Content is king when it comes to virtual audience engagement. Knowing what to say, how to say it, and when to say it should be part of your overall marketing strategy. While using a virtual event platform is a must, your engagement tools and event tech integrations must add value. This means your virtual event content must be effective and functional. Your virtual audience must be able to absorb and like the information and want to recap and use it long after the event is over.
Engaging Your Virtual Audience
Knowing how to engage during virtual presentation sessions can be a bit more challenging than hybrid events. The virtual venue must begin on a high note, but it goes beyond just writing content. You have to consider the supporting materials you’ll use to drive those messages home. When planning for sustainable events, you must have a plan of action, use the right virtual event products that will make every element seamless, and virtual event solutions that are tried, true, and reliable.
Planning Your Event Content
Pre-event content preparation
Your content should be diverse and engaging. It all starts from the beginning – the pre-event. You should have landing pages or a website that provides comprehensive information. This includes video, social media, email sequences, and other advertising material. You must write in your brand voice from conception to completion to maintain consistency.
During event content materials
The next phase of your content is what will be shared at your event. Are there presentation slides? Handouts? E-books? Blogs? White papers? Podcasts? Finally, there’s the post-event writing that focuses on keeping that engagement alive through newsletters, signups for products, information on future events, and more.
The Writing Plan
Creating audience personas
There are a few things to consider before writing your content. You should have a content marketing strategy in place that addresses each element mentioned, but you can’t begin if you don’t know or understand your target. That’s why you need audience personas.
What’s an audience persona? This is a snapshot of the types of people that will attend your event. You should gather as much information as you can on this person, especially their needs, pain points, experiences, and most of all, their cultural backgrounds. This helps lay the groundwork for your content. Doing the research makes a difference because you’ll have a crystal clear understanding of what you can and can’t say, how the audience will react to visual materials, what types of visual materials will appeal most to your audience, what formats work best, and specific words that will attract the most engagement. The language you use must ebb and flow with who is reading your content.
How To Create Engaging Event Content
After you’ve decided how you need to convey your messages, the format and outlines of your content, it’s time to start writing. Here are a few how to engage the audience during virtual presentation tips:
Keep things short and sweet
Long introductions can be boring and stale. When you start with a strong intro that’s exciting and engaging, you want to leave the audience at that level, motivating them to want more. Use jokes, questions, and facts relevant to what they want to learn. Attention spans are short. Make the most of the time you have.
Be clear
If someone is choosing to come to your virtual event instead of doing something else, that means they see value in what you’re offering. That’s why it’s so important to keep things short and sweet while giving them something to learn and an action to complete at the end. If you’re giving out handouts, scrap the word count and give them something they want to read and appreciate.
Tell stories
Storytelling is still very powerful. It evokes emotion and builds connections between you and the audience. Take advantage of that. Illustrate first and explain after. Use visual content, descriptive words, and active verbs to get your point across.
Here’s a sample persuasive message aimed at a virtual audience:
“In the next 20 minutes, 800,000 people will have visited and purchased something from an eCommerce store, including someone in this room.”
This is a strong opening that quickly gets their attention. Another good idea is talking about something you and the audience have in common. Sharing real-world experience is always a winner. Starting with E.E. Cummings quote, “To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting,” then throwing in, “Who agrees? I do, and here’s why,” is a captivating statement that puts everyone on the same level and mindset.
Again, it’s very important to keep the energy high and engaging. People will forget what you said, but they never forget how you make them feel. Your writing should have room for audience participation. You want to prime them, then bring in reciprocity, and add social proof to enhance the level of writing and content for your audience.
Putting It All Together
A good virtual event platform offers all these benefits and more. If you’re ready to take your writing for virtual events to the next level and connect with your audience the right way, request a virtual event platform demo with 6Connex and see how you can keep high attendance for your virtual events now and in the future.
