[webinars] cut out the yawns and increase sign-ups

8G’s: Harness the power of webinars

Webinar Guide

IntroductionWebinars are a great tool for leveraging your content marketing and generating qualified leads. They’re more convenient and less expensive than holding a real life event and can extend your geographic reach.

Webinars allow market experts to share a wealth of knowledge and encourage direct engagement through polls/Q&A sessions.

Getting your webinar strategy right will directly and positively impact the quantity and quality of your leads

Yet many B2B businesses are failing to take full advantage of the benefits webinars can bring. Why?

The most common reasons are poor implementation or not knowing how to get started.

To help you harness the full power that webinars can bring, we haveoutlined the 8Gs to creating a full proof webinar campaign.

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First things first, consider if a webinar is right for you and your business’ needs. Start with your marketing goals. Live product demos are ideal for incentivising existing leads to make a purchase, whereas thought leadership content such as training webinars and Q&A sessions are best for lead generation and customer retention.

Whatever your goal may be, you must bear in mind that the majority of online audiences lose interest after one hour (unless your goal is to discuss the best PokémonGo strategy) so a day long training seminar is futile!

Breakdown the topic into digestible 30-45 minute videos to avoid viewers losing interest.

To help with picking a topic, we would also suggest researching industry related webinars and speaking to sales/customer service teams to establish what your customers’ pain points are. Then review these internally to see if the topics resonate with key stakeholders.

Get a plan

G1

2G

Get organisedOnce you have established your goal and

picked a topic, you must decide on the logistics. Ask yourself the following questions:

What webinar platform will you use? Will it integrate with your marketing automation

system? Are there registration restrictions to your webinar platform?

Picking the right platform is vital to your campaign so make sure you choose one that is in line with your

marketing goals.

If you use Google Hangouts you’ll be restricted to just 10 sign ups - Not an appropriate platform for generating leads

but definitely one to consider for product demonstrations (customer retention).

ReadyTalk, WebEx, GoToWebinar, Webinars OnAir, Zoomand ON24 are a few webinar platforms that are available. To find the right webinar service for you, ask your marketing agency or use a comparison website.

REVIEW AND COMPARE

2GWhere will you record the webinar? Who will host

the webinar? Who will support the operational side of the webinar?

Picking the right location to present your webinar is

paramount. You will need somewhere quiet that doesn’t

allow for an echo, isfree from distraction,

and, of course, has excellent access to

the internet.

Recruiting the right speaker(s) and support team is also vital. You don’t want someone who has a voice that sends your viewers to sleep. Although, you also want to avoid somebody who has a strong accent or speaks too fast as viewers may struggle to understand them.

Webinars tend to have a lot of dependencies such as copy writers, designers and third party speakers that can impact deadlines. To avoid delay, create a project plan to ensure that the deliverables are achieved and everyone is aware of the production deadlines.

ProWorkflow, Basecamp, Slack and FunctionPoint are great tools that improve the collaboration of projects.

Pro tip: Feature an industry

expert to co-host your webinar. This will

attract more sign-ups and will expand your

social reach through affiliate

marketing.

2G

What time and day will you present the webinar? Will you hold a one-off online conference, two of the same session or a series of webinars?

Whether you have one or several, the time and date you pick is crucial to getting registrants to sign up - especially if you have a global audience. Avoid low turnouts by ensuring all of the major time zones in your target market can attend the event.

Do some research and be prepared to test days and times to find the optimal one for your audience.

Content needed

* Email (Promotional 1,2 and 3)

* Social suite* Slide deck* Webinar agenda

3GGet engaging

content

Use a compelling call to action (CTA) alongside an optimised form to ensure prospects register and that you attain the relevant data for your business goal.

Creating an optimised landing

page is fundamental to attracting

attendees, since this page is

where prospects will sign up.

Tracking codes and unique URLs should be used so you can establish where the leads come from. This will benefit you in the long run as it will teach you about your audience’s user journey.

The content used must be engaging and concise. Include 3-5 key points that summarise the key learnings from the webinar.

Pro tip: Optimise your thank you page by adding freemium content that is relevant to

your webinar topic

3GAvoid reciting your slides

word for word – stick to one point per slide and elaborate

around the subject (Lucky for you registrants can’t see you

during the presentation, so don’t stress about memorising

your script).

