Engaging and Interactive Virtual Events - with Dana Freker Doody, VP, Marketing and Communications, JUNO

The difficulties of organizing on-site physical events, especially during the pandemic, have led to more organizations doing virtual events. Even though this might seem to have addressed the concern of accessibility in the time of social distancing, organizing virtual events still has its challenges. 

In our episode today, we sit down with Dana Freker Doody, VP, Marketing and Communications at JUNO. She shares with us her learnings and insights on creating and organizing engaging virtual events.

"Creating the sessions that enable more people to talk and share is great. Again, there's technology limitations in certain platforms that allow for that or disallow for that. The connection piece is really the big one. 

We've used social media to begin and advance relationships for years. So using the virtual event, thinking about it in that term of what relationships can you be beginning? And what relationships can you be advancing with this virtual event? And what kind of content will actually help you achieve that? Think about the best conversations that you've had at a physical event, or even at a party with your friends or after your church service, right? They're not groups of twenty people that gather to talk. The best conversations are when there's three, four, five, maybe pushing into six and seven. So keeping those round tables small. The other thing that we find helpful is to give specific talking points. 

Have that available and have a moderator, or at least someone who's seeded with what the next question should be so that they can get the conversation going.”

- Dana Freker Doody, VP, Marketing and Communications, JUNO

//

To listen to more The Life-Long Customer podcast episodes, follow us on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/thelifelongcustomerpodcast/

Follow the host Brad Hammond https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-hammond

#thelifelongcustomerpodcast #customerjourney #marketingleadership #b2bmarketing

Transcript

Introduction: 0:04
From Revenue Rhino, I'm Brad Hammond, and this is The Lifelong Customer Podcast. We're interviewing successful sales and marketing leaders in discussing ways in which they're building lifelong relationships with their customer.

Brad Hammond: 0:20
Welcome to The LifeLong Customer Podcast. I'm your host, Brad Hammond.

Ice Artificio: 0:23
And I'm your co-host, Ice Artificio.

Brad Hammond: 0:26
Today we have Dana Freker Doody from JUNO. Dana, really nice to have you.

Dana Freker Doody: 0:32
Hi, Brad. Hi, Ice. 

Ice Artificio: 0:33
Hi, super excited to have you on, Dana. Thank you for your time today. And before anything else, I would love to introduce you to the audience. Could you tell us more about your marketing journey, how you got here?

Dana Freker Doody: 0:45
Sure. I ended up at JUNO just six months ago. It is a very hot market. We are a virtual event and 365-day community engagement software platform. And how I landed at JUNO is I had a 20-year career at a company called The Expo Group that produced big, massive trade shows and events. So I was working in marketing and communications, a lot of PR, a lot of content marketing at The Expo Group. I had quite a journey there as the company grew and as I grew, right? 

And really started looking at how technology can support events and trade shows and just got a little bit more passionate as it became clear during the COVID times that this was really going to be an accelerant for organizations using technology in gatherings to gather people, to bring people together for connection for education, for commerce, for all of it. So sort of looking at where would be a good fit. I always like working for entrepreneurs. And so that's where I landed. JUNO is less than a year old.

Ice Artificio: 1:57
Wow.

Dana Freker Doody: 1:58
So it's a technology startup company. And we're raring to go.

Ice Artificio: 2:02
That sounds exciting. So you guys are in the live events industry. So how does the marketing look like over there? 

Dana Freker Doody: 2:10
So it's been interesting, just in these last six months, because four live events in hospitality, one of our biggest markets in the market that I've always really concentrated on is associations, member organizations. And those sales cycles are long. It's a group of buyers. It's not just, you know, one buyer making one choice. It's groups of buyers coming together to make the decisions, because it's such a big one for the organization. And it's very relationship-based. 

And some of it is a stigma. But there's just enough truth to keep the myth perpetuated that associations are slow to change, and enjoy the status quo. That's certainly not true of all of them. But because of that, those sales cycles were long, we were talking to customers for a very long time, Enter event technology, where SaaS companies are doing this whole flywheel thing and running through and you do the demo, and you do the trial. And here we go. And two months, three months later, you're on the platform, and you're rocking and rolling, and you're paying every month or whatever it may be. 

So marrying those two kind of marketing philosophies. Honestly, this two kind of buying persona things in this time of COVID has been very interesting for me. I've loved the challenges. I've come at everything with a, hey, I've never done it that way before, but it's worked for other technology companies. Let's dig into the data. Let's try it, see how it works. And oh, you know what, our customers aren't kind of ready for that. Right? They don't want to go that fast, or customers have to go through these extra steps. So we do need to build the relationship and make sure that they understand that we have their back. And other marketers may be experiencing that and other fields too, is this real marriage of relationship marketing and technology.

Brad Hammond: 4:00
Very cool. So let's dive into today's theme, which is interacting with your guests and with your audience at an event. So now that a lot of events have become virtual, that obviously makes that interaction look very different. Let's dive into how other marketers out there can really create a great event experience now that it's virtual when it comes to interaction and building those relationships with others.

