40% of Companies Hosting Webinars Say Attracting the Right Audience is Their Biggest Problem – Find Out Why

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Mike Agron

During one of my recent webinars where I discussed the actions B2B organizations need to take, before, during and after the webinar, I performed  a quick poll and and asked the audience what is their biggest challenge when it comes to producing and delivering a webinar:

a) Attracting the right audience and more of them
b)Engaging them during the webinar
c) Converting them from prospects into customers

40% of the votes said… Attracting the Right Audience, was hands down their #1 challenge.

This was not at all surprising, as today, it’s far more difficult that even 6 months to a year ago, to get the right eyeballs to register for your webinar.  Let’s face it, with all of the email noise from webinar invitations and social media updates, the novelty of attending a webinar no longer exists.

There are many reasons why businesses fail to attract the right audience and but…

Here Are the Three Biggest Reasons Why Many B2B Organizations Hosting Webinars Fail to Reach or Exceed Their Registration Goals

Reason #1: B2B Organizations are failing to target and refine their audience demographics to invite only those whose interests match the value proposition of their message.

For example, we recently completed a webinar for a technology company that’s listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. I never had such a difficult time attracting people to a webinar – and I’ve hosted, produced and moderated hundreds of webinars.

The company’s marketing team had us focusing on e-commerce professionals.  After the webinar, I had a feeling that we had to adjust the focus of our targeted audience and zero in on who exactly will resonate with the message of the webinar.

Before, we started planning for the second webinar in the series, I spoke to the head sales manager (so we can get the right direction this time.) He confirmed my belief by specifically requesting that we don’t invite anyone with ecommerce in their name or any technology people.

The sales manager is interested in high-tech hardware and software companies that he calls “born in the cloud” like Google or DropBox or companies that consider themselves cloud companies already with revenues between $50 million and $2 billion. And, he wants sales and marketing managers and directors who are pressure by their CEO to create a channel to go after the SMB market.

Now, we have a demographic who will resonate with our client’s value proposition. And, we’ll be able to market the webinars more effectively through a targeted email lead generation and a targeted LinkedIn lead generation campaign.

Reason #2 – They’re not making their webinar information a “must have”.

As I belong to or associate myself with a number of organizations like the Content Marketing Institute – my email inbox gets full with webinar invitations. I spend my days managing and marketing my clients’ demand generation webinars, talking to potential clients and creating strategic partnerships to provide my clients with even more value.

So I do NOT pay attention to the webinars that have information that is either “nice to have” or is a “nice reminder about the information I already know.” Most companies do not  spend time up front strategically selecting a topic that their audience is hungry to learn about. They keep trying to provide the same old, tired topics.

Reason #3: Most B2B webinars are not case study driven – and neither are their invitations.

By changing the invitation’s headline and email copy for another technology client to become case study driven – we were able to get more people signing up for the free webinar than the 3 previous invitations combined.

In the invitation headline, we mentioned “Case Study” and included the result our client’s customer achieved. In the email body we described the challenge the customer was experiencing (and what it was costing the customer so potential webinar attendees will see the pain and want to join.)  And, we described in more detail the results the customer achieved. We then added the call-to-action to register for the webinar to see the step-by-step process that will solve the attendees problems.

Your Next Steps…
There are other tips and positive outcomes that I’m excited and plan to share on a webinar series I’m doing with the Content Marketing Institute and Citrix GoToWebinar. I’ll be using real world examples and case studies. For example, I’ll show you how…

  • The Friedman Group targeted and attracted an audience of decision makers including a Big Box store that became a $1M deal.
  • How a major brand introduced a new category to educate the market of C and executive level prospects of which 15%-20% immediately engaged with sales and the balance were put into a longer term nurturing campaign.
  • How Knovel, a provider of web based analytics firm attracted the right audience before the webinar and after the webinar with 80% of the audience becoming fresh, hot new sales leads.

Register for my webinar now and to obtain a free copy of my award winning eBook “WebinarReady – A Step-by-Step Guide to Hosting Successful Webinars”.

To register go to: http://tinyurl.com/webattractwebinar

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Demand Generation Webinar Case Study – A Post-Event Review of the WebAttract/ReadyTalk Webinar

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Mike Agron

I always say that anyone can deliver a mediocre webinar, but to deliver an amazing webinar it takes thoughtful planning, nurturing and execution.  To get the results you want from your demand generation webinar efforts, you need to devote the necessary time to get the messaging right, create an engaging, impactful delivery, and attract an audience who will be interested in talking to you after the webinar.

Today, I’m going to show you in detail what it takes to produce successful lead generation webinars by sharing a detailed review of my latest webinar with ReadyTalk. And, I’m going to show you how we overcame 3 key challenges that all lead generation webinars have no matter the industry. The three challenges I uncovered while producing and moderating hundreds of B2B webinars for leading global and emerging brands including Citrix and GE-Intel Care Innovations are:

Challenge #1: Attract the right audience.

Challenge #2:  Keep the audience engaged and stimulated with valuable information.

Challenge #3:  Inspire the audience to want to have a conversation after the webinar to forge a business relationship.

