The Whys of WiFi – Part 3 – Digital Sponsorships Begin with Great WiFi

May 7, 2018

In the first article of our “The Whys of WiFi” series, we discussed How to Boost Your Event’s Social Media Buzz. Our 2^nd article Event Exhibitors – How to Heat Up Leads shows how to set up your exhibit as a WiFi Hotspot. Our third article is all about setting up lead generation Digital Sponsorship.

Digital Sponsorships begins with Great Event Wifi

Everyone who attends a trade show, conference, or experiential marketing event, is looking for networking opportunities, to gather and share information, to learn, and to grow. And in today’s society we tend to support all of these activities digitally.

This means that whether your venue is inside or out, it’s vital that you provide fast and effective Event Internet for all attendees. Though providing great Internet service to your event attendees can initially feel like a pretty pricy undertaking, there are a lot of ways you can turn your event WiFi into a major asset that can boost your bottom line.

With the average event attendee using multiple devices, as a culture we are clearly hooked on being, and staying, connected. And the reasons we feel such a need to have the Internet always on hand go way beyond the habit of checking email.

All the individual reasons your event goers have for wanting to stay connected means they will be signing onto your system many times throughout your event. This gives you a great opportunity to increase your event ROI with digital sponsorships.

Below you will find three different ways, or points of entry, you can use to give potential digital sponsors the opportunity to have their brand front and center at your event.

The Power of the Splash Page

A splash page (or splash screen) is basically the first page someone sees when they go to sign in to an online system, or to a particular URL. The idea behind a splash page is to use the short bit of entry point time to capture the user’s attention. This is a natural and powerful place for a digital sponsor to convey a branding message or to have a promotion.

It’s easy to match the sponsor’s brand and message to a splash page in a variety of ways because the page can have powerful images, logos, specific colors, catchy phrases, or calls to action. In short, you and your sponsor can make it do whatever you need it to do.

To maximize the effectiveness of a splash page there are some simple tips to keep in mind which you can share with your digital sponsor’s marketing team:

Keep it simple and bold – if you can take in the whole message at a glance, that is ideal
Minimal text – users are not going to spend a long time on this page reading copy
Keep it responsive – remember, people are going to sign on to your event network with a variety of devices, so the splash page should work well for mobile users as well as your tablet users.
Have an “it’s loading” icon of some sort – particularly for splash pages with images that take a few moments to load. In other words, have something on the page that indicates the page is working.

Also, as you’re preparing opportunities to entice potential sponsors, keep in mind that there is more than one type of splash page and this can translate to multiple sponsors. For example:

A click-through splash page

A click-through splash page generally gives the user some information when they first sign on, such as rules of use, and they could continue forward to the sign-in page once they click your continue button.

A sign-on splash page

A sign-on splash page might include the same thing as a click-through splash page but would also include the sections for the user to sign in.

Enhance Event Experience while Boosting Sponsorship with iPads

At today’s events attendees use their phone and other devices to accomplish a huge array of tasks, including electronic note taking. If you’ve ever struggled to jot down a few quick notes on your smart phone you know it’s not the easiest task, as the keyboard and screen are pretty small.

Enter the iPad. iPads are ideal for taking notes, among many other tasks, but the problem, of course, is that not everyone has one or can afford one.

However, you can completely enhance and take the experience of your event attendees to another level by renting iPads which you provide, or rent, to them.

You then have the opportunity to preload all those iPads with various items. You can have the iPads set so that the first page a user sees when they turn them on is the ad from one of your digital sponsors. This page would be what they see before they even go onto your network (and hit those powerful splash pages). It’s the equivalent of the iPad welcome screen. Or, your digital sponsor could have a short video here as well.

But don’t stop with an ad because part of what you’re aiming for is enhancing that event experience. So you can also preload tons of useful information for your attendees on those iPads such as:

the conference schedule
branded content
a map of your venue and exhibitors – and since many iPads have an assisted GPS chip people can use it to navigate where they want
the slides of each upcoming talk
videos
product demos
document libraries
event applications
an online event virtual assistant
live event streaming

Most, or all, of those areas can be blended with additional digital sponsorship.

An additional note on live streaming – if you’re live streaming the event and you also have the streaming available in a main room up on a large 4K Display this provides a truly prime location for digital sponsorship.

So, when you are planning your next event, rather than worrying about the cost of providing great WiFi to all your attendees, consider it an awesome opportunity to draw in a strong selection of digital sponsors – an opportunity you wouldn’t otherwise have.

