Let's be real: Virtual events might be less expensive and stressful than in-person events and all the associated logistics, but that doesn't make them easy.

And, when you invest your time, energy, and resources into pulling off a successful event, you want to see it continue to pay off down the road, right?

We feel the same way—and we've found that something magical happens when you proactively turn your events into a multi-channel event content strategy. That means putting the same amount of effort into your event after it's over that you did leading up to it, which may seem counterintuitive at first, but we promise it's worth it.

Getting the most out of your digital events strategy isn't just about putting on an amazing event—that's just the beginning! We'll show you how to create your own sort of content alchemy today.

Read on to learn:

• The problem with the "host it and forget it" approach
• What is a multi-channel content event strategy?
• What channels should I use?
• How to simplify your post-event content strategy
• How Content Lab helps you quickly create always-on, consumable content

So, your current state might look something like this: You put in the hard work to execute a great event. You upload the recording to your on-demand library—and then you move on to the next task.

We get why this is an attractive approach. The post-event distribution process takes time. You might feel like you're waiting forever to get the post-event assets you need, and that might seem like time wasted.

It's also possible that you don't have enough resources to fully pull off the distribution plan you'd like to implement. Time, money, and assets—they're all finite, and you might not feel like you have enough to really focus on post-event distribution.

The current way of doing things results in an inability to amplify the impact of events." Lindsay McGuire, Associate Director of Content and Campaigns at Goldcast

The problems with doing it this way, however, are many. For one, you're more likely to see "one and done" attendance—which isn't good, right? You want folks to build a connection with your brand and continue showing up and telling other people about you!

You also run the risk of creating internal silos when it comes to events, where multiple teams are running similar events and diluting your brand message across your audience. In these situations, nothing feels like it's connecting to a centralized, overarching message, and it's hard to build momentum—not exactly the position a B2B marketer wants to find themselves in.

A multi-channel content strategy, on the other hand, understands that your event is just one channel for that specific content message. While you should of course host the session on-demand so people can catch up and view it from your evergreen content library, you're sitting on a content goldmine. Don't waste it!

Events are meant to shine far past their original live run time." - Lindsay McGuire, Associate Director of Content and Campaigns at Goldcast

Multi-channel content strategies require you to think about how to distribute event content (in different formats, snippets, etc) across multiple channels. That means you might write up a blog post highlighting a couple of the most interesting takeaways from the event. Or perhaps you pull out some of the best quotes and share them on social media to get people talking. There are lots of options!

Here are just some of the benefits of taking a multi-channel content approach:

• You're able to reach more people
• Your content can appeal to a wide range of your audience (for example, some of your audience may not like watching videos, but they might pay close attention to your blog posts or newsletter)
• You get more ROI and value out of your event content because you're just building on something you've already created, versus creating entirely new content and messaging
• You get an SEO boost by posting keyword-rich content across different platforms
• You save money and time! Even though it might not feel like it at first, repurposing is absolutely more cost-effective than creating new, from-scratch content.

The bottom line? Events should not be a "run it and forget it" situation. If you want to get as much value and runway as possible with your event content, your content should live far beyond the end of your live event.

Deciding which channels to use when repurposing your event content depends on your audience, company, and overall goals. This isn't a straightforward answer, but no two companies will have the same distribution strategy!

To understand why, think about your audience. They're all unique people, of course, but they probably have quite a few things in common. Maybe they largely fall within a certain age demographic, and maybe they share one of a few job titles.

Then think about another company, say, Goldcast 😉Our audience largely consists of B2B marketers and decision-makers within companies looking to revolutionize their event programming.

Are our audiences exactly the same? Probably not, right? That means they probably aren't hanging out on the same platforms, either. They may respond to different types of content. Your audience might like in-depth, long-form content while ours goes wild for snackable, bite-size snippets. We have to take these differences into account when we decide how to build our multi-channel strategy.

Now that you understand why there's no one-size-fits-all approach, here are some ideas to get you started on your multi-channel journey.

YouTube is an obvious choice if you've got video content—and the platform may also make sense for audio content. It's the biggest video sharing platform in the world, meaning you're bound to reach more people than you would otherwise.

We use YouTube to host the full-length Donuts & Demand sessions, as well as super quick, high-impact moments from the events. That way, no matter how much time someone has, there's something for them to enjoy!

We recommend using clear, easy-to-understand video titles and descriptions. We also use the "Description" area on our page to add in some keywords and push people back to our site to learn more about Goldcast or browse our other event-related content.

First things first: You do not have to be on every single platform! We recommend just focusing on the ones that a majority of your audience uses. Otherwise, you run the risk of shouting into the void, wasting your time posting on a platform that won't provide any ROI.

