This document will give you the key concepts and guidelines presented by Ken Molay in his presentation on how to create more effective business

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Dorthy Ford
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1 This document will give you the key concepts and guidelines presented by Ken Molay in his presentation on how to create more effective business marketing webinars. 1

What kind of planning would you have to do, how much travel and setup time would you have to devote, and how much money would you have to spend in order to make a traditional marketing presentation

2 What kind of planning would you have to do, how much travel and setup time would you have to devote, and how much money would you have to spend in order to make a traditional marketing presentation to prospects on the other side of the globe? How about the other side of Australia? How about the other side of Sydney? And yet I can dedicate less than a single hour and have an impact on an international audience from the comfort of my own home office. Not bad. 2

You are reading this because you were interested in the bullet points advertised in your event program. And that would make you just like an attendee at a marketing webinar.

3 You are reading this because you were interested in the bullet points advertised in your event program. And that would make you just like an attendee at a marketing webinar. You ve self-selected to pay attention based on a promise of value. So let me speak to you assuming you came here to get these three promised take aways - Learn the tricks of effective marketing webinars - Increase registration and attendance - Encourage participation and responsiveness 3

4 We might as well hit them in order. What are the tricks of effective marketing webinars? Well, the first trick is defining what effective means. 4

I m not going to tell you how to run your marketing department, but I will tell you, it s very likely that when it comes to webinars, you are concentrating way too much on numbers.

5 I m not going to tell you how to run your marketing department, but I will tell you, it s very likely that when it comes to webinars, you are concentrating way too much on numbers. Number of registrants, number of attendees. Easy to report, easy to compare from month to month. Easy to use as a performance indicator in your next status meeting. We all like filling up the top of the sales funnel and building our house list with more contact s. And there s nothing wrong with that. It is a necessary part of the game. But it can t be the only thing you focus on. Otherwise you are going to get yourself into an impossible escalation where you need an always growing number of contacts, while the average value of each name gets lower and lower. So how do you avoid that trap? 5

6 You do it by making sure that management up the line and your webinar team in the trenches have both bought into a more value-oriented set of goals. An effective marketing webinar is one that creates among your attendees a desire to interact with your organization. It gives them a positive image of your company s reputability, competence, trustworthiness, and quality. And it moves them one step forward into your sales process. Now that might mean different things. It could be that they do something proactively to request more information, or visit a web page, or sign up for the next webinar in your series. But it could also mean that they become receptive to the next action you take reading an you send, or taking a phone call from your sales team. 6

7 So now that we have a better handle on our goal of effectiveness, how do we achieve it? You can play along at home by completing this phrase. If you need a hint, I ll tell you that the answer in this particular case is not Elvis. Yes, that s right. Content is king. Now and always. But it s easy to misinterpret that simple little cliché. It does not mean that the best webinar is the one packed with the most details. Or the one with the biggest name speaker on the hottest trending topic. Or even the one that explains best what your product is and how it works. 7

When thinking about content for your webinar, what matters is whether it is perceived by your audience as relevant and useful to them. You see, your audience is very selfish. I m selfish.

8 When thinking about content for your webinar, what matters is whether it is perceived by your audience as relevant and useful to them. You see, your audience is very selfish. I m selfish. You re selfish! And that s not a bad thing. It s not a negative comment. It merely recognizes that you only care about what you care about. So as I put together my content for this presentation, I constantly stopped and checked whether every single slide had meaning and value for you. Could you use it in your job to be more effective? Would applying the tactics help you get better job performance ratings, a pay raise, or just get your boss off your back for another week? You see, the way you take in information and assess its value is very personal. 8

9 And that gives us another problem. Because the content that one person perceives as useful and valuable might bore the person next to her. So how do you combat the problem of differing expectations and agendas? The answer is to get as specific as you can in the way that you set expectations. That lets your audience self-select so that the ones who show up are the ones who care the most about the specific things you talk about. Your job is to set expectations that you can unconditionally meet within that single webinar. 9

For instance, if you tell people to come to a webinar on why your new Release 4 is great, you are setting yourself up for audience dissatisfaction. Engineers don t get enough details.

