Hosting online conferences can quickly make your online business more visible and help you build an expert status in your topic, strengthen your positioning, and much more. So that you can prepare and start your own online conference as quickly as possible and without too much effort, here are our best tips!

What are online congresses?

Online congresses are on the rise. I'm sure most of you have heard of it or participated in one yourself.

For all those who are not yet able to classify the term: Online congresses are the online version of conventional conferences. Various experts will be invited to these events to give lectures and workshops and answer questions from the congress participants. The whole thing usually takes place in a convention center, meeting room or similar location.

An online congress is basically the same. Here, too, the invited experts will pass on their knowledge to the congress participants.

With one difference: The congress will take place exclusively online! The experts do not give (face-to-face) lectures or workshops, but give video interviews, webinars and chats.

The Benefits of Online Conferencing

There are many reasons in favor of an online congress, as the format has many advantages.

• An online congress is the perfect way to promote your business.
• It is not tied to a specific location, there are no travel costs or rental fees for premises.
• With a conference, you generate numerous new leads.
• Strengthen your expert status and make a name for yourself in your field.
• You're expanding your network.
• Your email list is constantly filling up.
• By selling congress packages and add-on products, you build up a passive income.
• Your online congress is accessible at any time.
• Congress participants set their own pace.
• Your visibility grows and you sharpen your positioning.

Preparing for online congresses

Before starting your online congress, there are a few things that need to be done and considered. In order to plan the conference in the best possible way, it is important to check off the following steps:

• Step 1: Develop a vision
• Step 2: Find a Theme and Create a Customer Avatar
• Step 3: Stay on top of things with the right planning
• Step 4: Identify and contact experts
• Step 5: Set up the technique
• Step 6: Outsource tasks and get support

3 tips for your online congress site

Before you get started, we would like to give you three tips for a successful congress website. The website for your congress is one of the factors that can attract visitors, but also deter them. In addition to the speaking experts, it is the most important point of your congress.

Tip 1: A good homepage / good landing pages

Your homepage is one of the key pages for your congress website. Basically, it acts like a well-designed ticket that you use to market your convention. Your homepage should definitely include the following points:

• Who are you?
• When does the congress take place?
• Why/why is this congress taking place?
• What will this congress change in the lives of the participants?
• How does the whole thing work technically/organizationally?

But the expert landing pages are also an important part. By running targeted ads about individual experts, you can increase the number of participants even more. In these cases, you have direct access to the reach of the corresponding expert.

Also, don't forget to use the thank you pages that the participant will be directed to after purchasing their access! Here you can once again provide the most important information in a bundled form. Then, in your call-to-action, you ask the participant to perform a feature of your choice.

Tip 2: The congress programme

At a congress, you have many speakers who pass on their knowledge in just a few days. The individual participants sign up because of certain experts or specific topics. If they miss it, they'll be disappointed – and chaos can quickly ensue if everyone is looking for something at the same time and the requests end up coming bundled up with you.

To avoid this from the outset, provide your participants with a separate page where you can provide the entire congress schedule in a clear way. On which date and at what time which expert will speak where on which topic. And everyone will find what they are looking for.

Tip 3: FAQ, Contact, Imprint and Privacy Policy

An FAQ page for recurring questions, an easy-to-use contact form, your imprint and a privacy policy are not exciting, but incredibly important pages. Especially if you are bound by German law and collect e-mail addresses, you need to protect yourself legally.

So make sure that you have a legally compliant imprint and privacy policy on your site. With an FAQ page, you avoid having to answer the same questions over and over again. A contact form rounds off the whole thing, because in case of urgent questions or comments, the participants can reach you easily and conveniently.

The Launch

An optimal launch is the best guarantee of success for your online conference. The pre-launch phase is extremely important. If you do everything right here and get as many congress participants as possible excited about your project, then your online congress is guaranteed to be a success!

• Find the right balance between advertising, value, and relationship building
• Transport a lot of added value even before you start
• Build a relationship with your (potential) students
• Use email marketing wisely
• Let others promote your project
• Harness the power of social media
• Thunderclap – don't become more visible in one fell swoop
• Leverage your network
• Pictures new collaborations
• Create a hype
• Refute objections from the outset
• Create a compelling landing page

Marketing

First of all, it is important to present your online congress in the best possible way. To market your congress, you have different options:

• use paid ads (e.g. Facebook ads)
• create product descriptions that sell
• invite publishers to sell the convention for you

Bonus Tip: If you're promoting your congress in short videos, podcast episodes, or FB live videos, pay attention to your gestures, facial expressions, and voice. The voice, in particular, is often underestimated and forgotten. By doing so, you're giving away a lot of potential unnecessarily!

Payment processing

With a reliable tool for payment processing, the delivery of congress content becomes child's play. You don't have to worry about anything, because the transactions are processed automatically. At elopage, you also benefit from the available customer service, fair and transparent conditions, automated emails, recurring payments, member area, all common payment methods, affiliate tool and much more!

You're not on elopage yet? Then sign up now and test us for 14 days for free!