how to deliver an educational webinar …webinar goals •how to package your content for...
TRANSCRIPT
HOW TO DELIVER AN
EDUCATIONAL WEBINAR
THAT SELLS
Presented by: Scott Zarret, CPA
President
CPAacademy.org
CPAwebengage.com
Scott Zarret, CPA
• Over 2,000 webinars hosted (800 in 2015)
• Worked with 250+ presenters
• Processed more than 1,100,000 hours of CPE credits via live
webcast
• President of CPAacademy.org, an online education company with
125,000+ members
• 20+ years of experience in the accounting industry
• 10+ years of experience offering webinars
Webinar Goals
• How to package your content for “edu-sales”
• How to properly plan and prepare for your
webinar
• How to deliver a webinar that engages your
audience “live”
• How to properly follow up with your audience
• How often should you provide your webinar
• How do we measure success?
POLLING QUESTION
Education -> Thought Leadership -> Sales
Getting There
• What makes a webinar successful?
• How long should it take to become “successful”?
• How much time and money will you have to invest?
• How will I be able to measure that success?
• How do I get started?
What Makes a Webinar Successful?
• Ingredients
– Getting the right people to your class
– Putting on a great presentation
– Using the data
– Following-up (Selling)
• Sales
– Immediate sales (short term)
– Company branding (long term)
POLLING QUESTION
Types of Webinars
• Content Marketing
• Sales Webinars (demo)
Best Practices for Webinar Planning
Who Should Teach The Webinar
• Owner of the company
• Sales/marketing person
• Independent third-party
o Clients
o Independent reviews
Teaching Style
What you need to get started
Getting
Started
Key Best Practices
PowerPoints
Provide to attendees in advance (you want them to take notes)
Check for typos
Don’t use a dark background
Use notes / transcriptions / numbered slides
Enticing upsell
Don’t assume they’ll “figure it out”
Make it easy to try / test the product or service
Share comments from the audience
Use a moderator to answer questions
Email a “thank you” to your participants
Timely follow-ups
Phone calls and emails
Gather and use the data
Have a back-up plan
Invite to a subsequent date
Provide the archived recording of your webinar to make it easy to pass along
Be willing to make changes to your webinar
• Filter out people with whom you should not follow-up
• Gather data from:
– Registration form
– Questions asked during the session
– Evaluations
– Polling questions
Data 1: Marketing
POLLING QUESTION
• 1 hour webinar – 50 min education required / 10 min Q&A
• 1.5 hour webinar – 75 min education required / 15 min Q&A
• 2 hour webinar – 100 min education required / 15 min questions
and end early – optional 5-10 min break
Polling Questions
Data 3: Feedback and Testimonials
• Provide downloads that you can reference during the
presentation that also serve as artifacts attendees may want to
save/use after the webinar
• Direct attendees away from the PowerPoint slides and to your
website, but not too soon
• Provide access to an archived video of your webinar and ensure
attendees know how to access it
• Make sure there is clarity on the “next steps” following the
webinar
A Few Additional Tips and Tricks
Examples of the upsell
Game Day Timeline
• 30+ min before the webinar – all login to software and perform a test of audio and visuals
• 5 minutes before the start time: Presenter performs a screen share
• 5 minutes before the start time: Moderator and presenters make small talk while people are signing in to the session (example: discuss presenter's background and ask basic questions about the webinar)
• Start webinar on time. Moderator kicks off the webinar to discuss CPE requirements (2 minutes)
• Presentation begins (moderator launches polls)
• Allow 10-15 min for Q&A
• Within 24 hours: • Follow-up email is sent
• Issue CPE and posts the archived session.
• Review details of the attendees and follow-up
Post Webinar
• Were there any surprises
• Do you know how to use the report we sent so that you can sort through using Excel filters
• Were you happy with registration numbers and the people who attended?
• What did you think of the feedback on the evals (what are the take-aways)
• Do you think the session should be more or less salesy
• Were you happy with the intro, polls, question and answers
• Did you think the length of the class was ideal
• What would you want to do differently the next time
• Were you happy with the level of audience interaction
• What else might you want to do with the promo
• Would you want to use the webcam, the next time
POLLING QUESTION
How We Work
We:
• Advertise your classes to 350,000+ CPAs and
accountants via regular email blasts
• Host webinars using our GoToWebinar account
• Moderate the webinar if desired
• Issue CPE credit
• Provide you with complete data about the audience,
including contact information, answers to polling
questions, evaluations, and questions asked
• Charge only for those who attend, in addition to a
standard set-up fee
• Charge for optional dedicated email blasts