10 Tips to Drive Attendance for Virtual Events
You’ve made the decision to take your event virtual, but how are you going to get your guests to go virtual with you? We have some ideas! Here are 10 tips to drive attendance for your virtual fundraising event.
Make it Free to Attend!
One of the benefits to the virtual event model is the ability to remove barriers to participation. You’re no longer limited by ballroom capacity and geographic boundaries. Virtual events give you the opportunity to be inclusive of all possible attendees, so consider removing your ticket price and focus on powerful storytelling and driving giving during the event.
Without these restrictions, you can now think about your possible audience in a very different way—including beyond your physical location. We’re seeing attendance for virtual events from donors all across the country, even internationally.
Engage your community, clients, staff, volunteers, partners, donors, board members, families and friends—and encourage them to invite their networks. There’s no limit to your possible virtual audience.
Promote, Promote, Promote
Virtual events—like all events—need a robust communications plan to build interest. You should still aim to have your possible guests hear about the event at least 7 times to give your organization the best chance to develop the largest audience.
You should first start with communications that announce your event is going virtual. Create custom communications for your staff, board, committee members and sponsors, tailored to the different ways they can support you. Make them feel like they are a part of the event from the top.
Then, move to promotional communications meant to drive attendance through powerful storytelling and highlight key event components. Perhaps you have a mission-centric performance or the opportunity for guests to hear from a person who’s been directly impacted by your work. Let guests know what they have to look forward to and how this event is special. A printed invitation is a great way to pull your message up out of the noise, as well.
Finally, make sure you have a strategy for the week of the event, reminding your guests how to tune in and when.
Activate Virtual Hosts
Many events have a history of table hosts or captains who purchase tables and invite their friends. They should be activated to do the same thing in the virtual setting—just without the physical table.
Some ideas are virtually hosting their guests by setting up a Zoom call to socialize before the virtual event (ending about 10 minutes before the program so everyone has time to log in). They can use meeting invitations to their guests to make sure it’s on their calendars.
As a reward or benefit, you could also consider purchasing or facilitating catering for them and their guests. Many catering companies can deliver and are open to adding new features to their catering beyond just food, like flowers and party favors.
Phone a Friend
Competing for the attention of your possible guests in this environment can be challenging. Making the personal connection before your event is now more important than ever. Set up a phone bank for the week before the event to make sure that the guests you most want engaged are planning to attend. And remember to be thoughtful of who the messenger is—the person with the relationship should be making the call.
Stream on Social Media
Events being livestreamed on platforms such as Vimeo or YouTube are great candidates for simulcasting across social media platforms such as Facebook Live. Work with your AV partners to see if it’s possible for your livestream to be simulcast to bring in additional audience members. It will require a Facebook administrator to facilitate the stream during the event and you’ll want to identify a volunteer to moderate the chat function.
Crowdsource Content
People are more likely to show up for the event if there’s a chance they might see themselves or loved ones featured during the program. Consider incorporating some kind of slideshow or compilation of videos that feature familiar faces—those of staff, members, donors, etc.
They could record a simple power statement, a simple toast or simply send in a meaningful photo. This can also be used to lift your storytelling, show the power of your community and connect this virtual event to previous in-person iterations.
You could also consider creating a hashtag campaign to gather people’s contributions.
Incentivize Participation
Find something simple that you can offer to potential guests to get them to RSVP before the event. This could be something small that every person receives, or it could be one larger package of general interest that registrants get entered into a drawing to win. You can also provide drawings during the program for people viewing the event live. This way people have an incentive to engage and stay logged in. Don’t spend too much time on procuring this type of package—it should be something simple and at your fingertips.
Virtual events require you to think differently about what your audience can look like. Lean into the opportunity and consider adding some of these elements to your virtual event plan, and you’ll empower your event to build the strongest possible attendance.
Send a Calendar Invite
We are living in a Zoom world, which means we all rely on our digital calendars to find links for easy log in. The same should be considered for your event. Add an “Add to calendar” widget to your email communications and RSVP confirmations so attendees can easily add the details of the event to someone’s calendar with all of the information needed to tune in.
At-Home Party Packets
Delivering party packets to your donors before the event can be a sure-fire way to ensure that they tune in online. You might consider a note that says, “We look forward to seeing you tonight,” plus some fun activities to incorporate into the event. Perhaps there is a coloring activity for the kids, a cocktail recipe for the adults and maybe even a sponsor swag item, like a box of chocolates from your presenting sponsor.
Activate Your Networks
Take the work out of the invite by crafting an email for your board, staff, volunteers and supporters to share out. Encourage all staff and board members to use their own social media channels and connections to invite people to tune in. Ultimately, the first rule of fundraising is that people give to people. And that certainly applies here! People will tune in and give when personally invited.
There are many ways to get creative about this new event model. The key is to make it authentic to your work and your audience. Virtual events are proving to be successful in bringing people together to support a great cause—and they’re even out-performing in-person events in a lot of ways.
See the latest results from virtual fundraising events and conferences here.
