In my last blog I looked at the why, the who, and the what, of your webinar plan, all of which will help your webinar become successful.
However, when you plan on holding your webinar and where you plan to host it are just as important. This second blog looks at why that is and how important each element is to make your webinar a success.
The when and the where
Despite hosting it at a certain time, on a certain day, a webinar shouldn’t just be a point in time tool. Sure, having a good number of attendees on the day is important, but it’s not the only goal. You must think about how you can get the maximum value from this content and use it in different ways, post event.
Hosting and promoting
Video is fast becoming one of the top ways of consuming content, and one reason for that is that it can be hosted in a number of ways, and in a number of places:
Webinar platforms. Webinar hosting platforms are a great place to reach your audience in real time and also after the event. Users are able to search and save webinars based on their interests and their viewing history, so they’ll be viewing your content because it’s relevant to them. Here is a list of some of the best webinar platforms to choose from.
Your website. Hosting an on-demand recording of your webinar(s) in a hub on your website is also a must. Not everyone who signs up to your webinar will attend on the day, so as soon as it’s done and the recording is processed, get it uploaded to the website, share that link to your database and increase those website hits.
Social media. Tell me something, when you’re scrolling through Twitter or LinkedIn, are you more likely to stop on a post with a one-minute video on a subject you’re interested in, or a post with 800+ words where you have to click the ‘see more’ button? That’s what I thought.
Webinars are usually about an hour long, but after the event, what’s stopping you from chopping that video up and sharing interesting snippets with your LinkedIn or Twitter connections? This is a great way to keep the interest around your webinar going, and getting those who were unable to attend, to watch, listen and learn.
When it comes to a webinar’s success, post-promotion is just as important as promoting it ahead of time. And this doesn’t just mean posting the link to the recorded webinar on the company LinkedIn page.
According to research from LinkedIn, content shared by individual employees has twice as much engagement than content shared by a company. So, get your sales team involved. Providing them with post-webinar collateral to personally share with their prospects who couldn’t attend is an effective way to continue those conversations.
I do hope that sometime in the near future in-person events will become the norm again, but until then, webinars will continue to be a great way of interacting with your target audience, providing collateral for your website and sales teams, and generating fun and informative social media fodder.
If you’re looking to run a webinar soon, get the what, why, who, when and where covered, and you’ll be good to go!
