Virtual events offer an opportunity for companies to share their messaging and educate prospective and existing customers. They also provide an opportunity for the audience to offer their own insights on your product. Here are a few proven ways to invite customers to provide feedback in the form of reviews as part of your virtual events strategy.

Ask for reviews in your event emails

With the proliferation of virtual events, email is more important than ever. Since your event emails are already scheduled to go out, repurpose them with CTAs to write a review. Adding in a text call-to-action or even an image with a clickable CTA can get your ask right in front of your target audience—the people who are most engaged with your brand.

In an effort to further support your feedback-gathering efforts, TrustRadius can also send a dedicated email campaign on your behalf to event registrants or clients. On average, 5-15% of email recipients write publishable reviews that pass our rigorous content quality standards. Vendors who run review-generation campaigns on their own may see a lower response rate. Either way, this is an easy way to increase your flow of reviews by tying these asks into your virtual event strategy.

Drive reviews within your event platform

During virtual sessions and keynote presentations, you can enable in-platform or in-app notifications that invite attendees to write a review. You can also work with presenters to include a slide about writing a review at the beginning or end of the presentation. What better time to engage a user to write a review than while they are in-session? 

Many event platforms also have virtual booths and other places where you can drive participants to submit reviews. Make sure to leverage these to your advantage.

TrustRadius also offers a Pendo recipe integration that allows you to easily include a “Write a Review” pop-up from directly within your event platform. You can access the Pendo recipe integration details from within the TrustRadius vendor portal.

Host a review contest

At many events, there’s often a program or contest where attendees have to complete certain tasks to get swag or be entered to win a prize. Just because an event is digital doesn’t mean you can’t keep that tactic going. 

Including a contest or promotion with your digital event will help further engage attendees. Writing a review is an easy yet valuable task for customers to complete. As for prizes, we’ve found that gift cards are an easy contest incentive to deliver digitally. TrustRadius also offers an Influtive integration that can be used for event gamification.

Utilize event swag 

One way to engage registrants is to go old school and send their swag through the mail. Since they can’t be at the event, getting an event-related package will help create some good will, positive brand reinforcement, and keep your product top-of-mind. Adding in a postcard with information about writing a review is also a great way to gather feedback from clients you’re missing at an event. 

Here’s a sample postcard: 

Don’t forget digital ads

For large user conferences, digital ads are already a part of the marketing mix. Targeted ads asking attendees to write a review can help create another touchpoint for your brand that won’t feel repetitive. Think of it like a kiosk, banner, or poster at an in-person event. Asking for feedback has a feel-good factor that doesn’t feel as much like advertising.

Enable your field team

Your field teams are already working virtually with customers and prospects on a daily basis, so it’s a great opportunity for your ground team to get creative with an extra personal outreach to their accounts. Providing your field team with the right messages and CTAs about writing reviews is a great way for them to show their partnership to customers. We even have this blog set up as slides for you to share with your field and event teams:

Software to succeed with virtual events

Here are a few thoughts on software options that can help level up your digital event strategy:

• Video conferencing tools: With the rapid move to all things virtual, finding the right video conferencing/meeting tool is paramount. Don’t settle. Read what real users have to say and find the tool that’s best for your needs.
• Collaboration tools: While there are myriad collaboration tools that help remote teams and digital events thrive, some of our favorites are Miro, Mural, and FigJam. These digital whiteboard tools allow for real-time creative brainstorming and are great for breakout sessions.
• Event management platforms: Engaging clients in the presentation platform or your video stream will be vital for digital event success. With TrustRadius and Pendo, it’s easy to add pop-ups and CTAs to the digital event experience.
• Direct mail automation: To make virtual events more hands-on, check out vendors who can deliver branded items directly to your digital event attendees.
• Customer advocacy: Make it easy to gamify driving reviews with tools like Influitive and the TrustRadius integration.