Top 9 reasons why online events fail

Online events never go the way you plan, your event may have been going fine but one problem may lead to another, leading to a disastrous result. There are several different types of online events; webinars, virtual exhibitions, and hybrid events, which are significantly different from each other. However, whenever they fail it usually boils down to a few common issues.

Here are the top 9 reasons why online events fail:

1. Lack of experience

Virtual events are still a relatively new phenomenon, only gaining prominence after the start of the pandemic. Because of this, some marketers can’t effectively draw on their prior years of experience in creating events to inform them on what to do. As a result, some of them take a very traditional approach, treating online events as merely a live-streamed version of their in-person event.

2. Lack of Interactivity

Because you’re staring at a screen most of the time when you attend an online event, it’s easy to feel a sense of isolation. The speaker may continue to talk for hours on end while the audience simply sits at home and listens to them talk. Nowadays, with people attending so many online events you need to get them more involved to stand out. EventX provides ways of doing this by giving their customers the option to do Q&As, polls, and 1-on-1 breakout rooms for audience members to interact with each other, discuss different topics and make the event feel more vibrant.

3. Poor budgeting

Some marketers may think that when doing a budget for an online event, they simply use their own budget templates and take off the venue and catering costs while adding on the software cost. However, budgeting for an online event isn’t simply about the cost of using a software platform, you also need to factor in tech support, branding, marketing, and various other costs to help create a better experience for attendees. By doing extra research and looking at the past experiences of other events, marketers will be able to learn what to include in their budget and how much money they should allocate for each item.

4. Lack of audience

Online events require significantly more marketing and advertising compared to in-person events to draw in attendees. This means that marketers should have a clear promotion strategy decided on in advance. They must also clearly define their market segment and demographic and target their advertising towards them rather than posting sponsored ads on various platforms who may not be your target audience. Not only would this be a waste of money and time, it also won’t help increase your audience numbers. EventX provides its customers with the ability to create email templates and send them out automatically, informing all participants of the event about the latest updates immediately.

5. Complicated user interface

Online events are all about the audience members, getting them to join is already no mean feat but getting them to stay is the final goal. Because of this, you don’t want them to have to go through several log-in screens, it should only be a simple click for them to join. You can also remind attendees on how to join on the day of the event in your pre-event emails, making the log-in experience on the day of the event easy and smooth.

6. Poor quality

Having poor sound and video quality is another major reason why online events fail. Being forced to sit through latency issues, buffering issues and low-quality videos means that attendees will have a hard time seeing the speaker, let alone connect with what they’re saying. Poor sound, either because you have a low-quality microphone or the sound insulation hasn’t been done correctly, will also lead to attendees tuning out of your event early. You must remember to do a trial run, with both video and audio to see how everything looks and sounds so you don’t get caught out on the day of the event. Because of this, you need a reliable platform, EventX provides an immersive experience for attendees with its 1080p video quality and the ability to record your webinars to share them to people who couldn’t attend.

7. Lack of content

You should first do research on whether the topic you want to talk about has enough interest around it to support hosting an online event. You should keep in mind that people join your online events to learn about something new or to learn more about a topic they’re interested in. If your content turns out to be either too simplistic or not interesting enough, audience members will leave immediately, leading to your event hemorrhaging attendees. You should create content that entices the attendee to check out your company and its offerings rather than oversimplify your content in fear of giving away too much.

8. Lack of networking opportunities

One of the biggest reasons why people attend events is because of the networking opportunities. With the sudden change to online events, many have found it hard to adapt to such an environment. The lack of 1-on-1 interactions has meant that it is quite hard for attendees to connect with each other through screens as it’s quite intimidating to make the first move. EventX provides its customers with the ability to interact with the audience and have the audience interact with each other, creating organic conversations and helping attendees break the ice and network with each other.

9. No follow-up

Following up on your attendees is the most crucial part when it comes to online events. Not only can you gain valuable feedback from them, but you can also see if you managed to generate a lead. EventX provides automated emails to thank attendees after an event ends and creates event conversion funnel reports so that you can see the impact your event has had. EventX also provides recordings of events so that customers can catch up on previous events, clips of previous events are also a good way of promoting future events on social media, giving people a taste of what your events are all about.

Conclusion

By learning about the main reasons why an online event fails, you can adapt and improve your own events so that you don’t repeat their mistakes. Improving on all 9 of these issues will still not guarantee and event’s success. However, by choosing EventX you’re guaranteed a stable platform on which you can build your event so contact us today to arrange your next online event!