Andrew Millard, senior director marketing, EMEA, online services division at Citrix, advises on maximising the lead generation capabilities of webinars
With more organisations competing on an international basis and hard-hitting sales tactics no longer cutting it with weary professionals, there’s no question that, as part of the marketing mix, webinars offer an important opportunity to further customer engagement – and make money.
From a commercial perspective, the opportunity to use webinars as a means of driving growth and gaining access to new customers and geographies is significant. If successful, such engagements will not only attract new clients but also nurture existing ones, in some cases lowering the cost of entry in new markets and creating up-selling and cross-selling opportunities.
Content and conversations
Naturally, marketing’s objective is to use webinars to find and gather new prospective customers and persuade them to think positively about a product or service.
However, in reality, no prospective audience member will share this agenda, nor will they agree to give up their time and attend a webinar with the sole aim of becoming a sales prospect.
What will appeal – and improve the likelihood of converting a prospect into a revenue-generating client – is the offer of something they want, need and value, as well as a forum for discussing the aspects that matter to their business agenda. For this reason, good conversation based on good content is essential.
Having identified your target audience, it’s important to think about their interests and goals and balance this with your own agenda. Write down your goals and the audience interests, along with a brief description of what you will offer and use it to create your marketing materials and presentation content.
Any titles or phrases that directly refer to your product or service are best avoided. After all, the fact you’ve upgraded your solution, for instance, is unlikely to be that appealing. On the other hand, the efficiencies or opportunities now available to the audience will generate interest.
What’s in it for me?
Different messages are also needed for different target audiences and can go a long way to address the all-important challenge of persuading people to give up their time to attend the webinar.
Product users, for example, are mostly interested in how their working lives could be made easier or more efficient, while their bosses will be more interested in how the solution will help them improve their bottom line.
Once this value proposition has been established, the next task is to spread the word as clearly as possible, potentially increasing the appeal by emphasising exclusivity or ‘secret’ information that non-attendees will miss out on.
Having communicated this audience-driven message via the appropriate communication channels, the webinar landing page has an important role to play in getting them to commit to the session.
Here, the use of a speaker portrait will help to humanise the event. Other strategic features and information could include multiple prominent registration buttons, time and date information, the ability for prospects to spread the word among their contacts and a shortlist of the value points.
Deliver on value
Having got the potential attendee to the point of registering, don’t make the mistake of forcing them to enter lots of information about themselves. To do so risks making them feel like an open target and they will be more likely to change their mind about the event.
In delivering the content, the webinar coordinator and speakers should fulfil the promises made in the promotional copy. The most compelling webinars will also get to the audience’s perceived value points as quickly as possible and be ruthless about removing company-oriented facts or history.
Simple techniques, such as speaking to the audience on an individual basis by referring to them as ‘you’, will also make the webinar feel more direct and inclusive. And in a forum where interactivity is important, it will also put the responsibility on the audience as individuals to take action and respond during planned interactions.
Keep the audience engaged
Interactive polls or surveys are a great way to let the audience see what their peers think while simultaneously generating sales intelligence. To increase the level of engagement, questions should be framed in a way that suggests they are for the audience’s benefit. Ideally, the presenter will also invite attendees to provide answers to strategically placed questions using the open feedback facility.
The final challenge for marketers preparing money-making webinars is to convince the audience to visit your website, download a whitepaper or pick up the phone to their sales contact. This single call-to-action should be as explicit as possible and backed up with a clear benefit.
Be prepared to collect
Offering a survey immediately after an event is a good way to drive engagement while the subject is fresh in the audience’s minds. And having given them something of value, they will hopefully be more willing to give you something in return.
Realistically, interest in the topic and the engagement will quickly become overtaken in the audience’s minds by their everyday work and lives. For this reason it’s important to act quickly by having materials ready for download immediately after the event and preparing the sales team for the potential hot leads that will follow.
