Webinar Success: How to Generate Significant Revenue and Leads from “Free” and Paid Webinars

Part I: Paid Webinars Leslie Davidson Davidson Direct

Today’s Objectives How to decide if webinars are right for

your business. Topic selection, or how to make more

than $100K on a single webinar! Marketing strategies, including email,

lists, social media, banner ads, advertorials, and print (yes, print!).

How to price your webinars. Post-webinar strategies. Recap: Webinar do’s and don’ts.

Are Webinars Right for You? Here are some factors to consider when deciding whether or not to do webinars: Revenue Leads Human resources Costs Impact on other products and services

Topic Selection How to select topics that resonate with

your audience. Can topic really impact revenue that

much? And about that $100K webinar…

Marketing Strategies

Email marketing: When, how often, how many.

Lists, and what you can do if you don’t have one.

Social media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn.

Banner ads. Advertorials. Print.

How to Price Your Webinar How pricing can affect registration. How to decide what your audience will

pay. High price vs. low price. Selling a webinar series. Yearly passports.

Post-Webinar Strategies Selling CDs and streams after the

webinar. Use as premiums for other products. Newsletter stories. Post-conference surveys. Follow up with new customers.

Recap: Webinar Do’s and Don’ts

Do’s: Pick great topics. Send multiple emails for each webinar. Always look for ways to grow your lists. Test pricing. Add social media to your marketing mix. Get input from attendees. Use the information from webinars in

other ways.

Recap: Webinar Do’s and Don’ts Don’ts: Don’t start marketing too early. Don’t be afraid to send multiple emails,

no matter how many webinars you do. Don’t worry about pricing your webinars

too high. Don’t sell multiple webinars at the same

time. Don’t miss out on webinar revenue

because you don’t have time to do them…

If you need help with your webinars

Leslie Davidson Davidson Direct 650-563-4283

leslie@davidsondirect.net www.davidsondirect.net

Webinar Success: How to Generate Significant Revenue and Leads from “Free” and Paid Webinars

Part II: Free Webinars Susan Woodard Director of Business Development, EB Medicine susan@ebmedicine.net

Objectives Review two types of “FREE” webinar

models Discuss content development,

marketing, and financial structure for both models

Learn how and where each of these webinar models could fit into your business

See industry examples for both models and discuss what has worked, what has not and why

Two “Free” Webinar Models Sponsorship – a partner or advertiser

pays your company to market and/or produce a webinar for them ◦ Objectives ◦ Variations on this model

Lead Generation – this type of “free” webinar is developed to drive sales leads for your company’s products and/or services ◦ Objectives ◦ Variations on this model

Sponsorship Webinar - Content Keys to Success: Collaboration Relevance Strong speaker(s) Balance of ad v. value content Marketability Shelf life Tracking

Sponsorship Webinar – Marketing Keys to success: Develop compelling copy with strong

key takeaways and benefits of attending

Promote to the right list(s) Generate the volume and type of

leads a sponsor expects for campaign success

Determine a sufficient number of marketing efforts and channels

Add back-end value for your sponsor

Sponsorship Webinar Financial Structure – Internal Factors Keys to Success 1. Understand the value of your list and

channel marketing 2. Detail the expenses related to webinar

production 3. Assign a cost to customer support and

staff time 4. Compare against other sponsorship

webinar models in your market before setting sponsorship cost

Sponsorship Webinar Financial Structure – External Factors Keys to Success: 1. Understanding your sponsor’s goals and desired

outcome 2. Being able to speak to success of prior sponsored

webinars 3. Setting the right price 4. Sponsorship Agreement and IO 5. Establishing sponsorship metrics and follow-up

process 6. Tiered pricing structure with add-ons for additional

marketing bandwidth 7. Longer-term sponsorship options 8. Bundling of webinar sponsorships with other

advertising options

Sponsored Webinar Example from Atlantic Information Services, Inc.

Sponsorship Price: $10K Client Goal: 750 Registrants Results: 820 registrants

Marketing:

• 8 Email blasts: 4 to entire list and 4 to a more targeted micro-list

• Weekly ads in AIS e-newsletters

• Ad on AIS Web site • Campaign duration: 2

months

For profit companies are not the only ones hosting sponsored webinars. Associations are leveraging this revenue opportunity as demonstrated by The American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

“Free” Webinar Lead Generation - Content Keys to success: A webinar agreement that includes rights to content

post-webinar for recording, transcript, and repurposing Topic/Content must have high perceived value and be

closely related to the products or services you are selling

Choosing the right internal or external speaker Webinar must fulfill on what is conveyed in marketing Striking the right content/product balance – the speaker

can work in subtle product references Presentation materials are more important than you

think Collect future topic ideas through post-webinar survey Value-added content post-webinar

“Free” Webinar Lead Generation - Marketing Keys to success: Interview your speaker(s) to obtain the key marketing items Develop a campaign brief and request written synopsis Commit to a multi-media, multi-effort promotional plan Utilize outside list partners to drive new prospects Open to clients for value add, but track results separately

from prospects Involve your sales team by encouraging them to urge clients

to sign up, and again on back-end with training and goals Generate a survey on back-end that is geared toward

qualifying sales leads Build post-webinar on-demand recording efforts into your

campaign plan

“Free” Webinar Lead Generation – Financial Structure Keys to Success: Understand your webinar costs, potentially use a lower cost

platform such as Webex or GoToMeeting Template your communications to avoid drain on staff

resources Send multiple follow-up communications to avoid dramatic

decreases from registration to attendance Establish flow and metrics: Track email results to Registration

-> Attendees (50-65%) -> Survey respondents (20-35%) A leads (demo requests), B leads (product info. requests), C

leads (survey respondents Satisfactory or Excellent rating), D leads (non-survey respondents)

Leverage on-demand recording for back-end revenue stream Look at other ways to repurpose content if webinar is

successful

Free Webinar Indirect Product Offer

Email Sample: Free Webinar Series Indirect Product Offer

Free Webinar – Direct Product Offer

Email Sample: Free webinar Direct product offer

QUESTIONS?