E31 – How to Create and Run Virtual Events with Marisa Cali

E31 – How to Create and Run Virtual Events with Marisa Cali

In this episode of the Pipelineology podcast, Gary is joined by digital marketing expert Marisa Cali from Live On Social Now. They discuss the evolution and importance of virtual events, especially in the post-pandemic era. Marisa shares her journey from traditional digital marketing to becoming a virtual event producer, detailing the significance of audio quality, audience engagement, and pre-event preparations. They explore tools like StreamYard for live streaming and strategies for keeping audiences engaged and leveraging content post-event. Marisa also emphasizes the unique selling points of business owners and offers practical advice for integrating those into virtual presentations.

Discover:

00:00 Introduction to Pipelineology Podcast

00:30 Meet Marisa Cali: Digital Marketing Expert

01:36 The Shift to Virtual Events During the Pandemic

04:36 The Relevance of Virtual Events Post-Pandemic

08:30 Effective Virtual Event Strategies

11:03 Preparing for a Successful Virtual Event

14:40 Essential Equipment for High-Quality Virtual Events

19:08 The Importance of Audio Quality

22:35 Technical Run-Throughs and Troubleshooting

25:26 The Role of a Producer in Virtual Events

29:17 Choosing the Right Platform for Virtual Events

29:35 StreamYard: A Virtual Studio Solution

35:27 Engaging Your Audience During Live Events

41:52 Post-Event Strategies to Maximize Impact

45:02 Finding the Right Producer for Your Event

48:02 Planning and Scheduling Your Virtual Event

49:35 Contact Information and Final Thoughts

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Gary Ruplinger: Welcome to Pipelineology, the Business to Business Podcast for agencies, consultants, coaches, and businesses looking to build a pipeline of hot prospects ready to buy their products and services. Never wonder where your next client is coming from. To learn more about our strategies, services, and for resources on building your sales pipeline, visit Pipelineology.com. Now onto the show.

Hello and welcome everybody to the Pipelineology podcast. Today I am excited to be joined by Marisa Cali. She is from, I hope I’m saying this right, Live On Social Now. And we’re gonna be talking all about virtual events today. So Marisa, welcome to the show. 

[00:00:52] Marisa Cali: Thank you, Gary. I appreciate you having me here and I love to talk about virtual events, so let’s get into it.

[00:01:00] Gary Ruplinger: All right, excellent. So for anybody who’s not familiar with you and kind of the work you do, can you just give us a little bit of background about, about what you do and, and how you got here? 

[00:01:09] Marisa Cali: Sure. Yeah. I, I have been in digital marketing since 2007 when we were building websites and barely have anything to do with, anything social media.

And, so my background’s in that. I’ve known all different types of campaigns for digital marketing, and I was working with a lot of small business, small to medium sized businesses or entrepreneurs. When the pandemic hit, we were working a lot on personal branding and building content in that way, through video, video or podcasting.

And when the pandemic hit, we still needed to do that because, I think we were at a advantage to already be in the tech world, so to say. We already knew how to get online. And so it kind of filtered into building a news program for co-working space. And I was working with, I was their digital marketing coordinator.

So we built a online news show for them to give updates to all the members, what was going on, in terms of things that they were updating in the space for health reasons, all the, the plexiglass updates, stuff like that. And we were showcasing it through video, virtually. So I was in one area of the coworking space that was safe away from the other people in the, in the space.

And that turned into a weekly show that we gave updates, regarding the space, but also we highlighted business owners that were still running their business. during the pandemic, they were mostly digital first businesses, so they weren’t, they weren’t, they weren’t having to close down or anything, but they still needed to let people know that things were running.

So that filtered into, working with StreamYard and building a producers program, the beginnings of a producers program, right before they got acquired. so I built a network of all, producers that were. Learning how to use virtual events. anywhere from a podcast that goes weekly to quarterly micro events that promote their bigger.

Bigger ticket items, whether it’s a book or a conference or, you know, they’re big high ticket sales items. we were utilizing virtual events to promote them. So I’ve built my business, through the pandemic and really have been able to partner with a lot of great, organizations that are really, still being impactful.

Post pandemic. It wasn’t, it wasn’t something that just ended when the pandemic ended. So yeah, I’m, I’m happy to be here and I really get to be, my, my slogan is be present for the conversations that matter. And I’ve really been able to be in the room as a producer with a lot of really, important conversations that I never got access to being in digital marketing world.

So I think that’s one of the main reasons I continue to do it because. I love what I do on the tech side, but I’m also really hearing a lot of stories that, have, have changed me as a person. So that’s good. 

[00:04:36] Gary Ruplinger: Well, excellent. Well, I think that probably kind of leads to that elephant in the room question then for us as we’re recording this, it’s late 2023, getting into the fourth quarter.

so people will be listening to this towards the end of this year or into 2024. And then question is, is this still relevant? In at this time, now that we’re, you know, outside of, you know, the lockdowns and the restrictions and all of that, do virtual events still make sense today? 