10 For instance, if you tell people to come to a webinar on why your new Release 4 is great, you are setting yourself up for audience dissatisfaction. Engineers don t get enough details. Managers don t get information on how it affects profitability. First timers expect an introduction and overview. But existing customers expect a drilldown into new features and changes. You can t satisfy everyone and so you end up with a scattershot message that satisfies no one. Instead, do a series of shorter, more focused webinars. One for managers, one for technical users. One for overview, one for drilldown. 10

Now that you have focused your topic and made specific promises in your promotional materials, you need to deliver on them. Remember, your promotional copy has already set up your basic premise.

11 Now that you have focused your topic and made specific promises in your promotional materials, you need to deliver on them. Remember, your promotional copy has already set up your basic premise. Your attendees know what the topic is. You don t have to convince them that it s valuable, because if it wasn t valuable to them they wouldn t be there in the first place. So get rid of your big build up and instead, get to the information itself. 11

12 The other thing to get rid of is those damned corporate marketing slides that start every presentation. If you start with standard backgrounder slides about the size and location of your company s offices, you are failing from the first seconds. I know you think you are establishing credibility, but really, you re showing that you consider your goals and priorities more important than the audience s. You got them all hot to hear about value for their interests, but they log in and see something else an advertisement about how great you are. Now they re angry. 12

13 Hopefully you re not angry, because I m going through the specifics I promised in the program. We talked about ways to make your webinars effective and now I need to tell you how to boost your numbers. 13

14 But wait a minute! Didn t I tell you that effectiveness can t be all about counts of registrants and attendees? Yes I did. It can t be only about that, but you can t ignore those numbers either. After all, you can t give an effective marketing webinar if nobody shows up to hear it. 14

The encouraging thing about this section of our talk is that the tactics for marketing a webinar are like marketing any other kind of announcement from your company.

15 The encouraging thing about this section of our talk is that the tactics for marketing a webinar are like marketing any other kind of announcement from your company. You need to identify your target audience. Find their priorities and hot buttons. Determine the channels you are going to use. Run A/B tests to see what works for you. So all the things you are learning at this conference apply. But there are a few special considerations that can help you promote webinars more successfully. 15

I am a believer in promoting one webinar at a time. If you have a page of upcoming events on your website, that s fine, but you need to focus a single promotional message on a single topic.

16 I am a believer in promoting one webinar at a time. If you have a page of upcoming events on your website, that s fine, but you need to focus a single promotional message on a single topic. Pick a subject, pick a target audience, and get those people to that one webinar. If you give people too many choices, they often end up picking none of them. The selection process demands too much thought. With one specific message and value proposition for each webinar you should be able to condense it to a short, pithy phrase that fits in a small space. This goes on your banner ads, text sponsorships, and other click-throughs. All you need is enough to drive people to a longer landing page where they can get more details. 16

That landing page is very important. Make sure it announces the date, time, and topic clearly and obviously. Never assume a time zone. Webinar audiences come from all over.

17 That landing page is very important. Make sure it announces the date, time, and topic clearly and obviously. Never assume a time zone. Webinar audiences come from all over. State the time zone explicitly. Have a bold, action-driven command to take people to the registration form (if it is not embedded directly on your landing page). It is hard to do better than REGISTER NOW. 17

Be careful not to make registrants jump through too many hoops to register. Each additional field acts as another barrier to entry. Consider carefully each and every input field you ask for.

18 Be careful not to make registrants jump through too many hoops to register. Each additional field acts as another barrier to entry. Consider carefully each and every input field you ask for. This information will be used for initial contact after the webinar. Will you be calling them, or simply sending out s? Are you going to separate responses by territory at this point? Coming to your webinar does not make someone an automatic sales prospect. If you simply load up a bunch of detailed registration fields and dump them on your sales force, the sales people will get angry at you for wasting their time. This stage of lead generation is still part of getting people to pay attention to you, not trying to advance the sales process. 18

If you ask a lot of sales qualification questions on your registration form, you turn off people who see your event as simply a way to target them for annoying sales

19 If you ask a lot of sales qualification questions on your registration form, you turn off people who see your event as simply a way to target them for annoying sales calls. People don t think of themselves as leads, so you don t want to engage with them that way either. So, are ya ready to buy yet? is not the way to introduce yourself. 19

Now here s a sad little pie chart. The exact numbers change for every webinar, but you have to accept that out of everyone who registers, only some of them will show up for the live event.

