Webinar Marketing - Make it More than a Sales Pitch
Mark Rice
Conducting webinars can build awareness for your company, differentiate your products and services from the competition, create new leads and help retain your customer base. However, producing a customer webinar requires planning and strategy. Many companies, even large corporations, put on poorly run webinars. It all comes down to proper planning. Just because someone gives you a hammer doesn’t mean you know how to build a house.
Webinars are a production that requires scripting, direction and careful planning. I have seen many webinars where a company loads PowerPoint slides and proceeds to engage the participant in a page turning exercise. You have to be careful to not make your webinar a “sales pitch.” Participants will turn you off quickly.
Show how your product or service can be a solution to the issue you are addressing. Bring in a subject matter expert or an existing customer to speak about how your product or service solved their business challenge. Deliver a valuable webinar session with information that customers can use and that allow you to talk about your offerings at the end or send a thank-you note with follow-up information and links to your website. Microsoft cleverly holds a demonstration directly after its webinars, offering a 14-day trial.
There are many best practices that have been developed through the years to actively engage your participants and hold their interest. Make sure you practice with your speakers and perform a dry run before going live. Seek assistance from your conferencing vendor or a consultant in the industry if you need some guidance on your first webinar. Practioners in the industry are aware of many tips and tricks to plan and deliver a successful webinar.
Just like the in-person conference world, you want to get “butts in seats.” Selection of registration tools is key to running a successful webinar. Registration tools allow you to send “reminder” and “thank you” email notifications to your participants. These processes help you boost the registrations for your webinars.
Depending on the size of your business and your budget there are many services you can choose from. The easiest way to get started is to sign up for a free trial and start using web collaboration software. Some companies provide free training. You will have to put up with a sales call or email from a sales rep, but it’s worth the effort.
It is best to try the software out with a colleague or partner first. Once you become familiar with the collaboration features, you might invite one of your customers online and present some relevant content. Most programs provide a feature to send an email invitation ahead of time. Make sure you prep your participants so they have time to download a plug-in or test their browser in the web collaboration environment.
Whatever line of business you are in, web collaboration tools can help you be more productive, drive leads, train staff, communicate to employees/partners and open a new world to your business. You don’t have to be a Fortune 500 company to enjoy the immediate benefits of web collaboration. That next opportunity might be right around the corner or it might be across a continent. You can be ready to connect and communicate if you equip your business with a web collaboration service.
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