Summary of June 17, 2010 #B2Bchat Session
Webinars are an important part of the B2B demand generation toolkit. What advice do marketers have when it comes to producing, promoting, and following up on webinars? We put this question to our #B2Bchat audience in our latest session. Here is what the experts had to say:
Q. What are innovative ideas of promoting webinars?
- Schedule the webinar on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. 9am Pacific (noon Eastern) was cited as a preferred time. An alternate strategy would be to schedule webinars when others aren’t being held, e.g. Fridays, to avoid competition.
- Send a voicemail service reminder to registrants the day before.
- Use social media to promote via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Place reminders on your corporate site and banners on industry publications.
- To increase attendance, send email reminders 7 days, 3 days and 1 day prior.
- Offer a short video preview.
- Offer a prize draw for attendees.
- Average webinar attendance ranges from 30% to 70% depending on industry and qualifications of registrants.
- Many people actually prefer viewing on demand, after hours; it allows for fast-forwarding, pausing and skimming.
- When offering an Outlook calendar invite, make sure to set the reminder. Many default to “no reminder.”
Q. How can marketers leverage Twitter with webinars?
- Tweet before, during and after the webinar.
- For sharing the tweet transcript post-event, www.wthashtag.com is GREAT. Just make sure you register & describe the tag beforehand. www.wthashtag.com will summarize tweets and also illustrate via bar chart who your top tweeters were, so you know who to thank.
- Prepare a few canned tweets based on content ahead of time to get the conversation going.
- Have designated Twitterer, and expert to answer questions.
- Don’t forget the twitter hashtag. Have it on all slides for latecomers. And the host should determine, create and promote the hashtag far in advance, or someone else might.
Q. What are some of the biggest mistakes that marketers make when producing webinars?
- Not sufficiently promoting the event in advance
- Not sharing the content afterwards
- Droning on about “company capabilities” esp. if at the beginning
- Saying “on this slide”
- Not following up with attendees
- Not inviting people to submit questions in advance
- Not leaving enough time for Q&A. 1/3 of the total webinar time should be alloted for this.
Q. What is the best way to follow up after a webinar?
- Send a short email to attendees referencing the highlights from the webinar and Q&A, plus link to the recording.
- Follow up on survey results. If someone provides very interesting comments, write back personally.
- Send info on the next webinar.
- Whatever follow-up activity, the presenter should set the expectation. If a rep. is going to call, tell them so in advance.
Q. What will webinars look like in 5 years?
- Webinars will be more interactive, include things like instant polls, widgets, integrated payments and social media capabilities.
- There will be less PowerPoint and more video.
- Audiences may be smaller, but more specialized.
- Mobile devices will play a bigger role.
Join us again this week for #B2Bchat – Thursday, June 24 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern (5:00 p.m. Pacific). Follow @B2B_chat for updates.
About the B2Bblogger: Andrew Spoeth is an independent marketing consultant who specializes in B2B demand generation. He most recently worked as the marketing director at Enquiro, one of North America’s leading search marketing agencies. You’ll also find Andrew speaking at industry events, co-moderating the weekly #B2Bchat series on Twitter, and blogging at MarketingFinger.com. You can follow him on Twitter at@andrewspoeth.
