Our audience have been asking us a question recently: “Our free virtual work events are getting traction, but how do we start monetising virtual events?”
In this post we want to share a three step process for doing just that:
Focus on the client’s ROI
Clients have never been particularly interested in what we sell, they’ve always just wanted solutions to their problems. According to recent research by SBI, the number one problem that our customers are facing now is: ‘How do I generate leads and grow my pipeline?’ That’s what our customers care about so let’s start there, let’s not start by talking about our shiny new product.
Teach them about their audience
Customers have traditionally invested in our live events not because they’re super fans, but because they know their audience is going to be there. So, what we need to do now is teach them about how their audience are changing in terms of their behaviour so that they prioritize products such as the new ones that we are selling. That teaching could sound like this:
“Mrs. Customer, the audience interact with an average of six marketing touch points before they become a lead and what we’re seeing from all of the stats from the events we’ve hosted so far is that there’s huge amounts of engagement. Your audience is seeing these new virtual events as a very valuable touchpoint in their overall buying journey. That’s why you need to be there- because that’s where your audience is”.
Focus on the value when Monetising Virtual Work Events
For those of us that are a bit older, we’ve been somewhere similar before. About 15 years ago, digital caused huge disruption and traditional Publishers made a massive mistake- rather than focusing on the real value that digital was going to bring to their clients, they focused on the lower production costs. Consequently, digital products were either bundled up with print, sold too cheaply or given away for free. In truth, traditional Publishers have never recovered from that. We cannot afford to do the same within the events industry. All the research is showing that your new products are becoming valuable new touch points for audiences in their overall buying journey. Touch points that are invaluable in terms of them becoming leads for your clients. Have a think about the value of a lead to your client and identify where your new product sits in terms of their overall buying journey. Use the value of that lead to inform your pricing. Also, remember that we have an added benefit because, for the first time, we don’t just have to talk about the quantity of leads. We’re collecting so much more data with these newer products that we can actually quality score those leads as well. There’s a whole bunch of metrics that we can use to go back to our clients and say: “Look how great quality these leads are!” That enables us to justify our pricing.
To watch our free on-demand webinar ‘The secret to selling virtual events’ click here.
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