Ways to Monetize Virtual Events
Virtual event monetization refers to hosting a live virtual event and generating income by selling products/services to your targeted audience. In the pre-COVID period, live events were a key source of money. Virtual events also provide a lot of advantages, but they have their own set of challenges. Revenue generation appears to be one of the most common roadblocks.
According to research from Event Manager Blog, 32.8 percent of event planners are still not maximizing the value of their virtual events and are simply doing it for free. The truth is that there are a lot of untapped opportunities for planners to monetize virtual events.
Strategies to Monetize Your Event
VIRTEX, a leading technology transformation company in India, has built an ever-evolving virtual engagement platform that provides “end-to-end meeting and event management solutions”, enabling global brands to create highly engaging virtual experiences.
We have put together below ‘tried-and-tested’ methods that will enable you to monetize your virtual events and realize the full potential of your virtual events.
1. Sell Premium/Paid Tickets
One of the easiest methods to make money hosting virtual events is to offer attendees limited free access to the event and encourage them to purchase a ticket to view the entire event. Alternatively, you can offer a mix of free content and paid upgrades.
Using a ‘tiered ticketing strategy’ model, event organizers can profit from virtual events. An organizer can also collect specific attendance data based on the upgrade chosen. This allows sending out targeted follow-up marketing and promotional offers to attendees after the event.
2. Sponsorship Opportunities
Virtual events, like in-person events, offer a variety of ways for event organizers to earn money by recognizing sponsors. VIRTEX, one of the best and futuristic virtual event platforms in India, recommends marketers think ‘outside the box’ and go beyond traditional sponsor packages such as mentions on the events website and registration page.
Marketers can build sponsor visibility through social media channels; online exhibit halls; rotating advertisement banners which endorse breakouts, and gamification with sponsor messages. Sponsored host sessions or expert roundtables can also be included. They can be promoted through methods such as email marketing and push notifications.
3. Recommend Affiliate Offers
Affiliate commissions are another wonderful way to generate money from an event. If you’re going to be promoting affiliate tutorials, software, or products, during your virtual event, then, you can become the company’s affiliate partner and promote your affiliate link. You can earn an immediate commission if the attendee buys a product or signs up for a free trial via the affiliate link.
4. Sell Ad-Space
Your registration page and event website will receive a lot of traffic. Hence, you can sell ad spaces to earn revenue in the same way that you offer sponsor packages. Running the most relevant advertisement for your event is the best tactic to gain from advertising revenue.
If you do not have enough time, though, you can make money using Google AdSense. You should choose an advanced tracking tool which allows you to maintain track of your efforts. This enables identifying which of the online marketing initiatives are delivering the most traffic to your business and event website.
5. Upsells and Bumps
Event organizers can make money by selling add-on products to attendees when they buy a ticket to the event. This is done by prompting add-on products which the buyer will be interested in buying. And then, asking the buyer to check a box before completing the order.
If the buyer has already bought the event pass, you may send him/her to an upsell page. This prompts him/her to evaluate other products so as to include it in his/her order. You can promote your existing products or anything you have created to complement the virtual event as add-on products.
Bottom Line
Virtual events have a lot of monetization potential. However, it all depends on how well you can make use of the available opportunities.
VIRTEX, a topmost technology transformation company, has built a cutting-edge technology virtual event platform in India. VIRTEX recommends several ways to incorporate and maximize virtual event monetization in your event. This is evidenced by the number of revenue generation possibilities outlined above.
