“Smooth Runnings” – Your Winning Webinar Series and Events
As Roger Courville of the 1080 Group and author of The Virtual Presenters Handbook says, “Good Webinar management is really about good project management!” So keep in mind the best practices of project management in managing resources like time, people, and money effectively to create a great series of events.
Above all, remember that a winning Webinar series is the sum of many very successful events. A “blockbuster” event can take your series to the
next level, while a weak and poorly managed Webinar can set back your entire series.
That said, what are proven strategies to manage a successful series? Overall Planning and Management Strategies to Guide a Series to Success
For the series, these 6 guidelines will help keep you on track for success.
1. Create and Manage a Webinar Calendar – This calendar shows date,
time, topic, and speakers for the upcoming Webinars. Generally, the
more time you have before an event, the easier it is to execute your
plan.
2. Improve Your Marketing Plan for Each Webinar – Find ways to expand
your marketing plan for each Webinar. For example, one Webinar
series manager made it a goal to have the key event marketing plans
in place for the next quarter before the end of the current quarter.
3. Yes, Lists and Invitations Do Matter – One Webinar series goal should
be to access outside, responsive emaillists full of your target market.
Then, build a great list of Webinar registrants and viewers for your
series. Improve your ROI from your marketing with better topics and
more benefits in your invitations.
4. Strive for Multiple Speakers and Some Unique Content for Each Event-
Two to four speakers is usually ideal for a 60-minute Webinar. For example, consider a panel Webinar where your organization moderates and 2 to 3 outside experts present different perspectives on a single issue. This is the type of content prospects can’t get anywhere else.
5. Record and Promote Your Webinar Recordings – Record Webinars for
both registrants and your own series improvement. Promote recordings
of on-demand content to gain access to new registrants who may
want the content but missed the event.
6. Integrate Your Webinar List with Your CRM System – Unless you have a
process to capture and load Webinar registrant and attendee data
into your CRM system, you are likely to get little value from the series
and follow-up communications. Remember that your CRM system
must have email capabilities so that you can grow and manage your
opt-in emaillist, which then becomes a rich asset created and
nurtured by your series.
And, of course, Webinars are a “green” event. In that spirit, think … Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – Repeat events that work, marketing lists that pull, speakers that captivate, topics that fill the room. Record and promote recordings, and reuse all the tactics and processes that make a successful series and Webinar for your organization.
Simple, Yet Often ForgoHen Tactics That Make All the Difference in Each and Every One of Your Webinars
I had the recent experience of attending a Webinar that was part of a long-lasting weekly Webinar series by Web collaboration and Webinar
“experts.” While the lead speaker and his content were fantastic, the Webinar producers tripped up on 4 big items in the list below, which
would cause anyone to hesitate to register for their future events. Here are some simple, tactical, yet critical things you must do for each
event. For those who have read other Quantum Leap Marketing reports on Webinars, these may be familiar to you.
1. Create a Marketing Plan and Project Schedule with Responsibilities for
Each Webinar – There are those who say, “Failing to plan, is planning to
fail.” Generally, good planning helps you avoid problems: good
project management helps you correct them before anyone notices
them. (See Appendix C for a sample Webinar marketing plan.)
2. Increase Attendance with Proven Email Lists and Invitation Copy – As
stated above, opt-in emaillists that match your target audience could
account for as much as 80% of your registrations. Following the rules of
copy will help you get more attendees from the same lists, number of
invites, and ads.
3. Make the Registration Process Easy – Don’t make it hard for prospects
to register. For online forms, that means one-click to a landing page,
and a simple registration form with one-click to register. Make offline
registrations easy as well.
4. Automate the Reminder Sequence – The last thing you should be
worrying about is a good reminder sequence, which will convert say
40% to 50% of registrants to attendees for a free Webinar. A simple
sequence of auto-reminders – providing Webinar details and a
reminder upon registration and a reminder at 24 and 3 hours before
the event – will generally create the conversion to attendees you
desire.
5. Run a Rehearsal to Prepare Speakers – While many speakers will know
their material, and Webinar producers should use ones who do, little
Webinar things like transitions, questions, and tailoring the examples to
the specific audience for that event can be covered in a 30-minute
rehearsal.
6. Have an Experienced Moderator or Webinar Manager on the Pre-call
and/or Event – Your moderator or Webinar manager can manage the
rehearsal, pre-call, and the Webinar itself. While a good moderator
may only slightly enhance your Webinar, a bad one can get in the
way and sour an otherwise solid experience for the attendee. And,
when a good moderator “saves” an event in danger of disaster for
what could be a variety of causes, they can be worth their weight in
gold!
7. Make Sure Interactions Are Built into the Webinar – Much of the value
from a live Webinar comes from examples and tailoring of content for
the audience and also answering the audience’s top questions.
8. Record the Webinar and Increase Views by Making the Recording
Available within 24 Hours – One marketing Webinar series rule to
consider is that recording a Webinar and promoting it can increase
viewers by up to 150%. Meaning if 40 of 100 registrants attend the live
Webinar, 30 may watch the recording, especially if it is promoted
within 24 hours of the Webinar. And additional promotion could bring
another 30 new registrants who watch the Webinar. That means over
time a series could have the same number of Webinar viewers as
registrants for the live event.
9. Consider Companion Materials Like Success Checklists – This strategy is
often overlooked but extremely effective. People love little checklists,
articles, and white papers related to a topic important to them. These
checklists in writing can increase registration for both live Webinars and
recordings and encourage “next steps” from readers and attendees.
Webinar Follow-up Marketing Ready Ahead of the Event – Many
who produce a Webinar series put so much energy into the events that they have little time to create a simple marketing follow-up, write
a sales letter, or make sure a sales team properly nurtures Webinar leads. If you avoid this mistake, your series will be vastly more effective.
1. Review Webinar Performance After the Webinar – Make it a habit to
debrief with speakers and key attendees after a Webinar and to look
at your key Webinar numbers and comments after the event. A simple
way to judge a marketing Webinar is to review registration numbers,
response percentages from promotions to different lists/media,
attendance, cost-per-registrant, information requests from the
Webinar, number of sales or sales opportunities per Webinar, and
feedback from post-event surveys, as well as ROI numbers like Webinar
sales/Webinar costs.
Thus, while Webinar operational excellence is not exciting for many, some Webinar series will fail because the tactics and evaluation process are
poorly managed.
Next, let’s touch on the issue of producing an online training series.