Using Virtual Events For Lead Generation

Since launching in 2021, events have been an integral part of Chezie’s marketing strategy. Being that we were bootstrapped until earlier this year, we needed a cost-effective way to establish ourselves as thought leaders in the ERG space while increasing our brand awareness with our target audience. Events have checked all of these boxes. Over the past few years, our monthly events, ranging from panel discussions to speaker series, culminated in our ERG Summit last October. We've welcomed over 1600 individuals from hundreds of companies to these events, consistently adding them to our email lists and converting many into leads for the top of our sales funnel. With that in mind, here are three tips for effectively leveraging virtual events for lead generation: 1. Know your audience: Generating excitement for an event begins with a deep understanding of our audience. By tapping into insights from our vibrant ERG community on Slack and engaging in ongoing conversations with customers, we thoughtfully curate event topics. This approach guarantees that our events not only resonate but actively engage our audience, leaving them eagerly anticipating the next one. 2. Use your registration form wisely: Harnessing the power of your registration form strategically provides a valuable opportunity for market research and shapes your follow-up outreach strategy. Move beyond the standard inquiries of name, email, and company. Our registration forms serve as a window into understanding attendees' ERG programs, assessing alignment with our ICP, and gauging their interest in exploring our software. It's an approach that deepens our understanding and tailors our interactions with each registrant. 3. Content beyond the event: The event is just the beginning of our content journey. Post-event, we go the extra mile by crafting engaging recap blogs, creating bite-sized 30-second clips, and hosting AMAs with our speakers. Repurposing content isn't just a tactic; it's a way to effortlessly extend your brand's reach across various platforms and channels. This not only maintains a dynamic presence but significantly boosts the chances of connecting with our target audience in diverse and meaningful ways. While events demand careful planning and time, when executed well, they become a powerful tool for increasing brand awareness and building pipeline. I’ve gained a ton of knowledge in event planning over the years, so I'm happy to share more about how founders can execute a successful event marketing strategy. What do you want know? 👀

Here’s how I’d scale a B2B tech company with virtual events: 1. Differentiate the company and make it the go-to for our niche To do: Create virtual events around solving the pain points of prospects by providing the knowledge and tools that they need to succeed in their roles/business, a.k.a, educational events. Types of events: Live podcasts or Q/As, masterclasses, webinars or workshop series, 3-day challenges, a brand summit or conference. Strategy: - Conduct customer interviews to uncover the pain points that directly and indirectly relate to the solution(s) we provide. - Stay in tune with industry trends, regulation changes, and other topics prospects are interested in. - Invite trusted thought leaders as speakers or contract a thought leader (either internal subject matter expert or external) as a regular host. Craft topics that clearly state expected outcomes, and deliver on that promise. Results: Get the brand’s name out there, attract new prospects (whether they are ready to buy or not), get a library of content to repurpose as blog articles, short clips, infographics, templates, etc., to position the company as the go-to for knowledge to succeed in their role/business. 2. Show prospects how the product solves their problems by leading with value To do: Create virtual events around prospects’ pain points that our product directly solves. Types of events: Webinars or workshops, masterclasses, a summit or conference. Strategy: - Invite customers (who are also trusted thought leaders) as speakers. - Partner with another software that solves a different pain point for the same ICP. - Craft topics that clearly state expected outcomes, and deliver on that promise. - Show them a clear roadmap to solve their problems with vs. without our product. Results: Prospects leave with the understanding of how to solve their problems with the product. Generate pipeline and qualified opportunities. 3. Bring customers and SQLs/SQOs together to see the product in action To do: Create events that bring customers and prospects together in the same “virtual” room Types of events: Customer webinars, product demo webinars, a summit or conference. Strategy: - Invite only hot leads - SQLs, SQOs, and free trial users. - Product demos, summit or conference breakout sessions: The speaker/moderator/host should be someone from your team who understands the ins and outs of the product, knows how to run effective demos and answer questions, a.k.a sales. - Customer webinars, summit or conference breakout sessions: The speaker/moderator/host should be a power user who understands the ins and outs of the product, can show how they use the product to solve their problems, and answer questions. - Go straight into product demo and effectively answer questions. Results: Demos booked, free trials, closed-won deals, revenue. The best part is, you can run all these virtual events at a significantly low cost without ads. Thoughts?