[00:05:04] Marisa Cali: Yeah, I think, we, in the world of the producer world, I think we’ve seen a shift in how virtual events are being produced. they’re not just something, okay, let’s do it because we can, because we have all of these event sites where you can put a virtual event, you can put them on your YouTube channel or your social, or you know, your social media, LinkedIn, they’re being reimagined.

Reimagined in a way that events were imagined prior to the pandemic in terms of what is the why and what is the reason. For actually putting this event on, and how does it relate to our bigger picture? And I will say that I’ve been to a lot of virtual events and, sometimes people will treat their virtual event as a, pardon?

There’s a siren coming by, so I don’t know if you can hear that, but, sometimes people will treat, treat their virtual event as something, just to do because they can, instead of thinking about how this can impact the bigger picture, like I said, how does the, how does the, in the audience get involved?

If you want an audience. Involved virtual event and a lot of people will, will forget about that while they’re building their virtual event because they’re basically just hitting record on a on event and not really thinking about. how you can bring the audience or how you can engage the audience.

And, that’s a benefit of working with someone that’s been in, been in virtual events, not just me, but other people that are producing events because I’m sure you’ve been on plenty of virtual events where you’re commenting and you’re trying to engage with the other people there, but there’s just not a lot of interaction or there’s no acknowledgement, and that I think is, is a testament to how they’re producing it or are they thinking about the people that are present for that virtual event? and that, I mean, that, that’s a whole nother conversation if you wanna get into it. But I, you know, if I’m spending my time to show up for a virtual event, you better believe that I want to be acknowledged or somehow get a benefit out of.

Why I’m showing up, like what is the point of me spending 45 minutes to an hour on a virtual event when there’s 500 virtual events happening throughout the day? And I can get distracted with all the different things. Like, what is the point of me showing up if you’re not even gonna engage with me? and that’s one of the big things that I.

Ask people when they’re approaching me about a virtual event. because sometimes they just wanna do a virtual event. because it sounds cool and that’s something that we need to do. But a lot of times we can produce a virtual event without thinking about the audience because it’s more of like a, a virtual commercial or a virtual flyer, so to say, for their end goal of what they’re trying to promote or sell.

So yeah, there’s a lot of different ways of how to approach it, and that all comes in the conversations that we have when we first start talking about virtual events. 

[00:08:30] Gary Ruplinger: So I guess who is a virtual event good for? Do you have some examples maybe that you could kind of share of different ways that they’re being used effectively?

[00:08:40] Marisa Cali: Yeah, so, one example. So I’ve done a series of virtual events for the American Association of Suicidology. And a lot of times, we don’t have as much lead time to promote it because there’s not a huge marketing team that’s involved in, setting it up. So we’re kind of putting things together before it actually goes live.

But when we’re actually putting something together. We’re thinking about how this event will live on their social channels, specifically their YouTube channel later on. It’s an educational focus piece. So there’s elements of a virtual event, meaning, you know, some prerecorded elements, some live elements, a host, you know, interaction q and a, but there’s not a lot of, engagement with.

If 300 people were showing up live to engage, and that’s part of the pre-production plan that we just didn’t have enough lead time to promote it to get people there. But we make sure that it’s a well produced event that can live on their channel and be and serve as an education piece for future. marketing campaigns, whether it’s an email blast series that they’re promoting this virtual event, you know, repurposing clips of this virtual event and the conversations in social channels, Instagram, LinkedIn, all of those things.

And then it also lives on their YouTube channel and it’s a good representation of their brand versus a, you know, not well produced event that just lives on their channel and doesn’t, they can’t reuse it anymore. So it’s kind of a waste of their, their time and their resources and their money if it’s doesn’t represent their brand well.

So that’s just one example of an event that, you know, depending on the timing, we kind of focus where we put our resources in, in the event itself. Or do we have a full year marketing plan that’s revolved around this? Event and how can we repurpose it? 

[00:11:02] Gary Ruplinger: Gotcha. So in an, in an ideal world then, how do you recommend somebody prep for an event?

How much time should go into it? Which channels should they be getting involved? Can you kind of walk us through? That, that getting ready status to, you know, basically make sure that when you’re, you push, when you push the Go live button, that there’s an audience there to, to watch it. 

[00:11:28] Marisa Cali: Yeah. and I think it goes back to, when I first talked to them, I’m saying that a lot of people do not come to me prior to thinking about the full picture. So usually when they come to me, we’re just focusing on that main. The main event, you know, make sure it represents the brand well. But if you’re talking about something that you wanna make sure people show up to live every year, I usually integrate with their full digital, marketing team, whether it’s a marketing manager or there’s social media manager, and there’s correlate coordination between how we promote the event and how much time we need.

