Host webinars on a regular basis
Webinars typically ask for key information for sales to use, such as name, organisation and job title. These insights will help sales pinpoint key customers and create an outreach plan for those prospects.
Moneypenny CMO Kate Cox says: “Webinars offer better opportunities for delegates to ask questions and interact with speakers. They cost less to attend for sponsors, require no travel or overnight stay and no expensive stands, gifts or marketing materials to be produced.”
Using webinars to establish your senior marketers as thought leaders can be used to distinguish your company from competitors. For the actual content, make sure you’re keeping it fresh and up to date, as Zoom and webinar burnout is a real issue.
Some ideas that Kate suggests for future webinars and events, include:
- Virtual networking technology, such as Hopin, allowing attendees and partners to meet each other informally.
- Ask questions prior to the webinars and answer them in the session to keep viewers engaged.
- Hire a key influencer to attend the event as a way of drawing crowds.
- Send drinks packs – alcoholic or not, depending on the time of day – to ensure people who have signed up attend.
- Develop fun competitions or quizzes to encourage delegates to visit virtual stands.
Offer premium content to prospects
Content has never been more important than during Covid-19. Between articles, podcasts, webinars and events, it’s important for sales to use these resources to their advantage. If they can offer prospects free tickets, premium content or other opportunities, their customers will feel valued. It can be especially beneficial to share this with your existing relationships and customers as well. Offering a genuine interest in the content that might be valuable for them will build trust and nurture the relationship with customers way more than a simple sales pitch or product push.
Attend virtual conferences, roundtable discussions and webinars
As much as you might be focused on your company’s virtual events, there are massive benefits to attending these events whenever the opportunity arises. You might be sitting on emails upon emails of invites, but not have the time.
Set aside a day when both marketing and sales can explore other opportunities by attending and being an active participant in conferences. A lot of them offer a freebie ticket, and it will only take a minute to register. By attending, you can make connections through networking with other attendees in network rooms, chat areas or virtual booths. If there is a panel guest or speaker that had a great presentation, it will also give you a good incentive to reach out and engage, whether that means asking a question during, or sending a LinkedIn message post-event.
Plus, you’ll be able to gain insight on how other companies are navigating events.
Make sure marketing and sales are aligned
It’s great if you’re utilising all of these different ways to generate qualified leads, whether from a webinar, eBook or virtual event. However, you’ll need seamless collaboration between marketing and sales so that you can convert these leads into sales.
Margaret Arakawa, CMO at Outreach, says: “They need to go down the pipeline and if you’re the salesperson, you’re the one to close the deal. Sometimes it can feel like marketers say: ‘Hey I’m handing the baton off to you. Good luck to you,’ and they go away. With marketers, I think it changes the conversation when you’re at the front part of the funnel. It’s our job to make sure they do cross the finish line so it’s that type of a collaboration.”
Spruce up your website
While these responsibilities will fall upon marketing, sales will have a better idea of the customer mindset in terms of the messaging. Have marketing and sales teams come up with some key changes. Make sure your homepage speaks volumes to what your company offers.
If it’s confusing to navigate or not clear, you’re driving away potential customers. If a potential customer visits your website and wants to engage, make sure that contact information is easy to find. A lot of first impressions these days will come from a quick Google search of your website, so make sure it’s sound.
