When your marketing budget is microscopic, every product marketing tactic you run needs to be optimized, yet for some reason webinars are often executed on autopilot. Don’t fall into the trap of running mediocre webinars. Here are a few ideas to give your webinars a kick in the pants:
1/ Ask for questions ahead of time – You know who’s signed up to attend, you might as well ask them what they’d like to hear.
2/ Get a great speaker – Over and over again I see companies putting lousy speakers in their webinars because that person happens to be the in-house expert on the subject. Delivery is really, really important. Use the best presenter you’ve got and bring in some backup to help answer questions if you have to.
3/ Have a timely and provocative topic – The more you can tie your topic to things that are on people’s minds right now the better your attendance will be. Don’t be afraid to pick challenging or provocative topics.
4/ Have a script, practice like crazy and do a test run – Unless your speaker is Anderson Cooper, don’t let him/her just get up there and wing it. (If your speaker is Anderson Cooper, please invite me to your webinar, I’d like to see that).
5/ Promote it through all of your channels – In addition to sending email to your lists, make sure you promote the webinar on your website, blog, Twitter, Facebook groups, newsletter, and any other customer-facing communications you’re running.
6/ Bribes work – Give-aways and contests work when it comes to getting folks to attend and I rarely run a webinar without one. It can be something as simple as an e-book or early access to a whitepaper, even a card for a free coffee works. I once got a great guest speaker for free by buying a set of his books to give to attendees (which I also got at a discount). People like to get something in exchange for their time.
7/ Be more interesting than email – No matter what you are selling, when you’re doing a webinar you are competing with the entire iPhone app store. Remember that just because people show up, doesn’t mean they are going to pay attention to you. Be entertaining or be ignored. Tell stories, be funny, use interesting visuals, do whatever it takes to keep people interested. I know a presenter that always mentions names and companies from the registration list. Nothing breaks you out of the multi-tasking fog like the sound of your own name.
8/ Keep it really short – I’m a fan of the 20 minute mini-webinar. It’s easy for people to schedule into their day and attend and frankly, a lot of topics can be covered in 20 minutes if you get right to the meat of it quickly. Most people are going to tune out after the first 10 minutes (another reason why I like the 20 minute format) so you might as well front-end load your presentation with the meaty stuff.
9/ Don’t be afraid to sell – Your topic should be interesting and you should teach people something but remember, you aren’t a University you’re there to SELL SOMETHING.
10/ Have a strong, measurable call to action – Make sure you have a clear idea of what you want the participants to do next – download a trial, sign up for something, register for an e-book or whitepaper, etc. Contact us if you have any questions is NOT a call to action.
11/ Follow up right away – If someone took a half an hour out of their busy day to listen to you talk, there’s a reason for it. Call them up and find out what that is. They might not be a sales-ready lead yet, but even if they aren’t you should be trying to determine where in the marketing funnel they fit.
12/ Post a replay and invite the non-attendees – About half of the people that register for webinars don’t attend and the most common reason is that they had a last-minute conflict. My experience is that you can get 20-30 percent of the no-shows to attend a replay if you invite them to one.
13/ Survey and improve – Survey the participants immediately after the webinar and ask them how you can do better. Trust me, you can always improve.
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Photo credit: Leo Reynolds
Great post. I strongly agree with the 20-30 minute webinar – I find it’s hard to keep someone’s attention for a full hour these days.
I have a slightly different take on #6. I find that having an offer is good but only if related to the subject matter (e.g. white paper or e-book). Otherwise, you get people attending for the wrong reasons. So, upfront #s may be good, conversion rates lower.
People want something in exchange for their time, but the “something” is good content, in my opinion.
Finally, to point #9, I find the best results for me is when I have the title/abstract clearly identify whether content is educational vs. sales pitch. Some people are perfectly happy to hear a sales webinar, some aren’t ready or interested. People don’t like the bait and switch.
Hi Amrita – Thanks for the comment.
I agree with you on #6 that it’s better to have the offer relate to the subject matter.
When it comes to selling versus education, I’m in the sales camp. Most of the webinars I’ve done have had educational content but I’m always driving the folks toward taking the next step to move them along the sales cycle. It’s a bit of a dance. You can’t get people to show up to a webinar called “Please buy my stuff” (well some companies like Apple can), but at the same time, most smaller companies don’t have the budget or the time to spend on educating folks that won’t buy within the next year. The sales pitch can’t be everything but it can’t be absent either, imo.
April
Good stuff! Thanks….RT @aprildunford: Blog post – 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @aprildunford: Blog post – 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X -> nice list!
RT @aprildunford: Blog post – 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X (great advice as always – I fail on # 2 🙂 )
13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar : http://tinyurl.com/ycsmos2
April,
Jamie Wallace and I from SavvyB2B are doing a webinar tomorrow on webinar best practices. We cover many of the same concepts you touch on here. I will include your post in our collection of post event resources but your audience might want to check out our event also details at http://www.savvyb2bmarketing.com/blog/entry/508131/join-us-14-tips-to-rock-your-webinars
Hi Heather,
That’s great – thanks for letting me (and my readers) know!
April
13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar : http://tinyurl.com/ycsmos2
RT @aprildunford: Blog post – 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @jyamasaki: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://ping.fm/HQgCH
13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://ping.fm/HQgCH
RT @jyamasaki 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://ping.fm/HQgCH
RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://ow.ly/1aBym by @aprildunford #B2B
RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @LeadForce1: RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
Nice collection of webinar tips from Rocket Watcher: http://bit.ly/a31Tq3
Run a better webinar: http://cot.ag/cphI8D
RT @LeadForce1: RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @LeadForce1: RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @LeadForce1: RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @LeadForce1: RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
13 Ways to Run a Better Webinar http://is.gd/930Ph
13 Ways to Run a Better Webinar http://is.gd/930Ph
13 Ways to Run a Better Webinar | Rocket Watcher by April Dunford http://ow.ly/1aBym
RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
From @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar : http://tinyurl.com/ycsmos2
From Rocket Watcher 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @LeadForce1: RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @LeadForce1: RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @LeadForce1: RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @LeadForce1: RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @LeadForce1: RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
[…] 13 Ways to Run a Kick Ass Webinar […]
RT @KISSmetrics: 13 Ways to Run a Better Webinar http://klck.me/Abm /via @jyamasaki
13 Ways to Run a Better Webinar http://klck.me/Abm /via @jyamasaki
RT @LeadForce1: RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @LeadForce1: RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @LeadForce1: RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @KISSmetrics: 13 Ways to Run a Better Webinar http://klck.me/Abm /via @jyamasaki
13 ways to run a compelling webinar, so that you don't bore your poor audience half to death: http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
RT @aprildunford: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar http://bit.ly/d56f5X
April gives some outstanding advice!
RT @xuanthu: 13 Ways to Run a Kickass Webinar via @AprilDunford of Rocket Watcher: http://bit.ly/baqOKK #productmarketing #webinars
Good article – 13 ways to run a kick@$$ webcast: http://bit.ly/dypQDi
RT @HugofromSage: Good article – 13 ways to run a kick@$$ webcast: http://bit.ly/dypQDi
13 Ways to Run a Better Webinar http://bit.ly/b6vKwR
13 Ways to Run a Better Webinar | Rocket Watcher by April Dunford http://ow.ly/1xvfj
13 Ways to Run a Better Webinar! http://bit.ly/dmAMan
13 Ways to Run a Better Webinar! http://bit.ly/dmAMan