The secret to incredible virtual event? Fostering FOMO

The world has embraced the advantages of online events and all marketers are trying to join the trend. This makes it harder than ever for your own events to stand out from the sea of invitations.

     What, then, do you make your online event stand out among today's crowded event space?    

Many event companies will try to convince you that the answer lies in getting famous presenters or distributing flashy prizes. After running the same events for more than 17 years for organizations like Bizzabo, the American Red Cross, HubSpot and Bizzabo I'm convinced that it is much easier and less expensive than this.

The most important factor in running a successful, resonant events today regardless of what competitors are up to and promoting the fear of not being missed out (FOMO) in potential attendees. Here, we will discuss the reasons FOMO works in event marketing along with several ways that you can use it before as well as afterwards to improve the number of attendees, increase anticipation as well as increase the event's ROE.

What will we cover

1.    Make a feeling of community
2.    Position your event as timely, exclusive and limited
3.    Let the significance of your occasion crystal-clear
4.    Stoke attendees' competitive spirits
5.    The wrap-up
6.    Try 's virtual event platform.

Facilitating FOMO to increase registration for events

Events -- both virtual as well as in-person provide a great opportunity to foster the sense of community. However, let's face it: the act of encouraging FOMO does not mean you're making people feel disengagedfrom your programming.Instead, FOMO in your marketing for events follows a 3-part method, which includes:

• Make your event appear unique that is timely and restricted
• The value of your event clearly stated
• Stoke attendees' competitive spirits

Let's look at why the actions works and then how to implement them practically for the next occasion you host.

Build a sense of belonging to a

If the artist you love was performing in town but you didn't have tickets it could be that you feel an overwhelming sense of anxiety.

If your favourite musician was coming to town, you weren't able to attend, or everyone else were? And that FOMO would reach a fever pitch.

Similarly, the best business-to-business (B2B) events don't exist in a vacuum -- instead, they act as event tentpoles that connect existing and established communities. In the event that potential attendees are informed about your event, they should think of it as a chance to connect in real-time with the individuals they think they know (even if they've never actually had the pleasure of meeting).

How do you accomplish this? It's called the FOMO funnel.

• Level 1:On your website's landing pages, your social media posts, and email sequences, incorporate social proof, and also identify brands who will be present. This establishes your event as credible and relevant to potential attendees.
• Level 2: Show off unique people as well as real people attending your occasion. Through spotlights for attendees that create a sense of anticipation of "Who's going to be there? What are their biggest challenges? What lessons can you take from them after you've been together in a space?"

Fortune serves as a great example of this. An established business publication, Fortune also hosts fifty conferences every year. However, Fortune isn't marketing these events to a fresh audience every time, because they've already cultivated their ideal audience as members within their Fortune Connect community.

In the Fortune Connect app, members can access exclusive news and join livestreams routinely hosted by leaders in the business world, communicate and connect with other members and participate in the learning sprints.

Members say they feel they're " part of [the] group" and that they are able to " establish real connections" among their fellow members in Connect. The community members who are part of it, Fortune's events provide more than just an opportunity to learn and step away from their work for a couple of days -- they act as a chance to solidify your connection with a group of friends.

Naturally, the creation of an atmosphere of community does not necessarily mean that you must create your own trademarked app. Instead, you can:

• Create a Slack group to connect with people from your sector (like Superpath's group for Content marketers)
• Connect with users of the product in the form of a Facebook or Reddit group (like OpenPhone does with its customers)
• Set up community forums that encourage interactions between members (like Atlassian's community for Atlassian product users)
• Organise invite-only meetings, discussions as well as roundtable discussions (like Superside does for its network of marketing professionals and design professionals)

Position your event as timely, exclusive, and limited

The past was when "Register now" served as a sufficient call-to-action in event marketing -however, today that's not the case anymore.

Due to the abundance of events available today, buyers who are educated are taking decisions about purchases only when they're fully informed and committed to buying. When they register for an event, they're asking themselves:

• Do you think this is worth the money?
• How much time will I require to dedicate?
• Do I intend to lobby on behalf of my employer for them to allow me to attend this training program?
• Is this urgent?

To get potential attendees to say "yes" to the issues, you must position your event as a timely, exclusive, and limited event. You can do this by:

• Restricting the availability of tickets in order to create the illusion of the feeling of
• Having potential attendees be able to sign up on a waitlist or limited-entry giveaway before launching tickets for sale
• Include a timer on your event registration page to let potential guests know that they'll lose their place in line (and the ticket) in the event they fail to complete their purchase quickly
• Offering a limited VIP tier ticket, which gives the opportunity to enjoy exclusive products at the occasion

If you're looking for inspiration Look no further than Web Summit's roundtables, which require attendees to register for a limited number of places that are available according to the "first come, first serve" basis. Web Summit asks participants if they'd like to "make it to the top table during Web Summit" and warn attendees to choose their roundtable selections wisely since they're able to attend a maximum of three.