16% lower cost per registration. 20% higher click-through rate. 32% higher lead form completion. Same event. The difference was running it as a full-funnel motion instead of a single day event. Most B2B teams still build events around one moment: drive registrations, host the session, move on. The teams getting those numbers run three connected phases, and each one feeds the next 👇 → Before: Video Ads and Thought Leader Ads build curiosity and credibility first, then Event Ads and Sponsored Messaging convert registrations. Virtual events need 2 to 3 weeks of runway. Anything involving travel needs 3 months. Output is a qualified registrant pipeline, not a headcount. → During: Event Ads shift automatically from registration to live viewership. Company-hosted events promoted with Event Ads see 31x more viewers than those without. Live viewers also convert later: companies see a 3.6x lift in InMail acceptance from members who watched their LinkedIn Live. → After: Registrants, attendees and video viewers are the warmest audience you'll target all quarter. Retarget no-shows with the replay, push deeper content to viewers, move everyone into lower-funnel campaigns. Members exposed to the event campaign convert 20 to 32% higher in what comes next. Then measure across the full funnel, not just the middle: → Reach: did you get in front of the right accounts and decision-makers? → Engagement: did they register, attend, and take meaningful action? → Revenue impact: did it open pipeline, accelerate deals, or influence closed revenue? Your CFO wants ROI this quarter. Your buyer is 200+ days into a decision with 6.8 people in the room. Events are one of the few formats that serve both, but only if the campaign runs as a motion instead of a date. ♻️ Save and repost if you found this useful. Stats above are from a Workday case study. #digitalee #risingtide #B2BMarketing #EventMarketing

Getting people to attend your webinar is only 20% of the battle. The real game is what happens after. Here's the hard truth most agencies won't tell you: 73% of marketers say webinars are their best lead gen tool, but most leads never convert to sales. Why? Because everyone focuses on registration numbers instead of conversion strategy. Let me share what works (tested across 100s of campaigns): Real-time engagement is everything. We use strategic polling during webinars, but here's the trick: We don't ask generic questions. Instead, we map our polls to specific buying signals. The data tells exactly who's ready to buy and who needs nurturing. Here's something fascinating we discovered: 1 — Hot leads go cold within 48 hours if you don't have the right follow-up system. But when we implemented instant follow-ups with personalised recordings and resource packages? Conversion rates jumped 40%. 2—Getting sales teams involved during the webinar, not after. They're not presenting behind the scenes, taking notes on specific questions and objections. This lets them personalise their follow-up outreach instead of sending generic "Thanks for attending" emails. Here's our current playbook: → Custom follow-up sequences for different engagement levels → Sales team briefing before AND after each webinar → Targeted content packages based on questions asked → Retargeting campaigns specifically for webinar attendees What is the most interesting observation we’ve had? The leads who don't convert immediately but engage with your follow-up content often become your highest-value customers later. #webinars #leadgeneration #sales #marketing