Here’s How WebAttract & ReadyTalk  Attracted the Right Audience

Since our webinar topic was how to manage and deliver webinars, we wanted to attract an audience that was interested in learning best practices. To do that we had to:

  • Make sure our webinar topic is a “must have” and not a “nice to have.” We spent hours up front strategically selecting a topic that our audience was hungry to learn about.
  • We created a compelling email subject line. Your goal is to have people register! This recent webinar subject line for a client of mine garnered over 1,000 registrants:  “Experts reveal 4 critical engineering leadership skills to improve profitability.”

Our email invite copy was focused on the challenge  of attracting the right audience.  The results to our first online poll prove that we had attracted the right audience.

We asked, “What are your biggest webinar challenges?” With 67% of the audience participating, these were the instant poll results:

  • Attracting the right audience — 40%
  • Converting prospects to customers — 40%
  • Engaging the audience — 20%
  • Other — 0%

How I Kept the Audience Engaged During the WebAttract & ReadyTalk Webinar

During the webinar, I moved quickly through my points, using slides to focus on one major point at a time.  I used my voice to create a connection with the audience, and I actually smiled and used my hands, just as I would during a face-to-face conversation.

I really cares about my topic and I wanted that to project to my audience.  Audiences want to learn something new, and in this particular webinar, we kept them engaged by presenting a step-by-step overview of the webinar planning life cycle and threw in plenty of best practices.

 How I Inspire the Audience to Have a Conversation With Me After the Webinar

Webinar attendees are in various stages of the sales cycle. The world of sales keeps evolving, and based on our own observations, as well as conversations with other demand gen experts, it seems today, that a majority of B2B buyers prefer to do their research online before speaking with a live salesperson. The good news is that they might be attending your webinar because they’re interested in your topic and your company. They may be in the initial stage of collecting information, or looking to make a product choice and issue a PO.

When you watch the on-demand recording of the webinar, you’ll see the value I provided. Because we focus on solving specific challenges for our webinar attendees – and not selling our service, and because of the positioning of the information on the webinar that was filled with case studies and because we added a call-to-action at the end, CMOs and other decision makers wanted to have a further conversation with me.

Watch the WebAttract & ReadyTalk webinar now

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Webinar Best Practice Tip – To Mute or Not to Mute, is that the Question?

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Mike Agron

In a webinar or any virtual meeting, the quality of the audio and “how you sound” can make or break your ability to connect with your audience.  I also say a well delivered webinar is like a radio show with pictures, it needs to deliver meaningful content that is fast paced and well choreographed to keep the audience engaged, etc.  As in radio, dead air or awkward silences will drag a great production down.

Regardless of how compelling the content is, if there’s one minor, yet recurring complaint from webinar attendees, is that poor audio will adversely impact their experience from simply being annoying, to dropping off completely.  All that hard work to first attract them and then get them to attend is forever lost.

Its no different than going out for a meal and only to have the entree not prepared the way you ordered it, or the soup to arrive late, it can mar or ruin your experience.

Many times the poor audio is actually on the attendee’s end, from a slow internet connection, that makes the sound robotic and choppy, to other issues out of the control of the webinar producer.  But they don’t know that or care where the root cause is.

Sometimes though, the problem is squarely on the side of the panelists especially when unwanted background noises from typing on a keyboard (why would a speaker do this during a live webinar is beyond my comprehension, but they do!), dogs barking, the weed whacker by your window, cell phones going off, heavy breathing and a myriad of other disturbances….if your microphone can hear it, the chances are, so will your audience.

That raises the practice of using the “mute function” to keep all of these background noises off the webinar, and whether or not that is using the muting capability of your webinar hosting platform, or activating the switch on your VoIP or land line headset, it can be risky from both a human factors and technology perspective.

The biggest  human factor problem is the speaker that gets so excited when it is their turn to speak, that they forget to “un-mute” themselves, get on a roll, and what does the audience hear…..dead awkward silence.

Worse is when the technology doesn’t cooperate….. which always seems to happen when you are live and can least afford to have it happen.  You keep clicking on the microphone or telephone icon, and you continue to stay in the muted state.

Sometimes the  moderator or another panelists will try to send a “chat” to the speaker to let them know to unmute themselves, other times it’s too late and the connection with the audience is lost.

Having done hundreds of webinars myself, I’ve often fallen victim to this, and it can be unnerving once you realize what has happened and attempt to recover.

My advice is whenever practical,  to avoid using the mute function, and:

1. Find a quiet place to do your webinar from so you won’t have to mute.

2. Have all cell phones and non essential apps turned off, especially the Outlook reminders that pop up every 15 minutes.

3. If you do have to mute, to clear your throat, cough or sneeze, or to take a drink of water, make sure once you’ve handled your issue, to un-mute yourself.

For more information on other audio best practices, download a free copy of our eBook, “The Five Things You Must Know About Webinar Audio” or “WebinarReady – A Step-by-Step Guide to Hosting Successful Webinars”, and I’d love to get your feedback and thoughts on to mute or not to mute.

Enjoy,

Mike

 

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10 Tips to Improving the Connection with your Webinar Audience

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Lori Dearman

A webinar is a great vehicle for thought leadership and demand creation, but what separates the ho hum webinars from the home run webinars?

