8 Pre-event Survey Questions You Must Ask Your Virtual Attendees

Ask any event organizers as to what constitutes a successful event. And they would answer with a single thing. Gauging the needs & requirements of your attendees, & providing them with those.
The more you design your virtual event according to the likes & needs of your attendees, the more are the chances of your virtual event being a success.

But, how do you know what exactly does your potential attendees need? How do you know what their goals with your virtual event are?
How do you know if you’re planning your virtual events on the right lines?

These questions are what a pre-event survey can easily take care of!

A pre-event survey will help you understand just what it is that your attendees need & want out of your virtual event. This will empower you to design your virtual event in a manner that helps you connect with your attendees in the most effective way possible.

Pre-event surveys consist of questions that help you understand your audiences’ specific needs & requirements ahead of the virtual events.
Through this information, event planners & organizers can better understand their attendees’ motivations & goals. This helps them design the virtual event according to their attendees’ likes & needs.

But, what exactly are these questions that should be included in your pre-event survey?
Which questions help you gauge the exact needs & wants of your attendees prior to your virtual event?
In this article, we tell you the 8 pre-event survey questions that you must ask your virtual attendees.

1. How did you hear about this virtual event?

Asking your attendees where they learned about your virtual event is a very important question. Learning this information will help you understand two things. First, where exactly did they get to know about your event helps you understand which platforms are working best for you. In terms of marketing, this is crucial as it will help you narrow down the best-performing channels. These channels are where you can concentrate your future marketing efforts in.

Second, it will help you understand where your attendees spend most of their time at.
The more common channels that show up in the answers are the channels where your attendees are most active. These are where you should focus your marketing resources for the major part of your future events as well.

Similarly, it can also tell you which channels are not performing as per expectations where your marketing efforts are concerned.
You can accordingly decide on new marketing strategies for these channels, or scrap them altogether. This will help your marketing department as well & save their resources.

2. What are your reasons for attending this Virtual Event?

This is another important pre-event survey question that helps you understand what exactly are your attendees looking for in the event.
This question will allow your attendees to stop for a moment & actually consider the reason for attending your event. This is something that will help your attendees as well, as they will be able to enjoy your event in an even better way.

3. Are you a returning attendee?

This question helps you understand if your attendees are coming back to your virtual event. If they are, it usually signifies that your events are going on the right track & are able to engage & interest your attendees enough for them to return.
Returning attendees also showcase how successful your post-event marketing efforts are in retaining & expanding your audience base.
Returning attendees can also give you an idea about which attendees belong to the group of high-conversion potential audience, so you can concentrate your marketing strategies on them.

4. What is your choice of Social Media Platform?

This question helps you identify which social media channels your audience is most concentrated in. With this information, you can help your marketing team narrow down the highest-performing social media platforms. They can then focus their marketing efforts & resources on the very platforms that have a guaranteed audience return on investment.
You should also consider coming up with event-specific hashtags to help the audience in these active social media platforms, find you easily. Hashtags also help your audience put out user-generated content from your virtual event. This gives you a good amount of exposure & organic marketing for your virtual event as well.

5. Which sessions/speakers/workshops/classes/entertainment options interest you the most?

This is important to know especially if you have multiple sessions/speakers/workshops/ lined up in your virtual event.
The answer to this question will help you understand just what sessions/speakers/workshops/classes/entertainment options your audience are looking forward to.
You can then focus your design efforts on those specific areas to provide your audience with a smooth, seamless, & exciting experience at your virtual event.
You can also devise specific marketing strategies aimed at bringing forward these particular sessions/speakers/workshops/classes/entertainment options to the general public. This helps these specific popular components of your virtual event gain even greater visibility & traction, thus increasing the number of people that sign up for your virtual event.

6. Any special needs, requirements, issues that we must be aware of?

Asking this question not only helps you prepare for any issues that may arise during the time your attendees are inside your virtual events. But they will also form a basis for all the necessary technical resolutions you might need to do in the event.
Asking this also helps your attendees understand that you care about them & their needs. This directly leads them to feel more involved & connected with your event.
You can use the answers you receive to accordingly modify your virtual event in such a way that it is enjoyable & accessible for all of your event attendees.

7. What kind of fun activities would you like to see at the event?

This is a qualitative question that helps you understand what exactly does your audience want in terms of fun activities in your virtual event.
This question also automatically considers that your attendees are familiar with virtual events & the kind of components that are a part of those.
In case you are posing this question towards attendees that are not as familiar with virtual events. Consider formulating the question in a different format.
You can ask this question in a multiple-choice format with various fun activity options like quizzes, games, virtual leaderboards, one-on-one networking sessions, pitch sessions, etc. included in it.
This will help your attendees who are not very well acquainted with virtual events, get a wind of what all fun activities are included in it.
You can then focus on including those activities in your virtual event that most of your attendees have opted for.

8. Which times are the most suitable for you?

Setting the right date & time for your virtual event is of utmost importance to ensuring its success.
You have to take into consideration your audiences’ specific time zones, locations, availability, & comfort for taking this consideration.
One of the best ways to do this is by taking the advice of the very people you’re looking to please; your audience.
You can ask this question to your attendees to get an idea about which timings will be best suitable for them.
The answers will help you decide on a time which gives you the greatest window to involve a majority of, if not all, your audience in your virtual event.

Pre-event surveys are just one part of the virtual event planning process. The process also includes selecting the right event topic, choosing the right virtual event platform, the right virtual event components, sponsorship deals, & more.