Virtual events account for a lot of the marketing activity we see across the globe today. And the results have far exceeded expectations. The only problem? There are so many digital events that it’s hard to compete for the time and attention of busy audiences.
But that’s not the case for Emarsys, an omnichannel customer engagement platform helping e-commerce sites accelerate business outcomes. Through its sophisticated use of virtual events, powered the ON24 platform, Emarsys broke through the digital noise and:
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- Attracted more than 3,000 unique registrants
- Drove more than 9,000 attendees to event sessions
- Extended content reach to more 30 countries
And it did it all through a single event built in less than 12 weeks.
So, how did it create such an effective virtual event experience? Let’s take a look at how it used its annual event, Retail Revival, to scale its thought leadership and reach global audiences.
Emarsys Scales Reach, Extends Awareness
For Emarsys, Retail Revival has one major goal: to connect customers, partners and the wider e-commerce business community with knowledgeable speakers and representatives from the world’s biggest retail brands.
To scale its reach across the globe and make these connections as seamless as possible, Emarsys made expert use of ON24 Webcast Elite and ON24 Engagement Hub.
Driving An Engaging Experience with Webcast Elite
You can see the engagement opportunities Emarsys etched into Retail Revival in the screenshot above.
The bottom icon row, for example, includes more than a dozen opportunities to interact. Aside from the basics engagement tools like Media Player and Slides, Emarsys also included CTAs to sign up for a three-minute demo, register for additional sessions and chat with a representative.
Emarsys also makes expert use of the webinar console itself, empowering attendees to participate in the event’s Slack community and sign up for the company’s three-minute demo.
With Webcast Elite’s capabilities, Emarsys provided its virtual event attendees with a unified, cohesive and polished experience that encourages attendees to engage.
Throughout each session, the company:
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- Took full advantage of Elite’s branding capabilities across all tracks and sessions
- Leveraged CTA tools, making it easy for attendees to “book a meeting” and more
- Made it easy to register for upcoming sessions directly from within each webinar
- Integrated sales into the experience through live chat
- Encouraged attendees to attend a three-minute demo through a single click
Put together, this branded webinar console helps Emarsys to provide attendees with as many touch points as possible without overwhelming.
Pro tip: it’s a lot easier to lock down an ideal speaker lineup when you’re not asking anyone to get on a plane. Plus, the ability to pre-record presentations goes a long way for speakers who aren’t up for delivering a live session.
Creating A Comprehensive Retail Resource with Engagement Hub
That’s because once an attendee registers through Engagement Hub, they can simply click into the sessions they wish to attend without filling out tedious forms. Registrants just choose, click and attend.
Here are a few other ways Emarsys made great use of Engagement Hub:
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- Each track in Retail Revival shared the same design, making it easy to identify a category at a glance
- Emarsys embedded Retail Revival’s agenda, main stage and FAQs in Engagement Hub’s banner, making it easy for attendees to find the information they want
- With Engagement Hub’s search feature, attendees could easily filter to a specific presentation or asset
- For big-name sessions, like main stage presentations and demos, Emarsys embedded eye-catching GIFs in Engagement Hub’s featured snippets
How can an organization build a fantastic on-demand experience? Learn how Qlik uses the ON24 platform to create a cohesive content journey. [Watch Now.]
Drive Engagement Long After the Event
Retail Revival’s webinars and sessions are one thing to consider. But another major factor in Retail Revival’s success is how Emarsys easily made the conference available on-demand through Engagement Hub.
Because Webcast Elite and Engagement Hub work seamlessly together, Emarsys took its more than 50 digital breakout, keynotes and speaker sessions and made them available for anyone to watch at any time.
With an on-demand presence, Emarsys easily extended the life and use of its content. It also:
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- Offered an opportunity to subscribe to Retail Revival updates with one click, making it easy to stay up to date with Emarsys’ content
- Provided attendees with advanced filters, allowing registrants to browse by topic, theme and language
- Gave on-demand visitors with the same level of engagement as live attendees
By incorporating this level of flexibility and customization, Emarsys yielded more than 1,000 content downloads in three days and generated more than 9,000 session registrations, significantly extending the reach of content — from just one event.
Lead Generation Gets a Global Reach
As a final point, the beauty of Emarsys’ virtual event lay in its ability to drive engagement among global attendees.
That’s because with Engagement Hub’s filtering capabilities, the company could easily organize sessions — whether localized via captions or recorded in a native tongue — by language, timezone and date.
The result? Emarsys made it possible to extend the life and reach of Retail Revival while gaining deep insights into the unique needs and interests of each and every attendee.
Retail Revival’s Big Data Bow
Finally, Emarsys tied its Retail Revival event together with ON24 Connect. Connect empowers organizations to seamlessly send data from their virtual events and Engagement Hubs to critical operations platforms like Marketo and Salesforce.
Doing so made it possible for the team to track not only the topic, language and location of the sessions attended but also to build a buyer intent model.
With this model in hand, Emarsys could design and deliver a personalized follow-up message that matched each attendee’s interest — at scale — and triggered by real-time updates.
Key Takeaways From Emarsys’ Big Event
With virtual events, we can reach bigger audiences and get better data than ever. We can maximize the impact of our event content by making them available as on-demand and simulive experiences. And every experience can be customized based on the unique interests of attendees.
Emarsys showed us this is possible with:
- A unified, cohesive virtual conference experience, facilitated by ON24’s virtual conference capability
- Engaging, action-filled sessions that keeps attendees coming back from more
- Easy-to-navigate and easy-to-use resource hub with ON24 Engagement Hub
- An on-demand experience that connects with audiences anywhere in the world at any time
With these unique virtual event capabilities, Emarsys was able to build its ideal speaker lineup and attract audiences from around the world and in multiple time zones.
The company also generated not just more leads, but better leads. It also used the first-party data generated from session views, Q&As, polls and content downloads to turn those leads into actual pipeline.
Thanks to a robust virtual event strategy and the ON24 platform, Emarsys won’t lose mindshare to the competition anytime soon. In fact, it’s safe to say their brand has reached a whole new level of awareness and reach, breaking down the barriers of time, distance and industry.