Introduction

Study after study shows that opt-in email lists are the best way to drive webinar attendees. Yet most companies struggle to tap the full potential of marketing webinars for leads and sales because they have a small inhouse email list or a limited marketing budget.

No longer. Whether you want to create a marketing webinar that attracts new prospect names or access new opt-in email lists on a limited budget, you too can tap the power of marketing webinars to build a large, opt-in email prospect list, dramatically increase lead flow, and drive sales.

This eGuide, Content-Driven Webinars: How to Attract Leads and Drive Sales, will help you leverage the power of early stage marketing webinars done right, and help you get a higher return on investment from your marketing resources.

Driving Sales Faster with “Early-in-the-Buying-Process” Marketing Webinars

There has been a marketing revolution over the past 10 to15 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 marketing Webinar will gain more sales leads, clients, and, potentially, even a competitive advantage.

Just as “the early bird gets the worm,” those marketers with Webinars “early-in-the-buying-process” are likely to get the sale. Consider these recent successes with early marketing Webinars.

A Technology Products Firm Becomes the Leader in Its Niche and Grows Sales 70% in One Year

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 the biggest Webinar in the marketplace for that year.

The company was able to achieve its objectives for the event, including 2,450 webinar registrants and also demonstrating its core product to 500 potential buyers immediately following the Webinar. Sales increased 70% in the 12 months following this event, largely driven by new leads and sales contacts generated at the Webinar.

A Mid-Size Global Products and Services Company Repositions Its Firm from a Stagnant Market to a Growth Sector with the Help of a MultiFaceted 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 re-launch its products and drive thought-leadership around this new position, the company launched an aggressive Webinars series with as many as three marketing 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 marketing Webinar, if done well, can literally be a game-changing strategy for your organization. Consider that others have used early-in-the-buying-process marketing Webinars to:

• Launch a product or service,
• Launch or re-launch company,
• Move a product, service, or company into a new market or territory,
• Re-position a company, or establish a new area of expertise in the marketplace
• Create new opt-in email names in a database,
• Add new prospects, and qualified prospects to the marketing database,
• Generate more sales opportunities and sales,

And many more.

While a single marketing Webinar can offer significant benefits to your company, keep in mind that no one, single Webinar will solve all of your marketing challenges. So consider a Webinar series to gain significant advantage in the marketplace and boost your company’s profits.

Common Mistakes Companies Make Again and Again with Marketing Webinars

Let’s say you have produced a marketing Webinar in the past and now want to take that success to the next level. Or, suppose you want to create and run a successful marketing webinar for the first time.

Over the past decade plus we have talked with hundreds of Webinar marketers. We will borrow from the experience of others who have been immensely successful and those that failed miserably.

Here are the common mistakes all of us make from time to time. Smart marketers will want to avoid these when creating and promoting your next marketing Webinar.

Being Unclear on Webinar Objectives or Trying to Do Too Many Things with One Single Webinar…

After the Webinar, be able to answer the question, “Did we achieve our objective?” In other words, when it comes to Webinar goals, make sure you will know if you are successful or not after the event.

The tendency of most marketers is to try to do too many things with a single Webinar. You saw the common goals of an early marketing Webinar on the last page, stick with one or two key objectives for each event.

Low Webinar Attendance by “Missing” Your Target Audience

Before you move forward with your next Webinar, be clear on your audience and target them well

Correctly targeting your market is one of the essential steps to building a successful marketing Webinar. Many marketers make the error of trying to be all things to all people in their market. Others too narrowly target their Webinar content.

In the ideal world, your marketing Webinar targets the same market that your company already knows and markets to in other ways, so that your Webinar is but one part of your marketing plan.

A Fundamental Rule of Media (and Marketing Webinar) Success: Think in Terms of Both Content and Distribution

Success with a marketing Webinar, like success with most media, normally requires both content and distribution. Many Webinar producers fail to grasp both concepts. And, you generally need both to get Webinar attendees in the numbers you desire

If you don’t have a marketing plan for your content, don’t expect to build a large registration list.If you don’t have what we call “must-see” content, don’t expect a large audience for your series.

Keep in mind that registrants who are new to your marketing database will register without having seen any of your organization’s content. So part of the value of the content is to be able to “sell the sizzle,” the benefits of attending.

