5 Ways to Beat Digital Fatigue and Drive Virtual Event ROI

Virtual event fatigue is real. And it’s not just that virtual events, alone, have increased by 1,000% since March 2020, but sales calls and ad spend are up more than 20%, while marketing emails have increased by more than 60%. But, field and event marketers still have pipeline and revenue goals to hit. They know that instead of simply letting their programs get lost in the noise, they have to find ways to host more creative and highly engaging events. They must provide something unique that offers more interactions between humans and the opportunity to build true connections. And they know that it’s possible, because some have already risen to the challenge.

Here are five stories of companies who used creative experiences to make buyers feel connected and drive virtual event ROI.

5 Companies Driving Virtual Event ROI with Sendoso

1. PubNub Increased Webinar Registrations by 32% with Sendoso’s Charity eGifts

Like many organizations, PubNub, a communication platform for app developers, replaced in-person events with webinars and other strategic, account-targeted efforts in 2020. To boost registrations, PubNub leveraged Sendoso’s “Charity Choice” eGift option, which allows participants to donate to a charitable organization upon registration.The decision paid off. Since implementing, webinar registrations surged by 32%. Another variation—replacing SDR’s “coffee on us” offer with “donations in your name”—has increased response rates by 14%. Learn more.

2. Lessonly Drove 60% Virtual Event Attendance with eGifts

This past year, many brands have shifted their sales and marketing strategy to focus on delivering value. Lessonly, a software training provider, was one company that saw an opportunity to help clients and prospects by providing remote-work resources.

The organization launched an interactive virtual event series that covered topics like sales enablement, customer service enablement, and remote work. Attendees received an eGift card for lunch from a food delivery service like GrubHub. The series generated a very impressive average attendance rate of 55% across 12 events in just two weeks.

They also utilized eGift cards to drive attendance for their virtual “coffee connection” with the CEO. All of their customers were invited, but they capped attendance at 100 registrants and offered an eGift card to the first 50 registrants. They sent the Starbucks eGifts a day before by embedding gift links in one-to-one emails from reps. That touch helped them drive an amazing 60% attendance rate. Learn more.

3. Arctic Wolf Drove a 72% Attendance Rate and Influenced 41 New Opportunities

In “more precedented” times, Arctic Wolf, a market leader in security operations, hosted 150 in-person events per quarter. But health concerns related to COVID-19 prompted them to shift to a digital strategy, which included hosting 40 turn-key webinars in April 2020 alone.

Like PubNub, Arctic Wolf wanted to incentivize registration and attendance at these digital events. So they sent Uber Eats eGifts to registrants, which helped drive an unbelievable 72% attendance rate—more than 1.3X the industry benchmark. It also contributed to a 9% average conversion rate from MQL to SQL, one of the highest performing campaign types.

To increase conversion post-event, Arctic Wolf also leveraged Sendoso to deliver branded swag to key attendees, as well as Sendoso’s Address Confirmation feature to accelerate deals within the pipeline.

The results? Arctic Wolf created 41 influenced net-new opportunities and 27 closed-won deals representing more than 20% of quarterly revenue–all with less than $1,000 investment. Learn more.

4. MarketStar Drove 88% ABM Event Attendance and a 35% Meetings Set Rate Post-Event

When COVID-19 hit, MarketStar, an organization that helps technology companies expand their sales footprint through outsourced sales, needed to create a personalized ABM strategy with buyers at enterprise accounts. But like many organizations, one of the biggest questions was how to stand out in a crowded field.

MarketStar partnered with Sendoso to host a remote wine tasting to give attendees something to sip on while they learned about MarketStar’s capabilities, sending personalized invites and customized each note according to the person. A few days before the event, attendees received eight mini bottles of wine. They were then led through a 30-minute tasting followed by a networking hour. The team found that by focusing on the unique experience of the event rather than just presenting a MarketStar pitch deck, they were able to make an impact that resonated with attendees and drove further engagement.

The event saw an 88% attendance rate and was so engaging that it went over the time limit. Afterward, the team was able to secure meetings with 35% of the attendees. Learn more.

5. Sendoso Saw a 90% Win Rate Among Opportunities that Attended Event

When in-person events went virtual overnight due to COVID-19 measures, we hosted a “Sip and Send” island-themed virtual happy hour with customers to share send ideas, network with peers, ask questions, and discuss best sending practices.

The happy hour was hosted across the three time zones to ensure we reached as many participants as possible. To help drive attendance and make the happy hour more engaging, we used Address Confirmation to batch-send each registrant a custom handwritten note along with a “Jala Back” Cocktail Courier Kit (which consisted of vodka, pineapple, lime and jalapeno). We also used Sendoso employees to act as “bartenders” to ensure conversation (and virtual drinks!) were flowing throughout.

Even though the goal was to have as many registrants as possible receive their cocktail kit one week prior to the event, we wanted to incentivize any late registrants to still join in on the fun, so for any last minute additions we sent a wine.com eGift.

The event was as impactful as it was fun, boasting an 85% total response rate and a 90% win rate of opportunities that attended. Learn more.

‍Feeling inspired? Let us help your organization leverage the power of Sendoso’s sending platform, our virtual event capabilities, 20+ integrations, and vendors across the globe to start the new year off right.