Driving Demand with Digital EventsJuly 10, 2013

Craig Rosenbergwww.TOPOhq.com

@funnelholic

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Why Webinars?

1. Demand Generation -- High-converting offer2. Content -- One webinar creates multiple content assets 3. Engagement -- You don’t know if someone read your whitepaper, but you

do know if they watched your webinar.4. Data - Invaluable prospect insights to score or create relevant sales

messaging5. Urgency – Time sensitive versus “I’ll get to it when I get to it” offer6. Multi-faceted -- Great for brand, thought leadership, demand

generation, inbound marketing, etc7. Proven -- They work.

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“People view webinars as an hour of free consulting” Loren MacDonald, SilverPop

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Recommended Content Strategy

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Content Type Frequency Gated?Blog posts 5 times/week No

Ebook 1/quarter Yes

Webinars 1-2/month Yes

Whitepapers 1/month Yes

Infographic 1/quarter No

“Create a content cadence by delivering content at the same day, same time, same place” Scott Albro TOPO

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The Webinar Platform

Components

Registration Development

Attendee Development Production Conversion

Multi- Channel Distribution

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Landing Page

Reminders Engagement

Topic Development

On-Demand

Content

Lead Management

Buyer Personas

Topic Creation

Speaker Development

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Topic Development

1. Determine target buyer (s)2. Set attendance goals3. Decide on a topic

– Remember: Wide topics = larger attendance vs. targeted topics = smaller attendance (which may or may not be bad)

4. Recruit speakers – Remember: Buyers prefer to hear from peers and experts

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Same rules of content marketing apply with webinars – buyer first, product last or never

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Determine the Target Buyer(s)

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The Topic Should Not be About You

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Translation: Learn ALL about me. IT will be awesome. We will

spend the whole time discussing me and how I might be able to sell you something. I bet

you can’t wait!

Via @HJSewell

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The Topic Should be About the Buyer

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Side Note: Picture of Presenter Valuable and helpful

topicRole-Focused

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Test Provocative Topics

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Star Power Brings Audience

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101 Rotten Tomatoes$261,930,436

6 Oscars9 Oscar Nominations$49,230,772

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Analysts, Bloggers, and Thought Leaders are the Stars of B2B

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Multiple Stars = More Potential Audience

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•Panels•Roundtables•Multi-speaker presentations

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Registration Development

1. Set attendee goals2. Create a promotional plan3. Use multi-channel distribution with email as top

channel4. Create landing pages built to convert

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Use every tool at your disposal to drive registrations

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Create a Promotional Plan

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Tactic Best Practices Percentage of Registrations

Email Campaign 3 email sends: 3 weeks, 1 week, 1 day 75-100%

Corporate website •Banners and links throughout website•Pop-ups•Events resource center

5-15% (Depending on traffic and placement of advertising)

Social Sharing •Begin sharing immediately •Ask speakers, employees, etc to share•Create Google+ event page (Facebook page secondary)

3-5% (Note: Social sharing often boosts email and website promotions)

Promotional Blog Posts

•Write great content on related topic (not an advertisement)•Ask speakers to write posts

2-4%

Promotional Video Do video content leading up to the event 1-2%

Phone (Sales) Allow sales to promote to their prospects and customers

<1% (But will be highly targeted and is a great tactic for sales to generate conversation)

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Blog Promotion

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Use prominent cross-sell

Post can be written on your blog or guest

posts on other blogs

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Video Promotion

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Video interviews with speakers with URL in

“Bottom Third”

•15 minute interview •Cut into 3-4 short video previews•Post to blog, website, Youtube•Promote socially

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Landing Pages that Convert

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1. Introduce the speakers2. Date, time of event and

how to join3. WIIFM (What’s in it for

me) – An hour is a long time, make sure they know why it is worth their while

4. Be clear about what the webinar is about

5. Make registration form obvious

6. Keep registration fields as light as possible

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Attendee Development

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•Set an attendance goal (30-50% of registrations)•Develop a promotional plan to drive attendance•Begin promoting attendance immediately upon sign-up•Use multiple channels including ICAL, email, social, voice, and text

• Email: 24 hour reminder, 1-2 hour reminder, and 15 minute reminder

• Social: Start the #hashtag immediately

If you build it, it doesn’t mean they will come

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Reminders are Critical to Attendance

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Via @noyes_jessehttp://blog.eloqua.com/reminders-boost-webinar-attendance/

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The Effectiveness of Voicemail Reminders

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Via @andrewspoethhttp://blog.marketo.com/blog/2011/04/5-ways-to-increase-webinar-attendance.html

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Text Messaging Reminders

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TEXT ALERT

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Social Reminders

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Get the hashtag working immediately to build

momentum

Have thought leaders get people pumped on the event

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Engagement

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1. Develop a #hashtag for the event , announce it at the beginning and ask people to tweet– Speakers should engage with Tweets post-event

2. Create 1-2 polls during the event to keep people engaged3. Question and Answer:

– Prepare 5-6 questions before the event– Leave 10-15 minutes for Q/A– Encourage people to ask questions throughout the event– Don’t worry if no one asks questions

Most content is a one-way interaction, webinars are a conversation

Webinars are a classroom – don’t just present, engage

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Social Engagement

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1. Don’t make the hashtag too complicated

2. Make it prominent at the start

3. Put it on every slide4. Have someone on

staff running the conversation

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Poll Best Practices

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1. Make each question as simple and direct as possible.

2. Avoid nuances and colloquialisms.

3. Offer a reasonable and consistent number of rankings (5 is recommended).

4. Ask only one question at a time and one or two per event.

5. Allow neutral or opt out responses.

6. User-test your survey.

http://www.connectusers.com/tutorials/2009/02/effective_polls/index.php

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Conversion

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1. Webinars create a long-lasting content asset– Use the on-demand version as long as reasonable.– Create a resource center on your website to house webinar assets.

2. Create once-publish many – Lots of potential content from webinars3. Develop a post-webinar follow-up plan with sales

Rule #1: Webinars create at least one demand gen asset if not more

Rule #2: Have a follow-up plan in place before you launch the webinar

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Create once, publish many

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One webinar =• 1 whitepaper• 2-3 blog posts• 9 videos• 2 Slideshare

downloads

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Remix Webinar into an Ebook (Cool Idea)

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Have a Follow-up Plan

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1. Send email with on-demand instructions to registrants– Create different messages for attendees versus non-attendees

2. Score and route leads based on engagement– Nurture no-shows– Score highly engaged attendees higher and do immediate follow-up

3. Provide sales with data in order to personalize and customize follow-up– Give sales the slide deck as an asset for follow-up

If you don’t have a follow-up plan, leads will sit on the shelf

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Sample Sales Follow-up Plan

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# Business Day Step Description

1 1 Score leads Lead is scored based on pre-set parameters before alerting sales/inside sales. Lead scores help determine which leads are followed up first.

2 1 Assign lead New leads are assigned to inside sales for follow up.

3 1 Send on-demand email Send email to registrants with on-demand instructions, create different messages for attendees/no-attendees

4 1-15 Call Campaign Three calls/emails over 1.5 weeks

5 Ongoing Nurture Move leads into nurture campaign.

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The Webinar Platform

Components

Registration Development

Attendee Development Production Conversion

Multi- Channel Distribution

© 2013 TOPO

Landing Page

Reminders Engagement

Topic Development

On-Demand

Content

Lead Management

Buyer Personas

Topic Creation

Speaker Development

#OMSummit

@funnelholicwww.blog.topohq.com