If you have only recently started holding virtual events, having perhaps been initially introduced to them as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, you could understandably be a little naive about certain dos and don’ts of running events of this type successfully.
While many principles of delivering in-person events could be transferred to the online sphere somewhat seamlessly, gathering feedback about an online event from attendees both before and during it can give you a better idea of what to do next time.
Ask audiences during the event how things are going
Of course, you could opt to simply prerecord your event and then wait until after people have seen it before you start soliciting their thoughts.
This would be an option with a webcast, for example. As TechFunnel explains, a webcast constitutes “an entirely one-way presentation from presenter to attendees.”
However, with a webinar, which will be highly interactive by nature, you could throw in the occasional “How are you finding things?” in order to get feedback in an informal way.
Use an online events platform built to gather feedback
If you are still unsure whether to make your next online event a webcast or a webinar, you could start getting to grips now with a platform that would let you keep your options open.
For example, while ON24’s Webcast Elite is — as the name suggests — a webcast platform, it can also be used for holding webinars.
Whether it is ultimately a webcast or a webinar you deliver by using this software, its patented back-end analytics will collect useful information about audience interest and buying readiness.
You can then be fed these insights in a way that would enable you to easily use them in shaping your next online event.
Hand out a survey to attendees of the event after it has taken place
This particular tip probably makes you immediately picture pieces of paper being left on attendees’ chairs, as could easily happen in the case of an in-person event.
When it comes to an online event, however, you would obviously present a survey in a different way, such as by emailing each attendee their own digital copy of that survey.
According to one statistic shared by HubSpot, 90% of virtual event organisers carry out attendee satisfaction surveys. Furthermore, 80% have reported using attendee engagement and satisfaction as KPIs for measuring event success.
Nonetheless, to make sure you get the kind of feedback that would be especially useful to you, it is important to ask the right survey questions. These should comprise various types of questions — including yes-or-no, rating-based and open-ended questions.
The survey should start by asking attendees how satisfied they were overall with the event. You could also ask for ratings of specific things pertaining to the event — such as its date as well as the venues, speakers and vendors used for the occasion.
One good example of an open-ended question to include in the survey would be: “What aspects of the event could we improve on for our next one?”
