Combining the good features of both online and in-person events, hybrid events are the future of event planning. With new research showing that 63% of companies now have hybrid events in their portfolio, hybrid events are becoming more popular. Event planners therefore need to look for new ways to become profitable. In this article, we explain some ways you can make money on hybrid events. We also provide some extra tips to help you maximize available revenue streams.
Ticket sales are one of the most common ways that event organizers can make money. Hybrid events offer this opportunity, as organizers can leverage the physical and online attendances to generate revenues. To reach a wide audience when offering tickets, show some flexibility. You can offer various kinds of tickets that differ in benefits. This boosts your reach and the range of your potential audience.
Ticketing is an effective way of generating revenue from your events. However, you must ensure that your event delivers on the value it promises.
Partnering with sponsors is another common stream of revenue for event organizers. Most sponsors are businesses or corporations that have a product to sell, and who need the visibility afforded by your event. Hybrid events present multiple opportunities for sponsorship. For example, you might make provision for sponsors to promote a discounted product to the virtual delegates. Additionally, the same sponsor might sponsor a goody bag at the physical event.
When discussing sponsorships, emphasize the benefits of a promotion at your event. This helps you to negotiate better offers. As with tickets, the more valuable your event is to sponsors, the better the value they can offer in support.
If you have a good idea of what your audience wants, you can find extra ways of generating revenue during the event. You can charge extra for exclusive breakout sessions, specialist masterclasses, and consultancy sessions. You can also charge for exclusive VIP-only activities, which offer high value in return for money.
A relatively common idea is to offer a VIP-exclusive experience, complete with a waiting room and complimentary drinks. Generally, you can consider any extra content that would add value beyond the event’s primary theme.
As an event planner, you do not need to restrict yourself to the days of the event alone. A great advantage of hybrid events is that you can monetize them even after the event has ended. You can record the entire event or individual sessions and offer them online behind a paywall. Also, you may rebrand or re-title some of the high-profile sessions and upload them on your website.
You can also carry out a bit of publicity on the content, such as creating a pop-up menu on your website that directs visitors to the content. This ensures that people who were unable to attend live can access the events’ content, for a fee. This way, you can make money from your event long after it has ended.
You can partner up with a company to be an affiliate marketer for their product. As an affiliate partner, you can feature their products, software, or offers during your event. For each purchase made using your affiliate link, you get a commission.
In this section, we’d like to show you some tips to help you maximize revenue from hybrid events. They include:
One of the most important steps to making money on hybrid events is deciding how you’re going to price tickets, content, and sponsorships. To figure these out, you’d need to figure out your financial goals for the event. Do you need to turn a profit? Or do you simply want to break even? If so, how much do you need to make to break even?
If you need to make more money, you can then begin to brainstorm ideas on how to generate more revenue. Understanding how much you need to make and how much you are likely to make is key to making good financial decisions.
If you’re planning to make enough money on your events, you would need a large audience. To maximize your audience, you’d need to drum up momentum early on. A great way to build this momentum is by launching a publicity campaign to reach your potential audience. Share highlights and clips from the previous edition, or create a hashtag if your audience is active on social media.
For maximum impact, start the publicity campaign at least three weeks before the event. With enough publicity, you are more likely to have a large attendance, which is crucial for maximizing financial gains.
Whether you’re trying to get potential attendees to buy your tickets, or you’re trying to attract sponsors, you’ll need to show that your event offers value. Attendees are offering their time and money, and so are sponsors. So, when pitching to attendees or sponsors, show them how the content would be useful to their careers, businesses, relationships, et cetera. When they understand what your event offers, they’d be more likely to buy tickets or sponsor your content.
Good content speaks for itself and builds credibility. With good content, your attendees are more likely to refer your event to their peers, increasing your audience. Ensure that only experienced, high-value persons speak at your event, as their presentations are crucial parts of the event.
Also, focus on creating high-quality content, such as infographics, blog posts, videos, et cetera. Work with your team to understand your attendees' pain points and design solutions that address them. Valuable content is memorable, and is a great way to boost organic growth.
At Performedia, we are committed to helping you make the most revenue at your hybrid event. Here are a few of our offers that will help you maximize your revenue:
Momentum is essential for getting a large audience to turn up at your events, which would help you maximize your revenue. Performedia gathers high-quality event promotion videos to build momentum for your event.
We capture keynote interviews and videos, write the script, and edit the content into engaging videos. This helps build the anticipation that would drive attendees to your event.
At Performedia, we understand the concern of sponsors with how much they stand to generate while sponsoring an event. We help event planners with this by helping sponsors determine how many clicks they received, how many visited, and for how long participants visited their site.
One of the most important components of events for attendees is networking. Performedia makes it easier for attendees to connect and interact with one other. Our virtual chat rooms allow multiple attendees to be on one call and share ideas and information. This way, your audience becomes more comfortable, thus more likely to buy content and other packages at your event.