Dana Freker Doody: 4:28
Yeah, it's really- with the virtual events, Brad, I think that the digital marketing team within organizations is more important than ever before. And they have to be very closely aligned with what the event marketers may be doing. Because I think in a lot of organizations, those decisions are still sitting with maybe event team as some of these events went to virtual. I think that those digital marketers, though, really understand what kind of content works online. Because really, if you have a "booth" at a virtual event, you have a web page, right?

Now you have sometimes if it's in the right program, JUNO, you have a highly interactive web page, right, where you can be scheduling meetings with people, you can be sharing out your content, you can post up videos. But I think maximizing the knowledge within the team of what is working digitally for your company enables the person in charge of that virtual event presence to make the right decisions about who is appearing there. What is appearing there, and how to follow up afterward. And what we're really seeing as important is the pre-show marketing.

So, you know, if you're at a tradeshow, let's say, and you're walking down the aisle and something catches your eye, you may approach that booth. But in the virtual space, there's less of that walking down the aisle stuff. People aren't used to just clicking around to find things online. Right? So it's almost antithetical to what our web behavior is.

The other thing is to really push your thought leaders. So the best packages that we see clients create for their exhibitors and their sponsors, when they're putting on the annual conference is ones that include thought leadership sessions, or even moderation of roundtables. So if I'm a marketer for a company, and I need to be at a certain show because we're always there, and our buyers are there, and we're used to interacting with those people in a physical trade show or event, in that virtual event, it's even more important that I work with the organizer. I'm not just buying stuff off the shelf. If you can work with the association that's organizing it, or whichever media company is putting it on, negotiate with them to get those roundtable discussions.

We've seen some organizers try and lock down the number of emails or messages you can send out of a virtual event platform. We advise against that. But just know that those things may be negotiable for your company. If you're a company putting on these things, getting those tangible pieces, right? Have you done a virtual event, Brad, where they send you the little box ahead of time, or they send you the coupon to get a free lunch, right? Those are nice touches that give that tangibility, which is something that we always were preaching in event marketing, right? You got to hit those five senses.

So in the virtual event marketing on these platforms, one, you're using your thought leadership. You're pulling in your digital marketing team because they know what's going to work online. And you're trying to incorporate as many of the physical touches that you can, which may be follow ups afterwards. It may be telephone calls. At this point, we're ready for, you know, maybe a salesperson to go and meet with people online. So it's kind of a crazy time. But I think that those are three things that people can use to help advance their virtual event success.

Brad Hammond: 8:17
I love that. I feel like this might be the same answer, but just stick to Iterative for the audience. I feel like so many virtual events nowadays maybe are taken less seriously than if you take that time to actually go out somewhere and spend time somewhere and interact with others. And there's like virtual event fatigue, of differentiation of your event. What are some things that marketers can do to really make their event stand out, make the experience engaging? It's not one where they're kind of have it pulled up and halfheartedly watch in different keynotes and all that.

Dana Freker Doody: 8:53
Right, because you see this thing where, you know, that webinar could have been an email, just like before, when we're saying that meeting could have been an email, oh, yeah, that entire online event could have been an email. We are seeing roundtables work really well, where more people get to talk. So it's really the connection piece because people don't necessarily want to come to a webinar or virtual event and just be talked at. They want to be part of the solutions for other people and have their voice heard. 

So creating the sessions that enable more people to talk and share is great. Again, there's technology limitations in certain platforms that allow for that or disallow for that. The connection piece is really the big one. And sometimes you hear a lot of pushback, Brad, of oh, I'm not going to, you know, connect with people online, or I don't trust people. Some of my best friends, I originally became aware that they were even walking the planet Earth because they were on Twitter. And so that is a medium in which I'm comfortable. And I use Twitter and all of a sudden, we had this little community on Twitter and all of a sudden, hey, we were in the same city at the same time, or we were at an event together.

And so we've used social media to begin and advance relationships for years. So using the virtual event, thinking about it in that term of what relationships can you be beginning? And what relationships can you be advancing with this virtual event? And what kind of content will actually help you achieve that? It's probably not going to be your VP of Product just standing up there and listing out all of the updates that just came out in 2.4 or whatever. 

Brad Hammond: 10:41
Yeah, I completely agree. I think those types of events maybe could just be a video too that you watch. If there's no interaction there. When it comes to that interaction in creating these roundtables and creating this medium for people to build those relationships and connect with others. What does that look like tangibly? How exactly would a roundtable that's well done, what- both from the company perspective and the guests' perspective? 

Dana Freker Doody: 11:08
So is faces, right? So there's no camera of opportunity platforms where they do enable faces to come on. But also think about the best conversations that you've had at a physical event, or even at a party with your friends or after your church service, right? They're not groups of 20 people that gather to talk. The best conversations or when there's three, four, or five, maybe pushing into six and seven. So keeping those roundtables small. The other thing that we find helpful is to give specific talking points. Look, I'm holding up my hands here, like people can actually see my list of talking points. But have that available and have a moderator, or at least someone who's kind of seated with what the next question should be, so that they can get the conversation going.

Brad Hammond: 12:03
So you kind of take your whole list of attendees, break them up into these smaller groups, and then assign a moderator for each group and then have a facilitated discussion of questions amongst all the people in that group.

