April
8, 2020
5 min read
The opinions expressed by the entrepreneur's contributors are their own.
The following excerpt is from The Content Marketing Handbook by Robert W. Bly. Buy it now on Amazon | Barnes & Noble or click here to buy it direct from us and SAVE 60% in this book if you use code MARKET2021 by 04/03/21.
Webinars have long been an effective tactic for content marketing. Your prospects can hear you speak and see your slides right on their computer screens. A typical sales funnel for a content marketing campaign with a free webinar is: Set up a webinar registration page. Go to the registration page with an email invitation. Hold the webinar. At the end of the webinar, make a special offer with emails reminding attendees and registrants of the special offer.
The biggest problem with webinars is that more and more companies are producing them. That means the web is overcrowded with them, making it harder to get attention for your event. Create your visual webinar presentation like a high quality sales letter, including all of the elements that lead to a sale being closed.
Schedule sales tracking early on. Too often, a great webinar or teleseminar is wasted of work and money because leads are not followed up quickly. Don't make this mistake. It is better to over-prepare for the follow-up by automating and reporting as much as possible to review the process and track the results. After all, most of the time the most important metric for the webinar is the revenue associated with the event.
Here are eight other methods you can use to improve your webinars:
1. Use a topic that will attract attendees
Which topic is likely to attract more participants: a] “How do I buy our product now?” Or b] “Make your business life easier with new strategies”? If you said b] because it was useful, you are right.
As you test different topics, you will find that the promise of an interesting, timely, and educational webinar is best. Your presentation should be "solution-oriented". Therefore, give participants practical ways of solving their problems. This topic should of course coincide with the ultimate goal of your presentation: training, lead generation or product launch.
2. Research to target the right people
It would be impractical for me to market a teleseminar on the topic of “Entering the e-book writing business” to people who have already been successful e-book authors. I need to look for forums, chat rooms, email groups, or e-zine lists aimed at the beginning e-book writer. Once you've found an interesting topic, create a sales follow-up plan and from there create your event marketing plan.
3. Temper your attendance expectations
You should expect an issuance rate of around 30 percent of those who register for a free webinar.
If your numbers are well below that, be sure to keep day and 24 hour reminders by email. Invite more prospects to your event and invite them multiple times.
4. Use polling questions
Most of the leading webinar platforms allow you to pre-load interactive survey questions into a presentation. You can collect participant-specific data that can help you adapt this and the next webinar. Ask things like:
What are you most interested in about this webinar? What is your biggest challenge today? Where are you in the buying process? Would you like more information about our new technology?
5. Crafting to meet specific needs
You can create a webinar to meet any content requirement such as:
Education Marketing EventsList or Database Creation EventsOne Too Many Sales TalksThe Thought Leadership EventsCustomer Education SurveysSales or Resale EventsThank You or Loyalty Events
For example, consider hosting database building webinars to replenish the top of your sales funnel. Other webinars help keep your prospects and customers informed over time, which in turn helps you achieve your marketing, sales, and organizational goals over the long term.
Choose your technology with your overall goal in mind. You want a reliable web conferencing solution that is compatible with a wide variety of operating systems. It should be scalable to the size of your audience and include the features you are looking for: query, question and answer, and recording. My favorite is Webex.
6. Focus on live events first
There are many reasons for this, including using survey questions, being able to answer live questions, and the immediacy and excitement attendees generate from attending a live event.
You can always use a presentation-only recording of a webinar as a sales tool on your website, but the live events really create relationships and build your business quickly.
7. Inspire and motivate perspectives
Have your attendees try to buy or contact you for more information. Also, consider offering a limited time webinar attendee offer to add extra stimulus and urgency to your call to action. This can be a simple yet effective way to get more results from your webinars. If you are hosting a training webinar followed by a sales presentation, encourage them to move on for "more information on how to use [your product or service] the information presented".
8. Talk to energy
Be enthusiastic. Your exuberance and friendly personality can inspire and motivate your attendees. Participate in conversations and make them comfortable enough to ask questions once you've turned on chat or Q&A. Have fun with your presentations!
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