Content Is King, but Money Talks — Part 3

Monetizing Your Audience—One Billion Dollars (from Attendees?)

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, we highlighted ten ways event hosts can drive revenue opportunities from sponsorship of virtual events and discussed how the virtual format provides more opportunity for sponsorship revenue than physical events. Now, we turn our attention to ways to drive revenue from your audience.

Paid Attendance

With so many free options for learning and networking via online groups, your blog, social media, Khan Academy, YouTube, webcasts, and physical events, how can you sell the monetary value of attending your event when it offers no way to shake hands? If this is your perspective, you’re missing how much you can offer to attendees through your virtual event.

Contrary to what many think, it’s okay to charge virtual attendees—if your content is very specialized or includes an opportunity to earn continuing professional education credits (CPEs). It’s also okay to charge if an attendee can gain access to an industry luminary through a paid workshop or specific track. Attendance at the overall event might be free, but you can charge an admission free for a particular track, and you can gain additional sponsor revenues for this track, offsetting overall event costs.

Creating pricing tiers is another way you can allow broad attendance as well as upsell access to event areas or event content once attendees are in the virtual environment. Tiers can be offered by the day or the track and include a VIP experience, a mailed swag bag, or signed book from a keynote speaker—all of which can be managed once in the event with the powerful capability of 6Connex Entitlement.

Event-Related Sales

While registration might be free, your event can be used to generate sales. If your company sells products, you can extend the reach of your merchandise store to your virtual audience. If you host physical events that also include merchandise stores, incorporating them into your virtual event strategy allows all attendees to enjoy your offerings while you generate more revenue. Consider adding links to a virtual merchandise store in the event registration pages, or use the registration period to begin the hype around the virtual store and merchandise that will be available only during the virtual event. This strategy extends not only your total audience but also the life of your event store, as it will live on through the on-demand period of your virtual event.

Wholesale Product Sales

Consider rolling out a new product to your distribution chain through a virtual event. Your environment could be as simple as three rooms containing product literature, such as

• Information sheets or guides to help increase in-store knowledge and sales
• Videos showing how to use products
• Commercial messages
• Product images with order forms behind each image

You can offer discounts for seasonal sales or pre-sales for new product lines. This can help you determine manufacturing quantities—especially for products that include a store display at the time of purchase.

Service Sales

Whether designed for a B2B or B2C audience, virtual events can educate potential service customers on a global scale to help expand sales. Examples of B2B services that can benefit from this strategy include cloud data storage providers, payment processing platforms, and logistics companies. Consumer services, such as travel, have a proven track record of success with virtual events, driving as much as $1,000,000 from attendees. Travel-focused virtual events offer opportunities to make connections between travelers and brands as well as establish relationships with local travel agents. Revenues are driven through travel bookings and specials available only through the virtual event and for a short period of time.

There are many opportunities to create robust attendee and sponsorship experiences with virtual events. Let our team at 6Connex explore your ideas and share strategies that have helped our clients achieve success. Contact us today!

Related Reading:

Content Is King, but Money Talks — Part 1

Content Is King, but Money Talks — Part 2