Dana Freker Doody: 12:19
Yeah, and depending, Brad, I think on who the audience is, and how comfortable they are. I mean, I think an organizer or even a marketer putting an event kind of knows the people, right? So maybe they know, hey, you know what, let's get these 20 people that we know to be a session leaders, because we think that they can actually shape a conversation. Those people who are good at dinner parties, coming up with interesting topics, so that it does feel a little bit more organic. But yeah, there definitely has to be a little structure too.  It's an art, right, between the organic conversation, but also people getting something out of it.

Brad Hammond: 12:58
Exactly. How do you write those questions? What would be a good format to follow as you're creating your questions? 

Dana Freker Doody: 13:04
Start at the end. What do you think that people want to know? What do you think that people are challenged with right now? What are some of those big conversations like what's keeping you up at night? Sometimes those big conversations and then worked into little topics. So if you started with a hey, what's keeping you up at night, you could have people going off the rails about how their business is faltering, or how they're worried about X, Y, and Z, political situation. 

So some of those big topic conversations, Brad, and then some of the smaller ones like, have you dealt with x in your business? And how did you overcome that? The other big one is have you had any failures lately that you'd be willing to share what happened? That's always a good one.

Brad Hammond: 13:54
I love that. And when it comes to picking those moderators then, as a marketing leader, do you recruit salespeople in the organization or who tends to be that moderator in each group? 

Dana Freker Doody: 14:07
If you can get the introverts to do it rather than the salespeople I think you're going to be better off.

Brad Hammond: 14:12
Okay. 

Dana Freker Doody: 14:13
Yeah, just because I think a lot of times great moderators are great listeners. I think listening. So yeah, if you have a very well-trained sales team, and they're great listeners, then absolutely. But also, depending on the type of the event, if you can choose somebody who is more of a peer rather than someone from your own company, or a boss type person.

Brad Hammond: 14:40
Totally. So I'm another marketer out there listening. I'm thinking about my events strategy. I want to create an event where there's a lot of interaction and opportunity to build relationships. What are the landmines or what are the traps I should avoid? What do you see companies doing that it's like, don't do that. 

Dana Freker Doody: 14:57
Yeah, it's- I just want to say like you kind of alluded to this, Brad, is like, don't create a bad boring one. I'm seeing a really big pushback against panels right now. We're getting to the point where we've seen unprepared and people who just are going by the seat of their pants and they're not treating it as they would in a physical environment. They are not dressing for the part. They're not good with their audio. They haven't practiced not just on the platform, but they haven't even practiced their material.

So it's the time. It's a huge time resource to sit down with each of those speakers and go through, you know, here's what we're expecting of you. Here's what we want from your content. But setting those expectations and reminding people that those expectations can really make or break the event. Audio. If people don't know they need good audio by now, they're done. Right, Ice? 

Ice Artificio: 15:57
Absolutely, absolutely. I would not share how much time I put on my audio. But yes, I agree. So let's zoom out a little bit. I know you've been in marketing for quite a while. And one of the funniest or most interesting things about marketing is there's always that unpredictability. You need to take risks. So what would you say is the craziest marketing initiative you've done in the past?

Dana Freker Doody: 16:20
We have done some what I would consider to be guerilla marketing tactics at physical events, which always seems- first of all, events in and of themselves are crazy, right? Like if someone were to say to you, I went to an event and did a tradeshow booth, that already ticks the box that it's crazy. But very early in my career, we had a campaign that we came upon to promote the customer service of the company. And it was called does your service stink? So we had an ad campaign and all the industry rags, and it was just kind of a black background, does your service stink? We had them sign NDAs. So nobody knew who was behind it. 

And as we got to the live event, we were going to reveal if your service stinks, this is what you need to be doing about it. And so we focused on the bathrooms in the convention center.  And guerilla marketing style went in there with removable stickers on the mirrors, behind the bathroom doors. The organizers are coming to the booth and saying I think you left this in the bathroom, right? Because we weren't really supposed to be doing, it wasn't a sponsored thing. So that was definitely one of the craziest though.

Ice Artificio: 17:32
Sounded fun, too.

Dana Freker Doody: 17:33
And we had an oxygen bar in the booth. Yeah, it was fun. 

Brad Hammond: 17:$0
Well, as we wrap it up here, what final words of wisdom or advice do you have for other marketers listening today?

Dana Freker Doody:  17:47
Oh, my goodness. Don't take yourself too seriously. Well, Is that valid? 

Brad Hammond: 17:54
Yeah. I love that. 

Ice Artificio: 17:54
I think that rings true. No matter how old or young you are.

Dana Freker Doody: 17:57
Sometimes people need to hear it. And we have a saying around here too, is there's really no such thing as a content emergency. Sometimes I think we need to remember who we are and what we do for a living.

Brad Hammond: 18:09
Totally. right. Well, thank you so much for joining the podcast and sharing all your insights today. Really appreciate it.

Dana Freker Doody: 18:14
I enjoyed it. Thank you both.

Ice Artificio: 18:16
Thanks, Dana.