Tips for Writing Content That Your Event Attendees Will Love

Content writing is a core part of the marketing strategy for most businesses. No wonder: Content of all kinds is what engages the audience, helps them learn about products or services, and promotes those products/services so that the target audience would turn into leads.

When it comes to virtual events, content writing becomes even more functional. But for the audience to get interested in the event and take the desired action, it should provide some added value — the value that visitors can take and use even after a virtual event is over.

A big part of this added value is the informational content you share with visitors at your events.

While most businesses and their marketers focus on the content writing for virtual event promotion, visual materials you’ll share with the audience during the event matter too.

In this article, you’ll find tips on planning and writing informational content for your virtual events so that it brings the maximum value to your attendees.

What content you might need for virtual events:

• Pre-event content (e.g. landing pages for registration, promotional videos to engage the audience, emails, and any other ad materials)
• Informational content to share with attendees during the event (e.g. product brochures, presentation slides, white papers, blog posts for further reading, e-books, etc.)
• Post-event content (e.g. blog posts about your virtual event to drive more traffic, product signups, company newsletters, marketing materials for future events)

And if everything is more or less clear with pre-event and post-event content writing, it is not that fast and straightforward to create and structure informational content for your event attendees. 

There are many factors to consider for this content to engage the audience such as actionable visual material they could use after the event, and serve as a native ad for your product or service, motivating visitors to become your leads.

What to consider before content writing

The prewriting component includes the audience research, the tone of voice choice, and the determination of content formats for your virtual event.

So, first things first:

Who is the target audience of your event?

Make sure to create a persona of your ideal attendee. The more details you know about this person, the better. Do your best to go beyond demographics and dive deeper into the psychology of your audience — it will help you understand their fears, needs, pains, experiences, and cultural backgrounds, and find the right angles to present your informational content.

The only way to target your virtual event content right is to create buyer personas using quantitative and qualitative research. Below is a template you can use (source: Dribble).

Where to take the information about your target attendees? Consider the data from sales reports, track customers in your CRM to better understand the audience segments, and analyze customer survey results. Social listening and customer journey mapping are also great instruments to try.

The audience research will give you a clear understanding of:

• What tone of voice to use during a virtual event to foster loyalty
• What visual materials will keep the audience engaged
• What formats and words to choose for the informational content so that the attendees would find it useful and interesting

A better understanding of what triggers your target audience will help you choose a voice for your content writing that will best suit them.

Slang, formal or informal language, jokes, and even the length of your sentences and paragraphs will change depending on who you expect to read your content.

Now, choose the content formats and outline your future content pieces.

What will you share with attendees? Brochures, presentation slides, blog posts, white papers, case studies — all these are content formats with different structures. Keep in mind the purpose of your content when choosing the best design for it, and then organize it logically into a writing plan.

Tips for writing content for your virtual event

The quality of your content depends on two things: what you have to say and how you say it. For your event attendees to enjoy reading your informational content, please do your best to write it with the following rules in mind:

1. Avoid long or vague intros

Keep the openings short and punchy. Think of a writing hook that will engage readers and motivate them to stay with you to learn more; it can be a relevant question, a joke if appropriate, a compelling fact about the topic of your content, etc.

You need to prove that you have something exciting and valuable to say. In the world of content shock and short attention spans, you have about eight seconds to get people interested in what you write.

2. Be concise and clear

Visitors come to virtual events for added value. They want to learn something, get solutions to their problems, and leave with some actionable content in hand. So, when writing content for your events, make sure to cut out all unnecessary words.

Every sentence should take readers one step closer to your point. Write short paragraphs, alternate between long and short sentences, and balance words for better rhythm and readability.

When presenting new information, consider the words everybody knows. Don’t use terms and definitions that will be difficult for attendees to understand. And don’t write for the sake of a high word count.

3. Convey meanings

Clarity is essential when you plan to educate the virtual event audience with your content. Make sure to answer the “What’s in there for me?” and “Why should I care?” questions in it

Convey meanings through stories. The big chances are that you’ve heard of brand storytelling and how powerful this writing technique is for getting an emotional response from the audience and for influencing their decision-making. 

So, why not tell stories in your content?

The world consists of narratives — they are perfect for illustrating the point, and build stronger interest than those with only bare facts or statistics. Keep in mind your content’s overall structure: Illustrate first and explain afterward.

Break up your writing with visual content (e.g. images, GIFs, infographics, slides, or other relevant options). Try using active verbs and descriptive adjectives, as they will allow the audience to “see and feel” what you want to say.

Even if it’s a video conference in your workplace, make your content visually compelling so the attendees won’t get lost in your text blocks. Use visuals to explain facts and highlight the core information. Visuals are also a great instrument of interaction with your audience during the event.

Copywriting tricks to consider in virtual event content writing

Copywriters use words and meanings to evoke desired emotions and influence the decision-making of their audience. It’s about leveraging the elements of basic human psychology in content. And while these tricks don’t fit every content piece you create, you can practice some when writing for your virtual event.

• Priming: A human brain tends to recognize the information it has recently seen or heard. When starting your content writing with reference to something specific (e.g. trends, hot online discourse, latest news in the niche), you’ll prepare the audience’s minds for receiving your message.
• Reciprocity: Giving your informational content to event attendees for free, you bring the reciprocity effect into action. The more useful the content is, the more likely they’ll want to do something positive for you in return. (To buy from your brand, for example.)
• Social Proof: It’s a phenomenon where people are more likely to believe or love something if they see it’s popular or others love it. Do your best to reinforce your virtual event content with screenshots, customer feedback, statistics, and influencers’ support.

Conclusion

When crafting virtual events, you shouldn’t focus on promotional content only. It’s also essential to deliver what visitors want during the event. For that, do your best to create compelling content — presentations, articles, brochures, and other collateral materials — that delivers your event’s purpose and gives added value to the audience.

When done well, content writing for virtual events does a good deed for both a visitor and a business. The former get valuable knowledge, and the latter — someone engaged with their brand.

Feel free to use the above tips as an assistant in your writing endeavors. Know your target audience, address their needs, choose the best formats for your virtual event content, and make it informative and persuasive enough.

Still in doubt? vFairs will provide you with all the ingredients to host a successful virtual event, including custom content writing for engaging your audience.

About the Author

Lesley Vos is a content contributor from Chicago, writing for publications on business, digital marketing, and self-growth. She writes for the Bid4Papers blog at the moment, and you can always find more works of hers here.