“Must-see” Webinar content should be important and informative, if not critical, to the target market. It’s presented by a specialist or expert and full of specifics and examples, perhaps with case studies. It could be motivating or promoting next steps or action and offer a point-of-view that could be seen as different or somewhat controversial, hopefully cutting (but not “bleeding”) edge.

Most of all, it should present a potentially “life-changing" or “BIG idea to the marketplace, an idea that answers one of their top questions or helps them solve one of their top problems.

Go Beyond Strategy – Get the Tactics Right

Some think good content and promotion will guarantee the marketing Webinar will meet its objectives. Absolutely, you want to get the BIG things right, but the little things will also greatly impact your webinar.

For example, you want to run an event well to create a good Webinar experience, and you should be interactive by using the engagement tools built into leading Webinar technologies. Also, use tools like chat, polling, Q&A, etc. At a minimum, you generally want to address the top questions the audience has on a topic in an interactive Q&A session at the end of your webinar.

Email Invitations and Promotional Copy Do Matter…A Lot

An email invitation to a relevant opt-in email list will generally drive 80%+ of your audience. This is still true today even in the Web 2.0 and social media world we live in.

Ideally, your invitational email will prominently feature the Webinar title and its benefits. A recent study with the 1080 Group showed that by far the Webinar topic is the biggest factor that prospects consider when they think of attending.

So take extra care to select and define topics that are of great interest to your audience, use your own and other email lists to reach your market, and articulate your message in an appealing way in the invitation.

Going It Alone for Content AND Marketing

The average marketing Webinar fails to take advantage of one or two great opportunities:

To leverage the expertise of one or more speakers from outside your organization.

To go beyond your own opt-in email lists or marketing reach for promotion. (See the next section for seven ways to get beyond your own email list.)

Marketing Webinars are a great opportunity to go outside your internal roster of speakers and to access new lists and names. Avoid going it alone where possible for speakers and marketing.

Scrambling for a Follow-up Plan AFTER The Webinar

As you probably guessed, the best prospects to attend a Webinar are the folks who have registered or attended your past events. So you will be sure to include invitations to future events in your marketing back to this audience. (These could be sales-oriented or later in the buying process Webinars.)

However, many Webinar marketers stop there. Consider an (automated) follow-up sequence of marketing and sales contacts to convert “registrants to revenue” for your organization by promoting your own offerings back to early Marketing webinar registrants and attendees.

Failing to Learn from Your Own Mistakes, and the Mistakes of Others

One of the refreshing, but sometimes maddening, aspects of Webinars is that you are only as good as your last event. And, past success in any area does not mean you can take success for granted in the future. So when it comes time for your next marketing Webinar…

Improve on what has worked in the past, learn from your and others’ mistakes, and make your next Webinar your best.

Now that you have discovered how to avoid many of the most common mistakes, in the next section you will learn specific ways to go beyond your own opt-in email list.

These are ideas you can use to help promote your next marketing Webinar

7 Specific Ways that a Good Marketing Webinar can help You Access Outside Email Lists, on a Limited Budget

Many organizations and Webinar marketers can do very well with their own opt-in email lists, but absent a big marketing budget those same organizations may have trouble getting many new prospects to their events and achieving their Webinar objectives. So we have distilled the best practices of accessing outside email lists into seven which you can use individually, or in combination, for your next Webinar.

Seven Specific Ways to Access Outside Emails Lists with Marketing Webinars

Start with your target audience and use your knowledge of it to gather information about the media target prospects read and email lists they subscribe to.

Keep in mind Webinar marketers will want to only mail to opt-in email lists. This will ensure you are in compliance with any laws. As well, these types of lists tend to be much more responsive than lists of more suspect nature. So verify that the list is truly opt-in.

For example, a marketing Webinar could simply target executives at certain businesses with a certain title. It could be geared towards one profession like “Independent Financial Advisors.” It could also be buyers of a specific product such as all Apple iPad users or purchasers of “Product X.”

Each of these audiences will consume different media and thus be on different opt-in media lists.

2. Partner with Media that Reach Your Target Audience

If you are on a fixed budget like many marketers these days, you cannot afford to be wrong about your media promotion. It must perform the way you expect to get a return on your limited marketing investment. Many media will partner with you on promotion and other areas of the webinar.

For example, a media company may help you promote, moderate, and deliver the event for one price. Or, they may agree (guarantee) to deliver a certain number of leads to the Webinar, regardless of how well an individual promotion or ad may perform.

