How to Increase Attendance at Virtual Events: 9 Expert Tips

Guest blog by Sarah Hill from Seven Events

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 Last updated: Aug 2026

Increasing virtual event attendance takes more than simply getting people to register. You need to reach the right audience, give them a clear reason to attend, and keep them engaged between registration and event day.

Well-planned virtual event services can help teams create engaging digital experiences, while many organizations can also use event management services to support the planning and execution of larger or more complex events.

The challenge is turning interest into actual attendance. A strong promotion plan, easy registration experience, timely reminders, speaker promotion, and pre-event engagement can all help increase attendance at virtual events.

If you are all set up to host your virtual event, here are nine practical strategies to get your attendance numbers closer to your goal.

Virtual event attendance rate measures how many registered attendees actually join your event.

Virtual event attendance rate = Attendees ÷ Registrations × 100

For example, if 1,000 people register and 600 attend, your attendance rate is 60%. Increasing registrations can grow your audience, but improving the percentage of registrants who actually show up can be just as important.

Base your entire promotion on a plan which notes down your tangible goal, such as the number of attendees you’re aiming to have at your event. If you have an intangible goal, then note that down in the plan as well. This can be what you aim to achieve in terms of promotion, such as strengthening relationships between attendees. The plan will also include your promotional budget.

Before promoting your event, you should be aware of which mediums will help you reach the relevant audience. This includes conducting research and identifying your potential attendees’ demographics, what social media platforms they use, what their call to action can be, and so on.

One of the best ways to promote your virtual event is through a promotional highlights reel or video. If you have previously hosted a virtual event before, you can add high energy bits from there in a video with upbeat music and captivating graphics. This will give a glimpse to the viewers of how fun and engaging your last event was, and how this one will be equally as such as well.

Besides these bits, the highlights video should also provide some information about your new virtual event, including the speakers, content, topics, etc. With the use of a promo video maker, you can add this information, as well as music, graphics, transitions, and effects, to your promotional highlights videos even if you haven’t conducted a virtual event.

You will need to draw the attention of people, and that includes social media. These days, everyone is using some form of social media. Thus you should make use of that and promote your event there. Make sure you include information about the speakers, sponsors, content and other elements of the event so that the viewers have a better idea of what your virtual event is about.

Most companies’ events are often buried under their ‘events’ section and thus do not get seen by potential attendees. For this purpose, you should make sure that your event is front and center on your website to be clearly visible and accessible. Additionally, you should also have a pop up of the event on your website so that whoever lands on your website first gets access to your event.

Email is also an effective way of marketing your virtual event. Add quick and short details about the event in the email, as most people will just glance through the email. Include captivating graphics, clear calls to action, and relevant messages to the email as well. Additionally, you can also include information about your event in your weekly newsletter.

Since your speakers and sponsors also have the main goal of leveraging attendance to the virtual event, you should also ask them to effectively promote the event. The speakers can post on their social media and promote their session, and ultimately the whole event. Create a ready to post message adding all the relevant details about the sessions and every other information about the event, which the speakers and speakers can share with a click of a button.

Registration is the most important aspect of virtual events. Thus, you should use this and provide an incentive to potential attendees and entice them by providing more details about the event exclusively to those who register for the virtual event. Not only will it entice them and make them look forward to the event, but they will also have a clearer idea about what the event will be about it. Moreover, you can also hold off your promotional video and instead of posting it everywhere, only send it to the attendees who have registered for the event.

Promotion can bring people to your registration page, but registrations alone don't guarantee attendance.

The experience between “registered” and “attended” matters just as much. Event registration software can help reduce that drop-off by making it easier to register, keeping attendees informed, and giving organizers better visibility into who ultimately shows up.

A few capabilities can make a difference:

• Simple registration flows: Fewer unnecessary steps make it easier for interested attendees to complete registration.
• Automated confirmations and reminders: Send the right information immediately after registration and remind attendees as the event gets closer.
• Audience segmentation: Tailor communications based on attendee type, interests, sessions, or other registration data.
• Source and campaign tracking: See which promotional channels are bringing in registrations and which ones are actually producing attendees.
• Registration and attendance reporting: Use event attendance tracking software to compare how many people registered with how many actually attended and identify where drop-off is happening.

An event registration software can bring registration, attendee communication, and reporting into one workflow, making it easier to manage the journey from initial sign-up to event attendance.

Most successful virtual events have incorporated last-minute engagement tactics, for example, by allowing the attendees to interact with each other before the event begins. This helps create buzz, which might attract more attendees.

If your virtual event platform supports networking, discussions, polls, or other pre-event interactions, open some of these features before the event starts so attendees have a reason to engage early.

Successful promotion and ultimately enhancing attendance at virtual events depends on a careful and strategic promotional plan. By considering what your event goals, target attendees, engagement activities, and content management are, you will be able to successfully attract attendees to your events.

Author Bio

Sarah Hill is a content writer at Seven Events Ltd, leading event company in Birmingham offering virtual events, corporate event management and venue finding services. She started her career in the events industry almost a decade ago as time progressed she became an avid event blogger sharing her insight on corporate event planning.