Setting up an online event with Fogzee is extremely easy. Even promoting it is easy. But is hosting it easy? Well, the short answer is – it can be, with time. Hosting an online event, just like anything you want to be good at, takes time and practice. Luckily, not too much time and not too much practice. After a couple of events you already start getting the gist of it and find your groove, learn from mistakes and get inspired with new ideas.
However, there are small basic things that you can do from the get-go to ensure a smooth start to the amazing online experiences journey we’re about to embark on. For that purpose, we’ve prepared a short guide with 8 starter tips divided into segments. Let the games begin!
Preparing for your event
Lay out your event before you set it up
Preparing for your live event doesn’t just mean making sure you look cute. It is indeed important, but there are a few key preparations you need to do before you even set up your event. To properly set up your event you need to first understand the basics of your event: why, what, who and when.
First, why are you creating this event? Understanding the goal of your event and what you want to get out of it will allow you to better structure it and better curate the content and interactive elements in it.
When you first understand why you’re creating the event, be it to sell more of certain products, get your customers to know you better, increase your brand awareness with your influencer’s following or launch a new product series with your brand ambassador, understanding the why is the key to properly planning out and easily setting up your event.
The ‘what’ part is all about how you’re going to achieve that goal we’ve just defined. What are you going to do in your event to help you reach that goal? If we take the first goal example of selling more of a certain product, then you can add a special live promotion for that specific product that is too crazy to pass.
Maybe you will also send your influencer that product in advance to have them introduce it, or wear it, or eat it (depending on what you’re selling, obviously…) during the live session and then offer that crazy promotion so that it is irresistible to your audience. There are endless things you can do to make sure you reach your goals when you understand what you want to achieve.
‘Who’ refers to who is presenting that live event with you. It can be just you, it can be you and your team, it can be you and an influencer or brand ambassador, it can be you and your grandma. It depends, again, on your goal for the event.
‘When’ is when you will have this event (duh…). We do recommend researching and thinking about when would be an ideal time for your customer base and the people you’re targeting to attend your event. That depends on their Geographic location, their age, life status, etc. For example, if most of your customers are moms, it would be smart to not do the event during school pick up times, bed times, too late at night and so on.
Promote your event on social media
Fogzee allows you to promote your event in your shop with a cute little widget so that everyone that comes to your shop knows that you’re having your awesome event. It also allows you to send invites to your email list. But of course you should do everything you can to promote your event through other outlets, and those are mostly social media outlets. If you’ve put the effort of planning out and setting up your event, you can put a bit of effort promoting it in your social media channels.
In case you are hosting this event with an influencer, definitely have them promote your event on their social media channels as well to reach their audience and drive new customers to your store.
On the day of your event
Test your audio & visual
Before you go live, preferably about 30 minutes before, make sure that anyone hosting your event, be it you, your influencer or your teammates, test their audio and visuals to make sure everything is working and there are no issues. I am saying visuals on purpose, it is not just the video, it is also the visuals of the background, where you’re going to sit, how you look and so on.
Making sure everything works ahead of time will ensure less hiccups when you’re about to start your event.
During your live event
Make your audience active participants
During your live event, make sure you engage with your audience and even change up the event’s direction a bit if you see the audience is interested in a certain topic you weren’t planning to talk about. That gives your live event a real live spin and the edge over pre recorded videos. It is also important to always interact with your audience and drive them to action. Besides making sure your goals for the event are met, you are creating an active interaction from your audience side, which makes them more engaged with your event.
A call to action can be anything from telling them to type down questions in the chat, typing in their names and where they are from, telling them to share the event link with friends to join, and even telling them to buy this amazing new product you’ve just highlighted while this crazy live sale price lasts. Whatever it is, make sure to interact with your audience and drive them to action so they are an active participant in your event, and not just a spectator. Spectators get bored fast.
Break it to Segments
Your event may be 30 minutes or even an hour. That can be a bit long for some people’s attention span. For that reason, it is wise to break your event into segments to keep things interesting. This should be laid out when you plan your event, but you can also do it on the fly during your event.
One way of breaking it up is doing your giveaway raffle or announcement in the middle of your event. Another way is allowing question time in short breaks throughout your event.
Allocate time for shopping
Even if your event’s main goal is not selling per se, one of the main advantages of Fogzee events is the interactive elements that allow you to increase your sales. And we both know that can’t hurt. So even if your event is not focused 100% on selling, you should allocate time in your event plan to highlight products and offer discounts so your customers can enjoy your event by getting the goodies in your shop at a discounted price.
If someone attended your event, they most likely know your shop, or know the influencer promoting your brand. Either way, it is safe to assume they like, or will like your products. Allow them to enjoy a little shopping time by allocating a specific time in the event to highlight products and make sure to add a little (or a big) discount to spoil your attendees and make them feel they got something out of it.
Be yourself
It is important that you remain your awesome self and not get distracted by what’s going on in your event. Hosting an event can make you rigid or stressed, and your audience can see that instantly. Try to just keep it cool no matter what’s happening, and don’t become too much of a salesperson or a QVC host (unless you are a QVC host and then you do you).
After the event
Follow up with your audience
This one is not an obvious one to everyone, but it is important. To increase your customer base and make sure each event you do has more attendees than the previous, make sure to follow up with people that registered to your event but didn’t attend. Find out why, tell them what happened in your live event (to show them what they missed), and tell them about future events you’re hosting that may interest them.
This is a great way to potentially increase your attendees and customer base from one event to the next. You should also follow up with your most active attendees, and send them personal messages about how much you appreciate them. You can even offer them a special discount or let them in on exclusive items that you will be releasing soon. Engaging with your customers is an amazing way to build trust and real human relationships.
With that, I think the most important tip of all is to just get started. So many times we let overthinking and concerns get in the way of doing things we want to do. Keep these tips in mind, but remember it is better to do something and make mistakes than not doing it at all.
