Top 5 Ways To Make Your Virtual Event Shine

Live and recorded virtual events are now a cornerstone of a complete enrollment marketing campaign. With everyone doing them, it can be hard to stand out. Or worse, it can be easy to stand out for all of the wrong reasons. A poorly produced and hard to access virtual event can do more harm than good.

Here are five tips to ensure your virtual event truly shines.

1) Solid Lighting and Audio

We are trying to leverage virtual events to build connections with our student audience. While the current situation in response to COVID-19 has created a situation where many production quality issues can be forgiven (blips in internet connectivity due to wifi issues, presenting from a bedroom with posters vs. a professional office, etc.), one thing that still goes unforgiven by your audience is how clearly you come through as a presenter.

While webcams have improved over time, quality lighting on your face and a pair of headphones with a mic can help bring you from “OK” to “great”. (We’ve all been on those video calls where endless echoes and background noise pull attention!) 

For lighting we recommend something like the Lume Cube. Everyone on our team has one. You should check it out, too. 

For audio, Apple’s wired headphones are a perfectly fine solution that many have access to already. If you’re looking to invest in audio, this headset comes highly recommended.

2) Check Your Internet Connection

One of the most challenging pieces of a solid virtual event is ensuring you have a strong connection. A poor upload speed on your connection could mean interruptions or lags in your audio or video to your audience on the other end.

When we’re preparing a client for a webcast we test their internet connectivity speed every time. An upload speed greater than 2.0 Mb/s is ideal. Anything below this and you should consider:

• Moving to a location closer to your wifi router, or better yet connecting via an ethernet cord to create a direct connection
• Limiting use of streaming services and gaming devices on your network during the time of your webcast
• Closing apps that may be dragging bandwidth in the background.

Check your upload speed. It’s the number that will appear at the very bottom.

3) Flex Your Content

Students will attend a full day of admitted student events on your campus because there is food and interaction with your staff and broader community.

A common mis-step is trying to duplicate in person events online. The challenge with this is we oftentimes host longer form content in person because we have a captive audience.

In a virtual environment we need to be more concise. And should consider splitting content over multiple sittings over a long-form event. Check out our tips for moving your virtual event online.

4) Make it Easy to Get To

One of the greatest challenges with using small meeting software to host large scale events is the fact that these programs all require additional registration, or worse, downloading apps and plugins.

The reality is that for virtual events, particularly events like admitted student days and orientations, your audience does not need to register. They need to be invited. Leverage direct log-in tokens over registration links to get your audience to your event. This reduces friction in the process while maximizing your reporting outcomes.

Learn more about virtual events vs. online meeting software.

Read up on 5 ways to maximize your student webcast attendance.

5) Make it Immediately Available On-Demand

Finally, and most importantly, your webcast strategy must be enduring. The reality is that most of your audience is not likely to live on your schedule. They are accustomed to YouTube and Netflix where everything is available on-demand. While live events are a great way to drive engagement, it is also important that this content play well on-demand. This also makes it possible to re-purpose this content elsewhere.

Here’s one example of how CSU San Bernardino used on-demand content to build a pre-enrollment DVR.

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Contact us to learn how Conduit + PlatformQ Eduction’s expertise in online engagement planning and strategy can support better conversion throughout the entire cycle.

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