While delivering valuable and timely information is key to a home-run webinar, it simply isn’t enough to hold the audiences’ interest and spark that curiosity to learn more. The real challenge is how to connect with your audience.

Having moderated hundreds of webinars, here are some strategies that I use as sure-fire connection builders. I’d love to hear what’s been successful or not so successful for all of you!

1.    Use attendees’ names early and often
Monitor the chat/Q and A and verbally respond back to what you see there. No incoming chats? No problem. Just pick a few names from the attendee list and offer a warm hello to them and all the others on the event.  Starting off with interaction helps get off on the right foot.

2.    Invite questions throughout
Be sure to tell attendees how to ask questions and specifically invite them to submit questions right from the start. It is also important to let attendees know when and how you’ll be dealing with questions that are coming in.

3.    Tell attendees about who else is in the audience
Attending a webinar can feel isolating. Help create community by giving some simple demographics based on information that you have gathered through the registration process. Poll your audience on something that they might like to know about each other. Sharing poll data is another great way to create connection and let them know that they are not alone in whatever challenges they might be addressing.

4.    Leverage social media
Leverage social media by offering a hashtag or a Facebook page for the event so that attendees can tweet and connect offline. You and any of the speakers on the event can also participate in this post-event dialog. Remember that the webinar is just the start of the connection and conversation.

5.    Deliver on what you have promised
Review the promotional material and be sure that you are delivering on what you have outlined in the invitation to the event. A webinar is most often the start of your relationship with a client or prospect and delivering on what you have promised is the first and most critical step in establishing trust and thought leadership.

6.    Offer anecdotes and concrete examples
Share anecdotes or real life examples of the points that you  are making.  People attend a webinar to access experts they wouldn’t normally be able to hear from. Be sure that the you  are going beyond the theory and giving practical tips and ideas.

7.    Offer engaging visuals and lots of white space
A large part of the key to connecting is getting the audience to tune in and listen. If the slides are cluttered with too much text, you’ll lose the audience as they start reading, or worse, they may become frustrated and simply check out. Take time to review your slides and challenge yourself to create more white space and include more engaging graphics.

8.    Use voice variation and dialog to engage attendees
One thing that I love about webinars is that I can present to hundreds of people while wearing my bunny slippers (Ok, so I don’t really own bunny slippers, but you get the idea.), but the flip side is that the audience is not a captive one. In an instant, they can be off surfing the web, checking email, or playing on their smart phones.

Use your voice to its fullest by gesturing and smiling as you speak, create a dialog between two speakers or speaker and moderator to keep up the energy and hold the attention of your audience. Finally, steer clear from reading a script. Reading a script is the fastest way to lose an audience. Notes are fine, but reading word for word is not. I’d even go so far as to record your dress rehearsal and listen to it so that you can hear how you sound.

9.    Leave time for live Q and A
Holding a live Q and A allows attendees to hone in on what interests them most. It gives an opportunity for a two-way dialog between expert and attendee, and it gives insight in terms of what the attendees are  focusing on.  During the Q and A don’t miss this opportunity to put tip #1 into practice and use attendees’ first names as you address each question.

10.    Follow up is key
Always lay out how you plan to follow up on unanswered questions and then stick to the plan. Following up when you say you will is a great way to delight attendees and enter into an ongoing conversation that could mean a conversion from lead to customer. Attendees who have asked questions are engaged, so be sure plan how you will execute this step well before you go live.

When it comes to connection, the devil is in the details. If you take care of these details, you’ll delight your audience and be well on the way to establishing trust and laying the groundwork for an ongoing conversation. May all of your webinars be a home run!

Do you have any tried and true strategies to add to the list?

Lori Dearman|Executive Director of Production|WebAttract

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Posted in Engaging Your Audience, Interactive Polls & Surveys for Impactful Webinars, Webinars As Part of Social Media | Leave a comment

[Webinar] Managing the Webinar Life Cycle: From Start to Finish + Free New eBook

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Mike Agron

Whether your a seasoned hand at producing webinars, or looking for a fresh take to get even better results from your demand generation efforts, please join me as I’ll be speaking on this week’s ReadyTalk Webinar Series on Wednesday 3.27.13 from 11am pdt – noon pdt.

You can register for this complimentary webinar by clicking here, and during the webinar, all attendees will receive instructions for downloading our new eBook for ReadyTalk,  “Managing the Webinar Life Cycle: From Start to Finish”.

My goal is to share not only our best practices and metrics for bench marking successful outcomes, but to have each attendee leave with some new information to help supercharge their webinars to drive increased demand and engagement.

Thanks,

Mike

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Posted in Attracting Your Audience, Audio Best Practices, Converting Prospects Into Customers, Email Marketing for Webinar Audience Recruitment, Engaging Your Audience, Interactive Polls & Surveys for Impactful Webinars, Post Webinar Follow Up, Post-Webinar Opportunity Creation using Voice Prospecting, Webinars for Demand Generation, Brand Awareness and Thought Leadership, Welcome to WebAttract Webinars | Leave a comment