Posted on October 19, 2020

Yoni Solomon, Director of Product Marketing at G2

How can product marketing techniques help event professionals? Forget the idea that products are objects offered for sale. To correctly apply product marketing strategies to your event, it is essential to understand that the product is nothing more than a set of attributes capable of meeting a need or desire. In other words: your event is a product.

The first step to make a product out of your event is to get advice from who knows about it. For that, we invited Yoni Solomon, Director of Product Marketing at G2, and an award-winning marketer. These questions can act as a real compass when planning your next virtual event.

1. We see that event profs are starving for making their virtual events more profitable. What’s the burning point that might be missing in their go-to-market strategies?

To put it simply: uniqueness and differentiation. Finding that value proposition “hook” and differentiating your product from the rest of the market are some of the hallmarks of great product marketing.

If you want someone to pay for it, you absolutely must make the content and the event worthwhile. The digital events and conferences space has never been more noisy than it is now. Many are free.

So if yours is not, you absolutely must hone in on those unique differentiators for your conference. To me it always comes back to content and subject matter, as people will pay for content they think is highly valuable.

So consider your speakers for instance — are they memorable and uncommon? If so, how can you use the digital event format to get your attendees even closer to them?

So they can ask questions, attend more personal breakout sessions. Profit comes from delivering something to the market that no one else can, it’s time we explored how to do that with digital events.

2. Do you think that virtual events will ever be able to attract and engage with sponsors the same way that in-person events used to do?

Not with the traditional booth/sponsorship areas that once existed. Though I myself have often wondered how effective those really are.

If you really want to make your sponsorship a memorable one — send your best and brightest speakers.

Put in the extra work to create a highly relevant and memorable presentation and truly put thought leaders (and in-turn your brand) front-and-center with attendees.

Great thought leadership is much harder to set up than a booth, but it’ll be worth it for you in the long run.

3. Product marketers have an amazing ability to turn product features into customer benefits. How can the events industry benefit from that in this upcoming phase of hybrid events?

By finding new and unique ways to differentiate hybrid events from one another! We should constantly be asking ourselves “what is going to make this event unique?”

Whether it’s speakers, or breakout presentations, or even the overall theme of the event — there’s still so much room for innovation to make your event different. For instance, G2’s 2020 virtual event was packaged up as “Your Conference,” where we encouraged attendees to help us pick the speakers and decide on the topics!

4. Still about hybrid events, what steps would you recommend for marketing and event profs reading us now to ensure they are prepared for this next big shift?

Strategically, put in the extra work to find uncommon and memorable speakers. From industry to industry, there’s a real issue with “speaker recycling” meaning folks are often listening to the same thought leaders over and over again.

Those unique speakers will in-turn make your event unique, and help break through the noise of familiar faces, names, titles, and companies. Tactically, ensure you invest in the right software for your event concept.

Is it interactive? Are there breakout sessions? Can attendees jump back/forth between them? The right tool will make or break the attendee experience of your live event.

Check out our blog resources and sign up for our newsletter to keep updated on the latest virtual events trends!

• 5 marketing shifts to create disruptive virtual events
• Top three virtual events quick wins we learned in 2020
• Best Email Invites Templates For Virtual Events

You can also check the latest projects Yoni is working on at the moment, visiting his LinkedIn profile.