Under “normal” circumstances, Dell Technologies World must sell itself to attract attendees. Tickets for the event can reach up to $2500 per person, and tools that help with travel accommodations and letters to management are intended to help attendees plan and justify skipping a workweek in the office.
Conversely, digital events don’t require logistics. In this case, there wasn’t even a registration fee. It was easy to show up (and easy to skip – more on that here), therefore it had to be easy to sign up .
The ease of attending is also a huge opportunity: No longer limited by geography or budget, the digital event could attract more attendees and prospects than ever.
That’s what led to a 428% year-over-year increase in registrations originating from email newsletters, despite a 75% reduction in the overall email list.
The most important driver of the registration increase was a reduction in steps for the user. The strategy morphed into a signup initiative powered by email and social media. LinkedIn proved to be a big driver for generating registrations, which was a big change from years past. Overall, LinkedIn saw record levels of engagement in 2020, and the DTW campaign saw an increase in Twitter and Instagram engagements as well.
Overall, registrations from social increased by 151% in the 2021 digital campaign.
“Registrations from social increased substantially, and that had to do with fewer barriers to entry,” said Todd McIlhenny, Business Director at Opus Creative. “More people are willing to register via social, and register from their mobile device. People are seeing a bigger use of LinkedIn, especially now.”
The increased focus on driving registrations through social media also required a different approach in timing. Typically, the high cost and complex logistics for the in-person event required communication with targets for up to six months before the event.
Attending a free digital event isn’t as big of a decision for most attendees, which meant they could afford to delay their decision. Awareness could be created early, but content with the highest engagement came within one month of the event.
“We came to that conclusion a quarter of the way through the process – people didn’t care yet,” Todd said. “We were asking, ‘When are they gonna care?’ That’s why we looked more to social to generate awareness leading up to the event.”
Read more in this Digital Event series: