Webinars have reached critical mass and most B2B marketers, it seems, have added them to their marketing mix. But lately, I’ve watched some really bad webinars and webcasts.
So rather than go on a screed about it, I thought I’d share some tips on what I’ve learned from promoting dozens of web events.
Webinars compete for your audience’s most precious commodity – time. Don’t for get your audience wants information that is relevant and meaningful. Don’t waste their time with a sales pitch.
Where do webinars/webcasts fit into lead generation?
I’m often asked where do webinars/webcasts fit in the lead generation continuum? To help you, I’ve put together a graphic which shows approximately where they fit in They also fit very nicely into a lead nurturing programs too. (Click image to enlarge)
Don’t try to “sell” me – I’m not ready!
I’ve seen many marketers ruin their lead generation performance by rushing an unqualified list of attendees to their sales team.
Most Attendees are not leads! On average, 5% to 10% of attendees are sales ready opportunities. Plus most sales people will only call 15% to 20% of that list anyway. This presents a great opportunity for those companies who want to be positioned as thought leaders and keep their audience coming back.
Relevant Content – a catalyst for big attendance
High quality content can dramatically build webinar attendance. Why? Relevant content builds credibility, generates positive word of mouth (wom) and creates a buzz for future events.
The results…
By following this basic truth, InTouch, increased webinar registrations by 255% with out changing any webinar promotion tactics.
Here’s the registration results for a quarterly event series: Event 1 (280 registrants), Event 2 (495 registrants), Event 3 (995 registrants).
Industry average webinar attendance is around 30% but by focusing on, “thought leadership”, our attendance was at 41% of registrants and the total number of attendees grew by 583%.
Example: Thought Leaders in Lead Generation
Using your archive properly boosts attendance
Don’t forget to archive your webinars/web casts and make sure they are visible to your website visitors.
Thanks to my webcast sponsor, NetBriefings, we’ve generated an average of 1664% more archive attendees compared to our live events! For example, our first event had just 85 live attendees but 14-months later that same event has tracked over 1500 unique archive attendees.
Collect and Use Feedback
Make sure you collect feedback both during and after the event via on-line survey tools like surveymonkey. The real-world feedback we’ve collected helped us make each event better.
Let your audience self qualify themselves with a “request a sales person contact me” box on your post event survey. Those who don’t qualify yet need to be added to your lead nurturing program.
Webinar/webcast resources
HRmarketer.com Blog : Using Webinars as an Effective Marketing and PR Tool. – Tips on how to effectively promote your events.
Webcasts for Lead Generation White Paper – by web conferencing provider Interwise provides a great white paper on the subject.
Hi Brian,
Good suggestions for both the experienced and new webinar organizer.
Brian – excellent graphic and a very well written post. I’m going to link back to this from my blog for my readers – this is excellent stuff. Stumbled on to your site today and will definitely browse around some more, I’m sure you’ve got a few more gems on here 🙂
All very good points, Brian. I find that I tend to bail on webinars when there is something shown on the screen for sale as the presentation progresses.
Today, for example, I was attending well promoted Webinar. There was a graphic of the speakers book on the bottom left of the screen.
I found myself thinking, “This is going to end in a pitch” for this book or other programs. I got bored and distracted from the message as a result and bailed.
For sixty to ninty minutes of my time during the work day, I need a takeaway that will help me grow my business not another book or product to purchase.
We tried a few providers and have had fantastic service for our webinars by Communique Conferencing. Also, good resources at webinar blog
I have been using http://www.accuconference.com and so far have noticed an incease in lead retention or what I call relavency. In the webinars, I usually only get serious leads instead of a lot of “window shoppers”.
Nicely stated, Brian. I like your graphic and I would agree about the positioning of webinars. Readers interested in this subject might like to know about The Webinar Blog, which concentrates solely on the webinar industry. I include tips and tricks, industry news, opinions, and comments on the technology and vendors available.
There is a better tool – StellarSurvey.com, http://www.stellarsurvey.com It has all the features of SurveyMonkey, if not more, and it is 2 times cheaper. Plus, with StellarSurvey you can create unlimited free account.
In collecting and using feedback, it’s important to dig beneath the summary reports provided by most online survey providers. Most services to create online surveys including surveymonkey and ZapSurvey also let you download data for offline analysis which can reveal all sorts of valuable information not apparent in the summaries. Free trial accounts are available at http://www.zapsurvey.com