A general, you know, for a most basic virtual event, I would say a minimum of a month. but also how are people accessing it? Is it behind a paywall? Is it a free event? Are they getting an incentive for showing up? There’s a lot of different questions that depending on the desired outcome, like we frame the event based on that.

So if there. I’ve had all different types, whether they’re just going to the YouTube channel and they’re working, they’re focusing on their email campaigns to get registrations. That’s their goal, to get registrations, to get the email address because they can follow up, they can do all these things. If you need people to be there, live and engage.

A lot of times I’m not brought in until two or three months before the project is actually recording or, or live. And really my focus is mostly on the event itself. Not necessarily how it will be promoted or how it’ll be used after the fact, but luckily I know that lingo because I’ve been in digital marketing for so long, so I can suggest things I need to make sure visually.

It works for, post-production, meaning there’s a call to action, there’s a visual call to action, there’s a audible call to action. There’s some banners. If we’re doing banners, there’s someone in the chat that’s telling them to go to a specific, or write something, you know, for a call to action.

There’s, there’s many different roles when it comes to a virtual event, and it all relates back to. The reason why they’re doing a virtual event and, what is the end goal? And if it’s only a portion of their whole digital marketing campaign, then I can suggest things. but usually I’m able to hop right into conversation about a virtual event and focus strictly on the well-executed and coordinated event when it comes to virtual.

[00:14:29] Gary Ruplinger: So as somebody’s preparing for it, I think one of the big questions that you know, at least I know I’ve certainly had before doing any types of live streaming or anything like that is. What, what do I need in terms of equipment, right? I’ve got, you know, a cell phone and I can go on Facebook and push a go live button and, okay, cool.

I’m live streaming, but that, you know, doesn’t really have the, the same type of quality and in the kind of things I’m looking for. So when it comes to equipment, could you kind of talk a little bit about, either recommended, you know, hardware, software, tools that people should be using, because I think that this can be, feel pretty overwhelming pretty quickly.

[00:15:14] Marisa Cali: Oh, yes, I, I definitely am on the side of like the lowest common denominator will get you to go live. I do believe in, if you’re it, it really just depends on you. Again, your goal, right? So if you’re looking to start a series and you wanna make sure that it looks good and it sounds good, then definitely focus on your equipment and your setup and your visual presence.

and one of the recommendations, and, and you’ll ask any producer you can. Have an okay picture and maybe not like the best background with like the best camera and great sound. And your, your event is great if you have it the other way around with okay. Sound and you don’t sound clear and you sound muffled.

Most people will, will turn it off. Because they just can’t hear you. They can’t hear what you’re trying to say. They can’t hear the messages you’re trying to get. So sound is my, my most important, thing. And I use, the sure. M seven. right now we’re, we’re not using that because I’m in a remote location, but if you’re recording a solo podcast, I would say Sure M seven because you can put it in the right direction that will make you, sound really clear.

for virtual events, a lot of times the speakers will not consider that. so you have to decide if you want to mail equipment to your speakers or have multiple tech checks to review this stuff with them. And we do that when we have some high level speakers. We do multiple tech checks. We explain the importance of good sound, good lighting, And it could be as simple as like, we’re on video right now, so unless you’re gonna watch this on YouTube, but like, I’m gonna sit like, okay, I have the blur on, but if I took the blur off, you could see the light behind me. This would be really distracting on a virtual event because the light would be shining through and kind of overtaking my picture.

But if I turn towards the light, my face is illuminated. And this is a really basic, I mean. We didn’t have like a full setup here. but I think an a well-lit face, a good sound. And obviously you’re not having your camera, like, I’m gonna move my camera like this. Like, I’ve had people show up to a bed and their angle on their computer is like, you know, you just don’t look professional, so to say.

And you know, that is all in how you prep your. People that, whether it’s yourself or you have guests on, because I think it, it does represent your brand no matter if you’re the host or there’s speakers on, and I have some horror stories, I don’t necessarily need to go into them, but, you know, it’s, it does reflect your business and the message that you’re trying to get across.

If you can’t hear them correctly, you can’t see them, or you know, they’re just not. Not prepped properly, whether it’s a run of show or, you know, they just don’t have the right things. And there’s a lot of different things. And I have a, a checklist on my website that you can run through and might get a little overwhelming because there’s a lot of things to, to think about.

But, It really does come down to how do you want this to represent your business and your brand, and how often are you gonna be doing it? Are you doing it regularly, like weekly or is it something that is an event that happens once every quarter? 

[00:19:08] Gary Ruplinger: You know, the audio thing when, when you mentioned it, it, it kind of took me back to one of my earlier podcast interviews I did, and it was one I was really interested to do and I really liked the topic.

