Online events are popular for a reason. They allow participants to get together and share valuable information – irrespective of their geographical location. A great way to measure the success of a virtual event is to check the number of attendees and how satisfied they are after the event is over.

Needless to say, getting more people to sign up is the biggest challenge for event planners. Therefore, they need to find an effective way to increase the attendance of virtual events. Luckily for you, we have compiled a list of ideas that you can use to achieve just that!

Let’s begin with it:

1. Optimize Your Registration Page

The best way to encourage maximum sign-ups is by optimizing the event registration page. After all, it’s where the visitors secure the spot for the virtual event. There are many things you can do to optimize the page:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The event registration page and other content on your website should rank on Google according to the relevant keywords that your target audience uses to search for.
• Speed: Slow page load times will get visitors off your website before it even opens. You can check the loading speed of your event registration page here.
• Mobile Responsive: The registration page must display properly on all devices – tablets, mobile phones, laptops, and desktops. Users shouldn’t have to zoom on their mobile devices to see the content. You can run the mobile-friendly test here.
• Images: Use enticing graphics and images to evoke an emotional response and increase online event attendance.
• Call to Action (CTA): Despite high-quality content, visitors may feel lost without an effective CTA. Therefore, your event registration page must have simple, actionable CTA(s).

Besides, using A/B testing you can identify areas of improvement and boost attendance further.

Beetsol offers online event management solutions where you can create custom registration pages, manage multiple events, and send invitations to thousands of attendees.

2. Involve Your Speakers

When we talk about proven ways to boost your event attendance, involving your speakers makes perfect sense. Their role shouldn’t be limited to addressing the audience on the event date. You can publish teaser content on your website and social media accounts talking about the upcoming event’s theme.

This strategy helps build excitement among the audience and encourages them to register for the event. That said, don’t forget to add CTAs in your social media posts and blog posts to promote sign-ups.

3. Include Live Chat Support

Many people who intend to register don’t go through with it because their queries never get resolved. To increase attendance, you have to answer the questions that your audience may have. Depending on how big the virtual event is, the number of attendees may run in hundreds or even thousands.

Since it’s not possible to answer every question on phone calls, a better alternative is to start live chat support on your event registration page. Not only could it be used to resolve queries but also to provide additional information in real-time. This method is undoubtedly a great way to increase attendance.

4. Offer Exclusive Discounts

If there’s anything more challenging than hosting engaging virtual events, then it is increasing the attendance!

To address this, event planners can offer last-minute discounts to create a sense of urgency among the attendees. Apart from this, one can also create a ‘members only’ page where you can offer exclusive content and use discounts to drive attendance. This way your loyal members will feel valued and rewarded.

In return, they will feel encouraged to register for your event. You can learn to create a membership site on WordPress here. Alternatively, you can choose an event management platform that can handle everything for you.

5. Organize a Giveaway

Who doesn’t love a giveaway?

It’s a proven strategy used by social media influencers to boost their number of followers. You can use it to your advantage by organizing a contest. The lucky winners can be offered free tickets to your online event. This strategy will help you generate traffic and attract interest of your target audience.

For this reason, you must set plenty of time for promotions. Even if your content is up to the mark, leaving less time for event promotions means that not enough people will find out about it.

You can find tons of pre-designed templates for giveaways online. Choose the one that helps you boost sign-ups, increase social media followers, and drive traffic.

Bonus Tip: Create Amazing Content

When it comes to boosting virtual attendance, content is king! In fact, your promotion strategy should be centered around it.

You can:

• Share sneak peek videos
• Promote videos of speakers
• Share teaser videos

With this, we end our discussion on proven ways to improve virtual attendance.