Virtual events – and in turn, digital video event marketing campaigns – have experienced a rapid rise since March, and show no signs of slowing down in 2021. The rising trend also provides a great opportunity to drive users through a unique buyer’s journey. From promoting, hosting, and following-up, video plays a crucial role at every stage of the journey.

According to 2020 event marketing statistics, 93% of event marketers plan to invest in virtual events moving forward. And after learning from these real-world case studies, you probably will too! But first, a quick overview of why video event marketing is so useful in the first place.

Take a look below, then click here to learn more about creating a cohesive journey for your digital events – from our own digital event with ON24 and Ceros!

Why is video event marketing important?

• Videos are evolving to include interactive and personalized experiences. We’ll likely see more innovative video marketing, including “choose your own adventure” style experiences.
• Digital events and conferences are becoming the norm. Some 63% of organizations are moving to digital conferences or events.
• Interactive video will be used to enhance events. Build buzz before or after your event. Video can also turn audiences from passive to engaged for a more memorable event.

How to use video to promote your next virtual event:

Share Teasers

Using event video can inform your audience about upcoming events, all while keeping it engaging. The team at Wibbitz created a sizzle reel to promote our last digital event with ON24 and Ceros. We used engaging footage, subtitles, and to-the-point information to capture our audience’s attention.

Main Takeaway: In addition to sharing event details like location and dates, make sure your event promotion video captures your audience’s attention and inspires them to take action (see below). While posting basic information is necessary, it’s more exciting to add video and music to pique their interest.

Inspire Action

Video is a great way to inspire audiences to join your digital event (beyond sending out standard email reminders). Get them excited with upbeat music, and by highlighting incentives to join your event – including the value they’ll receive with a free price tag. Here’s an action-driven promo video we created to drive registrations for our webinar with ON24 and Ceros.

Main Takeaway: Communicating your event’s value through video will always be more impactful than any paragraph of standalone text you could possibly write. Capture viewers’ hearts and minds with upbeat music, visuals, and messaging.

How to use video to recap your next virtual vent:

Repurpose Content & Provide Value

Bizzabo proves that video recaps can be highly effective for digital events. Their Creating a Successful Event Agenda Webinar Recap is an excellent example of how effective it is to share a bite-size version of the event with your audience after it has already happened. By sharing this event highlight, Bizzabo provides helpful information for viewers interested in the topic. Viewers can gain actionable takeaways from this short video now that make them feel even more excited to check out the full version later.

Main Takeaway: The experience of watching your event recap video should be enough to persuade audiences to invest in the full experience. Sharing information they can actually use is a great way of going about it but value can also come in the form of positive emotions, inspiring words, and pre-sale codes for future digital events.

Here’s a template we created with Wibbitz that you can use to recap your next event!

Key Ideas: Videos for Events

No matter how you use video event marketing, be sure to keep these key ideas in mind when creating your next strategy:

• Be authentic. Show real moments shared between hosts and participants as well as the values your organization is built on.
• Have fun. Whether your event was live or digital, showing off the parts of your event that your audience would consider the most fun is a great way to inspire future new and return ticket sales.
• Prioritize experiences. By its very nature, video is a “show don’t tell” medium. Make sure you use it to help viewers visualize what it would be like for them to attend your event. Whether that’s through guest quotes, exciting behind the scenes clips, or emotional personal moments is up to you.

No matter how you choose to use video, adding this useful tool to your event strategy for promotion, hosting a virtual event, and/or recapping the action is a smart move. As long as you remember that video event marketing is all about helping viewers personally connect with your experience, you really can’t go wrong! Add these fun virtual event ideas to your event software to maximize insight and learn more about what works best for your audience.