Honestly, before the coronavirus outbreak when was the last time you registered for a webinar or virtual event and actually attended? If you're like me, you register for the webinar to get the recording and flag the email in your inbox with hopes of watching it one day. Two months later, that flagged email is still sitting there unread.

Distributing digital content is the foundation of inbound marketing. From emails to eBooks, to webinars and Facebook Live shows, brands have been trying to pick the right distribution channels for the highest engagement of their content and campaigns to maximize lead generation. When campaigns come back with flat numbers, we hear tales of "exhausted content" or a "fatigued audience" to justify the content's lack of engagement.

During this challenging time, marketing teams across the nation are getting a front seat to learning how to adapt to consumer behavior. One day your webinar had 20 attendees and in March 2020, your registrations have shot up to 700. Being able to adapt to shifts in how your target segments are consuming content is essential to surviving this global pandemic and still having an audience to market to when life goes "back to normal."

Shifting your marketing strategy to take webinars and virtual events seriously is crucial for enabling new ways for lead conversions that you might not have explored before. With your audience being locked in online pretty much all day, embrace these digital strategies for new opportunities to deliver brand messages with virtual events in an engaging way.

Here are some quick tips to jumpstart your virtual strategy:

Stay True to Your Brand

Create events that your audience expects from your brand. What do they care about? What do they want to hear or learn about from you? Do not just host a webinar because your competitor is doing it. Create an experience that will deliver content that your audience will want to engage with.

Deliver Remarkable Content

No one wants to attend a snooze-fest or discuss the obvious. Cultivate unique and resourceful content that your audience will not just find engaging but interact with. Have a Q&A session, conduct open office hours or produce specific solutions to relevant challenges your audience can utilize for immediate impact. Inbound methodology teaches us to always be helpful, insightful and inspiring.

Consistency is Key

Keep your audience coming back with marketing momentum. Following your virtual event, have call to actions for additional engagements from Instagram Live interviews, to Twitter chats, Zoom happy hours and hashtags to showcase their progress on social media. More interactions give you more opportunities to follow up, build your email list and connect with new leads.

Remember, consumer behavior changes often whether it is due to a global pandemic or a new tech device that changes the way we communicate. The goal doesn't change but your plan might have to. Give virtual events a chance for the first time or try it again for a fresh opportunity to drive leads and brand awareness when you have the world's attention - literally, everyone is home.

As a HubSpot Solutions Provider, I develop inbound strategies that ignite your digital marketing efforts to help you attract the right people to drive your business forward. Download this toolkit from HubSpot to learn how to plan a webinar. I am here to help you get started if you need me.