A successful marketing Webinar series can educate your prospects on your company’s uniqueness, create a competitive advantage, dramatically increase lead flow, and drive sales. Sadly, most Webinar producers who try to create a series for the first time make common mistakes, and the series fails to reach its objectives. Their company misses an opportunity for advantage in the marketplace, and the Webinar producers look bad in front of their peers and managers.

Whether you want to produce a marketing or training Webinar series, there are certain strategies and tactics that work time and again, regardless of your target audience or size of your organization and budget.

This series, Create and Run a Winning Webinar Series, will help you get things right virtually every time and make sure your Webinar series is a continued success.

Key questions answered include:

• What are best practices for creating and maintaining a successful series of Webinars, and what are the common mistakes to avoid?
• How can you get more interest and increase attendance to your Webinar events by using social media marketing?
• How can you tap into the strategic power of a series to accomplish more?
• What is the easiest way to build better, more engaging content so attendees come back again and again?
• What’s working for leading organizations that are doing Webinar series? (Learn from specific examples, tactics, and strategies.)

A note to the reader before we get started: we focus primarily on live Webinars, one-to-many seminars delivered online for marketing and sales purposes.

We recommend recording those Webinars and promoting the on-demand version as well. Recordings can boost the total number of Webinar viewers by 40% or more.

PART 1: Stepping Up Your Game with a Winning Webinar Series

“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile-driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time.”
- Sir Winston Churchill

There has been a marketing revolution over the past 1 0 to 15 years. In our world of 24/7 media and Web 2.0, the old marketing strategies don’t work, and those that are early adopters or fast-followers of a strategy like a Webinar series will gain more sales leads, clients, and, potentially, even a competitive advantage.

Consider these recent successes with a variety of Webinar series.

A Technology Products Firm Becomes the Leader in Its Niche and Grows
Sales 70% per Year over Consecutive Years

A small products company wanted to cost-effectively position itself in a defined marketplace and generate new contacts in its marketing database with opt-in email addresses. So it collaborated with complementary vendors and media firms and created a monthly Webinar series.

The company was able to achieve its objectives with its series, including creating a list of 40,000 email names and also followed up with more product-focused Webinars, which fueled the compound growth of the company for years.

A Small Services Firm Becomes the Market Leader with Quarterly Thought-
Leadership Webinars

A small services firm desired to get beyond its lead service and demonstrate its expertise by featuring its full range of services in the marketplace. It created a quarterly Webinar series targeting decision makers with content on diverse topics that matched its new areas of competence.

The result: it added new clients for all its services. It also broadened the positioning of the company to diversify its portfolio of offerings in the market.

A Mid-Size Global Products and Services Company Repositions Its Firm from a stagnant Market to a Growth Sector with the Help of a Multi-Faceted Webinar Series

A geographically dispersed communications management firm with clients in Europe and North America had gone to market with the same message for 10 years. Additionally, its core target market stopped growing and even started to shrink, so the company knew it needed to reach new markets.

It decided to reposition the company around a rising global trend in communications and developed a benchmarking study of market use, issues, and management. To relaunch its products and drive thought-leadership around this new position, the company launched an aggressive Webinars series with as many as three Webinars a day. Fueled in part by the series, the company now has new momentum and-greater sales – in short, a whole new life. As these three success stories suggest, a Webinar series, if done well, can literally be a game-changing strategy for your organization.

Consider that others have used Webinar series to:

• Launch a product, service, or company,
• Move a product, service, or company into a new market,
• Reposition a company in the marketplace,
• Generate more sales leads, sales opportunities, and sales,
• Transform the way a company communicates with its clients,
• Turn training into a profit center or company asset,
And many more.

While a single Webinar can offer significant benefits to your company, creating and managing a Webinar series can help you gain significant advantage in the marketplace and boost your company’s profits.