You could also improve your reach potential by adding social share links to the thank you page that have unique trackable URLs. Share Link Generator is a great

Create a compelling slide deck and write a strong script to go along side it. Keep the layout

and colour scheme consistent and remember, less is more,

so don’t clutter your slides with paragraphs of text.

Try to build an And don’t forget, visuals are your friend – use diagrams, relevant imagery and infographics to help portray your message.

emotional connectionand engage with registrants by using

personal anecdotes, genuine examples, polls and humour (No dad jokes please).

tool that allows you to do just this and lets you pre-populate the message of the post to give you control over the quality of the social post.

Stagger the marketing of your webinar using social media and email marketing. Oktopost, HootSuite and TweetDeck are excellent social publishing tools that will allow you to schedule your posts in advance.

Amplify your social promotion by using Oktopost’s employee advocacy board. The tool will leverage your social reach and encourages employees to share up to date content.

Create a webinar specific website, profile and company page banner to heighten the exposure of your event. Creative social post images will capture the attention of your online audience and unique trackable links should be used to establish exactly where your leads have come from.

4GGet social

Affiliate marketing is a great strategy to extend your online reach. Use industry influencers, third party speaker connections and partners to promote your webinar across their social profiles and company newsletters.

Dependent upon your webinar goal, why not create a LinkedIn group. This will allow you to publish content about your webinar, promote supporting material and generate discussions around your topic. If you don’t have time to create a group, join an existing one. However, ensure you check the group's purpose and how the members operate, as many groups tend to limit discussions to core business activities.

Maximise your campaign potential and use PPC. When targeting is used properly LinkedIn, Facebook, Google and Twitter are excellent tools for increasing exposure and generating high quality leads. Pulse posts and blog posts are other effective methods that generate registrants and enhance your thought leadership image.

4G

Pro tip: Utilise your third party speaker and get them to send

promotional emails to their database too. But don’t forget

to suppress against those who have already signed up to the event to avoid

spamming. 4G17% 23% 22% 24% 11% 2%

BEST DAY FOR PROMO EMAILSDays with the most registrants:

MON TUE WED THU FRI S/S

ON23 Webinar Benchmarks (2015)

Harness the power of marketing automation to send dedicated emails to your existing database. Most webinar campaigns involve sending 2-3 emails. These tend to go out two to one weeks prior to the webinar, then the day/hour before the go live date.

Act-On, HubSpot and Pardot are some of the few marketing automation systems that allow you to integrate with webinar platforms.

When scheduling promotional emails, you should consider the time and day they are sent. Research conducted by ON24 into Webinar Benchmarks (2015), established that the worst days to send B2B promotional emails are Monday, Friday and the weekend.

5G

Get ready for the big day

Assistants can be used to monitor live twitter posts, the Q&A box and polling questions. These people need to understand the subject matter so

that they can assist in answering the audiences’ questions. Assistants should also check that the polling questions are ready and have been

loaded into the platform before the go live date.

Have a dress rehearsal and practise until you are familiar with the software, script and presentation. Winging it is not the best idea! Check that:

Pro tip: Have a contingency plan. Technical difficulties can occur; the internet could drop out;or a presenter could fall ill. Make sure you have a plan in place in case any of these unfortunate situations occur.

The facilitator understands how to troubleshoot any issues, has checkedall the equipment is working and they are booked for the go live date.

Facilitators should also ensure the presenters know how to use thespeaker equipment (i.e. headset, telephone or conference speaker).

Presenter(s) have prepared the slides and the agenda, recognisethey must leave a few minutes for the audience to answer theirpolls and are familiar with using the equipment.

6G

Get the WOW factorIt’s D-day and today is all about making sure everything goes off without a hitch. Publish an eleventh hour tweet, schedule a final promotional email and dial in an hour before you go live. This way you can attract any last minute registrants and iron out any technical difficulties.

Let registrants dial in ten minutes before the webinar is due to start. This will allow for keen early birds to get settled and will ensure you to start on time.

Prior to the webinar starting, hit record and notify registrants that you will be starting soon.