Consider a more strategic relationship with target media for your next marketing Webinar.

3. In Addition to Content, An Outside Speaker Can Bring Lists, or Access to Lists

To create a marketing Webinar event or series, your organization is likely to bring-in outside speakers from time-to-time to be able to deliver on the diverse areas of content that your target audience desires.

Those outside speakers can also be a great source for lists or promotion. For example, an independent analyst may have a list that includes some of your prospects. Or, industry speakers may have given a similar talk to audiences before to which they can promote your webinar.

Especially if you’re paying a speaking fee, the outside speaker may include promotion to their list as a part of the deal. Use this criteria when evaluating speakers and don’t be afraid to ask for promotion in conjunction with speaking.

4. Co-Sponsor with Lists

Co-sponsors of all types can be brought in to your next Webinar for a wide variety of reasons. They could be co-promoters, speakers, full partners on the event, and more.

One marketing reason to bring in a co-sponsor is if they have access to opt-in email lists to which your webinar can be promoted. You can even seek out co-sponsors on this basis alone.

For example, one way your company can benefit from an affiliate program is to have them promote or sponsor one of your Marketing webinars.

Affiliate programs can be a great source to find Webinar promoters. One high-tech company converts 25% of affiliate Webinar attendees to trial customers.

5. Co-Sponsors with Marketing Dollars

Webinar marketers on limited budgets can seek-out sponsors with deeper pockets in a win-win deal. For example, imagine you have a proven Webinar for “Product X” which involves a specific supplier or creates a services engagement for another company. These companies have a vested interest in getting your message out to new, potential buyers so they might help fund the promotion of your event.

6. Telemarketing and Sales Contacts

Let’s say you currently are one-step removed from your target audience for Webinar marketing purposes. This could be because you have a distributor, sales people, or a target list with phone numbers but not opt-in email addresses.

As you probably guessed, an easy way to get an email invitation in your audience’s hands is through your telemarketer/salesperson/distributor. Many marketers find that using these types of individual contacts actually increase the effectiveness of their normal phone or face-face outreach, so consider these types of indirect channels for your next Webinar promotion.

7. Social Media Contacts, Followers, and Lists

There are a lot of guides, webinars, and trainings available on social media marketing so we won’t do a deep-dive here. And, your organization likely has a social media marketing strategy which creates followers, etc.

Leverage these contacts to promote your Webinar, and don’t be afraid to promote your event through other influential social media sites and channels. You should always be testing new ways of building your email list and driving Webinar registrants.

For example, you can ask the following questions before you finalize the webinar strategy and webinar marketing plan of your next event:

• Who currently has the best list in the marketplace and how can we partner with them for the next webinar?
• Who has an interest in seeing us sell more products/services and how can they support our next Webinar?
• Who can co-sponsor a marketing Webinar, and potentially a series of Webinars, and give us the resources to take our program to the next level?
• What lists and social media marketing opportunities do we have access to that we have not tested for our Webinars?
• How can we use telemarketing, sales contacts, or social media marketing to get new email names for our next Webinar?
• What traditional media have a Webinar program and can we get lead/attendee guarantees to take away risk in the marketing of the event?

When it comes to Webinar promotion, the 80/20 principle applies. There will be a minority of lists and organizations who will drive registrants to your events. So try different avenues to find the ones that work best.

Next, let’s examine a topic which is fundamental to the success of many early marketing Webinars, fully benefiting from the power of outside speakers.

Outside Speakers Bring Expertise and Credibility

There are many reasons beyond access to a new email list (discussed in the last section) to incorporate speakers from outside your organization into your next marketing Webinar.

They include:

• Bringing in expertise that is valued by your target audience, but not available from your internal speaker(s),
• Creating the perception of independent, educational content,
• Helping create interaction and a dialogue with your audience through multiple speakers,
• Not having to create new content all the time, and
• Simply delivering a better, more compelling Webinar

Above all, remember that your company does not need to deliver all the content in a Webinar to get the marketing benefit of the event. That is, simply take the credit for hosting an outside speaker who delivers valuable content. That should lead to the next step of selling your product or service.

Many Webinar marketers pick their speakers first, and then try to come up with a topic that will interest the audience. While it is always helpful to use proven, popular speakers, more important will be the topic of the Webinar. If the topic is not on the list of top 5 “pain points” of your target audience, they will likely neither register nor attend. So pick good topics first, speakers second.

