Madeline Schroeder: Adopting Virtual Events For Successful Business Marketing 

The recent turbulent times have made companies forgo some previous practices in a bid to adopt new ones. With the lockdown situation, it's no longer a question of whether or not a company needs to embrace virtual work settings. Businesses now have to cancel in-person meetings to ensure the safety of their employees. 

From small-scale organized webinars to large internet-based conferences, there's been a more significant number of virtual events held since COVID set in.

We've decided to talk with Marketing and Growth leaders across various industries, and we have to admit that it's been really insightful. We had another exciting interview episode in the Rediscover Marketing series with Madeline Schroeder, a Digital Marketing Specialist, and the President over at Luminos Digital Marketing. 

About Madeline and Luminos Digital Marketing

Luminos Marketing Agency is a Denver company that provides online marketing and branding services for SMBs in Colorado. 

Madeline started Luminos to bridge the communication gap between the more prominent marketing agencies and freelance account managers. She aims to deliver high-quality marketing services and a more personal connection throughout clients' lifecycle from sales to account management. 

Like most startups, Luminos had to face a few learning curves during the early stages. However, it was terrific to know that they launched operations without seed money. 

The Covid-Effect on Luminos Digital Marketing

One of the challenges Madeline faced while trying to grow the business is the Coronavirus. This was inevitable, considering that she established Luminos Marketing towards the end of 2019. 

It was no surprise that the team had to put on their creative hat. They started to offer discounts on services that they would traditionally charge a lot more. 

According to her, she realized that businesses couldn't scale back on marketing during a virtual setting. What's more, marketing became even more critical, considering that everyone went virtual - no window shopping and other physical sales activities. 

As a result, she mentioned her team was able to take up marketing and event management in a virtual setting. One of their proud achievements in 2020 was setting up a virtual conference for a national medical society that reached over 700 participants worldwide. 

Madeline and her team were able to transition a conference that had previously been entirely in-house to virtual by leaning into opportunities. They soon realized that pivoting to a virtual event strategy doesn't require a total change in approach after all. 

Advice for Marketing Leaders and Growth Leaders in 2021

Virtual settings are most likely here to stay, and Madeline highlighted some of the benefits, such as reduced expenses of not bearing the overhead costs of a brick-and-mortar office and holding in-house events. 

However, to really excel as a business owner and scale significantly amid the new reality today, here are two successful marketing strategies examples recommended by Madeline:

• Capitalize on human connections

According to this report published by Gigaom, 87% of remote-working employees say that video conferencing strengthens their team connections. Now, more than ever, try to integrate reliable connections into every part of the business through virtual events. 

Believe in your team and know that they will deliver on tasks assigned to them. Take out time to find promising talents. 

• Communication

The best way to stay in touch with clients is to organize weekly virtual meetings. During these meetings, you should aim to provide clients' feedback on reports for sales, search engine rankings, ads cost and revenues to name a few. 

Further, she recommended that for successful marketing efforts in the coming year, marketing leaders "Stop taking templates off websites and start creating them from scratch." Instead, invest in hiring professional web designers, graphics designers, and UI/UX professionals to make your website more user friendly. 

Another way to stand out in 2020 is to showcase past project portfolios to your clients rather than only relying on word testimonials.

In conclusion, Madeline advises that for business marketing in 2021, it is essential to "Find the gap and fill it." Now that almost every business has gone virtual, it's created more opportunities that we never imagined previously. 

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How has your business fared with virtual meetings since the lockdown started? Let us know in the comment section below!