It was on influencer marketing, but by the time I got back to, to getting everything edited, listening to it, doing the interview is like, especially like if you’re used to doing Zoom calls, you can tolerate pretty bad audio and you just kind of get through it. And so it just, it never, I never heard the kind of little bit of echo.

Because he was, he was on AirPods at the time and they’re, they sound good if you’re listening to them, but their microphone on them is terrible. And by the time I got to editing, I was like, oh my gosh, this is, there’s no software in the world that is gonna make this sound good. So even though what the rest of it looked good, it was, it was a really challenging one to kind of produce.

 Simply because the audio quality wasn’t there. So it made it really hard. Yeah, because I, I tried to listen to it in my car, which is, because I thought, yeah, this would be a good thing to kind of review. And I listened. I listened. That was the first time I listened to it out in the wild, not in my studio with my headphones and everything on where I can tweak everything.

Just right now, I just throw it on some car speakers. I was like, oh my goodness. 

[00:20:23] Marisa Cali: Yes. 

[00:20:24] Gary Ruplinger: That wasn’t good. 

[00:20:26] Marisa Cali: No, and, and, and honestly like. I’ve worked with some teams that they just, they don’t think about it. It’s not something that they don’t care about. They just don’t think about it. because they’re not in that mindset of, let’s make sure that the audio sounds good.

And it can be, I mean, AirPods, they’re cool and they’re, they’re, they’re like nice and fun to use. But there’s a, the technology, and you might know this, so I’m just gonna explain it, because the technology between a streaming video and the Bluetooth from your, your computer device to your AirPod, there’s a little bit of delay.

So I don’t know if you’ve ever interviewed someone with AirPods on Zoom might be different, but when you’re streaming. There’s a little bit of a delay, so someone will ask a question, it’ll look normal in the studio, and then it’ll take 10 seconds for that. Audio to actually get from the stream up to the cloud, then back down to the studio, then into the Bluetooth.

And it is very prevalent when you’re live, when they have these pods on because they’re just sitting there waiting for that answer, and it’s because they have pods on. So we always suggest like plugged in, plugged in headphones, or with no headphones at all, and you’re just using your device and you mute yourself when you’re not talking because.

They’re cool. The pods are great, but it’s not for a streaming, output. I mean, it’s not great for streaming output, because you’re also dependent on the network and how strong the network is, which a lot of people are not thinking about when they’re going live, especially with guests. So I’ve had that happen a few times and it’s always like.

Okay, well we’re just gonna have to roll with it. And you know, we have to let them know in the comments like, you know, can you change your headphones? Or right before we’re doing tech checks, our last tech check and you know, it just doesn’t work. And it reflects on everyone. because everyone’s kind of waiting for that person’s sound to catch up to everyone else and it looks awkward, so. 

[00:22:35] Gary Ruplinger: So are you, you a proponent then of kind of either days before or weeks before getting anybody any speaker on and going through and making sure that everything’s gonna sound good, have them be in whatever room they’re gonna be in for lighting purposes, whatever equipment they’re gonna use. Have that so that you can run through it in kind of a, a safe environment and do, do all that troubleshooting before you’re live and it accounts.

[00:23:01] Marisa Cali: Yeah, I think, there’s still an element of nervousness when it comes to live events and a lot of people, whether they’re well-versed in speaking, they, they still get a little bit nervous and I, I get nervous. 10 seconds before an event’s supposed to go live. That means I care about it. I wanna make sure it, it actually goes live and it’s like streaming to the right location.

But we always do tech, like technical run throughs or dry runs depending on the complexity of the event, how many speakers there are. we might do like one-on-ones, you know, just to give them a run through of the run of show and, and how it’s gonna be. And oftentimes I feel that it makes people more comfortable to show up on the day of.

because they’ve already, they know how to get into the studio. And like a lot of people use Zoom, know how to use Zoom. They’ve had their meetings, but like we use virtual studios sometimes, you know. StreamYard or like an event site that has their own live studio. And a lot of people don’t know how to get into those because they never have, or they need a browser update.

And so we always suggest doing that at least a week before, because we can then identify things that might be an issue, on the day of and how we can rectify them visually if we need to let the host know, Hey, this person’s. Might not be in the right location. They’re gonna come in 20 minutes beforehand.

And we’ve had some high level speakers, some, you know, I worked with one celebrity, I, I can’t name them right now, but, they had like their assistant come on like an hour before, test everything. And even when they needed to go live, they were still not in the right location. So it was a little nerve wracking, but that’s why this team had a producer to help with these technical issues that pop up last minute that, you know, no offense, but like the marketing manager just has not had enough testing in that to be able to handle those stressful situations or to troubleshoot.

Some audio issues that might be happening. 

[00:25:26] Gary Ruplinger: So what, what does a producer kind of do? I think you’ve given us kind of some, some insights, but when it comes to having an event and having a producer that’s there kind of, kind of, I assume, to kind of make sure it all runs smoothly. What, what are they doing and kind of how does this help make it easier on, you know, the host and the, the speakers and, and the attendees?