© 2010 Quantum Leap Marketing, Inc

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Remember those “old days” of online marketing, when your strategic marketing goals determined your content strategy? Times have changed, and the social world we live in has flipped that model upside down. Instead of relying on corporate “push” messages, the most successful marketers of 2010 are giving prospects the ability to “pull” fresh, human, relevant content via search engines and social networks. This whitepaper will help you:

• Understand the shift behind the new age of content creation and distribution
• Rethink content in a way that aligns with what your prospects want
• Provide tactical advice on how to generate an abundance of content

Download @ http://www.box.net/shared/69cr1khadb .

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In “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience”, communications coach and BusinessWeek.com columnist Carmine Gallo reveals the techniques that have turned the Apple CEO into one of the world’s most extraordinary corporate storytellers. For more than three decades, Jobs has transformed product launches into an art form.

Whether you’re a CEO, manager, entrepreneur, small business owner, or sales or marketing professional, Steve Jobs has something to teach you. Above all, a Steve Jobs presentation is intended to do three things: inform, educate and entertain.

Grab your complimentary copy @ https://www.box.net/shared/kgfd9fz7zn

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“Our customers are spread out around the world and it’s a challenge for us to be able to connect directly with who may be interested in UL certification”. “When we saw that our first webinar with WebAttract had participants from 25 countries outside the US, we knew we’d found the right way to connect with our audience.”

Amy Dolence, Marketing Specialist, Underwriters Laboratories

Underwriters Laboratories® (UL) is an independent safety certification organization that has been testing products and writing standards for safety for more than a century. A household name in the United States, UL is one of the most recognized conformity assessment providers in the world.

UL and WebAttract partnered together to increase applications for testing to the UL Thermoplastics Center and to increase awarenesss within the global plastics engineering community of this great new resource. Working closely with the staff of the UL Thermoplastics Testing Center WebAttract created a compelling program which attracted hundreds of engineers.

Download @ http://www.webattract.com/docs/case_studies/user_case_study_ul_9august2010.pdf

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View and/or download @ http://slidesha.re/csjC56

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Here’s a PDF sample of a few pages of the full report, including original research including benchmarks, trends and metrics. Highlights include the survey demographics themselves, Social Tactics Being Built Into All Media, Corporate Employment of Social Media Marketers and Use of Earned Media, Corporate Use of Online Social Networks for Marketing, and so on.

http://www.box.net/shared/6b2×68ivrg

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PDFs, videos, podcasts, etc., on topics from webinar audience recruitment to invitation strategy, developing compelling content/message shaping, engaging/authentic webcast delivery, post event conversion, PURLs, VIPs, coaching and managing speakers, and much more. Download to your heart’s content…no protected collateral!

At http://tiny.cc/sym5w .

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You Could Really Use a Good Webinar Right Now

Your goal is to convert as many of those tradeshow leads into sales as quickly as possible, at the lowest possible cost. So while you’d meet with each lead if you could, the time and cost to do so is out of the question.

Webinars are a great way to spend quality time with your leads at a relatively low cost. They provide the interaction of a face-to-face meeting at a fraction of the cost, and can be easily targeted toward different groups of leads in different stages of the sales cycle. For example, you can have an in-depth product demo for technical evaluators or
a case study analysis for buyers.

When you invite your leads to attend a webinar, you are establishing a communications channel that does two things. First, it helps qualify the leads: if they register for your webinar, they are interested. Leads who don’t register may also be interested, but require a different follow-up approach.  Second, the act of registering creates multiple, meaningful contact opportunities with prospects before and after the webinar, such as confirmation and reminder e-mails, and registration and post-seminar surveys. These communications allow you to progressively profile your leads, and collect qualifying information before and after the webinar.  Last, but not least, your recorded webinars become valuable collateral that you can reuse in other marketing contexts at no additional cost. It’s always nice to get something for free.

First Things First

A webinarr follow-up to your tradeshow is a good idea, but not if you don’t think of it until after the show. You wouldn’t wait until after the show to put together a direct mail piece to use in your follow-up campaign. So don’t wait until after the show to create your webinar.

