The 11 Secrets of Webinars that Sell

Webinars have been part of Digital Marketing strategies for some time, but recently they have grown in importance in the age of reduced travel budgets, event cancellations and working from home. Even after the current crisis has passed, it is likely that virtual events will remain an important part of marketing strategies. Webinars and virtual events can be an effective marketing tool, but without careful planning you might just throw a party that no one comes to.

Here are some best practices for delivering a great webinar that generates inbound leads, strengthens your market position and serves as a durable marketing asset.

(1). Show and Tell. Webinars are great for new product announcements, software demonstrations, case studies, white paper results, introducing new services, disseminating best practices, introducing new programs or launching a new offering. Basically, webinars are great opportunities for show and tell, so make sure you have something compelling to demonstrate and talk about. If your subject is easier to see than read and/or if your audience is geographically dispersed, then a Webinar is the way to go.

(2). Target your audience carefully. Remember that your subject may not appeal to every customer or prospect in your database. Define who is on the typical buying team of your prospects, and make sure you target those individuals, nobody else. Don’t fall into the trap of sending your webinar invitation to your entire database, believing that even if the email isn’t relevant to someone, the recipient of your spam will pass it along to the right person. Wrong! Find the right person and get the invitation to them instead of risking an unsubscribe or spam complaint.

(3). Use the voice of the customer. The gold standard of webinars is having a customer co-present a case study or white paper. Nothing speaks to potential customers than one of their peers singing your praises. Since many companies prohibit their employees from participating in promotional activities for fear of making an endorsement, sometimes positioning it as an educational or technical presentation has a better opportunity of gaining approval from the brass.

(4). Provide something of value (hint – not a gift card). Not only is it polite to give something in return for someone’s time, but your giveaway should also be a motivation for attending. Offering a free white paper, case study or something with informational or educational value is a great way to emphasize your brand, strengthen your Thought Leadership position and give something of value to your audience. Providing valuable information that gives people a vision of a solution is more powerful than an Amazon gift card for motivating buyers.

(5). Maximize attendance. Promote, promote and promote (then promote some more). Begin promoting your webinar at least four weeks before the event. Providing too much advance notice means your message will be ignored, not enough time and chances are most people won’t see the invitation.

Kickoff your promotional campaign with a real press release to the right distribution, not just a blog post written like a press release. Promote your news to the trade press and invite editors and reporters with key publications to your event.

Promote your webinar with targeted email campaigns and on business social media using creative teaser graphics and videos. Review your registrations every few days and if they aren’t meeting expectations, get on the phone and start making personal invitations to people.

(6). Set achievable attendance goals. The first question we get from any client is – how many people should I expect to show up to my webinar? For a niche audience for which the Total Addressable Market (TAM) includes approximately 2,000 people, and that’s how big your database is, 25 attendees are “good,” 40 is “strong” and 50+ is a Home Run. Those guidelines are based on our experiences managing and promoting dozens of webinars with our clients. If your webinar initiates five real buying processes and you close one of them, then most likely the webinar more than paid for itself.

(7). Pre-record or live? We’re 50/50 on the matter, but it really comes down to time. Meaning, do you have enough time to make a well-produced pre-recorded event before the webinar date? A pre-recorded event has the potential to sound canned or scripted, but so can a live webinar that isn’t well-rehearsed. If you choose a live webinar, the critical issue remains time, meaning you will need to stick to the script to avoid running over time! Be aware that it is common for a “live” event to require less time than a recorded one, because speakers naturally accelerate their pace of presentation.

(8). Seeing is believing. Remember, a webinar is not a conference call. Webinars are visual media, which means that, at a minimum, you will want to use a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate and complement your discussion. Webinars are especially effective for software demonstrations, giving you the opportunity to show the audience how to achieve specific tasks or solve problems, instead of just talking about it.

(9). Keep the audience engaged. Accept the fact that most of your audience is going to be doing other things while you deliver your webinar. They will be sitting at their desks, making them vulnerable to interruptions from clients, co-workers, bosses, pets and others. Worse, if they get bored, they are likely to drop off the webinar, reducing the potential to turn them into an actual lead. Use polls to question the audience a few times during the event to keep them engaged.

(10). Budget accordingly. Cost depends on what you need to make your webinar a success. Typically, costs range between $4,000 to $15,000 depending on a variety of factors, including the need to develop a contact lists (the people you want to invite), developing promotional ads/teasers, running campaigns to promote the webinar, creating the PowerPoint, developing a script, developing and designing content (i.e., a case study or white paper), coaching, preparation, pre and/or post-production work, rehearsals and more. Also, who will be providing those services – your consultant or your internal team? All those factors and more need to be considered when developing a budget.

(11). It’s an asset, not an expense. One critical factor to keep in mind is that your webinar is a marketing asset that can be used many times over the course of several quarters or even years. Post the webinar replay to the Resources page on your website and use it as a basis for future marketing campaigns and direct future prospects to it.

Don’t throw a party that no one comes to! Schedule a call or meeting today to discuss how Prism Group can help you plan, promote and manage a webinar that strengthens your brand and generates inbound leads.

About Prism Group

Prism Group is a full-spectrum, multi-talented B2B agency focused on Energy Tech, Technology, Energy, Services and Media markets. Our work is telling stories that matter, because our clients are working to change the world for the better. What makes us different is that we put into action the strategies we recommend – we get it done, so you can get results and increase the value of your business.