The entire world went virtual as there was a dire need to find an alternative to in-person events. However, over time, the remote working culture became popular and now, virtual events have become the go-to option for most organizations. Not only do virtual events allow you to reach a larger audience, but allow you to save money and build your brand at the same time. However, virtual events are way cheaper than physical events; an economical virtual event platform can further reduce costs, making them even more affordable.
Now you must be thinking “How to select a cost-effective event hosting platform” to host a dream event at a dream budget. Don’t worry! We are here with some best tips and practices to select the most economical event hosting platform.
So without any further ado, let’s dive right into the article.
Essential Steps to Follow While Choosing an Economical Event Hosting Platform
Outline Your Goals
Before selecting a cost-effective event hosting platform, you must outline your goals and get a bird’s eye view. Doing this will help you estimate the amount needed to achieve your goals.
Asking yourself these questions will help you determine your event goals –
- Why do you want to host the event?
- What do you want to achieve out of it?
- What type of customers are you targeting?
- How will the event benefit the attendees?
- Why is this the right time to host your event?
- How much profit are you expecting to make?
Finding the answer to these questions will help you get a clear overview of your event goals. Once you know what success is for your event, you can go ahead and determine how to measure it. Knowing your goals will help you plan an effective and efficient virtual event.
Segment Out Your Target Customers and Their Needs
Once you have identified your goals; next you must determine the type of people you want to target and identify their problems, needs, and preferences. Divide your target audience into different segments depending on their choices or types. Below are some tools to help you gather data about your target customers.
- Pre-Event Polls – You can conduct social media polls before the event. Try to include questions that help you gain information about their problems and the type of solutions they are seeking. For instance, if you are hosting a medical conference on ‘Cure of cancer in modern medicine, your questions must focus on finding out the number of people having cancer. You can also ask them questions regarding the severity, time and treatments they are taking.
- Email Survey Forms – Email survey forms are a great tool to derive detailed data about your target audience and their problems. You can send emails to your event registrants and ask them to fill out a simple survey to help you improve their event experience.
- Market Research – Another great way to understand the behaviour of your target customers is to conduct market research. Check their social media profiles, likes and dislikes. Doing this will help you understand your audience better and personalize the event experience for them.
Plan Your Budget
The next step after determining your goals and the needs of your attendees is figuring out the costs involved in planning the event. For this, you first need to determine your KPI’s against which you will measure your event’s success. Let us look at the major components involved –
- Determine Your Event KPI’s – Set a few standards or key performance indicators against which you will measure the success of your event. These KPI’s could include total revenue, total profit, total impressions, ticket sales and the number of leads.
- Look for Event Monetization Opportunities – Make sure that the cost-effective event hosting platform you select provides ample opportunities for monetization and branding your virtual event.
- Consider Unaccounted Costs – Account for the extra costs associated with the virtual event like the cost of giveaways, speakers fees etc.
Plan the Activities
Make a list of the activities and sessions you think your audience might like. Once you have curated the list, you can choose from it and include valuable and fun activities in your virtual event. Include all the topics, segments and activities you want to cover in your event. This exercise will help you figure out the features you must look for in the virtual event platform.
Identify the Features You Need
With so many virtual event platforms and a variety of features to choose from, figuring out the features that will contribute to the success of your event is a bit tricky. Therefore, based on the information about your event goals and the preferences of your target audience, you must outline the elements that you want in the online event solution.
Make a Practical Choice and Pick a Suitable Platform
Once you have identified the features, the next step is to explore the internet. Find the most economical event hosting platform providing you with all the required features. You can also consider investing in a DIY virtual event platform to save costs.
Tips and Best Practices to Reduce Your Virtual Event Costs
Build Your Event by Yourself
While it might sound like too much work, you can set up an event in just 15 minutes with DIY platforms like Mixhub. In addition to the ease of use, you must also look for a cost-effective event hosting platform. You can consider building your event all by yourself with the help of a DIY virtual event platform. It not only provides you with greater autonomy over your online event but enables you to customize it as per your branding and audience needs. Moreover, it allows you to add a personal touch to your virtual event and provide an immersive experience.
Event Marketing: Do It Yourself
Rather than hiring a company or an agency to do the tedious job of promoting your event, you can save a lot by doing it yourself. There are many ways other than advertisements to promote your event digitally. Here are a few ways you can take forward your event marketing –
- Social Media – Social media is the most popular yet most effective tool for promoting and marketing your event. You can create dedicated event pages on various social media platforms and maintain a constant flow of posts regarding the event.
- Email Marketing – Though it might sound outdated, email marketing is an effective tool for event promotion. It helps add a personal touch to your online event promotion.
- Website Landing Pages – Website landing pages also plays a crucial role in converting your potential attendees into registrants. A website landing page is a website page where a person lands as soon as they click on a link from an email or ad.
Pay Only for What You Use
If you want to host a virtual event with a small budget, this feature will help you save hoards of money. The pay per use feature enables you to save costs as you have to pay only for the features you use, thus eliminating unnecessary expenditure. Therefore, you must look for a cost-effective event hosting platform that provides a pay-per-use feature.
Take Your Content Game Seriously
We all have heard the term ‘Content is King’ numerous times. It is high time you take it seriously and focus on creating high-quality content that adds value to the customer. You can use more graphs, charts, statistics, videos, GIF’s and presentations to make the content easily understandable and actionable.
Concluding
We hope this article helped you understand ‘How to select the most economical event hosting platform’. Now that you know that you don’t need to shell out hefty amounts to host a virtual event, don’t hold yourself back and Book a demo with Mixhub.
