By Carolyn Bjur
Webinars are a cost-effective and powerful way to reach a large number of decision-makers. They can be put together on a small budget, have no geographical boundaries, and show stronger ROI than most lead-generation activities. Here are five ways to maximize the impact of webinars and boost your bottom line.
1) Segment your lists and tailor your content.
While it’s important to pick topics and speakers that resonate with your audience, make sure that you also take into account the specific people you are trying to reach as well as their stage in the purchasing process.
If they are early in the buyer’s journey, you’ll want to keep the webinar problem-focused and not product-focused. There are ways you can subtly mention your solution during the presentation (for example, by including your website and branding your presentation templates), but your main goal is to communicate that you are a trusted partner in solving your prospect’s challenges. Be sure to create a simple registration page to gather the details you need to follow up with attendees who might turn into customers.
2) Keep your sales team in the loop.
Due to the nature of their jobs, account executives have to be laser-focused on closing opportunities in the near term. When preparing for a webinar, take the extra time to communicate with the sales team and provide tools they can use before and after the webinar to capitalize on the event. This may include sharing specific language for email and social media communications (and when I say “specific,” I mean something they can literally cut and paste into an email blast). This may sound like basic advice, but it’s an often-overlooked step that can make all the difference.
For more on connecting your sales and marketing teams, read our recent post here.
3) Follow up.
For most webinars, the best practice is to send two distinct follow-up emails to registrants: one to those who attended and one to those who did not. Make sure to say “thank you,” and make sure that your communication doesn’t end there.
Think about creative ways to repurpose this valuable content (see the next step!) and share attendee reports with sales in a timely fashion. A good marketing automation system will also help target your messaging to the right person at the right time.
4) Repurpose, reuse, recycle.
Make sure that each webinar is archived and available on-demand on your website. And don’t forget to promote every webinar on social media, both before and after the event.
If attendees asked a lot of questions on a certain topic during the webinar, it’s safe to assume that many others are experiencing that same pain point. To make the best use of your most powerful content, consider these options:
These steps will position you as a trusted partner, rather than just a provider.
5) Refine and repeat.
Each webinar will help your team refine your messaging and further segment your audience. Be sure to connect with sales to learn more about their follow-up and gain valuable insights into topics for future webinars.
As your leads move through the purchasing process, use the data you have collected on their activities to refine your focus areas—and don’t forget to continue creating dynamic content to support these events!
Thank you for sharing!