Say Goodbye to Ghost Attendees: How Meetingbox Keeps Virtual Events Alive

There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else. – Sam Walton

More and more companies regard online events as a powerful way to get leads and to increase customer loyalty, but unfortunately, hybrid and virtual events often struggle to effectively engage and educate participants. Even well-intentioned webinars fall victim to the dreaded ‘Zoom silence’, where attendees tune out and only do the bare minimum.

What if you could host virtual events that not only engage your audience but also leave them excited and eager for more? No more lacklustre events – it is time to say goodbye to ghost events and time to say hello to immersive experiences with Meetingbox.

It's important to note that virtual events encompass much more than just webinars and webcasts. In fact, they offer a vast range of capabilities and formats that can be leveraged to create truly unique and memorable events. From virtual workshops and expos to virtual summits with special guests, the possibilities are endless.

In 2023, virtual events will continue to play a crucial role in attracting new leads and strengthening customer loyalty for a variety of reasons, which include the following:

- To boost customer acquisition, which has become increasingly challenging due to the rise of distribution costs and the acceleration of the marketing channels' lifecycle. The competitiveness and expense of distribution, combined with the rapid evolution of marketing channels and tactics, have made it more difficult for companies to reach their target audience and grow their customer base. These factors have contributed to the rise in the cost of customer acquisition, making it imperative for companies to find innovative and effective ways to drive their efforts and stay ahead in the competitive landscape. In addition to that, in recent years, consolidation has led to a decrease in the number of major new channels, with big companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon acquiring smaller platforms. This phenomenon has further contributed to the trend of higher costs and increased competition in the industry.

-To reach and engage customers effectively, which has been hampered by the affordable access to the abundance of data blurring the lines between product, marketing, engineering, and sales.

-To create customer-centric experiences and build your own audience, which is more important than ever, due to increased competition and declining SEO click-through rates.

Therefore, virtual events offer solutions to challenges by providing an effective and cost-efficient way to reach and interest customers. By prioritizing the customer experience and offering valuable content, virtual events attract new leads and increase customer loyalty. The key to success lies in captivating your audience with immersive and engaging experiences, which resonate with them on a deeper level.

Meetingbox's virtual event platform provides a powerful tool to fulfill these outcomes, enabling you to personalize features and interact with your customers to foster lasting relationships. Utilizing Meetingbox’s advanced event platform features and capabilities, you can create compelling virtual events that connect with your customers and establish a strong, loyal following.

The principles of engagement and habit-formation are a crucial aspect of virtual events. The concept of habit formation is identified in books, such as Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins, Hooked by Nir Eyal, and The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Claude Hopkins' Scientific Advertising outlines the basics of habit-formation as a loop, which begins with a cue, is followed by a routine, and culminates in a reward. This loop reinforces the behaviour each time the cue reappears.

Did you know that brushing our teeth with toothpaste is a habit that was established through the introduction of the first toothpaste product? In Scientific Advertising, Hopkins goes on to explain how Pepsodent toothpaste was designed around a habit loop. The loop begins with a cue – the feeling of a filmy coating on your teeth – that leads to the routine of brushing with Pepsodent toothpaste. The reward, a clean, fresh sensation, reinforces the behaviour each time the cue reappears.

Just like the habit loop established for Pepsodent toothpaste, Meetingbox creates a similar habit loop, which looks like this:

Organic trigger: "I need an easy and meaningful way to engage and network with people, who are not physically here."

Core action in response to the trigger: Attend a virtual event using the Meetingbox platform

Reward:

-High-quality audio and video and a seamless experience with multiple interaction points, such as sharing ideas, making connections and shaping the conversation in real-time.

-Direct messaging

-Polls

-Surveys

-A full-screen, immersive environment created through the virtual venue feature.

-Plenty of content to look at and engage with, minimizing distractions.

-A 3D virtual environment that ensures ongoing engagement and participation.

-Successful Result: Time and money saved, leading to continued use of the Meetingbox platform for future virtual events.

It was Henry David Thoreau, who famously said, "Men have become the tools of their tools." The technology used to plan and host events, and facilitate attendance at them, has become so sophisticated and accessible that people are reliant on it to carry out their tasks effectively. The technology has become so intuitive and user-friendly that it has effectively replaced the traditional methods of event planning and attendance. Although it has created a situation where people are now dependent on technology to perform these tasks, this shift has led to a more efficient and streamlined process for hosting and attending events.

To host successful immersive virtual events simply selecting the right virtual technology is not enough. You could put your event lobby in the metaverse and incorporate bobblehead avatars, video streaming, and interactive games. However, if the content is not compelling, it would be like a beautifully decorated cake having no flavour when you eat it, making the experience unsatisfying. In the same way, even with the most visually appealing elements, a dull event, without great content and the right strategy, will repel audience members.

So, even before you choose the right virtual event technology for your needs, consider the following points:

-Consider the audience's technology quotient and choose a user-friendly platform that suits their proficiency.

-Platform Capacity: Choose a platform that can accommodate events of any size and format, with support for multi-geo time zones, pre-recorded content and a flexible participant capacity of more than 100 attendees, (or even more than 1000 attendees, as provided by Meetingbox).

-Factor in your budget and team capacity when choosing the platform.

-Make sure the content is high-quality, engaging and relevant to the attendees.

-Determine whether you want the event to be presentation-led or focused on networking.

-Consider whether you need analytics on participants to leverage the data later.

-Partner with colleagues and collaborators to enhance the overall experience.

-Schedule a mix of special guests, who have a prominent social media following or are true innovators.

-Maintain a quality bar and high standards to ensure consistency.

-Create a perception of exclusivity through membership to a community or exclusive mailing list.

-Make the event exclusive by creating smart barriers like ticket prices or badges.

-Building trust is crucial, so ensure the event content is not only well-produced, but is also compelling.

By creating a customer-centric experience and utilizing the principles of habit-formation, Meetingbox offers a successful, comprehensive solution for virtual events to engage and educate participants, leaving them excited and eager for more. Its all-in-one event management platform supports the complete lifecycle of an event, and includes features, such as project workflow automation, event registration websites and mobile event apps. To learn more about hosting customer-centric events with Meetingbox Mobile Event Apps, visit our article.

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