LinkedIn is rolling out new discovery features for virtual events designed to boost attendance by making them easier to find.
In addition, event organizers will finally be able to capture leads from event sign-ups.
That’s great news for marketers, as virtual events have been wildly successful since being added to LinkedIn this past May.
The company reports over 200,000 events have been hosted so far on LinkedIn, with a total of 10 million attendees.
One of the main reasons companies may have been hesitant to host events on LinkedIn is the inability to capture lead gen data.
Now LinkedIn is removing that barrier, which should make virtual events even more appealing to businesses and marketers.
Here’s more about all the upgrades to virtual events on LinkedIn.
Boost Attendance With New Discovery Features
LinkedIn is introducing new organic discovery features to help boost event attendance.
New features include personalized event recommendations in the “My Network” tab and a new weekly events digest email.
Since testing this feature, LinkedIn says there’s been a 40% increase in event attendees from recommendations found in the “My Network” tab.
Another way LinkedIn is helping to boost event attendance is through notifications.
Now, when a company posts an event on their page, LinkedIn will automatically notify followers who are most likely to attend.
LinkedIn will identify which followers to notify based on various criteria, including their interests.
Collect Leads From Event Sign Ups
LinkedIn is finally giving marketers their most requested feature since virtual events were introduced.
Through the use of a free registration form for events, companies can now collect the names and emails of people who sign up.
Companies will have full access to the data they collect, meaning they can download it and use it how they wish.
LinkedIn gives some examples of what companies can do with the data, such as sending a thank-you email to attendees, uploading the list to a CRM, or sharing it with their sales team.
Companies will also have the ability to easily retarget prior event registrants.
This can be done by creating a custom target audience in Campaign Manager based on those who have RSVPed to an event.
LinkedIn notes that when a registration form is added it creates a “gate” for the event. So only registered attendees can join the event and participate.
Without a registration form attendees are free to drop in and out of an event, and the host will not have access to data on people who attended.
Registration forms are optional, so companies who prefer not to have their attendees fill out a form won’t be forced to do so.
Promote Events With Sponsored Content
Companies can now promote their events by running Sponsored Content Single Image Ads.
LinkedIn says Single Image Ads “can get your event in front of the right professionals and hard-to reach audiences, like executives and decision-markers.”
Companies can promote their event with Single Image Ads by including the event URL as the destination URL.
Then it will be possible to see how the ad performs against a new set of event-specific reporting metrics, like the total number of registrants, as well as views and clicks on the ad that led to an event registration.
