Webinar best practices

In the knowledge economy, it is essential for professionals to keep learning and growing. Webinars are one of the best ways to do this, and, in fact, 91% of B2B Professionals Say Webinars Are Their Preferred Type of Content.

For businesses, webinars and videos (also referred to as “Reach media content”) are growing in significance as part of the overall inbound content strategy. This is because webinars and videos enable the following:

• Deep dive- a 45-minute webinar allows vendors and clients to have meaningful discussions and really understand the product and offering.
• Accessibility: People prefer to consume information in many ways, and with the average attention spend constantly dropping, video and online webinars are growing in popularity
• Engaging- Webinar is interactive by nature, and viewers can ask questions and react to the topics discussed.
• Measurable results- Webinars offer more data than standard “static” content, meaning that it is easier to establish intent and engagement (simply measure how long a person had viewed the Webinar, have they asked any questions, etc.).    

91% of B2B Professionals Say Webinars Are Their Preferred Type of Content

Webinar planning

• Know your personas: match the webinar content to the buying persona.
• Check what your competitors are doing on the platform and what works for them.
• Research keywords and trending topics, if possible- refer to industry events and trending news
• Your audience is busy, so people will only invest their time if they can obtain something tangible. Keep this in mind when deciding on a webinar topic- these topics work best:

1. Tips and tricks
2. Industry trends
3. How to’s
4. Expert interview
5. Case studies
6. Data insights

-       You need to diversify your content to reach different levels in the organizations- tips and tricks works best for operational, mid-low level decision managers, market insights and experts’ interview is better for decision makers

-       Make sure the webinar aligns with your overall content guidelines and calendar, try to avoid “one offs” and incoherent content.  

Building the webinar

• Create an engaging title (but not clickbait)
• Build the Skeleton, allow for 2 minutes per slide.
• The recommended length is 45 minutes. Anything longer than that and you will likely lose your audience towards the end and before you’ve reiterated your call to action.
• Visual design should take into consideration the webinar platform and viewing environment- contrasting colors and clear fonts are best.
• Narrative- you need to tell a good story, even if it’s a B2B pitch. Don’t neglect the visual aspects as these evoke emotional engagement (yes, even at webinars it’s wrong to have slides filled with bullet points).
• Abstract- Explain what will the audience gain
• Explain why are the presenters relevant for the topic?
• Cover Image of the webinar is very important- this is the “banner” people will click
• Make sure you use tags to enable people to easily find your content
• A webinar could be a great way to get people from your organization involved. People who would never go on stage to deliver a talk or write a blog post but are very good at product demos could deliver killer webinars.
• Webinars are also great for harnessing experts and influencers.  

Execution and follow up

• Test your webinar before the session, make sure it works and that you have backup
• Your audience are looking for ongoing engagement, so you rather shine away from one-offs, and make sure people know when is the next webinar scheduled for.
• Remember that post viewing (on demand) viewing can increase your exposure.  This is the long tail and it behaves much like content long tail does, promoting your brand long after the actual session is done.
• Creating a single “asset” is demanding, so make sure you re-use and re-purpose it:  

1. Start with a Webinar
2. Pole during the webinar, publish results on social media
3. Turn the presentation into an E-book
4. Write a Blog post summarizing the main takeaways from the webinar (and the feedback you’ve received during and after it)- Here a recent example of a blog post reviewing a webinar I've conducted
5. Make Social media snippets

Follow ups are key, you have reach data set (viewers contact details, viewing behavior (have they watched all the way through, have they viewed multiple webinars) so leverage that into a meaningful discussion with your prospects.

Summary

To summarize, Webinars are engaging interactions that have a vast reach and are growing in popularity. They are not hard to produce and have great impact on potential buyers, and every organization should consider adding these to their marketing mix.

To show you that I have some clue of what I’m talking about- here’s my webinar channel, you are welcome to view recorded webinars and sign up for upcoming ones.

Bye,

Yotam