So you’re running a top of the funnel webinar program…now what?
Better than 60% of B2B marketers run TOFU webinar programs.
It is a cost effective way to drive awareness and leads, but what is the best way to approach this super cost effective and totally awesome way to drive leads to your organization? Here are my suggestions.
Don’t do too much!
As marketers we recognize that those TOFU prospects or ‘suspects” are really not that into you.
Layering your webinar that is supposed to provide the top 10 ways to improve insert your value proposition here with reasons that your product does better than everyone else or 30 minutes of awesome thought leadership followed by a demo of your platform is…well…too much!
It’s like your sales force calling someone, introducing the business and the value proposition and then asking them to sign a contract. Too much!
Answer their questions!
The most effective lead magnet we ever ran was the Webinar Report Card: View the Webinar Report Card Here
The Webinar Report Card started as a really well thought out piece of thought leadership.
Prospects and customers who filled it out would input their current webinar data points and we would grade them and then provide best practices on how to improve on their numbers.
Our suggested improvements are based on data from some 13,000 webinars and interviews with the top performing customers in specific business demographics.
The folks at Demand Metric who helped us build the report card first suggested we do a survey of our audience to determine the maturity of their webinar program. Knowing what we knew, we decided to back away from that idea and instead ask one question before we gave them their report card
What would you like to improve about your webinar program?
The #1 answer was – audience engagement!
As a result we built an entire year’s worth of webinar/thought leadership strategy around improving engagement…
How Top Marketers Drive ROI with Their Webinar Programs
Collaborate whenever you can
The simple fact about collaborating with other companies or speakers is that you expand your potential audience by having multiple people promote your webinar. But there are other benefits to the collaboration.
One of the most successful webinars we ever did was the “Art of storytelling” with Ron Tite. See more here in Better Webinars – Season 2.
Ron is a tremendous presenter, has an amazing stage presence and a huge social media following. He drove some prospects to us based on the simple fact that he was speaking on our webinar, but the best thing he did for us was tailor his presentation to the webinar format.
Same thing happened when Yoav Shwartz of Uber Flip came into our studio. He delivered his normal presentation, but because he was presenting a webinar, he tailored his message to our audience.
Give them the 90%
The Streaming Network had a lot of early success.
In our second year we were named to the Rogers Profit Hot 50 list as the 4th fastest growing company in Canada (or rather the 4th fastest growing company who applied for the honor!).
During the Growth Camp that they invited us to I took a session that would never forget.
It was called SEO for the CEO and was provided by RANKHIGHER, a vendor I worked with for many years and got great results.
But it was the presentation I remember!
The presenter walked into the room and handed me a package that I could give my marketing department with instructions that would get my company on the first page of a Google search. Then he said…
Being on the first page means nothing unless you are number 1.
So his document would help us get on the first page, which is pretty good, but getting to number 1 takes his company’s exceptional skills.
So I hired them.
And I got to number 1.
But I always remembered the presentation. What I learned. Why I hired him.
Then I met Tim Fergusson from Audience Communications and Events.
If you don’t know Tim, this story will really inspire you.
Tim and I went for sushi one day, and he told me the guiding principal under which he produces a company event.
He said that every employee coming to an event should be told the next year they need to pay to attend the same event…if they don’t pay the nominal fee of $50 0r $90 they cannot attend.
It isn’t about saving money, or funding the event, it is about the employees wanting to be a part of what is going on at said event.
The event needs to be that good.
I took that idea and applied it to my internal company events as well as my customers’ Webinars.
Remember this: Produce a show so good they would pay to come back and watch the next one!
Finally got to sit down with Peter Mansbridge
Well, I didn’t really sit down with Peter…but I met him.
I watched him interview two Prime Ministers. It was interesting to watch him handle them, while ensuring that his show stayed on schedule and made it to commercial when needed.
Peter is a legend, a Canadian hero and a great interviewer.
If you’re going to find a great thought leader internal or external….if you had Pete (I think he is Ok with me calling him Pete) to interview them…they will come across better than they would alone!
You may want to consider a moderator from your company who can manage the thought leader(s) and keep the discussion moving in a format that works for webinars.
Your Moment of Zen
I moderate a lot of webinars.
One of my things is asking the speaker to give us their moment of Zen. The thing they hope that every viewer gets from the presentation, if they could walk away with only one thing, what would it be?
In the end no matter how long the viewer spends watching the webinar, you need to remember/focus on your moment of Zen, that thing you want them to remember. Inspire them!
Hubspot increased MQL’s by over 30%
That is one of our moments of Zen.
That thing we can explain to any Marketer and prove beyond a single matter of fact is better than what they are doing.
It’s the data point that helps them justify working for you…that idea that anyone can implement and do better.
That thing we are good enough to teach them, but in the end if they deployed it with us, our platform and our team, it would garner them better results.
When you’re ready to be number 1, speak to our webinar experts.
