Public speaking can help establish you in your field or add diversity to the events you organize. A solid public-speaking event influences the way people think and can galvanize people into action.
To fulfill these objectives, however, you need a good crowd. You need to invite audiences who are interested in the topics you’re dealing with and get them to attend.
An online gathering is one of the most convenient and cost-effective ways to host this type of event. People can drop in and check out your affair no matter where they are.
So, how do you organize a well-attended online public speaking event?
Here are nine tried-and-tested strategies:
1. Create a Unique Hashtag
Tweets with hashtags increase your engagement by up to 100%. And they’re just as effective on Instagram, bringing an average of 29% more interactions with just one hashtag for users with 1,000 or fewer followers.
Create a short, descriptive hashtag for your event and use it everywhere in the cyber world. Posts? They’ll do. Stories? Thumbs up. Ads? Big YES. Go all out—to the point that prospects start recognizing your event by the hashtag. Plus, since it groups all your content in one place, it can give users quick access to all the information they need.
2. Give Ads a Chance
If you want exposure and want it fast, include pay-per-click (PPC) in your marketing strategy. With an average click-through rate of 3.17% on Google Ads, it can help you reach relevant audiences without paying a pretty penny. You can also experiment with retargeted ads to get interested prospects more invested in your event for maximum impact.
3. Host a Contest
This is our favorite high-impact strategy—and it won’t even cost you big bucks.
Create a contest for free tickets to your event. You can go big with a 1:1 meet and greet or a prize hamper for the lucky winner. Over 94% of the time, participants will share the promotion on their stories or posts when they register which can help you raise awareness about your event even among those who’ve yet to follow you.
And if they like you, you’ll be selling tickets like hotcakes.
Just make sure to follow the platform’s rules to ensure legal compliance.
4. Leverage Your Reach
Don’t just announce your public speaking event and call it a day. Take the time to shamelessly promote it everywhere be it your website, blogs, event pages, or social media. You can even be a guest on popular podcasts, collaborate with influencers to tap into their audience base, and have brand partnerships with discounts or giveaways.
Use every opportunity to plug your event, keeping it front and center in your potential listeners’ minds. For best results, make your marketing materials shareable—you’ll be surprised by all the difference they can make!
5. Offer Early Bird Discounts
Selling tickets to your event? Offer early bird registration discounts to create buzz around the event and get people to sign up earlier. This isn’t just good from a data collection standpoint, but it also helps you eliminate the risk of losing out on ticket sales by delaying the sale period.
Make sure to include the final date of the promo to give your prospects FOMO. Make them believe it’s now or never.
6. Start an Event Page
Whether you’re hosting an in-person or virtual event, create a page dedicated to your public speaking event. Facebook, with roughly 3 billion monthly users, and LinkedIn, with 930 million users from over 200 countries, are great places to start.
Your page will provide important details (date, place, time, etc.) in one place, lure people in with high-res images and videos, and provide updates for any last-minute changes.
Not just that; you can also use it as an opportunity to:
- Get to know your customers by how they interact with your posts
- Tailor your marketing with metrics like post reach
Essentially, it will help you build a community around your event.
7. Tap Into the Power of Instagram Reels
Reels have the highest reach compared to other content. Use them to boost your engagement and generate hype around your event.
Talk about what makes your event special, drop the tea on which guests will be attending, and share images and videos from previous events. You can even use a trending sound to reach and engage as many people as possible!
You can also do live streaming to give your audience opportunities to ask questions about the event, get their views, and build rapport.
8. Use User-Generated Content
Seventy-five percent of marketers believe that user-generated content (UGC) makes their posts more authentic. Hence, come up with a virtual guestbook that has user-generated testimonials, reviews, video clips, snapshots, and more from past events.
It will provide an authentic and immersive perspective that shows people what they can expect. It also builds trust, increases reach, and drives conversions.
9. Use Email Marketing
This remains one of the most underrated forms of gaining traction for your event, with the potential to give back $36 for every dollar spent.
So, leverage your email list. Categorize users based on demographics to identify prospects. Woo them with incentives to nudge them into converting, but don’t flood their mail as doing so could cause them to unsubscribe and opt out of your future emails. Make your correspondences simple, short, and to the point. Include updates, exciting announcements, and special offers. You should also design an attractive layout that encourages readers to go through them.
If you aren’t a graphic designer, PosterMyWall has a huge collection of free email templates that can help jumpstart the process. They’re customizable too, so you tweak the elements to complement the look and feel you envisioned.
Take Home Message
Getting people excited about your event is no small feat, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. With these tried-and-tested strategies, you can spread the word about your public speaking event and get people to commit without going over your marketing budget.
