How To Improve Your Content Strategy with a Rise in Virtual and Hybrid Events

As gears shift into the planning mode, content accessibility in virtual and hybrid experiences is going to be the talk of the town in 2021. Virtual event budgets are expected to increase to 36% in 2021, from 20% in 2020, coupled with a surge in hybrid events that could see around 80% of B2B marketers run or participate in a hybrid event.

In this scenario we can expect stiff competition when it comes to better content marketing initiatives at upcoming events. So what steps can you take to make your content more engaging, accessible and business-driven for your audience?

Here are some recommended tactics to follow:

Create targeted content focused around buyers

While planning content for your event, think of the big picture. What are the pain points of your buyers? How do they consume content? What do they aim to achieve from your event?

Whether it’s a virtual or hybrid event, your buyers will be looking for content that can address their needs, match their expectations and guide them towards decision-making. Use snackable content like short videos, infographics, slideshows and product brochures to create maximum engagement.

Impress upon exhibitors the need to focus on making their own content, to improve the impact they have on online visitors.

Provide options for recorded and on-demand viewing

Various online issues can arise when your event goes live – the Wi-Fi can conk out, streaming could hit a snag and the platform might malfunction. You also have to consider the different time zones and broadband speeds in countries and how it could affect accessibility to content. 

To minimise such risks, provide options for speakers to pre-record their sessions and allow on-demand viewing so any attendee operating on low-speed internet, located in a different time zone or unable to attend the event for some reason can access the event content later.

Infectious Messaging

A term floated by TrendHunter, ‘infectious messaging’ refers to the use of compelling storytelling woven around culture and emotion to leave the greatest impression on your audience. Due to an overabundance of content and attention spans at a premium, focus on creating content that can connect with your audience.

Think beyond conventional marketing channels to include memes or animations, and partner with social media influencers to cater to a larger global base of customers and prospects.

Attend other events to repurpose content

You may find yourself stuck in a creative block, unable to generate new content ideas. An easy way out is to participate in other events and repurpose the insights and information from different sessions into blogs, podcasts and videos while aligning it with your event messaging.

Build a LinkedIn community

Build an online community for your event participants on LinkedIn where you can post content to drive engagement before, during and after an event. This can include exclusive interviews, on-demand videos, audience testimonials or a recap of the event. User-generated content on such groups can be repackaged into different content formats to keep the engagement high.

Conclusion

With virtual events mushrooming in every corner of the internet and hybrid events looming large in the coming year, there’s a massive explosion of content availability. These tips can help you adapt your content strategy to be more driven by users and focused on objectives as well as keep the content cup flowing with new ideas.