: the Schedule widget that adds the event schedule to your page, and the Speaker widget that adds information about speakers.

You can find these inside the landing page editor, under Widgets.

Video guides

Get additional help during setup

Video tutorials have been added to certain sections of the organizer side setup, to give support and aid in different parts of the setup. These can be viewed from the page header, where you can click Watch tutorial to play the video.

Social links for speakers

Help your audiences connect with speakers

When adding speakers to your event, you can now also add links to their social media accounts to help audiences better connect with them. You can add upto 4 links for each speaker when you add them to your event: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and a website.

Studio recordings

Improvements to the recording settings

Recordings are made easier with some new improvements. A new recording status indicator makes it prominently visible whether recordings are turned on or off, and you can view this before you start your session. We’ve also added a confirmation popup to ensure that recordings aren’t accidentally turned off.

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Organizations invest time, effort, and money into hosting events for many purposes, including fundraising, networking, and marketing. At the event’s end, you’ll naturally want to determine if it was successful and if you met your goals. You can do this by establishing key metrics to evaluate your event.

To help you better understand the impact of your event, this guide will cover the following topics:

• 3 types of event impact metrics to evaluate
• Driving impact with your event: 3 tips

Keep in mind that your organization is unique—what another organization considers an impactful event may not be impactful for you. Consider these metrics through the lens of your organization’s size, audience, and outcomes from past events. 

3 types of metrics to evaluate events

Let’s dive into the different types of metrics your organization can use to analyze your event’s impact.

1. Financial event metrics

For most organizations, financial metrics are the most obvious way to evaluate the impact of an event. Return on investment (ROI) is the most important finance-related metric, but you’ll need to know these metrics to calculate it:

• Event costs: This will include all expenses and funds put towards organizing and hosting the event.

• Leads generated: Events can generate leads that you can further nurture and convert into a customer.

To calculate your ROI, divide the revenue generated by leads from your event by the total amount of expenses. This tells you how efficiently you allocated your funds, and organizations should aim to have as high an ROI as possible.

These metrics can provide a clear-cut answer as to whether your event was a financial success. However, other metrics are needed to determine why your event had the impact that it did. 

2. Event attendance metrics

Aside from financial metrics, you can also look at attendance-related metrics to evaluate your event’s impact. These data points provide insight into your marketing, the makeup of your target audience, and your overall ability to cultivate a loyal and engaged audience. Record and reflect on event attendance metrics such as:

• Number of attendees: The number of people who attend your event indicates how successful your marketing and promotional efforts were.

• Attendee demographics: Compare the demographics of event attendees to that of your target audience. Ask yourself if you’re attracting your ideal attendees, and if not, how you can change your marketing strategy for future events.

• Attendance over time: Consider similar events you have hosted in the past and compare the number of attendees for those events versus your most recent event. Consistent audience retention indicates your events are high-quality, as guests who attended a previous event feel motivated to attend your next one as well. 

Aside from overall event attendance, also assess the attendee-related metrics for specific activities featured at your event. For example, if your organization works in the digital marketing vertical and hosted several informational panels, compare the number and demographics of attendees across panels to identify what types of content are most interesting to your target audience.

3. Event engagement metrics

Alongside financial and attendance metrics, event engagement metrics provide unique insight into the impact of your event. Unlike the aforementioned metrics, however, event engagement is less of a quantitative measure and more qualitative, making it difficult to measure. To better quantify your event engagement, examine these metrics:

• Conversions: Assess how many attendees continue to engage with the organization after the event. Continued engagement might mean that they subscribe to your email newsletter, or that they become a customer or member.

• Satisfaction: Ask your supporters to rate their overall satisfaction and satisfaction with various event aspects and activities to get a general understanding of how engaged and happy they were with the event.

One of the best ways to evaluate how engaged attendees were with your event is to ask them for their opinion. At the event’s close, send an email thanking attendees for their participation, and include a survey that they can take to provide their feedback. Stress to them that this information will help you create a better event experience in the future.

HOW TO GET BETTER FEEDBACK: Click here to learn how Alex Temple, Senior Corporate Relations Manager at Explori designs feedback loops for B2B Events.

Driving impact with your event: 3 tips

Now that you know what metrics to examine, use the following tips to improve your event and drive conversions.

1. Set a clear goal

When planning your event, start by determining its purpose. Ask yourself what you hope to accomplish by gathering your attendees together and how that will benefit your organization in the long run. For example, if you’re an advocacy group, bringing attendees together can help you spread awareness about your cause. Or, if you’re a business promoting a new product, your event’s purpose might be to lead more people down the marketing funnel.

When setting your goal, keep in mind that it should be specific, measurable, and relevant to your organization’s overall objectives. Ensure that it’s attainable, and align all parts of your event with it, including event format and target audience.

2. Promote your event

To boost attendee turnout, you’ll need to market and promote your event well in advance. Build anticipation and give guests the time to clear their schedules and make preparations for attending by creating and sending promotional materials through these channels:

• Your website
• Direct mail
• Email
• Text
• Social media
• Flyers

To reach the largest number of interested individuals, use multiple marketing channels. Choose channels that your target audience frequents. For example, if your organization has an active Instagram account with many followers, post an image inviting them to attend your next bikeathon.

3. Incorporate technology to enhance the experience

Incorporating technology into your organization’s event can result in a more engaged audience and an improved guest experience. You can make attendees’ lives more convenient by allowing mobile check-in and sending them text reminders in the days leading up to your event. If your event is convention-style, consider creating a mobile app that attendees can download to easily track the schedule and activities they’re interested in.

Aside from making processes more convenient for attendees, you can also use technology to augment your activities. For example, if you’re hosting a Q&A session with industry professionals, have a screen displaying real-time social media engagement and encourage attendees to post questions that the professionals can answer. Additionally, use live streaming technology to organize hybrid and virtual events, increasing participation from individuals that may not be able to attend in person.

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Maximizing your event’s impact begins with assessing your existing data. Consider what insights that information gives you, and use it to alter and improve upon your future events. After every event, sit down with the rest of your team and discuss key takeaways and improvements. Learn what type of events best fit specific purposes, and you’ll see the desired impact in your organization’s events.