How to Maximize Event ROI in Hybrid Events

The success of hybrid events is not just about being available in physical and virtual platforms. It is all about creating equally satisfying experiences for attendees on both platforms. Moreover, these events are not cheap as the expenses include venue costs, marketing budget, equipment for virtual events, speaker fees, and more. That is why every organizer should keep an eye on the ROI (Return on Investment) to understand if his or her event is paying off.

When it comes to securing a good return on investment from your hybrid events, you need to strike while the iron is hot and fully utilize the strength of the hybrid format. Hybrid events not only enhance your audience reach but also increases your ROI if strategically planned. But here is the catch: only live streaming of your events would not move the needle. You need to have the right strategies for maximizing ROI in hybrid events.

In this article, we have shared some effective tips and strategies for to help you maximize hybrid event ROI. Lets discover.

What ROI means for hybrid events?

The real value of hybrid events ROI goes beyond the revenue. The value actually depends on the event objective. For example, for some event organizers, the ultimate goal is to gain brand visibility or product promotion, whereas for some, it is all about enhancing audience reach or maximizing donation.  

In simple words, an organizer should know what the success of the event means even before it starts. Here are some key indicators of measuring ROI of your hybrid events: .

• Attendance: It shows the number of people who have attended your event physically and virtually.
• Attendee engagement: It helps you track the number of people who have joined polls, took part in Q&A sessions or actively participated in event activities.
• Lead quality: How many contacts you have collected during the event and how many of them showed interest in follow ups.
• Event content reach: This generally gives you an ideas about how your event content is accessed by your attendees. For example: the number of the on-demand views. social shares etc.
• Operational efficiency: It gives you a clear picture of whether the hybrid event structure helps you save time, budget and energy as compared to a conventional in-person event.  

You need to check all the above mentioned areas to figure out your event ROI and take steps to maximize hybrid event ROI.

Maximizing hybrid event ROI

Understanding the hybrid event ROI measuring metrics is crucial to improve ROI and the below mentioned strategies will be helpful for you in maximizing hybrid event revenue.

1. Plan for 2 audiences

The hybrid event structure involves audiences both virtually and physically, making it essential for event organizers to maintain a balance in event content. In a nutshell, organizers need to focus on offering a smooth and seamless attendee experience to both the parties. You need to fully utilize your event content and technology to ensure that both the groups understand that they all are part of the same event.

You can share the recorded content of your event with attendees to make it accessible to those who missed it and check if it can bring returns even after the event. Make sure to restrict the recorded sessions to only those email addresses who show interest. This will help you get a list of leads.

2. Create a strong attendee base

Creating a strong attendee base to maximize hybrid event ROI is not a one-day task. It begins way before the event with proper strategies. It is all about being consistently in touch with your potential attendees with valuable content.

Consider the following ways to engage audiences before the event:

• Share useful and informative blogs on your website.
• Post previous events' video and behind the scene clips on social media platforms.
• Displaying your genuine past event feedback from attendees on various platforms including your website, social channels etc also build trust.
• Explain how partnering with you can be beneficial for everyone.

These methods will surely help you maximize hybrid event ROI by creating a strong attendee base.

3. Adopt virtual sponsorship with unique sponsorship deals

Gaining sponsors for your event helps you share the financial burden of hosting a hybrid event and allows you to invest in making better event arrangements for your attendees. However, persuading people to spend on your event is a big challenge.

Here are some effective ways to convince sponsors to invest in your events to maximize hybrid event ROI:

• Explain them the benefits they will get by partnering with you including the brand exposure they will get.
• Make them understand that the partnership deal will be mutually advantageous.
• Create landing pages for your sponsors for better brand exposure.
• Add posters and images along with their brand logos in the event background and encourage them to provide attendee giveaways.
• In addition to that you can also share your attendee data with them to give them an ide about your target audiences.  

4. Embrace online ticketing

Having a streamlined online ticketing system is essential to maximize hybrid event ROI. This makes it easy for both virtual and in-person event attendees to book tickets faster. At the same time, it is beneficial for the host as he or she can easily track tickets sales in one platform without hassle.

When it comes to online event ticketing, you have two options: one is to rely on third-party platforms like Eventbrite or create your own ticketing system. Both have their own pros and cons. The best way to sell event tickets often depends on the organizers' budget and requirements but when it is about maximizing hybrid event ROI creating an in-house ticketing system is always beneficial as the organizer does not need to bear the high cost of commission.

Pro tip: If you want to create your own ticketing system for events on your WordPress site, WP Event Manager's Sell tickets add-on is one of the most reliable option for you. Discover the plugin now to get the list of its features.

5. Offer personalized event content

Modern event attendees prioritize experience even before the event content, which is why offering personalized content has become necessary for event organizers. This is because personalization drives engagement, and engagement drives revenue. According to research, personalization of event content helps increase attendee engagement by over 20% which automatically boosts sponsor visibility and lead generation.

Here are some ways to deliver personalized content in your hybrid events:

• Personalized session recommendations to attendees based on their interests.
• Match suggestions for better networking.
• Speaker recommendations and more.

In hybrid events, attendee attention span is comparatively shorter and personalization keep them glued to it for longer, improves satisfaction and ultimately maximize event ROI.

6. Choose a virtual event platform

In hybrid events, engaging attendees becomes a challenge, especially when it comes to engaging the virtual audiences. To maximize hybrid event ROI , you need to make it easy for your virtual attendees to engage. Here comes the need for a good virtual events platform that will keep both types of audiences engaged.

Look for the below-mentioned qualities before choosing a suitable virtual event platform:

• A good virtual events platform will allow you to add interactive sessions, breakout rooms, matchmaking features etc.
• Scope of interaction through emojis.
• Raising hand to share an opinion.

Considering all these features, we recommend the virtual add-ons of WP Event Manager that include:

• Zoom: suitable for webinars, meetings, conferences, academic sessions etc.
• Expo Networking: suitable for virtual exhibitions.
• Speaker and schedule: suitable for all types of events in which have multiple speakers.

They carry all the features that are essential to conduct a virtual event successfully. In addition to that you can also use WP Event Manager's Registration and Sell tickets addons to simplify registration, ticket sales, and networking through matchmaking.

7. Foster networking

It is easy to bring global audiences under the same roof through the hybrid structure, but offering networking opportunities to them can be challenging. Make sure you have breakout sessions, polls, Q&A, etc in your event to create networking opportunities for your attendees. In addition to that, you can also add a matchmaking feature to your events to allow attendees to find their meaningful matches in it. This will be extremely beneficial for them as they do not need to waste time on meeting random people in your event. Instead, they could meet the ones who will add value to their business, like a potential partner or customer.

The Registration add-on from WP Event Manager offers an AI based matchmaking feature that automatically suggests matches to attendees based on their interests. You can easily drive attendance and engagement in your hybrid events through matchmaking which would ultimately helps you maximize hybrid event ROI.  

Wrapping up

Hybrid events are in trend as they attract global audiences and offer other benefits too. However, following the trend is not everything to grow. You need to understand whether your hybrid event is pay you off well. Considering your event objective measure your event ROI and work on the areas which you need improvements. Follow the above mentioned strategies to maximize hybrid event ROI and use the right tools to automate various tasks in this journey.