Not only does it take time to line up your presenter and create the content, your webinar will be most effective if it reflects your show’s objectives. Are you introducing new technology  or products? Are you trying to gain or consolidate marketshare? Are you going after your key competitors? Your web seminar plan should be a part of your show plan, not an afterthought.

Create your webinar before the show, but allow yourself some flexibility to make changes to it based on input that may come out of the show itself. For instance, you may find out that the big new wonderful software release that’s the centerpiece of your show raises serious concerns about transition issues among the attendees. You’ll probably want to address those concerns in your follow-up webinar.

One webinar might not be enough. Depending on the focus of the show, the projected attendance, and the possible mix of attendees, you may need different webinars targeted toward individual audiences. You might need a detailed demo for users and technical buyers, for example, and an ROI analysis for economic buyers. More people are likely to sign up for the webinar if they think you created it specifically for them. Even those looky-loos who just stopped by to trade their business card for a bottle opener might be interested in a short product overview webinar.

Consider teaming up with a technology partner or a key customer for the webinar. Nothing builds credibility like the tributes of others. Case studies are a natural for this. For example, having a customer explain how they used your product to solve a difficult technical problem or reduce development costs can make a very powerful statement. Maybe they’ll even participate with you in the show. In any case, you’ll need time to work with these partners.

And finally, think about how you’ll promote your webinar. You may want to include it with your tradeshow advertising in pre-show publications, emails, and websites. Planning your webinar far enough in advance lets you take advantage of advertising opportunities that extend your reach beyond the boundaries of your booth at the show.

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The average domestic business trip in the U.S. was about $1,054 in 2009, according to research by American Express Business Travel. Additionally, the U.S. Census reports that Americans spend about 100 hours commuting every year. And throughout the U.K., workers devote nearly 22 million hours every day to commuting, equivalent to about $416 million worth of work, according to a survey by the Trades Union Congress, a federation of trade unions.

But the global economic slowdown and a changing workforce mean that business travel, in some cases, limits the ability of organizations to convene multiple stakeholders. More than ever, technology is a valuable way to bridge offices, regions and viewpoints. According to Econsultancy, which provides advice and insight on digital marketing and ecommerce:

>> Facebook claims that 50 percent of active users log into the site each day, which would translate to 175 million users every 24 hours.
>> Twitter now has 75 million user accounts, including 15 million active users.
>> LinkedIn has more than 50 million worldwide members and is increasing at a rate of nearly 1 million members a month.
In the past, businesses communications had been siloed. Collaboration once had been limited to the office; now it reaches many in their living rooms at home.   An employee may be on the phone and in the course of the call receive an instant message or e-mail. Colleagues have an expectation of  ongoing dialogues. But the discussion happens not just in the office. It happens in the home. It happens with friends. It happens across all kinds of modes and mediums. Parents know that they’re just as likely to approve a project from their office desk during the work week
as they are on Saturday at their kid’s soccer game.

Functionally, the 9-to-5 workday has officially gone out of business. Technology’s role is to help facilitate the transition so that workers – otherwise known as people – can convert higher productivity into personal time back. Increasing efficiency across personal venues is another way to evaluate ROC.

Professionals are busy balancing work and life. Technology, these professionals say, can be a lifeline. A majority (54 percent) say collaboration tools help them gain work-life balance and a similar number (52 percent) say communications technologies help them gain control (Frost & Sullivan).

And they don’t have to be part of a multinational behemoth to do it. The ease and simplicity of a collaboration solution is within reach of an SMB, even as small as a sole proprietorship.
Collaboration through communications technology creates better business performance. And whether they call it ROC or not, many organizations, especially SMBs, already focus on the ability to maintain high levels of performance through collaboration. And while conventional wisdom once held that collaboration tools exclusively relied on hardware and network requirements, innovations in IP-based tools makes certain that has no longer the case.
The concept of ROC captures the broader concept of improvement realized when functional collaboration emerges relative to the overall amount of money invested in that functional area. A fundamental requirement for collaboration is communication. Conceived in this way, collaboration through any platform enables people to share what they’re working on and what they’re thinking about.
While collaboration technology addresses the very tactical response of saving travel and operations costs, it also contributes to the strategic outlook of industry direction and corporate positioning.  Workers want to collaborate in ways that are productive, engaging and fun. As communication technologies advance, we will see more products and services that replicate the benefits of face-to-face meetings in a virtual environment.

