How to Price a Virtual Event
As we transition to business models with a higher level of online engagement, Dr. Michael Tatonetti is here to help us figure out what to charge attendees and sponsors for our virtual events. A Certified Association Executive and Certified Pricing Professional, Dr. Michael is well-placed to advise us on how to make our virtual events meaningful, sustainable and profitable!
Key takeouts
If people always get your virtual summit for free, they’re unlikely to start paying for it. What you name your event is an important way to distinguish what should be free, and what requires a registration fee. You might have a free virtual summit, and a paid virtual conference.
Different formats and content also helps to distinguish events. Free webinars might include an interesting speaker, while a paid webinar might include extra value, like professional recognition, educational resources for download, opportunities for follow up consultations or discounts.
Audit your existing events and determine which should or can be free, and which ones are providing value that can attract a price.
Dr. Michael Tatonetti says there are 5 steps to determining the price of a virtual event:
Define the value you give - to your sponsors and attendees - in both qualitative and quantitative measures. (Sponsors will require more quantitative value)
Define more value - do some market research with your members (surveys, focus groups, one-on-one conversations) and sponsors (one-on-one conversations) to test the value you have defined.
Write the value proposition - From the value you’ve defined, consider the value proposition. Answer the question, “why should I attend?” For example, “every presentation will be available on demand, meaning you get access to 150% more content than at our in-person event.”
Define value for sponsors - consider how sponsors can engage with your attendees through downloads, opt-ins, online demos, videos. How can you measure engagement? Be open to sponsor ideas, this is new territory and there are lots of ways to create value.
Communicate and sell - lead with the value propositions, they become your key messages. Consider new ways to communicate the value, for example having the speakers record short pitches (50 seconds) about their presentation with a call to action to register.
Circle back to your sponsors a couple of times as you determine what you can offer in leads and metrics (and at what price you’ve determined) to ensure you’re leaving nothing on the table. Remember, most virtual events are attracting more registrations, and virtual tools provide much more accurate engagement information, so in some cases you can charge sponsors more than for your in-person events.
Just because it’s virtual, doesn’t mean it’s easy. Make sure you have the team and capability to manage the event, to deliver what your attendees and sponsors have signed up for.
Now is the time to experiment! Fail early, fail forward. Remember we’re all in the same position and we all need to extend grace to those working hard to pivot.
