As talked about in my last post, webinars have been growing in popularity as they help educate prospects and help marketers qualify those prospects.
CONSENSUS™ somewhat bumbled through our first webinar, then improved processes for our second, and then developed a solid system by our third. I want to share some of the best webinar practices that we found along the way:
Guest Speakers:
We typically have our CEO or Chief Sales Officer present with a guest speaker on our webinars. Our guest speakers are usually thought leaders in the sales industry. Find an influencer in your company’s industry and look into getting them to host a webinar with you. There are two huge benefits to this approach:
- Their Following Becomes Yours: Influencers have their own dedicated following, which means that their whole following has now become a new potential audience for your webinar. Also, because they’re already dedicated to that influencer, they’re more likely to register for the webinar – as opposed to a colder contact who has no relation to your company or the speakers.
- Trusted Source: Promoting with an influencer means two things:
- People are more likely to trust that it is a worthwhile event to attend, since there is a reputable name attached.
- Your company becomes associated with this trusted source; helping your company build credibility and new trust.
Use Poll/Survey Questions:
The best way to keep your audience engaged is to sprinkle some poll or survey questions throughout the webinar. We use GoToWebinar, which allows you to create questions and ask them whenever you want throughout the presentation. You can also share the results with your audience. Asking the right questions will give you insight on what sort of audience you’re pulling in, and if it’s the right one.
Make Sure a Webinar Recording is Available:
Lots of people sign up for webinars, already expecting to not make the event. Why? Because they know that a recording will be available. This is hardly a loss for you, the marketer. They have already registered, and are actually more likely to pay better attention to the webinar when they can watch it at their own convenience (and rewind pieces they really like!). The only con is that they can’t answer poll questions or ask questions themselves during the webinar. So be sure to send out a recording to all registrants and attendees after the event.
What have you A/B tested with your webinars, and what have you found to work best? Of course, using poll questions in a webinar is easier to implement than getting a guest speaker on board, but testing out new approaches is the best way to optimize your webinar for both yourself, and your audience.