[00:25:46] Marisa Cali: Yeah. So, I don’t know if you’ve ever had, like, think about, I use an example, a very simple, like you book a doctor’s appointment and you have like the front desk handling, like your follow-up appointments. There’s some level of like, oh, okay, there’s someone else handling it. So I need to make sure that like I respond to that person.

So in my experience, I work with some people that run their own show. They can probably hit go live on their own. And what happens is when we utilize the producer and I’m brought in, they take what I’m saying a lot better because I’m saying, okay, you need to move to the center of the screen or like, this is how the run of show goes.

So the respect level is different. but also when it comes to an overall event, A virtual event, in my eyes, is only a part of a full marketing campaign that you might be implementing in your business. It can be the core of it. You can utilize it to repurpose and do blogs and podcasts and social media clips and bunch of other things, right?

Or it can be just one aspect of all the other things that you have in your. In your arsenal of content marketing. So when you work with a producer, you have the mix of a project manager who can manage multiple tasks at the same time, whether they’re tech related or visual related, communication wise.

And then you also have the tech person who understands the tech knows how to use it, but you can also build in some creativity to that because we know how. To get what your end goal is. What is your end goal? Do you want people to show up live? Do you want it to be something that represents your brand?

for a YouTube channel or an email marketing series? All of that, can be implemented, with a producer. And if you think about the traditional TV studios behind the scenes, there’s probably. 10 or 12 people behind the screen or behind the camera. I, I like to compare it to like a TV night, late night TV show.

Most of the, the solo shows that I do, there’s a monologue, there’s some, it, there’s some music, then there’s a guest, but there’s like four or five cameras. There’s someone calling the shots, there’s someone look looking here, and that really is what. I can do as a producer, depending on the complexity of the event and how much we’re integrating into one virtual event or a series of events.

[00:28:40] Gary Ruplinger: when it comes to this, because this as, as I’m listening to this, this sounds like this, is this something you, you do can do with Zoom or, do you guys use special brought, you know, dedicated live streaming software for something like this? 

[00:28:53] Marisa Cali: You, yeah. So Zoom, without, without talking bad about Zoom.

Because I think it’s, it’s definitely, I mean, we’re using Zoom now. Zoom is a meeting software, so. It’s mostly used for us to talk and, you know, record, you know, have some notes and or meet with a bunch of people, get some things down. So I don’t use Zoom for, virtual events, depending on the end goal, right?

Like, are we trying to have everyone on camera? Because that’s a whole different thing, right? Do we want everyone to be involved? there are, I use mostly StreamYard. StreamYard is similar to Zoom, but it’s more of a studio, a virtual studio based in the browser, and you can record and or go live using StreamYard.

There is, if you’re looking at Zoom, you can see like the black box around, right? You can’t customize that when you’re pushing this out online. So I’m sure you’ve seen a bunch of videos online, like a video interview. But they’re not branded, and you can brand them later on. You can do post-production, but StreamYard allows you to do it while you’re recording.

So I think it’s, one benefit for, you know, kind of eliminates the extra step, but it still needs to be prepared, right? You, you can create all this stuff in, in your Canva or your Adobe Express, I’m particularly a fan of Adobe Express, but, you know, create these visuals, hit record, and then you have a fully produced video.

You know, maybe you need to edit some parts out, but you don’t have to then go into, another video program and edit it. That I think is what is the huge benefit of StreamYard because we’re not doing a lot of post-production video editing. 

[00:30:59] Gary Ruplinger: Gotcha. So basically, StreamYard is, is a good tool for a live event.

Because it’s got a lot of those tools baked in that someone would basically, if you think of those, you know, like you said, late night show type of thing where somebody’s kind of sitting there in a room with a bunch of monitors and a bunch of buttons and can put stuff on off and change views and all that kind of thing.

StreamYard is basically, if I’m understanding you right, the virtual version of something like that for a, a, a live event on, online. 

[00:31:32] Marisa Cali: It’s the, it’s the basis of a virtual event studio that I would use. there’s obviously some, event sites that have this already built into them, but they’re not as sturdy as StreamYard.

And, you know, the event sites were like, ooh, people are doing virtual events. Let’s build in some software to do virtual studios. And I’m like, they’re not, they’re not specialized in that. So there’s some things that are missing. you know, and, and to, without getting too technical, like there’s, there’s a green, green room availability with the, virtual studio.

There’s, you can change the views and make them. And not just like two same boxes. The way Zoom is, you can make one bigger and one smaller, and then you can share screen and you can have different, views based on your, your visual branding or your content that you like. And I’ve been able to do a lot of different cool things in StreamYard, which I think is the huge benefit of us utilizing something like that.

