When you look for sponsors for your virtual event, you need to think from your potential sponsor’s perspective. What is in it for them? What are you offering to them that your competitors are not? How does your event align with their goals?

Your sponsors are investing their money in your event and hence, they need to be assured that your event actually helps them move forward towards their goals.

What you offer your sponsors in a virtual event is not entirely different from what you would offer them in a physical event. Only the medium changes, and a little knowledge of how to transition your physical event offerings to a virtual platform’s offerings can help you keep the same ideas intact with different packaging.

Here are some ideas you can use to incorporate sponsorship content in your virtual event:

1. Optimize your Virtual Environment

Virtual event platforms allow you to use different content formats, breakout rooms etc. which you can use to showcase your sponsors’ content. Platforms like Nunify offer sponsored spaces and dynamic content formats like GIFs, carousel ads etc. which can help gain traction for your sponsors. Designated sponsor spaces will allow your sponsors to reach out to their target audience, by ensuring that attendees can interact with their content and information.

2. Exhibitor Booths

Nunify offers you a handy feature of an exhibitor booth, which is a dedicated area for your sponsor at your virtual event. Just like a physical event, dedicating an area especially for your sponsor for them to showcase their brands and services can help tremendously in generating capital for your event. It also has features like video calls with attendees, chatbots etc. that gives your sponsor a state-of-the-art experience at your event, which in turn, works as a benefit for you and your event.

3. Incorporate Sponsor Ads During Transition/Breaks

You can use the buffer time in-between two sessions or parts of your event, to include sponsor ads. Not only will this sponsored content have the undivided attention of attendees, but will give you enough time for a seamless transition within your event schedule. Using the Simulive feature, you can inject pre-recorded, HD+ quality videos and display video ads for your sponsors.

4. Leverage Social Media

Make use of social media to showcase and promote your event’s sponsors as you would wish for them to promote and boost the reach of your own event. Feature them regularly on your posts and include a strong call-to-action, both for your event and your sponsors’ brands. A great way to engage your attendees beforehand is to host contests or giveaways, along with your sponsor, to generate buzz and excitement prior to the event, and to attract a larger audience through such contests.

5. Sponsors’ Logo on Registration Page

Familiarize your audience with the sponsors from the onset of your virtual event, by including their logo on your event home page and other areas of the event landing page like the event registration page or the live streaming sessions. This will help direct traffic for your sponsors’ brand effectively. 

6. Email Marketing

Once you have curated a list of prospective attendees and people who are interested in your event’s offering, you can allow your sponsors to send mailers to the same email addresses as well. This will ensure that the communication from your sponsors’ end to your audience is effective and direct, and it is another valuable offering that you are providing them with, in exchange of funds for your virtual event.

7. Layer your Session with Sponsor Content

You can choose to step up from the good old ads to in-break sessions. Layer your own content with sponsors’ content through engaging and entertaining sessions like contests, health sessions, cooking sessions etc., depending on the theme of your event or the field of your sponsors’ services. This will give a fresh breather to your audience and ensure that they stay hooked onto your event.

8. Shower Attendees with Merchandise

If you want to effectively engage your audience beforehand, you can even step out of your virtual realm to offer your audience actual, physical offerings through giveaways, sending event merchandise or having your sponsor send their products to a few lucky attendees would create a positive buzz around the event and the sponsors. 

9. Using Analytics

Virtual platforms like Nunify offer rich, real-time analytics that provide information about the number of attendees, audience engagement, link clicks, engagement in exhibitor booths, and lots more, to show your sponsors quantifiable impact during the event, and help them target the right audience post-event, for lasting networks and engagement.

Your event goals and sponsors’ expectations might differ when it comes to making the transition from physical to virtual, but you can leverage effective tools offered by contemporary virtual platforms, to your advantage.

Moreover, you have an added advantage when it comes to networking with remote attendees and sponsors. So, you can use the opportunity to network and connect with remote sponsors and offer them a rich digital environment to promote themselves.