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Event Marketing Solutions: Tips for Creating Landing Pages During Covid-19

Author: Bethany Vernon. 19th May 2020.

Due to Covid-19, all of us are spending more time than ever on internet-connected devices. Of course this includes your target audience – whether it’s potential exhibitors, visitors or delegates. By offering a clear message and an easy experience when users visit your website, you’ll get the best chance of connecting with them. Here we have some detailed tips, tricks and guidance for creating informative and useful landing pages in response to Covid-19. 

When designing landing pages in the current climate, it is important to remember your website visitors haven’t been living under a rock for the last couple of months. It may be tempting to eliminate any mention of Covid-19, keeping your website as an oasis. But users are hyper-aware of the impact of Covid-19 to every aspect of their lives, and when they land on your site will expect to be kept informed of how changes to your event will affect them. Even if your event isn’t for several months, users are still searching for your event now, and innovative event marketing solutions are needed.

What Makes a Good Landing Page?

As always, key information should be above the fold, including a CTA button with the action you want your website visitors to take. For postponed or cancelled events, on your homepage the text above the fold should include a statement or link to a statement about how Coronavirus is affecting your event. 

Promote a clear, honest and empathetic message: your audience won’t expect a cold and emotionless statement. Avoid being too salesy, or make users click through multiple pages to find the information they want, as your audience will not appreciate this. Above all, make sure the information you include is relevant. Can you still register to exhibit? Are tickets still valid for the postponed event? How will you keep your attendees safe? Use your landing page, the earliest opportunity, to answer these questions: your users will thank you.

optimised landing page example

The CTA you use may also need to be modified. If it’s too early to start promoting the postponed event, capture your audience in other ways. Encourage them to submit their email to get notified when registrations are open.

Virtually Perfect Landing Pages

The same principles apply if you have pivoted to virtual events. Your homepage might include a statement detailing this shift from in-person to virtual, and your CTA might shift to promoting online sign-ups.

TIP: Make sure you have the best solution enabled to host your virtual event. You can see more recommendations for virtual event marketing strategies here.

Make the Most of Your Audience

Users might be coming to your site to find out when the event is postponed to. But if they can leave your site having visited multiple pages, filled out a form or downloaded some content, learnt more about, they’ll come away with a much clearer picture of your event.

Choosing the Right Landing Page

If your landing page is normally a page with specific benefits of attending, you may want to instead take users to the homepage, if there is where your Covid-19 statement is. Alternatively, add the statement or a modified version of it to every page of your website.

You may also consider moving away from promoting benefits of attending the event, especially if it’s postponed for a significant amount of time, or cancelled for 2020. Instead focus on content – videos, blog posts, whitepapers and more. You can also take the opportunity to promote these specifically with content campaigns. Content also offers a  great incentive for lead generation. It’s a win win: your user can download and keep an interesting piece of content, and in return they provide you with their contact information.

TIP: Performance metrics which might indicate a poorly performing landing page are a high bounce rate, and low average time on site.

Keep the Message Clear

Landing pages should be consistent with your ad messaging – if your ad copy says the date of the event is in June, but your landing page shows the new date, this may confuse the user. Likewise if your ad says registrations are open, but your landing page makes it clear they are not, your user may believe the content is not relevant for them.

The same applies if you’ve shifted your focus to promoting content. Your ads from several months ago about booking a ticket will not longer cut it. As well as updating your ad copy, make sure the landing page is where they can download your chosen content. 

Final Thoughts

While creating the best ads possible will get valuable to traffic to your site, the landing pages you use will have an equally big impact on their behaviour. In this challenging time, users want clear information, with no hidden agenda or sales pitch. But when they visit your website they want more than ever, we believe, to engage, to learn, and to plan ahead. 

Though we’re physically more distant, we believe this isn’t the time for event marketers to take a step away from their audiences.

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