Over the course of the past year, the landscape of high-touch event strategy has changed considerably. During in-person events, customers could receive VIP treatment and have someone guide them through the event, answer their questions, and highlight products, services, networking opportunities, and activities that benefited the participant.
Now, many of your marketing events are done online. From corporate events to conferences to webinars, you feel like you aren't connecting with the customer like you once did. You wonder if there are ways to continue a high-touch event strategy during digital events or ponder if technology has taken the choice away from you.
In a recent Forbes article, the writer touched on the importance of working with a customer directly, "There is no substitute for human connection. There is no app, and certainly no website, that can listen to a person's story and validate their feelings." So, how do you replicate that in the digital world to ensure your events keep participants engaged? Let’s get into it.
Low-Touch vs. High-Touch Events
With a high-touch event, you bring your VIPs together and allow them to network and present them with activities and events that pique their interest. Because of this engagement, high-touch events tend to lead to more sales for your company and one-on-one meetings with customers.
A low-touch event includes occasional engagement opportunities but does not prioritize the customers’ experience as much as a high-touch event strategy. Although these attendees don't have a dedicated point of contact, there should be someone available when they need help. Lead-generating events such as trade shows, conferences, and even webinars are examples of low-touch events due to the pure volume.
Benefits of High-Touch Events
When organizing a high-touch event strategy, it can behoove you to understand the expected benefits, including:
- More engagement opportunities: Anytime your staff can engage directly with a customer, you create a relationship that you can translate into sales. You can also use these engagement opportunities to build excitement about your products or brand and give participants a reason to consider your business.
- Higher quality audience members: When you hold high-touch events, you generally find that the crowd is made up of executives, directors, and line-of-business decision makers. This is your chance to impress the people who make the decisions.
While there is value in low-touch events, a high-touch event helps you build lasting relationships with decision-makers within your customer base. It's your chance to interact with these essential clients and help guide them through the products and services your company has to offer.
How Have High-Touch Corporate Events Changed?
The internet and technology have changed the way the world does business. Your clients don't need to travel across town or across the country to attend your event. They can log on to their computer and attend from their offices or homes. While this does improve accessibility and increase attendance, it also creates challenges for high-touch corporate events.
This new world of digital corporate events leaves your team stretching their creativity to create new opportunities to provide quality interactions during these events. You want your VIP customers to reap the benefits of personal interaction and high-quality events, even in a digital atmosphere.
One of the main benefits of a high-touch corporate event is the chance for your VIP clients to network among themselves. However, when everyone is attending a virtual event, it becomes harder to offer this perk. How do you allow a group of customers to mingle among themselves when these people aren't in one physical location? It's essential that your team create a solution to the networking challenges. You need to craft a way for these VIPs to communicate and interact with each other.
In 2020, COVID-19 changed the way the event industry conducted large corporate events. It didn't take long for companies to begin holding corporate events online. With the pandemic abating, we look forward to the return of in-person corporate events, but understand that the benefits of digital events can't be ignored. Digital events have earned their place at the table, so expect digital events to continue and even run alongside in-person events.
Impact Point Group and Corporate Event Management
At Impact Point Group, we shine when it comes to helping you create a high-touch event strategy. Like the rest of the industry, we've had to adjust and realize new ways to create high-touch events in a virtual setting. We're ready to help you create an online corporate event that allows you to foster the feeling of an in-person high-touch event.
Pre-Event
The secret to hosting an amazing corporate event is planning. This makes pre-event planning essential to its success. During this stage, you need to address attendee engagement and experience. You need to create an itinerary that hosts a variety of activities that engage your customers and prevent them from tuning out early in the process.
To do so, analyze your customer base and decide what makes a corporate event a great experience for them. Roundtables? Engaging keynotes? Hands-on workshops? Once you define what makes a great experience for your customers, you can start planning an event that keeps them engaged online.
To build on the first consideration, you also must understand your presenter strategy. Are you going to have speakers? Who are you going to target? Will it be a live event or prerecorded? You want to select a speaker that drives people to your event and keeps their attention throughout.
Post-Event
After your event, you need to look at the digital data. It's possible that your attendees have shared more data with you on a digital platform than they would in-person.
You need to use this information to identify areas where your attendees really engaged and others that didn't hold their attention. This can help you in the pre-event stage of your next function.
Partner With Impact Point Group
Although the reliance on digital presents a unique challenge for planning high-touch events, it is possible. You need to plan carefully and identify your customer base. At Impact Point Group, we can help you make the most of your event opportunities with our services. Contact us today to learn more about organizing your high-touch event strategy.