I’d like to share my insights around 5 best practices to make sure that what is advertised and promoted is actually delivered, resulting in being able to extend the dialogue post webinar.
In my over 30 years in the business world, I’ve often scratched my head and asked myself “why is there a disconnect between what is being promoted and delivered, isn’t anybody listening, or at least ensuring that what was promised is actually delivered, and backed up with real examples?”
Think about it, in the B2B world, the primary reason for someone to register and attend your webinar is to learn something valuable and new or to validate current assumptions.
An impactful webinar goes beyond facts and delivers information that is not only credible, but is memorable as well. Memorable in that the information follows these guidelines and connects with the audience:
1. The messaging from the invitation to the actual delivery during the webinar is targeted to an audience that would find the discussion to be relevant and to their interests.
2. Did we do a good job in translating the key invitation deliverables into a compelling message, i.e., here’s the opportunity to make sure that what you promised (e.g. from marketing or the promoters) you’d deliver to your audience (presenters or panelists) is relevant and engaging.
3. Are we telling them something that they didn’t already know? For e.g., the presenters experience around how they solved a vexing business or technology challenge, did we share what were the best practices and lessons learned, or is this a naked product pitch that has nothing to do with why they took the time to register and attend? This is where going beyond anecdotal stories, and using real examples or case studies around results and metrics breathes life and credibility into the webinar.
4. Will the presenter’s style align with the message and content to stimulate the intellectual curiosity of those in the audience to want to learn more, and post webinar would be open to a more in depth 1:1 to see how these best practices could help solve their problems?
5. Time was budgeted for several “table reads” between the presetner’s and the moderator to ensure the information is not only backed up with examples but that the flow and pacing is interesting.
These 5 best practices are part of the framework that will help webinars and those that sponsor them the opportunity to demonstrate their thought leadership on how they solved a clients’s business or technology challenge, raise the brand equity and trust for the webinar sponsor and will ultimately lead to an opportunity to extend the dialogue post webinar for driving fresh new sales leads.
Of course there is much more to delivering a successful webinar than these 5 best practices, as there are a multitude of moving parts and other logistics that need to be managed, a topic for another post.