SparkToro also does an excellent job in fostering FOMO by hosting the SparkTogether Summit. In contrast to other virtual events, SparkTogether sessions aren't recorded to later be shared due to the fact that speeches given by speakers are classified as private outside of the actual event.

  If the attendees do not join the live virtual event, then they'll never know the juicy and unfiltered information revealed by the speakers. Participate or you'll lose it.

Make the value of your celebration crystal clear

"Make your event's purpose clear" could seem like the most obvious advice around however, you'll be shocked at how frequently event marketers will focus on the details of their events when they create marketing materials, rather than highlighting the benefit of the benefits to the attendees.

Another way to get rid of this routine is by ensuring your marketing materials are consistent with the following question: "Who will attendees be when they participate in the event?"

Collision is a four-day conference which covers 20 different technology content tracks. However, on their site, rather than focus on their session subjects the conference focuses on describing the journey of the person you'll become if you attend Collision.

In addition, Collision guarantee attendees to be part of the "people and companies redefining the global tech industry," but they also highlight a string of prominent past attendees and make it evident what you'll receive out of the conference -- namely, networking, education about lead generation and exposure.

Tell the attendees the impact your event can have on your guests. This can be done by:

• In this article, we highlight glowing testimonials from former participants
• Inviting industry influencers to join as speakers, attendees, or media
• Event tickets that are bundled with time-limited deals, such as access to an educational or other resource that will increase the impact for the attendees
• Make sure that your session titles are focused on the things attendees can learn or tangibly learn from your sessions.
• Answer the following question: "Who are you going to be after this event?" Share the hard or soft skills they can expect to strengthen, learn or improve
• In your post-event survey, ask folks what they learned since they participated in your event.

When it comes to social proofing, be sure that you're including reviews from two different types of people: those who have a connection to your market (and have similar job titles, titles and size of companies in common with them) as well as those who are the most aspirational and revered, and influential to the audience. This way, the attendees will consider themselves to be attendees in the eyes of their peers, while also seeing themselves transforming into the influencers that they admire and want to become.

FOMO in events means taking an "you must be there"approach, one that emphasizes the quality of connections which can occur when in community with one another. This is why we teamed up together with The Vendry to create an intimate supper club designed for world-class event organizers across cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Event experience managers, we aren't investing into our own growth. We're serving our attendees and hosting stellar events, but find ourselves craving an environment of people who can validate strategy, measurement, and experience design. We built a safe area where people can have honest, vulnerable conversations with their peers about the future trends of the event industry.

Stoke attendees' competitive spirits

At most events, attendees anticipate to mainly consume of media: they participate in sessions, listen to speakers, and receive baggies of swag. There is networking, yes, and they may ask the speaker a question or two in a scheduled Q&A session. But they generally don't see themselves as contributing participants to an event.

Involving attendees this can boost the excitement of attendees at the event. Making sure that attendees are recognized through awards or recognition from friends can provide a fun and dynamic twist to your event.

What would that look like in practice? Each every year Webflow organizes the Webflow Conf which is where Webflow users get together to discuss new offerings, share their expertise among themselves, and build a network. However, Webflow isn't only sharing updates regarding their latest features. It keep attendees involved and engaged through the Webflow Awards and their annual Speed Build Challenge during the event.

The Speed Build Challenge also builds anticipation for the conference about a month prior to the conference's start and 16 contestants competing in a virtual, qualifying round through YouTube. Four finalist are flown out to the conference for the final event, which is held live.

Also, Webflow highlights attendees' excitement for the challenge prominently in their conference testimonials:

To engage attendees' competitive spirits, get them involved through:

• Hosting a challenge during the occasion
• Inviting attendees to nominate their person in their industry or colleague to receive an award. The award is presented at the conference

Create FOMO in every phase of the lifecycle of marketing

Remember that boosting potential attendees' excitement isn't just an event-specific task that only ends with the event's start. It's a crucial part of the entire process of marketing, and you need to find innovative ways to boost the attendees' excitement prior to the event, throughout, and even following the event, as that will all build the excitement to attend the next next event.

During the event, create FOMO live using:

• Ensuring that they are aware of the benefits that VIP or higher-tier attendees enjoyed, so they'll be tempted to purchase another pass that is even better the next time around.
• Capturing and sharing live footage of the event via social media

Building FOMO for your next event needs to be done immediately following your event wraps. Do not wait until six months after the end of the event to begin the promotion cycle for your next event. Re-engage attendees immediately and stay in the forefront with:

• Offering your attendees an early sign-up for your next event (you might even provide them with the opportunity to receive a special benefit for example, a coaching or matchmaking session in the event that they register in advance)
• In addition, we will be distributing additional resources tools, event information, and highlights post-event
• Teasing out your next gathering's speakers, sessions and other offerings as time goes by

The wrap-up

Are you ready to begin planning your next virtual event with lots of FOMO?  Our virtual event platform lets you easily build customized websites, forms for registration and reminder emails for your event to maximize FOMO and attendee enthusiasm prior to the event.