Too many marketers treat webinars like one-off lead gen plays. Run the event, send the recording, plan the next one. But the teams getting the most out of webinars treat them like content engines, using multiple touchpoints to promote them and creating multiple assets from each one. Here’s how: 🔹 Before: plan & promote. Design the webinar around what you want the final content to generate. Think about how you can pre-plan the moments to clip later. Start outlining that blog recap now. And when it comes to promotion, don't stop at email invitations. Find ways to embed the registration link into existing content channels — a new or popular blog post on an adjacent topic, the bios of all your social channels, etc. (At SparkToro, I can consistently add 100-200 extra registrants by embedding the registration link in a new blog post.) 🔹 During: reward active engagement. Having live attendees is nice; having active chat participants is even better. Invite people to engage directly in the live chat. Ask open-ended but simple questions that are easy for people to respond to. Make sure you're also using that chat in real-time — drop notes, reactions, answer quick questions that don't need to be verbally addressed during the presentation. 🔹 After: remix & reassign. One recap email isn't enough. A single well-run webinar should become multiple LinkedIn posts, a blog post, YouTube clips, and sales talking points — assets that serve social media, content marketing, and sales. Give each content asset a new job. This mindset has mattered a lot for SparkToro Office Hours, which typically gets ~1,200 signups. It’s also very aligned with how Goldcast talks about online events too — not just hosting webinars, but turning video into clips, blogs, social posts, and more. Link below in the comments to learn more. #GoldcastPartner

In October 2021, we generated 250 sales leads in 2 hours without coding, AI, or sales expertise, and we have never looked back. Here's exactly how we’ve used webinars to generate $3M+ in pipeline since launching our company. A week after launching Chezie's ERG platform in August 2021, we hosted a simple webinar that changed everything. The idea came when we noticed most ERG content online was outdated (think black-and-white websites from 2014; it was dark out there). We saw an opportunity. Here’s our process: 1. Find your topic     Look for LinkedIn conversations in your niche. Use tools like Perplexity to research what people are actively searching for.     2. Get the right host     We reached out to my friend Morgan Matthews (she/her), who was working as a DEI Manager at Peloton at the time. Your host should either have a strong following, work at a notable company, or ideally both.      The more notable your speaker, the easier it is to drive signups.      3. Structure your event     We titled ours "From Intent to Impact: How to Get the Most Out of Your ERGs." Morgan gave a 45-minute presentation and left 15 mins for Q&A.      Keep it simple – a fireside chat format lets your host prepare answers in advance.     4. Capture leads strategically     Have attendees share key info during registration (company size, current solutions, etc.). This helps you qualify leads before the event.     5. Execute and follow up       Some tips for a smooth event:       • Host on Zoom (everyone’s familiar with it by now)   • Pay attention to which participants are most engaged   • Share recordings after via email to warm the inbox   • Focus follow-up on qualified leads      Fast-forward to today: We've hosted 60+ events and turned webinars into our #1 go-to-market channel, even as we've expanded to other strategies. If you have questions about the process, qualifying leads, or anything else around webinars as a GTM motion, comment below; I’m happy to help! 👇🏾

I've recently executed a virtual events-based growth strategy from start to finish and learnt a lot. Wisdom summary below. AMA Note: this is about using virtual events to actually generate sales leads and sell something, as opposed to doing it for other reasons. Note 2: if you listened to the latest Champagne Strategy podcast episode on this very topic, none of this will be surprising. Note 3: I actually bother to personally gain hands-on experience on the things I talk about. No second or third hand wisdom posts if you follow me. Macro success drivers: 1 - Quality and large email list and/or active owned media following. If you don't have a huge email list or really engaged follower base you lack essential distribution ability. It also needs to be at critical mass to be a driver of attendees. You're talking in the hundreds. A list of 1000 might drive 20-30% attendance at best. If you dont have an audience you'll need to pay at least $20/attendee within your ICP 2 - The topic is critical. Lean into something that has demand already. Rather than preach your pitch Sysyphus. 3 - Presenter and Company brand Branda have massive gravity here. If your company brand is small, leverage a personal brand to compensate. Micro Success drivers: 4 - Headline People buy into the headline more than anything else you say below it. Spend the most time on this. 5 - How you say it Ensure the vibe is likeable and fun. Otherwise it's just an information lecture. Use basic storytelling tactics (ABT) for flow. How you say it is more important than what you're saying. People might at best, come away with three key points they remember. 6 - Timing Hold it at times that people can spare 40mins away from work. It's not rocket science folks. 7 - Friction If you don't charge money to attend, at least insert some kind of friction. Something free isn't valuable. And why would I attend if I can just watch the recording afterwards? Give me quality reasons. 8 - AI is your competitor What information are you offering that I can't get via a simple ChatGPT query or asking a colleague? Case in point - I queried all the AI platforms about this topic and they gave me sound, but inaccurate information on this topic. Especially if you are seeking commercial outcomes, the advice was almost the opposite of what is true in real life PS. Join me and 100+ others at 3pm AEST today for an event I'm helping host (in under 3 hrs time from this post) PSS. No you can't get a link to the recording if you missed it (unless you ask very nicely 😉) Link to episode in my bio.