As businesses contemplate the right collaboration solutions, they need to first focus internally and understand how and why they hold meetings. One way to begin is to evaluate the frequency of meetings. Another way to start is to evaluate the kinds of meetings held, anything from traditional sales meetings, staff meetings, reporting meetings to webinars.

By turning the lens inward, decision-makers can match their metrics for meetings success with the many functional applications available. Many companies of various sizes already are doing this and once executives realize their teams could be 50 percent more productive by using collaboration technology, they become more open to exploring tools that could be uniquely adapted to drive both organizational and personal success.

As excerpted from the PGi whitepaper of the same name.

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The ROC Concept

In a world where doing more with less has become a business survival mechanism, collaboration remains critical to success. Collaboration is now a daily requirement for organizations of all sizes as they extend the global reach of their products. The trend applies not only to Fortune 1000s but also to small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), from single owners to operations with less than 500 people.

Face-to-face meetings are often seen as a critical part of the collaboration equation, historically requiring expensive travel within a global enterprise or to meet customers. But flying and commuting both generate costs that can add up quickly.

With the rapid adoption of social media by both consumers and businesses alike, more professionals are looking to technology to make connecting remotely more efficient. Companies seeking an edge in 2010 should get acquainted with the idea of “Return on Collaboration,” or ROC. ROC is essentially the benefit companies realize from giving employees the tools they need to collaborate efficiently and effectively.  Today’s collaboration technology includes Internet Protocol (IP-based) applications that provide presence information, share documents and presentations, allow immersive video conferencing, and, ultimately, enhance unified communications.

“Today more than ever before, organizations are putting a sharp focus on their abilities to maintain performance, while getting the highest yield possible out of their people and collaboration technology investments,” according to a recent Frost & Sullivan report.

That report also said that among companies that deployed collaboration tools, 72 percent reported better business performance.

Collaboration: A Daily Requirement

More efficient collaboration and more productive meetings will be critical points to monitor as companies decide how to connect their thinkers. Already, workers report spending 19 percent of their business days – eight hours of a 40-hour business week – in meetings, according to research by The Futures Company.

At our company, part of our charge is how to understand if the return on collaboration concept is real and attainable.  A recent implementation at a large software company was able to show real benefits from looking at collaboration as a whole system vs. separate pieces—and putting the user experience front and center.

This company’s employees around the world were adopting the technologies in a siloed fashion and were finding them increasingly cumbersome to use. Set-up took forever—registering to get an account, waiting for a booking confirmation, scheduling the conference and then copying and pasting to get everything in one place so the invitation could be e-mailed – all for a 15-minute meeting.

Not a good scenario for a company that was relying more and more on online conferences to meet customer implementation timeframes and other key demands. In addition, the company had growing concerns about the security of its patchwork conferencing system.

So they set a goal to standardize the way its employees, customers and partners collaborate—ensuring everyone would meet the same way in a branded, secure environment.  And they smartly understood that they needed an easy-to-use solution that its people would readily embrace so that various departments wouldn’t seek their own vendors for online conferencing purposes.

This company decided to create one system, manage it and support it.  A greater ROC—Return on Collaboration—is precisely what the company gained. Some top level metrics include:

>>Increased productivity by reduced average meeting time from 46 to 37 minutes
>>Faster start-up time for meetings—what used to take 7-10 minutes now takes a minute
>>Increased collaboration—from 80,000 meetings a month to 300,000
>>Across-the-board travel costs reduced by more than one third

As excerpted from the PGi whitepaper of the same name.  MORE TOMORROW.

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