The Role of Certificates in Event Marketing

Organizing events, both online and offline, is a separate and independent marketing channel through which companies can build their brand, generate leads, or even make active sales. What's more, it's a very effective marketing channel.

But you can't talk about events without mentioning the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been changing how the world works and the way we live for over a year now.

We at Certifier, just doing certificates for events, universities, and webinars, see a lot of firms and companies engaged in events and as a separate business and part of their marketing, and we see what dynamic changes are taking place.

The state of event marketing

The pandemic caused by the coronavirus has forced event organizers to make huge changes in the way they operate. But despite the global crisis, events are still happening. Companies organize online webinars, training, conferences, or support cultural events. However, you can't pretend that everything works the same way.

Moving events online, on the one hand, has given organizers many additional opportunities and resulted in a lot of savings. They don't have to spend huge amounts of money on rent collection of event space or accessories, covering the costs of transport and accommodation of speakers.

What's more, they can address their offer to an audience from all over the world. If the event is held in English, it is enough to adjust the time or organize it at different times on different days to fit participants’ time zones and to reach people from the other side of the world.

However, that's not all, we still have to remember the other side of the coin.

Learn more ➡️ How to Create and Send Certificates for Webinar Attendees

Competition in the event industry

The increased availability of online events results in increased competition.

On the one hand, a potential participant is a person from every corner of the world, but on the other hand – the same applies to the competition. Participation in events organized in Silicon Valley now does not require a trip to Los Angeles. It is enough to sit in front of a computer and log in at a given time.

The only inconvenience may be that it's very late for Europeans, but what's not to be done to gain knowledge from the world’s center of technology?

Thus, event organizers compete practically with the whole world. And more and more companies decide to invest in event marketing, increasing the competition at the same time. Why?

Because of COVID and the popularization of online events, more businesses organize them. There's no denying that doing an event online is much easier than doing it offline.

Additionally, people simply like events, they want to participate in them, so this is an additional argument for using event marketing by companies in various industries.

Another and, in fact, probably the simplest argument is that it simply works and brings results. According to Bizzabo, 80.2% of event organizers have been able to reach a wider audience with virtual events.

The same study provides data proving that in 2019, 60% of leadership believed that events are the most critical marketing channel for achieving business goals. What's more, the average ROI for events is 24% - 34%.

However, increasing competition means that event organizers must look for additional ways to attract potential attendees.

How do you make your events stand out?

Event organizers must continually look for ways to improve the satisfaction and experience of event attendees, both offline and online. This is caused by the already increasing competition, as well as the fact that conversion of free events is low.

It's hard to attract attendees, and even if you manage to encourage them to sign up for an event, they don't show up on the day of the actual event.

So event organizers need ways to motivate attendees and ideas to deliver more and more value. Innovative panels and not repeating topics already discussed many times are good ways to stand out.

It is also necessary to maintain a good balance between theory and practice, with emphasis on the latter aspect of events. Participants should actively take part in events, have the opportunity to ask questions, solve problems, or interact with other participants or speakers. 

Another way to differentiate events and add value to them is to offer event attendees certificates to prove their participation in the training, webinar, or conference. This is a simple and effective solution that can bring a lot of benefits to both event organizers and attendees.

Read this article to learn more about issuing certificates online in Certifier

Benefits of using certificates in event marketing

Many companies organizing events forget about this element of event marketing, which can have a really big impact on the perception of the event by the participants, and, thus – on the results of the entire project.

Participants receive a confirmation of their participation in the event and thus proof of their knowledge and willingness to develop and improve their skills. They can use them, e.g., when looking for a new job, during negotiations about a possible promotion or pay rise. They also have the opportunity to share the obtained certificate with their network on social media.

This is where we can move on to the benefits that certificates bring to event organizers. Each certificate that is issued with your company name or logo on it is a potential form of promotion of your brand or the events you organize. How come?

✅ The people who receive the certificates may be willing to share them with others, promoting your company at the same time.

✅ It is a very cheap form of promotion and building relations with participants after the event, much cheaper than, for example, sending thank you text messages.

If you choose the right tool to create certificates, you can do it in just a few minutes in a fully automated way.

✅ Each certificate will be personalized and sent to the event participant by email, also automatically.

If you need support with this, reach out to us. We will help you build the whole process of creating certificates, starting from design through personalization and mailing.