As traditional sales decline, shops have shifted online to survive the pandemic. E-Commerce has grown 129% YoY in the US and Canada, good news for the industry, but not necessarily for individual brands.
With steeper competition and rapidly changing online shopping behaviors, how do you stand out, build trust, and create memorable experiences? The solution is to build an online community through virtual events. Follow our tips to leverage online events and start building an engaged community.
It’s important to grasp why online events are a valuable asset to building your community: they naturally create experiences. Online events and communities share a big similarity: they bring people together around a common interest.
With 54% of customers demanding that companies transform how they engage with them, online events offer something different from usual digital marketing methods.
Brands can connect with their community on a personal level, which is critical for building long-lasting, meaningful relationships, especially in a crowded marketplace where standing out is challenging.
To truly maximize the benefits of online events, it’s crucial to consider how they align with your overall marketing and business goals.
Establishing a regular event cadence – whether that’s weekly, monthly, or quarterly – is key in providing consistency for your community.
While the end goal is to ultimately drive sales, online events can serve a multitude of purposes even if you don’t have any new product launches in the pipeline. Consider offering training sessions, tutorials, or other types of valuable content to encourage regular community engagement. Varying your event formats can also help keep your audience engaged and excited to participate.
Whether you’re a new e-commerce business or an established brand, collaborating with influencers and industry leaders can be an effective way to tap into their audience’s trust and increase your brand’s exposure to new audiences.
To find the right influencers and speakers, conduct online research to analyze factors such as their number of followers, level of engagement, and exposure channels.
Once you’ve identified the right people, start the outreach process by building a contact list and getting to know them before reaching out via email. Be sure to craft a personalized message that includes information about your company and the goals you hope to achieve through collaboration.
Your community is your strongest asset. While macro-influencers can help reach a wider audience, your existing community, customers, and event attendees are already enthusiastic about your brand.
Tools such as Spitche enable you to incentivize your community members for their social media engagement and user-generated content related to your brand.
This not only generates authentic engagement for your brand but also fosters loyalty and a sense of pride in being a part of your community.
Online events are unique in that they foster engagement through tools such as Q&As, live polls, voting, and live chats. These tools allow you to build trust with your attendees by creating a dialogue and giving them a voice. Additionally, you can receive real-time feedback on your brand and products or services.
54% of customers believe that earning their trust is harder than ever for companies. It’s essential for e-commerce sellers to establish trust with their customers by letting them experience their brand, product, and offerings. The best way to achieve this is by providing hands-on access to your product.
To begin, encourage your customers to test your product and get familiar with it. Follow up with regular workshops that cover different features to help your customers become experts on your product. This immersive learning experience is more effective than watching a video or reading a manual. Remember to allot sufficient time for questions at the end.
Offering discounts to loyal attendees is a smart move as it can help increase the number of attendees and drive sales. This creates a win-win situation for everyone involved. This marketing tool can also generate interest in your event and create a sense of urgency among attendees.
Repurposing event content is another way to reach new audiences and reinforce your message. You can save time on content production by using the content you have already created. For example, you can publish workshops on YouTube and create a podcast series featuring talks from industry influencers. Running regular events gives you a variety of content options to choose from.
With 84% of consumers valuing the experience as much as the quality of goods, online events provide the perfect chance to create a memorable experience. By following these tips, you can easily establish a community of informed, trustworthy, and engaged customers.