20 Now here s a sad little pie chart. The exact numbers change for every webinar, but you have to accept that out of everyone who registers, only some of them will show up for the live event. If I took every marketing webinar in every industry for every topic promoted to every audience, I d say that only about a third of the registrants are likely to attend live. That percentage does get higher with better audience targeting and more specific topics. So what can you do to help boost your attendance rates? 20

21 First, make sure registrants get a confirmation message that includes a calendar appointment. People may register well before your webinar date. If it s not on their calendar, it doesn t exist. 21

Second, start interacting before the webinar. Ask your registrants to tell you what content they want to see. Now they have a personal stake in the material.

22 Second, start interacting before the webinar. Ask your registrants to tell you what content they want to see. Now they have a personal stake in the material. They will show up to see if you answer their question. Although you can put this question gathering on your registration form itself, I prefer to keep it separate. Nothing should slow down the registration process. And a separate message creates a precedent for communications. It establishes the idea that you will be engaging with them in a relevant manner going forward. 22

You know you need to send reminders to your registrants. That s obvious. I like to send a reminder exactly 24 hours before the event and another one from 2 to 3 hours before show time.

23 You know you need to send reminders to your registrants. That s obvious. I like to send a reminder exactly 24 hours before the event and another one from 2 to 3 hours before show time. Watch out for the automatic reminder messages in your web conferencing software. They usually say something like Reminder, your webinar is tomorrow. You need to customize them to reiterate the key value proposition for your audience. If people signed up weeks ago, they will have forgotten the persuasive arguments that made them register in the first place. It is your job to remind them of why the session is valuable for them. 23

24 Now we ve made it to the webinar itself and it s time to hit our last topic point. How do you involve your audience? Get them engaged and receptive to your message? 24

25 I hate to keep beating the same old drum, but we come back once again to meeting the expectations you have set up. If your content doesn t fulfill the promises made in the promotional copy, your audience will be dissatisfied, no matter how good the information is. They made a decision to attend based only on the promotional promises. If they get something else, they feel cheated. Keep the promotional copy in front of you as you develop your slides. 25

There are a lot of techniques and tactics for good public speaking. But none of them are as important as projecting a sense of interest, enthusiasm, and engagement in your own topic.

26 There are a lot of techniques and tactics for good public speaking. But none of them are as important as projecting a sense of interest, enthusiasm, and engagement in your own topic. Your natural enthusiasm and passion for your subject need to come through to your audience. Your interest is infectious. If you sound like you have given the information many times and are bored with it yourself, your audience will be bored. Remember again to stress the relevance of your information for your audience. 26

27 A big part of that vocal engagement comes from the energy in your voice. A monotone lets your audience drift away from you. You need to include changes in inflection, tone, volume, and speed to continuously refocus the audience on your voice. You ll need to go bigger than you are used to and are comfortable with in your normal personal conversation. When your voice carries the communication load, it needs to be overemphasized and larger than life to engage the listener. Try listening to voiceover artists on radio commercials to get examples of how to punch up enthusiasm for the message. 27

As a presenter, you are keenly aware of the fact that a large group of people is listening to you. It feels natural to address the group as a collective entity.

28 As a presenter, you are keenly aware of the fact that a large group of people is listening to you. It feels natural to address the group as a collective entity. But each audience member takes in the presentation more personally. You are speaking and they are listening. This is especially true of web presentations, where a person sitting at his or her computer does not feel connected to other audience members Just to you. Take advantage of this by always phrasing your remarks to speak to the individual as if he or she was the only person listening. The fact that you know there are 300 people listening is beside the point. Instead of Can anyone tell me the answer? try Do you know the answer? Instead of I d like everyone out there to type their first name into the console try Please type your first name into the console. The change is subtle yet powerful. 28

29 If possible, make use of first names in your audience. Say the name of the person who asks a question or types a comment. You need to let people know that you re having a conversation with them and it matters to you that they are present. You don t want attendees to feel like you are just talking to thin air and it doesn t make any difference whether they are there or not. 29

To make sure you have opportunities to acknowledge the audience, plan for interactions throughout the presentation. Create polls or surveys if your software allows it.

