4. Winning Webinar Strategies {Formats, Speakers, Incentives}
While getting the word out about the webinar is a vital aspect of the project’s success, once the registrants and attendees are on board then content becomes king. “I believe the most important need is for businesses to improve the quality of the presentations they are delivering via webinar so that attendees see webinars as valuable and beneficial,” Molay said. “This is a reversal of Marshall McLuhan’s quote that the medium is the message. It is turning out that the message is influencing the perception of the medium. If
the content being presented is not seen as valuable, no amount of technology will save the business.”
Some of the areas businesses should be focusing on in the quest to deliver relevant and interesting content include choice of presenters, value-added incentives and presentation format. The most popular webinar format is 60 minutes, with 73.8% of respondents citing that length as the most effective. More than 20% also prefer the 30-minute webinar, with very few opting for gO-minute or less-than-30 minute choices. Too long and too short just don’t work; the 30-minute segment often is a valuable lunchtime tool. But overall the 60-minute format gives the speakers a chance to present and leaves a reasonable amount of time for O&A polls, chats and additional audience interaction.
When it comes to presenters, survey respondents reported that industry analysts are the most valuable webinar speakers, with 36.9% rating them as most important. Delivering case study examples packs the second-most powerful punch, with 28.6% of respondents citing the customer case study as most important. Other valuable presenters include authors and industry peers. bloggers, company executives and consultants ranked lowest.
Incentives Must Be Relevant
Webinar attendees want information that is relevant and not readily available elsewhere. Industry analysts and customer case studies offer that type of value. Attendee ncentives should offer a similar type of value. “Everyone loves free stuff, but make it relevant,” noted Justin Gray, CEO of LeadMD. White papers, E-books and free trials are a few of the incentives that make sense for webinar participants, he said.
Survey respondents agree. A Free Research Peport is the number-one most important attendee incentive, according to 44.0% of respondents. Free white papers and books (often authored by one of the presenters) also fared well in the rankings. Prize drawings and discount offers were least palatable to survey respondents.
Offering a chance to win a free iPod or Starbucks gift certificates can actually serve to “cheapen your brand,” added McDonald added. Also, “You risk attracting the wrong type of prospect.”