Finally, having outside, expert Webinar presenters in your organization is very helpful, but it is not always necessary to create a blockbuster marketing Webinar. Next, let’s summarize the key steps to creating, promoting, and delivering a successful early-in-the-buying-process Webinar.

Your Action Guide: Using Webinars Early to Attract New Leads and Drive Sales Faster

What are the key steps to creating and delivering a marketing Webinar early-in-the-buying-process to attract new leads and drive sales faster? Here are the top ones.

A note of caution: Knowing these steps or information will not be good enough to improve your series or make it successful. You must apply them to your next Webinar!

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Start with Your Webinar Strategy

Start by understanding what you hope to achieve by holding the event, and what topic and content will deliver on that objective. You can even create what we call a Webinar abstract. This is a few sentences or paragraphs that summarize what the Webinar is all about, who would be most interested in it, and what they would learn from the Webinar.

In developing your strategy, be sure to separate what your organization will gain (new leads) and the key benefits or insights to be delivered to the target audience.

Create Your Webinar Marketing Plan

Generally, the greater your reach and more comprehensive the Webinar marketing plan, the more registrants you will get for your next event. And remember, prospects usually sign up for Webinars within two weeks of the event, so time your promotions accordingly. For promotions and lists/media that work well in generating registrants, consider more than one touch-point or email over time before the event.

Reaching more potential attendees is just one part of your marketing. Increase email opens and click-throughs on your invitations with hot topics for your audience, winning subject lines, headlines, and promotional copy which calls your target audience to action by getting them to REGISTER NOW!

Keep in mind also that your Webinar marketing is not complete on registration. You still need a good reminder sequence, which will convert roughly 40% to 50% of registrants to attendees for a free Webinar.

A Webinar technology with 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.

Deliver Better, Unique Content at Your Next Webinar

Remember your content is your draw. As discussed above, the Webinar topic and the supporting content are the biggest factors in driving attendance once a prospect sees the invitation.

Ideally, you should offer timely, valuable, and interesting (“must-see”) content as judged by your audience and make sure to promote that in your marketing.

Manage Each Webinar for Success

Many Webinar marketers get lazy when it comes to the details of managing the basic Webinar elements like rehearsals, moderation, interactions and Q & A. Readers of this eGuide will avoid this mistake. Take the extra care to manage each and every Webinar to be successful.

A good Webinar technology will also make these important details easy to get right each time. Desired Webinar technology features include:

• A scalable, cost-effective Webinar technology with an integrated registration system and audio,
• An ability to run practice sessions ahead of the event and create and manage Webinar recordings, and
• Robust reporting on registrants, attendees, and key interactions like polling and questions during the Webinar.

Like a Broadway play or concert tour, the most important performance is the next one, so act accordingly.

One simple way of doubling live Webinar viewers is to record the event and promote that recording back to non-attendees. In addition, consider the recording as a marketing asset in itself, which can be promoted to new registrants through email, web, and social media channels.

Convert Registrants to Revenue

Simply exceeding your goals by hitting large registration numbers is not enough to make a marketing Webinar successful. Remember to turn registrants into attendees, and attendees into customers.

Leverage the attention and interest you have among your attendees and viewers and convert them into sales opportunities or customers with a multi-step (and ideally automated) follow-up program.

The best marketing Webinars naturally flow to the next step of qualifying prospects and developing sales opportunities. Have one or more ways of converting registrants to revenue. This could include another Webinar on a product or service among the steps.

Build on Success with a Repeat Performance or Series

With a marketing Webinar, there are a lot of critical components like the marketing plan, invitation copy, speakers, topics, content, and follow-up plan. Leveraging these elements again as they are successful offers you the opportunity to eliminate work and risk in future events.

For example, many marketers will turn a successful event into a Webinar series. Keep in mind, a series could be all early-in-the-buying-process events, or Webinars designed to nurture early registrants into customers.

Leveraging effective elements, Webinar recordings, and creating a Webinar series are all ways of building on past success.

Summary

Yes, a simple marketing Webinar early-in-the-buying-process can be a “game-changer” in your marketing and can help drive sales faster.

Those who take advantage of these types of Webinars can position their organizations ahead of the competition, generate many more sales leads, and increase their revenue and profits.

Use the marketing Webinar tips, strategies, and techniques shared here to help accomplish your marketing and business objectives, and don’t forget to “take the credit” for your impressive marketing and sales results.