Whether you choose TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, or another platform, the benefit of social media is the immediacy of it. Your content goes straight into your audience's news feed, prompting them to check it out and even comment or share. This real-time engagement can enhance the content's reach and impact, which is great.

Be strategic with what you post! Here are a few tips:

• Experiment with different types of content. Try videos, images, stories, polls, quotes, and other formats to see what resonates with your audience. This might be different from platform to platform, too!
• Build out a carousel featuring the best tips or quotes from the event. People may be inclined to share the ones that resonate with them.
• Splice the best clips together to create an enticing sizzle reel that drives people to catch up on the replay!
• Try to promptly respond to people who are commenting and engaging with your content. On many platforms, this tells the algorithm to further boost your post and let other people know about it.
• Be sure all of your content is relevant to the audience you have on that platform. You don't want to lose followers as a result of content they don't care about!
• Create polls related to your event content and tie that into the post to bring in an interactive element and start new conversations.
• You also might try running ads, campaigns, or sponsored posts to bring people directly to your on-demand library to view the original recorded session.

Over time, you'll get a sense for what works well on each platform and start to naturally tailor your approach to line up with that.

Your blog is a great place to promote event-related content. You can spin up posts sharing the most intriguing discussion points of an event, or use a blog to dive deeper into something that was covered during the session. At the end of each blog, you can also include a CTA to drive people to watch the full session.

Blogs don't have to be all text, either! Just as with your social media approach, you can weave in videos and other interactive elements to your blog posts to keep folks engaged. You can also sprinkle in pullout quotes (like we did above!) to help break up chunks of text and keep people focused on the main points of the blog.

And if writing more blogs is the last thing you want to add to your list, might we suggest the new Goldcast Content Lab? It's the first AI-powered studio that lets you work smarter, not harder, by turning your events into a multi-channel event content strategy—within minutes.

For our Tacos, Mojitos & Modern Events session, we hosted an award-winning chef, as well as two SnapLogic leaders, for a cooking and cocktail lesson and a larger conversation around how to modernize events using Goldcast.

During the event, the folks at SnapLogic talked about their experience switching from an outdated event platform to Goldcast. We were blown away to learn that they experienced a 700% (or greater!) growth increase when it came to quarterly webinars they were able to host, once they switched over to Goldcast—so of course we're turning that story into alllllll the repurposed content we can!

If you've ever got a customer sharing a testimonial or experience about your company, be sure that you turn that into shareable clips, case studies, blog posts, and any other type of content that would help spread the word about your product. People love hearing from actual users of your offering, and it can really boost your credibility with very little effort from your end!

One of the best ways to reuse a larger event is to turn the content into a downloadable eBook or guide. If you host a large event with multiple sessions, perhaps each one becomes its own chapter or section within the book or guide.

When people download a guide or eBook, they know they're getting a "denser" resource than your standard blog, so they're usually willing to give you information in exchange. You can ask for email addresses in exchange for them downloading the content, thus growing your email list. It also gives you another shot to boost SEO through keywords!

Over time, repurposing content and refining your post-event content strategy will become second nature. As soon as an event ends (and even before!), you'll be dreaming up ways to get the most out of the event.

For now, here's a good roadmap to follow:

1. Identify the right players. You always want to make sure all of your necessary teams are on board in the follow-process. Sales should be reaching out to all prospects directly after the event, while your Customer Service folks can touch base with people who have questions and get those answered. Meanwhile, the Marketing or Content teams are creating repurposed content to share and reminding everyone to promote the on-demand event.
2. Pick your channels. Decide where you'll share content; this can also help you decide what type of content to create.
3. Gather your tools! We hit on this a little already but in case you missed it, Goldcast's AI-powered Content Lab is your new best friend when it comes to making repurposing an easier task. AI definitely lightens your workload and helps you come in as an expert to finalize things and touch them up, saving you time and energy.
4. Develop a process. The goal is to make repurposing a regular, consistent practice. Think about how you can create replicable, automated steps to make future post-event distribution even easier.
5. Get to sharing! Distribute and schedule all of your assets, and watch the leads roll in.

If you want to swiftly reuse your content, Content Lab is your best bet.

Content Lab allows you to speed things up significantly, going from days and weeks to produce assets to mere minutes. You can create myriad forms of repurposed content in one single tool and free up your teams to focus on other high-impact tasks!

Here are some of the types of content you can create with Content Lab:

• Video highlights maximized for social sharing
• SEO-rich, insight-packed blog posts
• Auto-generated text summaries you can use in follow-up emails, social media posts, and more
• Embeddable video moments you can host on-demand
• Instantly translated transcripts in 50+ languages