Recording the webinar is essential as you can use the video for post-webinar promotion -plus it will give you an excellent piece of content that you can repurpose in the future.

MORNING

10 MINS TO GO

5 MINS TO GO

6G

If you used a designated hashtag forpromoting the webinar don’t forget to remindregistrants so they can engage with you onlineduring and after the webinar.

AT THE START OF

THE WEBINAR

Use the following housekeeping rules toguarantee a triumphant performance:✓ Don’t ignore your attendees. If people

join the webinar early, let them knowyou’ll be starting on time.✓ Be courteous. Present your agenda and

let participants know you will be usingpolling questions (and addressingquestions at the end).✓ Limit background noise. Avoid rustling

paper, use a coaster for your drink andmake sure all the windows are closed.✓ Speak slowly and clearly, and allow for

small breaks in between pollingquestions. Attendees will need time toread the question and respond.✓ Be gallant. Thank everyone for taking

time out of their day to listen to yourpresentation and make your slide deckavailable to participants.✓ Use a short post webinar survey to ask

for feedback. This will help the nextwebinar be more successful.

7G Repurpose your webinar:

‣ Create a post-webinar blog post‣ Upload the video to Vimeo and

YouTube‣ Add the slides to slideshare‣ Promote the recording on social

media.

You could also use the recording to create an in-depth white paper or a small piece of “snackable” content, such as an

infographic.

Get recycling

8GGet analytical

Evaluate your attendance and drop off data. If only a few people registered, then think about ways to improve your promotion strategy. If a lot of attendees disengaged after 10-15 minutes of your webinar starting, reconsider your topic and review whether the landing page truly reflected the message of your presentation.

Analyse your poll results and the questions raised during the webinar. This will teach you about your target audience and what their exact pain points are. Their comments may even highlight areas for producing other content.

The return on investment from your webinar will be determined by the length of your business's sales cycle.

So the key question you must ask yourself is: are the quality of leads derived from running a webinar of a satisfactory standard? This will then help you decide what to do differently, or the same, for your next webinar.

Final insights

Connect with us

Questions?

01189 001920We can help. Contact us at:

Or visit our website:www.sharpahead.com

Webinar Checklist

Determine your goal and pick a topic.

Select speakers, a webinar team and resources.

Pick a webinar platform.

Decide a location, pick a date and createa project plan.

Create an optimised reg and thank you landing page (Include a title, description,form, date and time, CTA, speaker bio,speaker headshot and social share links).

Produce a slide deck, webinar script, webinar hashtag and polling questions.

Create the webinar session and integrate the system with your landing page form.

Produce a social suite using your hashtag and trackable URLs. Then schedule the posts.

Design website and social banners, then upload them to relevant profiles.

(If you have time) create a LinkedIn group, blog post and pulse post.

Create promotional emails with trackable URLs and schedule them (Don’t forget to suppress against registrants to prevent spamming).

Upload the slide deck and polling questions to the webinar platform,

Dry run of the webinar. Check the equipment, audio andthe webinar team understand their role.

Send reminder emails complete with sign-in informationand, if applicable, your webinar hashtag.

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse! Check the equipment, audio and the webinar team understand their role.

Schedule a last minute tweet and email.

Record the webinar.

Follow and explain the relevant webinar housekeepingrules to registrants.

Send follow up email to attendees and add them tothe correct lists for future marketing.

Send follow up email to non-attendees and add them tothe correct lists for future marketing.

Repurpose the webinar and create “snackable” content.

POST WEBINAR

ON THE DAY

PRE WEBINAR: 2 WEEKS TO GO



Live tweet and respond to questions.

Update the landing page form and copy.

Analyse the webinar results (i.e. drop off rates, engagement, participation) and leverage findings.

Edit the video and upload it to video host (Vimeo/YouTube).Upload the slidedeck to Slideshare and your landing page.

Schedule post webinar promotion (Emails, social posts, blog etc).

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TO DO

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THAMES VALLEY OFFICEDavidson House, The Forbury,

Reading, RG1 3EU


YORKSHIRE OFFICE1 Mariner Court, Calder Business Park,Wakefield, WF4 3FL


[webinars] cut out the yawns and increase sign-ups

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