LinkedIn now offers unrivalled levels of targeting specific customer demographics. One of their latest features, LinkedIn Live Events could be one option for you and your next online event.
Virtual events are one of the most important lead generation tools available – and webinars are a short, easy-to-consume option for your business.
Since the pandemic, virtual event technology has undergone some rapid advancements, be sure to use them for your online events. There are many methods of hosting – from Zoom to virtual platform environments. LinkedIn events could be the option for you.Read on for my tips to make your next LinkedIn event as successful as possible.
Decide on the scope of your event
To create LinkedIn events, the first thing to do is settle on who you’re aiming your event at. What are the relevant customer personas? What will happen during your event. At this stage, it is also a good idea to identify the reasons why your customers will want to attend the event, what will they benefit from?
How will you host the event? Will you use LinkedIn Live with zoom, Stream Yard or another platform?
You should also share your plans with speakers at your event. It would be great if your speakers could agree to promote the event with their network as this can expand your reach further.
Create the LinkedIn event
To have something to market, create a LinkedIn event from your company page. There are a number of fields to fill out – the event description and a header image. Don’t worry about finalising these details immediately, you can always go back and edit the event details.
Once your LinkedIn live has been created, you can then send invites to your connections to attend the event. Be sure to select the target customer demographics, however there is no limit as to how many invites you can send, send as many as you can!
Users who have said they are attending the event will then be notified to hopefully join for the event.
You can then build the link to your event page in with your other marketing campaigns to encourage as many attendees as possible to join.
Would you prefer to use a different platform for your event?
If you have an existing platform for your event, there is still something to be gained by marketing it on LinkedIn. You can begin by creating an event page as usual, but add an external event link instead of selecting ‘LinkedIn live’. Hosting offline events? You can simply mark the event as an in-person, physical one.
How to promote your event on LinkedIn
Use multi-channel marketing. The key to event promotion is to keep driving the interest towards your social media networks.
You can share the link to your event. It’s a good idea to add complementary content to your calendar. Be sure to capture as much interest as possible through more general content.
You could run a related poll on your social media networks, this could give you another angle to discuss during the event itself.
Be sure that your page includes all the event details. Why should someone join your event? What can someone gain from attending?
Decide the event logistics
On the day of your event, how will you go live? Individuals can join LinkedIn Live events natively within LinkedIn, however you may want to rethink this if you have speakers joining you live.
Did you know that you could host a LinkedIn live with Zoom? You can connect Zoom to LinkedIn Live and broadcast your Zoom call.
LinkedIn Live with Zoom may be the most user-friendly option for your speakers to join, using a format that we’ve all become so familiar with. However, this means you can’t see the comments on the LinkedIn live stream within the same view. You also have a slightly longer process to change the view for viewers on LinkedIn. The solution? A platform called StreamYard.
The first thing to do is to create the LinkedIn event. Once you’ve done this, head over to StreamYard. You’ll be able to connect your LinkedIn account and then your company page. Within StreamYard, you’ll be able to see the LinkedIn event you’ve created. You can then join what they call the ‘broadcast studio’.
You can share this link with guests and join what looks like a typical Zoom call style set-up. You can communicate, set up your views and go through a final rehearsal. When you’re ready to go live hit ‘Go Live’ in the top right hand corner. You’ll be broadcasting to your company page.
Don’t forget to record your live event so you can share on your marketing platforms after the event has concluded.
Event networking
For optimal success, you should capitalise on your LinkedIn event attendees. LinkedIn events feature enables attendees to network with each other, so this can be a useful feature to continue growing your community beyond the scope of the event. You could kickstart the conversation by asking the first question to your attendees!
Follow-up with attendees
It’s said that about 50% of the attendees who register for an event will actually turn up – even if they are your target audience. If this happens with your events on LinkedIn, all is not lost!
Because you’ve set this up with a LinkedIn event, you can then undertake a campaign with this group of event attendees.
Message those who said they’d turn up with the on-demand recording of your event. You can also add a call-to-action, such as booking a call with you or leaving their email address.
This means that even if those delegates didn’t turn up, you can still take advantage of the engagement they showed through saying they’d attend the event!
You should also take a closer look at your event analytics. How long did people stay for? When did people watch until?