High-ticket deals don't close in the DMs. ✅ You need trust ✅ You need authority ✅ You need a platform I've talked about LinkedIn, Content, Outreach, and Email as part of the 5-Channel System. But here's the piece most people ignore: Virtual Events. Virtual Events are about sharing information and trust-building. Here's why they work for high-ticket sales: ★ They Build a Loyal Following When you show up live, you're connecting with your audience in a personal, interactive way. They see you. They hear you. They ask questions. You answer them. This builds more trust in 60 minutes than months of posting. ★ They Create an Active Email List (Engaged Leads) Virtual events are one of the best ways to grow your email list with engaged prospects. They download a PDF. They showed up for an hour of your time. These are warm leads who are actively interested in your expertise. ★ They Close Deals Directly (Vetted Meetings) You can close deals during your event. But more importantly, the event vets your leads. The people who book a meeting after spending an hour with you are high-intent. They already know your value. The meeting isn't about convincing them. It's about figuring out the logistics. ★ They Provide a Wealth of Insights The comments and questions during a live event are a goldmine. They tell you exactly what your audience is struggling with. This feedback is invaluable for refining your offer and creating your next piece of content. Virtual events are where all the elements of the 5-Channel System come together. LinkedIn gets them to the event. The event builds trust and authority. The event grows your email list. The email list nurtures them to the close. It's one of the most powerful platforms for turning cold leads into high-ticket clients. QUESTION: Have you hosted a virtual event? What was your biggest takeaway? Share your experience in the comments! 👇 #omnichannel #salesgrowth #onlineevents

If you're thinking about using events to drive pipeline or build a stronger brand… here’s how to actually make that happen. It starts by shifting your mindset from 𝗼𝗻𝗲-𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 to an 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆. Here’s how it works: 1. 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆: Start by creating low-lift, high-reach events. Think: virtual summits and customer showcases. These help you capture new leads and surface interest. 2. 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲 Now, build deeper relationships with the right people. Use executive dinners, CABs, and user conferences to create meaningful touchpoints and influence pipeline. 3. 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵: Use anchor events to drive category leadership and retention. This includes your flagship events, with wraparound content and follow-up that keeps momentum going. The goal is to create an 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺, not just an event calendar. When done right, events become your highest-converting channel and your best way to build community. If you’re exploring how to build an event-led growth engine, I'd be happy to discuss ideas with you. Just comment or DM me.

We've collected $2 million from virtual events on behalf of our clients this year alone. Here are 4 non-negotiable rules for running profitable webinars: #1 - Don't wait until the end to start selling. We have setters calling leads throughout the entire event. Day one, day two, day three, day four, day five. Not just day five when half the audience has already dropped off. #2 - Create a VIP and General Admission structure. General admission is low-ticket to get people engaged. VIP is premium and gives access to skip-the-line applications and exclusive content. #3 - Have a rigorous application process We can filter thousands of registrants down to qualified prospects who can actually afford what we're selling. #4 - Match sales teams to prospect types. High-intent buyers get our best closers. Lower-intent prospects get education-focused reps. The results speak for themselves. Our last event did $432,000 in one week with a 75% show rate and 37% close rate. We've had multiple six-figure events this year using the same framework. The key is understanding that events exist for conversion (not just education).