30 To make sure you have opportunities to acknowledge the audience, plan for interactions throughout the presentation. Create polls or surveys if your software allows it. Have some questions ready that invite your attendees to type responses in the Q&A box. Plan some seed questions to stimulate discussion during the Q&A period in case things go slowly. 30

Don t forget our basic webinar psychology when using interactive elements. As far as the audience is concerned, everything you do has to seem like it s for their benefit, not yours.

31 Don t forget our basic webinar psychology when using interactive elements. As far as the audience is concerned, everything you do has to seem like it s for their benefit, not yours. If they get the sense that you are just using them as your own personal laboratory rats, they aren t going to be very enthusiastic. Give them a selfserving reason to participate. What are they going to get out of it? 31

32 Now this is important. Pay attention here. You can t just have a constant unbroken flow of information. Your audience will zone out. Every so often, you need to stop and emphasize a particular point. You might say something like Now this is important. Pay attention here. It breaks that trance and helps people refocus. 32

33 Even when you aren t stopping for a special break point, you need to help your audience understand the value of the information you give them. Don't assume that the audience will build the connection in their minds. They are assimilating new information they haven't seen before and it takes an extra cognitive step to understand why it is important or why they should care. Help them by making it clear as you go. 33

34 At the end of your presentation you need to be explicit about what you expect or want the audience to do. You don t need to be demanding, but you should clearly tell them the steps they can take to add more value for themselves. If you have other webinars planned, make sure the next one has already been scheduled in your web conferencing system and that you can direct your audience to the registration page. If you want them to respond to a follow-up contact from your company, tell them when, why, and how you will be contacting them. Emphasize the value they will be able to receive by being receptive. If you want them to be proactive with a request for information, let them know why they should take that step. 34

What about after your webinar? Are there ways to make the follow through more effective as well? Yes there are. And I start with the most important thing, which is speed.

35 What about after your webinar? Are there ways to make the follow through more effective as well? Yes there are. And I start with the most important thing, which is speed. You have a very short window of opportunity after your webinar to engage with your audience. If people get something of value from you, they briefly lower their defenses and are willing to talk to you or follow up in some other way. But that feeling goes away quickly, and if you reach out to them a week or two later, you lose all the psychological benefits you could have enjoyed. 35

That means you need to be ready to send out any materials you promised during the webinar. Don t wait till afterwards to create handouts or to organize collateral.

36 That means you need to be ready to send out any materials you promised during the webinar. Don t wait till afterwards to create handouts or to organize collateral. If you send a follow up within an hour or two of the event, it carries a lot of weight. You seem like a company that makes good on your promises. The same thing applies if you promise you will get back to an attendee with an answer that you didn t have during the event. Look up that information and reply as quickly as you can. 36

37 One thing that can really help your response speed is to have your sales team primed and ready to act. As part of your planning and preparation ahead of time, tell your sales team the topic of the webinar. Ask them to block out an hour on their calendars that afternoon for follow up with high priority attendees. Then as soon as the webinar is over, look through the chat logs for people who expressed interest, asked serious questions, or wanted more information. Don t just dump their names into your sales management system. Dole them out for immediate contact. Your sales people will be astonished at how receptive the contacts are when they find out they are getting a rapid response based on questions they just asked. And what s the worst thing that can happen if there are no hot leads to follow up? A sales person ends up with a free hour on their calendar to do uninterrupted work. They won t complain. 37

You should have a good feel now for how to improve your marketing webinar results. That s not just good for your company, it s good for you personally.

38 You should have a good feel now for how to improve your marketing webinar results. That s not just good for your company, it s good for you personally. You know to build focused sessions concentrating on perceived value for your audience. You ve learned how to boost registration and attendance. You have tips for delivering engaging and influential content, and you know how to improve the effectiveness of your post-webinar activities. I hope you ll take these tips and apply them in your organization. That s an action item you should be able to live with! 38

39 Please feel free to me with questions or comments. You can read many more tips on my blog. And if you feel like following me on twitter, my handle Thank you! 39

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