It’s no secret that B2B marketing is no longer limited to white papers and ebooks — webinars are quickly gaining popularity as an alternative way to distribute content. This new, interactive way to distribute information is justifiably popular — when properly executed, webinars can serve as powerful marketing tools and valuable resources for clients and prospects alike. Whether you’re just getting started with this trend or are looking for ways to get more out of your efforts, here are three simple pointers for successful webinars:
Plan.
Establish a cadence with your webinars and plan on conducting them once a week. Designating a day of the week for hosting webinars will keep your audience coming back by giving them a reliable routine they can factor into their schedules. Planning and executing a weekly webinar may seem like an overwhelming amount of content at first, but don’t forget that webinars can focus on best practices and industry trends, not just your product. In fact, they should — it’s imperative that your webinars do not come off strictly as a sales pitch, and producing valuable non product-specific content will help to establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry.
Promote.
In addition traditional channels like email promotion, explore more creative methods of promoting your upcoming webinars:
- Social media Sending a reminder email about an upcoming webinar is a good idea, but send more than one and you’ll quickly become annoying. With social postings, you can easily send out the same reminder every day, starting 3 or 4 days before the webinar, without being seen as a nuisance.
- Email signature Consider adding a note about your upcoming webinar in your email signature. Just be sure to keep it up to date!
- “The Hello Bar” We’ve already talked about using this app to cross-sell different areas of your website. It’s also a great, attention-grabbing way to call out an upcoming webinar.
Post.
Record your webinars and try to get the recordings posted within 24 hours. Webinar attendees will still have the topic fresh in mind and will appreciate a chance to revisit points of interest. Those who did not attend are more likely to check out the recording while there’s still some buzz about your webinar from those who did attend. And consider posting your recording in multiple places: Wistia, Slideshare, YouTube, Facebook and Google+ pages are all great outlets for distributing videos.
These are great tips for someone like myself who hosts client webinars on a regular basis. I will be utilizing the “hello bar” and adding a note in my email signature.
One other piece of advice that has been useful for me that may be helpful for you too: Start your webinars a little after each hour, rather than on the hour. For example, start it at 2:15PM rather than at 2:00PM. By starting a little after the hour, you are giving your attendees extra time to make your webinar in case they are running late due to another meeting.
Thanks again for the useful webinar tips!
-Lindsay Bierfeld
Thanks Lindsay! I really like your tip. That is a great one. It seems obvious but I am sure most marketers (including me!) never thought about starting 10-15 minutes after the hours. Nice idea!