Six Things That Prevent Zoom Fatigue

“It’s a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”

Probably the most common complaint we hear around virtual event is “everyone has Zoom fatigue,” which is quickly followed up by “people have short attention spans.”

Neither of these ideas are true.

The great Dan Kennedy, who invariably advocated the use of long copy sales letters, said that “people” have short attention spans because they don’t care much about what they’re looking at. On the other hand, people will watch long videos, real long sales letters, and sit through multi-day conferences if they’re interested in what’s happening.

Here’s Proof: If you were not interested in holding the attention of your audience through a Zoom call, you would have stopped reading by now.

Recently a client compared our “Virtually Impossible” show with a one-hour, content-filled event on the impact of the presidential election on financial markets produced by a famous name brokerage. While the financial event had tried valiantly to bore him to death, he survived long enough to explain six things that he believed our event did better. (Note that none of them involve card tricks, mind reading, or oranges).

Six Ideas that Will Dramatically Improve Your Virtual Event

1) An Impressive Invitation - don't just send a colorful email or a simply blue link. Make it personal, and make the invitation something that builds anticipation. Build intrigue. Make people wonder what will happen. Give it a "can't miss" feel.

2) Punctuality - Let people know when you are going to start, and start at that time. Also, end on time. Have a countdown timer on screen before the event starts, and have a large clock visible for the performers/speakers.

3) Process - The event is supposed to achieve a goal. Let the audience know your goal, and make sure everything you do during the event moves the audience toward that goal. Let everyone involved in your event know your process, and make sure they understand where they fit into the event.

4) Preparation - Rehearse, understand the technology, and have enough experience that you can stay calm when things go wrong (they will). We’ve been doing virtual events for seven months now, and we have a developed a comfortable, repeatable routine because we’ve had dozens of things go wrong along the way.

5) Energy and Flow - Lag time, dead spots, and presentations that drag are death to a virtual event. Keep the energy up. When you write, edit ruthlessly. When you present, do not go off script. Embrace Bob Hope’s “15 Second Rule” - every 15 seconds there must be a joke, an interesting fact, a change in emotion, or an activity that advances the event toward the goal.

6) Feedback - Don't just hope for a good response, and never ask for feedback. Engineer your event so the audience wants to give you feedback after the event. Get rave reviews.

Our ideas aren't a fit for everyone, and not everyone wants our help If you're open to a conversation, I can share some details and examples of these principles at work. DM, email, or call.

Integrating Sponsors into Your Virtual Event

Everybody wants sponsors in their event. Whether you want someone to help pay for the expenses during the event or if you want someone to help raise a lot of money for your cause, sponsorships bring the significant revenue your event needs.

We created a “quick and dirty” example of how to smoothly integrate sponsors into your event. We took the idea from the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, where Jerry used celebrities and corporate donors to support MDA. Jerry would do a quick segment with the the sponsor, tell a few jokes, and accept their donation.

Ultimately, sponsorships are advertising, so the sponsor should talk a little bit about their company while they make a donation to the cause. This format does a great job of integrating the sponsor and their message without making everything look like a slimy sales message.

If your event isn’t a charity or fundraiser event - such as a conference or meeting - we can do something similar with out the “big check” component. I would simply bring on the sponsor’s representative, have a brief exchange about something relevant to their business (maybe something at a virtual trade show booth or a new innovation they’re releasing), do some magic with them, and move on.

Here’s a video that shows how it works and explains three key components to making this work.

Three things are important here:

1. The person on screen is the "face" of the company or the person your clients will interact with next.

2. The person participates in a magic trick, enjoys the show, and supports the cause or event with the rest of the audience.

3. There is a simple call to action: "Talk to Amanda to learn more" or "Thank Amanda for supporting this event" or "See Amanda for their seasonal specials."

Follow these simple steps, and you'll sell the sponsorships you need AND your sponsors will get the results they expect from their investment.

Just released: Mike Duseberg reveals all the “how to” steps to creating events that create sales referrals, and repeat business in his third booklet The Event ROI Revolution: A Planners Guide to Hospitality Events that Create Connections, Build Rapport, and Schedule Sales Appointments. Download your complimentary copy here.