Webinar marketing has been an effective form of digital marketing for years. But, far from being yesterday's news, it continues to become even more popular. Sure, the COVID-19 pandemic has driven more people to online channels, but even before the coronavirus, more than half (58%) of digital marketers use webinars for promotion. Even better, over two-thirds of sales and marketing leaders say webinars are one of the top ways to generate quality leads.
Why are webinars effective? First, the best ones are engaging. They provide a combination of education and entertainment in easily digestible doses. And, they work across the entire customer journey. From live product demos to Q&A sessions to thought-leadership discussions, webinars are an effective and dynamic way to move prospects through your sales funnel.
The best enterprises know that creating leads online requires multiple mediums. This is why so many of today's tech-savvy businesses rely upon webinars. There's simply no better way to be viewed as an expert, trusted resource, and high-value influencer than having a well-attended webinar. So, how do you make sure your webinar is long enough to empower its audience, but not so long that your message is lost?
The majority of webinars fall within 60 minutes, with some going as long as 90 minutes. While there is no hard and fast rule on length, it's important to completely cover your topic and leave at least 10 to 15 minutes at the end for questions and answers.
Ultimately, your webinar length will be determined by the topic you're covering and the audience you're appealing to. To help keep you on track, here are some suggestions on choosing an engaging topic, breaking up your audience and content into manageable chunks, and then getting the right eyes and ears on your webinar.
If you want to have a successful webinar marketing campaign, you need to choose some winning topics. You can do this by:
Even after you have a topic, you'll want to optimize it with relevant keywords to generate traffic from Google. Similar to other SEO strategies, it's best to choose some phrases that have high to medium search volume and low competition.
Many webinars begin as "live" events and are later available for replay to help your business in its marketing efforts. Assuming this is your strategy, you'll want to pick a time that is convenient for your audience, who might be scattered across many time zones.
According to a Webinar Benchmarks report by ON24, the best day and time to host a webinar is Tuesday from 10-11 a.m. GMT because it works well for the widest range of time zones. But, if your audience is largely local, you can focus on other times.
Once you have your calendar set, here are some ways to optimize the actual timing of your webinar.
Companies typically appeal to different customer personas. Clearly defining and grouping your audience into various personas will ensure you're covering all your bases. It will also allow you to allocate a different time for different segments and topics while helping you to break up your webinar in 10 to 15-minute chunks, each one devoted to a different customer persona.
There's another, more important reason you have to segment your target audience; creating separate video segments will allow you to send focused content to different personas and followers on social media. You can then create a separate title and a different call-to-action for each.
These separate video segments can be sent to all those who attended your webinar or to those unable to attend. If you need help editing your video, then a digital marketing agency can help. Either way, you'll be incentivizing different customer personas to move forward by appealing to them through a unique call-to-action.
Itemize each of those aforementioned 10-15 minute segments on a clearly-visible billboard. Use bullet points to make sure you capture vital points for each customer persona. Next, use an online stopwatch to make sure you're not going over your allotted time for each segment.
It's easy to get lost and focus too much on one topic or subject to the detriment of others.
After all, it's hard to stop when you're on a roll and making valid, well-constructed points. However, doing that invariably means you'll lose some of your audience. A highly-visible online stopwatch and content billboard are important visual cues that will keep you on track during your webinar.
Does it make sense to go through a trial run, one where you make sure you're on track throughout your live webinar? It does. In fact, it's a good idea to have someone poke holes in your approach and content in order to provide constructive feedback. While you don't have to go through an entire 60-minute trial run, it's vital that you are well prepared to cover all your topics and easily able to segue into different subject areas.
It's critical that you have a ready-made list of questions and answers. Granted, your audience will likely come through with questions of their own. However, sometimes they need to be prompted into asking those questions, so be prepared to guide them along in the process. This also helps you to make sure you're well prepared to answer the most common questions your audience will have.
Finally, it would be a shame to do all of that work, and then no one gets the benefit of your webinar. If you want to see results, you'll need to promote it. Some of the best promotional strategies include:
Webinars create excitement. They allow you to generate a high volume of low-cost online leads. They work because today's consumer is looking for more than just a product. In the end, they're looking for the kind of insight only you can provide. Contact us to learn more about how to plug into the power of webinars.