But, you know, it can be overwhelming when if you’re a host or you’re a small business and you’re trying to think of how you can utilize a virtual event, you, you tend to forget about how it’s presented online. And that, that’s where I come in. 

[00:33:02] Gary Ruplinger: So the producer is there so that you, as the, the host or person running the event can actually just focus on talking to people and, and engaging and, and that, and somebody else is handling.

Kind of all that behind the scenes stuff. That is a lot to try and juggle when you’re, when, when you’re live and there’s no, let me just push pause for a second here. Or I’m gonna, I need to redo that section, take two. Yeah. Yeah. Live environment dude. It’s kind of, one and done. 

[00:33:30] Marisa Cali: Yeah. And there are recording controls in StreamYard, so you can do like stop and.

Rerecord. there’s the ability for the producer to be off screen and like talk over the way, like a Wizard of Oz would talk over, you know, like, okay, take two. Or like, can you do that over? And we utilize that sometimes when we’re recording prerecorded elements for a live event. So let’s say an event is 45 minutes long, we’re gonna have.

A monologue, then we’re gonna have, okay, like now we’re gonna listen for, to this person, have their story, right? And then we play that video. So you’re managing not only the live aspect, but you’re managing some prerecorded elements that then get brought into the live, aspect. And you can have someone.

Do it all and you know, have your team do it all. But it really just, I think part of it is not knowing all the different features when you go on to utilize StreamYard or any type of virtual studio. it can be overwhelming on the options available. So that’s where we come in. I mean, I’ve been using StreamYard since before the pandemic.

It was like 2000, late 2018, 19 when I started using StreamYard. To record actually a podcast with a friend who was, he wasn’t always in my area, so we, we recorded a podcast and then we brought in business owners from outside of our. Our network, like outside of our local area where we were, to talk to them because that kind of expanded our brand outside of our existing networks that we met at networking events and events around town.

We were able to build relationships virtually in 2018, 19 when we started doing the podcast, so.

[00:35:27] Gary Ruplinger: Curious with the live events, how do you kind of keep an audience engaged when they’re in their own office or in their own rooms? What are some of the strategies that you kind of implement to, you know, keep, keep them there the whole time? I know I’ve been asked that question from clients from their.

You know, live streams is, they’ll look at the numbers and they’ll say, well, peaks here at this, you know, 20 minute mark. And then it just starts to decay. And I, I, you know, they’ll, and I’ll say, I don’t know the answer to that. So I’m, I’m curious that you, as an expert, how do you kind of keep, you know, keep that audience there and retain them, now that you’ve gone through all the work to get them there?

[00:36:10] Marisa Cali: Yeah. yeah, I think it does depend on some, you need a host and or guests that acknowledge that there are guests there, and that is pretty simple in like, you know, looking at the comments and saying, oh, you know, oh, there’s something, they brought this up. And integrating that into the conversation like, we’re recording this now.

But if it was live and there was someone leaving a comment or. I would ask a question that maybe someone would, offer their comment in the chat and acknowledging them because, I mean, I don’t know about you, but like, if I’m commenting like, hey, I’m watching, you know, they say, where are you watching from?

I say, I’m watching from Tennessee. Then I’m gonna. I’m gonna be like, oh wow. Like they paid attention to me. I’m here for a reason. A lot of times people will do a virtual event and not even think about engaging the audience or posing questions that can bring up comments. and that’s built into the run of show.

Like, how are you? It doesn’t even need to be like a vocal question. It could be like a banner or something that like is when you’re promoting it. Like if you show up and you type this, then you’ll be entered to win something or like a free consulting hour. You know, it just depends on the audience, right?

And those are different engagement strategies that are pretty simple. or you can have. I mean a lot of people you watch like a one hour show right on, on tv, right, on streaming, but that’s like maybe 41 minutes of like actual content, right? You’re having commercials and there’s the recap when you come back right there, you know, if it’s reality TV or something like that.

And a lot of times people will think, well, let me put my show or event in that one hour. They don’t have enough content for it. It doesn’t flow. There’s very like short, there’s not enough, short engaging segments. and I think that is one way that people can think about their virtual events, especially if they’re doing it weekly.

It’s really hard to know, like you said, the reasoning why people drop off. but I think a lot of people are stuck in like, I have to have this for an hour because that’s what I’m just conditioned to. But what about if you make it part of your brand and say, Hey, like we’re gonna be online for like 21 minutes.

Let’s see if we can get through this in 21 minutes. And that to me, makes it fun. It makes it engaging. Let’s see if we can get all of this information in 21 minutes. And it kind of makes it challenging for the host, but also it makes the guest, be succinct in their answers and how they can really be impactful with their words in a short amount of time instead of their rambling on.

