You’re planning a conference. The budget is quickly being blown out of the water with venue fees, speaker fees, marketing & promotions, etc. Where can you cut costs? What is not a necessity? If you think “video”, you are sorely mistaken.
In fact, video is one of your most important assets. Your conference can be compared to an amazing wedding. You can spend a ton on decorations, food, favors, flowers, entertainment, etc. However, if you do not have great quality photos or videos- who’ll remember the expensive details?
Below are four reasons why video is a must for every conference, especially if it occurs on an annual basis.
- Your video will be your #1 marketing tool for the next year’s event. Stream the video on your site, include links in emails, on social media profiles, etc. If the quality is really good, you can use your footage for a television commercial the following year.
- Video will help you get to the top of Google. If you upload your video to YouTube and other similar sites, optimizing their titles, descriptions and keyword fields for keywords, you will increase your chances of appearing on the first two pages of Google for your keywords. According to Forrester, videos are 50x more likely to rank high on Google than a textual page for any given keyword.
- Video can help you save money in other areas. High-quality video (not Flip) are gold to speakers! Depending on the speaker and the amount of video they already have, you may be able to shave off part of a speaker’s fee in return for offering them a copy of the video.
- Video can make you money. Selling video is the number one post-event revenue generator for events. Sell the video to attendees at a deep discount, if they pre-purchase prior to or the day of the event. You can also sell video as downloads or disks to people who were not able to make it. Add a copy of the notes from the presenters, and you have a cool product!
Please note, it is not enough to record video. You should invest in a really good videographer who delivers crisp video. If your video looks like a 1982 home movie, it will not make your conference look worth the investment.