Need help selecting a venue in Southern California? We can help and we look forward to being part of your team.

eTech Rentals Experts in:

Outdoor Events

Recommended technology includes: iPads, 4K displays, charging stations, phones and WiFi.

Video Conferencing

Recommended technology includes: laptops, 4K displays, phones, printers and copiers

Technology Lounges

Recommended technology includes: charging stations, 4K displays, virtual reality equipment, iPads, WiFi

Entertainment Offices: Writers’ Rooms, Production Accountants

Recommended technology includes: iPads, 4K displays, Apple rentals, printers, copiers, WiFi

Marketing Events

Recommended technology includes: charging stations, phones, virtual reality equipment, 4K displays, WiFi

eTechRentals is elevating technology rentals in Southern California and beyond. Click and Get your eQuote today.

In the first article of our “Why Free WiFi is a Must for Your Next Event” series, we discussed “How to Boost Your Event’s Social Media Buzz.” You can check it out here.

Setting Up Your Exhibit as a Wi-Fi Hotspot

Today, many of us carrying around an ever-growing number of wireless devices for both personal and professional use. And when we attend any event we expect to continue right on using our multiple devices without a hitch.

This means as people flock to an event they anticipate seamless, fast, WiFi service. And as we know, anything less than that leads to disappointment and bad reviews. In fact, according to a white paper published by the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, the most important issues for event attendees include consistent WiFi and phone service.

However, as an exhibitor, just because you realize that any decent tradeshow or event planner needs to provide good WiFi, doesn’t mean they will. So, it can serve you well to cover your bases and plan for your own booth WiFi especially if you’re going to need that connectivity to run various aspects of your booth.

There are numerous ways to set your booth up as a hotspot. You essentially need a compatible device which is then connected to a carrier. If you’re looking for an easy solution take a look at eTechRentals WiFi Services.

But no matter which equipment you choose to set up your booth as a Wi-Fi hotspot, that should not be where you’re planning and lucrative goals stop. And don’t look at the need to invest in your own WiFi as a downside, consider this an awesome opportunity to turn your booth into a hot lead generation machine.

How to use your Booth Hotspot as a Method for Generating Leads

Beyond the actual WiFi equipment you’ll need, it’s important to understand reasons why attendees will need your hotspot so you can utilize their need to stay connected as part of your marketing and booth activities.

Here are some of the top reasons attendees will come to your booth to be able to stay connected online:

keep their business running
use travel apps
check email
promote their own events
stay in touch with their special interest groups
manage employees
use social networks (more than 500 million tweets go out every day!)
use mobile meeting apps
mobile connections – Wifi can be lifeline for international travelers who are dealing with prohibitive roaming fees
networking
plan meetups

Let’s take a simple example of how you can utilize one of these needs to help you generate hot leads. We’ll start with the first item – they need the internet to keep their own businesses running. Your probably know from experience some of the basic tools you might need to keep a business going:

laptop or iPad
printer
fax
scanner
a comfortable place to sit
post-its or little notebooks
pens and pencils

You can provide all of these things at your booth, maximize them to help you generate leads, and then give event-goers free access.

So let’s take another look at the list with the addition of how you can utilize each to improve your brand visibility and generate leads.

laptop or iPad

You can rent iPads or laptops and load them with a splash page advertising your event special, new product or service. They use the device, track down the information they need for their business and take a few notes.

post-its or little notebooks, pens and pencils

While your booth visitor is accessing their business information either via your provided iPad or with their own device, they find themselves needing to jot down a few notes (yes, there are still a lot of people who take notes with real paper). So, they reach for one of your thoughtful, and branded, notepads.

printer

Or perhaps they need more than a few notes, they need to print something out. You have, of course, provided a printer for free use which is cleverly loaded with paper which has a subtle header or footer with your event special or brand tagline.

Then maybe they need to FAX what they have just printed, and voila, your brand is being spread out into the world beyond the event.

A comfortable place to sit

While they are attending to their business needs, they are sitting in your well-thought-out comfortable seating which gives you the opportunity to chat with them while they are waiting for the printer to print, or the FAX to complete.

You get the idea. Go down the list of needs people have to stay connected, and figure out ways you can respond to those needs in ways that tie into your company goals.

Keep in mind that you want them to not only use what you’ve provided, but also to respond to your call-to-action. You can have easily visible signs that tell them to ask you about your such-and-such a special while they’re waiting for the report to print, etc. The possible ways to turn your booth hotspot into a lead generation machine are endless.

And as a last note, don’t forget that all those phones and technology your booth visitors are using need to be charged so you can expand on your hotspot ideas by including a charging station, too.