[00:39:21] Gary Ruplinger: So in summary, I would say is engage with the audience and acknowledge that they’re there. And don’t just treat them as an afterthought, actually, you know? Right. Acknowledge them so that they feel like even, even the ones who aren’t participating, feel like you’re, they’re appreciated and choose is. Condense that information so that it doesn’t drag on and on.

If you’re not sitting on one of those ones that was scheduled for, you know, 30 minutes in an hour, now you’re two minutes and 15 minutes in, and they’re still going on their slides and they say, only 15 more slides left. You know? 

[00:39:57] Marisa Cali: Yeah. And I, I think that goes back to the host, like if it is a host with a guest show, kind of like this, you know, you’re doing your research, you know what questions to ask, but if you’re looking at a bigger virtual event, one example that I, that I really love, I always bring back to it, it was like, there was a DJ and he had marketing background and he was DJing live during an interlude and taking requests from people in the chat.

So we were like requesting like. I don’t even remember the song, but it was like, you know, something like fun and, and he was like, oh, Marissa, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, let’s play this next. And then like within two minutes he played that song. And to me I was like, okay, I’m staying here. Like I’m gonna watch and listen to the other songs.

It was like an interlude point from like the keynote into like the main, you know, the main sessions for the day. And I was just like, I’m gonna sit here and watch this because this is cool. He’s actually engaging with the audience and we’re listening to music at the same time, versus just watching like a slide show that has no engagement, you know?

So I always use that as an example because. It was really fun to be in that room and I didn’t wanna leave. I was like, oh yeah, like this is cool. Like they’re actually engaging and he’s calling people out. I mean, that takes some coordination. You know, I, I definitely, it was a higher, higher ticket. I, I think at the event was free, but like the sponsors were higher ticket.

Right. So like, you’re, you’re paying for more in that sense. but it helped people stay around, that’s for sure. So. That’s really cool. 

[00:41:42] Gary Ruplinger: So then let’s say you’ve, you’ve done the event, you know. People came, people had a good time. But sounds like you’re saying it doesn’t have to end there. There’s more you can do with the event.

[00:41:54] Marisa Cali: Right. 

[00:41:55] Gary Ruplinger: What do you recommend after an event is over? Not. Now what do I do with it? 

[00:42:00] Marisa Cali: Yeah, the first thing would be to, send an email to all those who registered. If you have a registration page, you should have it. You shouldn’t just rely on, watch it live on YouTube because you have no way knowing who, who put that reminder on.

You know, you don’t have any idea. That would be the first thing. Do an email recap. maybe you put the link in the show, for the actual event in there. the, the second thing would be, chop up the good parts of the event and post it on your social and, you know, direct people back to the event.

And the main event would be behind an email. So you would have to be able to still give your email so that way, you know, this is the goal, to get the emails right, get people in your pipeline. even doing an encore presentation of the event, you know, maybe you went live at 11 and 11:00 AM during the day, is not ideal for your audience.

You wanna do like one in the evening or the next day, at a different time. That would be another way, I mean. Majority of the time, I mean, just regular events, like in-person events, you’re always gonna have some attrition. People are always gonna RSVP and not show up. So that will happen on a live event.

So why wouldn’t you re rebroadcast it and say, Hey, you know, come and watch it again. and then write a blog about it. Keep posting about it and keep showing that you are there for your audience and not just one and done. If you’re gonna invest in a producer, it is my suggestion that you utilize the output of that event to actually.

Keep getting your audience knowing about you or keep getting them to that call to action, which is that end goal that you want them to do, whether it’s an email address or they’re signing up for things. there’s a lot of different ways you can do that in terms of content. But if it’s a not well produced event, then people will not look at it.

or there, or the clips aren’t good enough, right? Like how are you gonna chop up a good. A bad event and make it look good and make people wanna watch. You know, so there’s, you know, there’s many different ways and I think that all comes into the planning and the project management side, and how creative can you get with what happens after the event and don’t just be like it’s done.

you know, I think it’s harder with, regular weekly events, but, you can definitely do that more. targeted stuff on quarterly events or stuff like that. 

[00:44:55] Gary Ruplinger: Great. So if I’m, you know, a coach or consultant or a business owner, I’m thinking this sounds like a good idea. I think we should incorporate some of these events in there.

How would I know that, you know, or would, how would I know if a producer is kind of gonna be a good fit for, for this or if I’m gonna need one or, kind of can you walk me through kind of what, who, how, how, you know, when it’s a good fit? 

[00:45:19] Marisa Cali: Yeah, so I really, it comes down to when I start said in the beginning like, what’s the purpose of you wanting to do this?

Are you trying to, you know, generate more engagement on your social profiles or are you trying to get more calls through your, to your coaching program? I mean, I usually. In our first like, discovery call, I’ll, I’ll define if they have a, an audience, because that really defines where we’re gonna actually make.

the where we’re gonna actually put the, the show on or the event. if they don’t have an audience and they’re building an audience that defines how frequent we’re gonna do something. If it’s building an audience, then let’s talk about how we’re gonna educate your audience on who you are and how do you utilize that going forward.

