Setting Goals for Your Virtual Event

One of the most important (and probably least done) steps in planning your virtual event is to make sure that you spend some time at the beginning of the event planning process setting your event goals. The goals that you choose will determine the format and shape of your event. Here are some common event goals (you can choose more than one) and the types of events that will help you reach them:

1. Make Money - This is the goal of many events — the key to reaching lies in both charging for the event (make the price reasonable) and creating opportunities for additional income within the event. For example, a class on creating your first website could include affiliate links to web hosts and graphic designers as well an an opportunity (at a premium) to work with the teleseminar host personally on your website. You can also promote your guests products and/or sell conference sponsorships.

2. To establish you own credibility one of the quickest ways to establish your credibility is to associate yourself with experts in the field. Most experts will agree to be interviewed by you (especially if you offer them a nice affiliate commission) and will share info about the interview with their lists.

3. To build your list Virtual events are a great way to draw traffic to your list and build your mailing list. The interview method is a good way to get your name out there. You can offer a monthly free teleseminar or even a huge megasummit - either way make it enticing enough and people will sign up and get on your list.

4. Just to communicate More and more often, virtual events are replacing live meetings as a way to communicate with far-flung colleagues and get some work done without the pain and suffering of travel. If communication is your goal, make sure that the call logistics are easy for people to handle. Also, let people know what to expect.

When you are setting your goals, make sure to be specific. We want to recruit 15 new affiliates or we need to make $20,000. List out what help you will need and how much it will cost (if your goal is to make money - you actually want your costs to be less than your profits!) Create a project timeline based on meeting these goals. At the end of the conference, spend some time evaluating how you did relative to your goals and then set your goals higher next time.