How to use Swag Redeem Pages for Virtual Events
In this article
Focus On Delivering Value
Before you launch a virtual event, ask yourself this very important question:
How is it valuable?
Hear us out. Don’t throw a virtual event just because ‘everyone else is doing it.’
If you are putting in the time, effort, and money, you probably want good results. And if you want good results, you want to make sure the event is awesome. So it can’t just be your team that sees the virtual event as valuable. But that begs the question, how do you make it awesome?
When you want to create value for your attendees, your sponsors, your community, and anyone remotely connected to your company, think in their shoes.
The truth is everyone has their concerns about virtual events:
- You don’t want to host a virtual event with no engagement or excitement.
- Your participants don’t want to waste their energy on an impersonal Zoom call. (Especially when it’s basically the same three or four people interacting.)
- Your sponsors don’t want their brand and organization attached to a poorly planned and badly received virtual event
- Your employees won’t want to share or invite their friends and family to attend
🙀 Yikes. Talk about pitfalls. But virtual events have plenty of upsides. Already, we’ve seen a lot of clients use swag to humanize virtual events.
Boost Engagement With Virtual Swag Redeem Pages
It seems like such an obvious solution — but it works. Imagine how it feels to find surprise swag at the doorstep for a virtual event. It’s awesome. It defies expectations. After all, it’s a virtual event. No one expects there to be a physical component to it.
And that’s your chance to shine. The trick, as with much of life, is the timing. Do you want to make it a surprise? Then you’ve just made their day. You’ll also be able to track who actually came to the event and how they’re reacting on social media. If your attendees know beforehand, you’ve empowered them to spread the word, share the excitement of your virtual event with others, and increase engagement. 🎉
Let’s not forget the swag. Unlike cheap conference swag, quality swag gives your brand an immediate credibility boost. Plus it keeps your attendees talking long after the event.
Imagine that. You haven’t even planned the next virtual event, and people are already looking forward to it.
THE 12 SECOND CHECK: ARE REDEEM PAGES FOR YOU?
Redeem pages are the easiest way to coordinate swag for your event when:
- You don’t want to collect addresses for a long list of attendees ahead of time
- You want only attendees that meet a specific criteria (like successfully completing a challenge!) to receive swag
- You want a clean and professional page designed to your company brand
- You’re looking for a simple, hands-off way to manage virtual event swag logistics
With redeem pages, you get control over who has access to your virtual event swag and when they can redeem their swag.
💡 See our guide on the best virtual event ideas
How to Send Swag to Attendees for Virtual Events
Step 1: Understand Your Audience
Context is everything. Your webinar swag is different from your summit swag, which is different from your hackathon swag — and not just because of the logos! It’s easy to assume awesome swag is awesome, period. But a large part of what makes event swag great is how useful and interesting it is for the attendees in the context of the event.
Planning a masterclass webinar? Make sure attendees don’t have to dig up a spare notebook and find a working pen just to take down their notes for later.
Hosting a virtual summit for the first time? Get everyone hyped with a limited run of event apparel like t-shirts, hoodies, and socks.
Running a hackathon for talent all over the world? This is no time to be snoozing — help your participants put the pedal to the metal with blue-light blocking glasses, energy bars, and a strong cup of joe.
The more niche your virtual event is, the more likely there are specific interests and values your audience have. And it’d be a waste to miss out on recognizing that! If you know your attendees particularly care about sustainability, view themselves as hustlers, or just enjoy collecting stickers for their laptop, use the virtual event as an opportunity to reward that.
Once you have an idea of who your audience is, think about how you want to use swag to support the virtual event experience.
Step 2: Design the Experience
The beauty of swag is that you can get pretty creative with it. Are you using polls to engage attendees? Consider giving away swag to the most active participants. Got a roster of rockstar speakers? Gift swag to thank them for their work. Busy schedule for your virtual events? Package all the extra details in a booklet they can have on-hand and use for easy self-direction throughout the event.
Identify the key touch points where you can use swag to add value to the attendee and you’re well on your way to a successful virtual event.
Finally, think about the tech. Redeem pages aren’t the only swag option — you can also deliver swag through a swag shop with the SwagUp Shopify integration. We recommend that approach for organizations that are seeking to branch out their digital brand presence. It’s a long-term approach to capitalizing on your audience.
But if this virtual event is more of a one-time thing, or you don’t need something with as many features as an online swag shop, go with a redeem page. Not only are they easy to set up, but they also allow you to take a hands-off approach to your swag while maintaining a fine level of control over who gets to claim swag.
For example, maybe you want swag to ‘unlock’ only after a series of objectives are met. You can make sure the link to the redeem page is only given to those who qualify. Or you can use redeem pages to ensure that only the attendees that actually showed up get swag.
After you nail down what the experience looks like for a user from the beginning to the end, it’s time to get technical.
Step 3: Set Up the Redeem Page
Event Geek and Splash are two clients of ours that have successfully used redeem pages to send swag for events. The process is as simple as you’d guess: you choose when and how to share the link with qualified attendees. Then your attendees fill out a form with their basic information so they can receive their swag (e.g. address, t-shirt sizes).
You can customize the form to your situation. If you want to give attendees the option to choose their swag, you can set the form to show all the available swag options (and even showcase sponsor swag items.) Pro tip: keep in mind that swag needs time to ship and if you want swag delivered on the day of the event, it’s best to give out the redeem page link beforehand so that attendees have time to claim their swag.
The redeem page is also a great opportunity to collect feedback from your attendees while they are filling out the form. This helps you identify what really worked with your virtual event - and what didn’t. And finally, you can also use the form to receive cool event photos and attendee quotes to wrap up an exciting session!
FAQ
Can I share my redeem page(s) however I want?
Yes! We don’t share the link because we want you to have total control over the user experience. Depending on the platform you are using, you may also be able to get tracking and other analytics.
Do you put your logo on the redeem page?
No, your redeem pages are about you! We want to make sure your brand stands out so the SwagUp logo won’t show up on your redeem pages. We just make it happen 🙂
If you have swag with us in inventory that you want to use for a redeem page, get in touch with a Swag Expert 👩🏽🚀
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How to Boost Employee Morale with Swag & Virtual Events!
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