Many companies have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic in multiple ways, and one such area that has been majorly impacted is marketing. Typical promotional initiatives, like having a booth at an industry conference, have been either non-existent or extremely difficult to do over the last year.
However, this has also meant the emergence of more alternative and digital forms of outreach, like webinar marketing. Webinars have rapidly become a go-to strategy for businesses across all industries. In fact, according to GoToWebinar, 73 percent of B2B marketing and sales leaders find that webinars are the best way to generate high-quality leads.
Read on: 5 Effective Sales Strategies for Closing Deals Faster
If you’re considering implementing a webinar marketing strategy for your business, here are three factors to ensure success.
1. Registration and Production
The registration part of the event should last anywhere from one to three weeks. However, your goal here is to focus more on webinar marketing than anything else. You must consider the webinar topic, which includes mining blogs, checking social media, and finding out what webinars are already available.
When planning out your webinar, focus on the action you want people to take. That’s going to help you target everything to get the effect you seek.
For best results, you should plan and create your webinar long before you set up registration. Then a week or so before the event, promote it by using social media, your blog, newsletter, and anywhere else you can think of.
Don’t forget to organize the content, make sure the technology is ready to go (camera, audio checks, etc.), and create a registration page. Make it easy for people to register. And if you choose to charge for attendance, be sure to make it simple for people to submit payment.
Keep reading: 3 Ways to Enhance the Process of Qualifying Leads with AI and Personalization
The registration page can be also valuable on its own. Add some background content about your business, details about your offering and links to your social media to help drive interest in the company.
2. The Live Event
Next, it’s time to focus on the live event. It’s always a good idea to practice before you go live. Make sure you know what you’re going to wear, memorize your cue cards, and don’t forget to be natural and fun. Remember that you’re there to provide your audience with valuable content, while also trying to create a buzz for your company.
Webinars typically last for one hour, but the duration can go down or up depending on how efficiently you get through your content or if there are a lot of questions on your Q&A portion. As such, you may want to consider not listing an end time so that you can have some flexibility.
Be sure to also send reminders to your attendees on the day of your webinar. It’s common practice to have email reminders go out one hour before and when you go live. And on social media, schedule a few promo posts to reach additional followers interested in attending your webinar but who may not have registered yet.
Additionally, remember that audience interaction during your webinar is imperative. Encourage viewers to ask questions or network with others by using the chat.
3. Follow-Up
Once the live event is over, take a moment to relax and calm down. The buzz generated isn’t going away that soon. However, within the next few days, you should focus on what people said, the questions they had, and follow up with them.
The next day after your live event, consider sending a thank you email to everyone who attended. This shows your audience that you truly appreciated them taking the time to be there for your live event. For those who couldn’t make the webinar but had registered for it, send an email expressing that it’s unfortunate they couldn’t attend the event live and encourage them to keep in touch by directing them to your social media, blog, or a list of any upcoming webinars you might be holding in the future.
Read more: Ways IoT Is Changing Digital Marketing
Also, if you have a full recording of the webinar, be sure to link the video in your follow-up emails.
With the number of disruptions that businesses have experienced over the last year, it can be difficult to effectively execute and manage your marketing initiatives. Webinar marketing offers an ideal way to connect with audiences and drive leads during these uncertain times, and IoT Marketing can help ensure that you get the most out of these events.
To learn more about our comprehensive webinar production and marketing services, contact us today.