So there’s different types of. Directions, and those are usually questions that I ask in the discovery call because I don’t want to just take your money and just be like, okay, like I’m just gonna produce this for you, and then that’s done. You know, I definitely wanna make sure it’s impactful for you, but there’s a lot of different factors.

If you don’t know what’s going on with your business or what your end goal is, then we can be creative and we can start doing things that might work for you. Just because other people have been doing them. But we, I always like to evaluate, at least after six months of doing a, if you’re doing a regular show, how we can make it more impactful.

Are we actually having you, is there a call to action? if a virtual event is more. something that you don’t do very often, then we really kind of frame it around all of those things like, why are we doing it? Who, who is our audience? What is the end goal in terms of our, what would be our evaluation?

You know, email signups or coaching calls or products that we’re selling. I mean, there’s live selling shows that happen at QVC. Think about QVC In an online world that’s. Not going away. I mean, QVC didn’t die during the pandemic. I mean, it’s there, you know, there’s people doing live selling. So it’s really those questions that are asked in our discovery call and whether or not a producer would be good.

And sometimes people are really well versed in what they need. They just need someone to make sure that those, those t’s are crossed and there’s their i’s are dotted. And that’s what I provide. I provide training to their team, so they can. Take it and run. 

[00:48:02] Gary Ruplinger: And how far in advance should somebody be talking to say somebody like you before the event?

Because in my mind I’m like, you know, I’m thinking, oh yeah. You know, yeah. A week before let’s just, we should probably get. You know, ask that person, you know, if there’s anything they can do, I’m, I’m guessing it’s probably more than a week. 

[00:48:21] Marisa Cali: Yeah. it just, it, it really does come down to how often you’re gonna do it.

If you’re starting a show, then okay, let’s do it next week, right? Because we can do a few things and make sure we have your run of show. a lot of times production schedules are two or three months out for me. That’s how it is. And that’s just because events, you know, things come up. I would say at, at minimum a month, good lead time in order to promote it, depending on if you need people there live six to seven months.

because you’re really building the framework in the beginning, getting, you know, speakers, doing test runs, you know, building all the creatives, getting sponsorship videos. I mean, there’s so many different elements and then you’re promoting it. In the final, you know, two months. So it really just depends on the complexity of the event and what you have already implemented.

and as you can see, there’s a right wide range of types of vir, virtual events and, knowledge levels that some of the people that I’ve worked with are. 

[00:49:35] Gary Ruplinger: Well, if somebody is considering this, what is the best way for them to get in touch with you and have that discovery call question your, your, you know, opportunity?

[00:49:43] Marisa Cali: Yeah, well you can go to my website, LiveOnSocialNow.com. You can click the contact us. If you wanna give StreamYard your, your own try, there’s a link there. You can try it for free. If you really wanna have a conversation with me, I challenge you to call me and I’ll give you my phone number because I love phone calls (615) 212-8993 and you can get that on my website, it’s on the top. Or we can chat on LinkedIn if you, LinkedIn is probably my preferred social media platform, so I like chatting on there. 

[00:50:24] Gary Ruplinger: Live on social now.com. Preferably just give you a call at (615) 212-8993. 

[00:50:31] Marisa Cali: Yes, that’s correct.

[00:50:32] Gary Ruplinger: Or look you up on LinkedIn. 

[00:50:34] Marisa Cali: Yeah. 

[00:50:35] Gary Ruplinger: Right. Well, thank you so much Marisa. I think, I think we learned a lot here.

I really appreciate you kinda sharing your knowledge in terms of, you know, what goes into these and kind of what, what having a producer can do for you on these, on these events. Any parting wisdom before we go? 

[00:50:51] Marisa Cali: You are unique if you are a business owner. You are unique and you have your own way of selling and connecting with people.

So try to think about those things when you’re developing a concept for a show or an event and how you can implement that into a virtual sense. Because I think a lot of people get stuck on the selling part of it, and they don’t realize that this is just a virtual way of presenting yourself. So it can be.

You know, I’ve had, I’ve on one of my podcasts, video podcasts, we have a be present nugget of wisdom, which is just business advice that we bring in. And a lot of people love it because it kind of brings everything together. when, when you’re selling yourself and you’re not really just pushing the salesy part, you’re just pushing your ideals.

And I think that really helps when it comes to virtual events. 

[00:51:46] Gary Ruplinger: Perfect. Well, thank you so much, Marisa. 

[00:51:49] Marisa Cali: Thank you. 

[00:51:51] Gary Ruplinger: Thanks for listening to the Pipelineology podcast. We hope you enjoyed today’s episode and look forward to seeing you on the next one. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider giving us a review on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.