Simple Steps to Engaging Webinars

Administrator — Tue, 07 May 2013 18:23:00 GMT

:: By Heidi Wong, Bigcommerce ::

Webinars can be part of the marketing arsenal for even the most early-stage businesses, because it can build brand awareness, email lists and more. Software and delivery technology has changed, putting Web-based seminars within reach of a wider group of users. Despite these changes, though, one thing remains the same: Knowing your customers and what keeps them engaged.

Webinars can be incredibly painful to the audiences they are intended to serve. Reactions are polarized, ranging from “Oh no, are you kidding?” to “Oh, that's great!”

Getting to “Oh, that’s great!” is easier than you think, as long as you understand that Webinars are not about you; they’re about how your customers benefit from working with you. If your current or prospective clients are willing to give you 20-30 minutes of their time, they have to know they can walk away with something practical they can apply to their business or their world.

Whether you are a first-time Webinar host or a seasoned veteran, here are seven simple strategies that will keep your clients interested in hearing from you, and coming back for more.

1. The Webinar doesn't have to be about your product. The most common error many hosts make is designing the content of their Webinar in the service of the company rather than the customer.

In fact, a Webinar may be of greatest use to your audience when it speaks to the lifestyle in which your product is used. For example, I am a fairly new parent. Consequently, I find myself directly in the crosshairs of the “mommy marketing machine.” This group of vendors has Webinars down to a science. One store that sells baby goods in my hometown of Boston recently ran a Webinar on “how to deal with a disruptive toddler.”

What's interesting about this approach is the company is not talking about the products it sells, or any of the benefits related to those products. Instead, they are talking about where those products are used, and how they can be used to manage situations that are of particular interest to their target audience.

This cuts across all marketplaces. With that important shift in focus, attendees learn practical information. More importantly, they start to understand that your company has an expertise on which they can rely.

2. Make sure to host your Webinar at a time when your participants would like to attend. Take the restaurant market, for example. I’ve known Webinar hosts who wanted to make their presentations at two o’clock in the afternoon. For many restaurants, that is either the end of a high-demand lunch rush or planning and prep time before the earliest dinner crowds. It's unlikely that any of their targets would be available at that time.

In that case, an early morning session — say 9 a.m. on a Monday — may be the right choice. In a B2B environment, though, Monday morning wouldn’t be optimal. Friday afternoon, likewise, is probably a bad idea. People are either wrapping up the week or getting ramped up after the weekend.

You have to understand the market you're trying to reach and plan around their down times, when business or important planning is unlikely to be done. In my previous example of the baby goods store, Webinars can run as late as eight o’clock on any given evening. The hosts understand that by that time the baby is (hopefully) asleep, and the parents will be able to participate.

3. Webinars don’t have to be live. Consider the possibility of a video-on-demand feed. Again, know your customers, what they actually care about and when they can spend time with the material. Being able to access Webinars on their own schedule improves the chances of reaching the largest group of clients or prospects.

4. Remember your time zones. The point here again is to find a time that is convenient for your participants. That does not mean, unfortunately, that it may be best for you. Depending on which coast you're on, you may find that you’re getting up much earlier than you'd like or staying in the office much later than you'd prefer.

For a typical corporate environment, a Webinar that begins at one or two o’clock Eastern time is often a good bet. It gives the broadest swath of businesses across all US time zones an opportunity to work the Webinar into their lunch schedule, so that they can multitask and eat lunch while taking in the information.

And while we’re on the subject:

5. Understand that people will be multitasking during your Webinar. Participants are unlikely to be giving you 100 percent of their attention. There should be some mechanism by which participants can, for example, download a PowerPoint presentation or other slide deck after the Webinar to ensure they don't miss any important information. Making the Webinar available in a video-on-demand format can also be helpful here.

6. Consider something other than a “lecture” environment. To improve the participant involvement, I am a proponent of a more informal roundtable or workshop approach. I will often un-mute attendees and have them share stories. People enjoy talking about themselves and sharing relevant information. They feel safer asking questions in that setting. They can relate to other attendees, and get the benefit of hearing other people's questions rather than just getting a product sales pitch. It's more about sharing information in an online environment.

My most successful Webinars have been when I was doing the least amount of talking. I’ve seen the best satisfaction responses, best conversion rates and best reviews when panels of customers talk about their experiences. Of course, not everyone is comfortable doing that, but it’s often true that your best reactions may come when you speak the least.

7. Make content relatable — tell a story. This takes us all the way back to our first point: the Webinar doesn’t have to be about your product or your company. This takes practice. You have to become a good storyteller.

Interestingly, some of the best people I've hired and trained to do this kind of work have been standup comedians. I honestly believe that the best Webinars are more of a cross between a talk radio show and a performance than a lecture. It’s “edu-tainment.” You have to entertain your participants to keep them involved.

Again, people are usually multi-tasking during a Webinar. They are checking their Twitter feed. They are answering emails. They're on Facebook looking at pictures from the weekend. You have to give them a reason to stay and pay attention.

Webinars are about more than just content. The content has to be relevant to their world. You can talk very pie-in-the-sky, but ultimately you have to offer real-life applications that make sense to attendees. Provide ideas that participants can emulate and apply to their world. That's the only way that people will leave your Webinar thinking, “Oh, that’s great! That was actually worth my time.”

Heidi Wong is Senior Manager of Distance Learning for Bigcommerce. She can be reached at heidi.wong@bigcommerce.com

Superfans Drive Facebook Engagement

Allison Howen — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:00:00 GMT

Bigger is not always better – at least when it comes to a brand’s social media following.

In fact, when it comes to Facebook, brands should focus on acquiring active “Superfans” rather than a larger quantity of fans. A recent study from Napkin Labs, which monitored fan engagement across 52 Facebook Brand Pages that each had between 200,000 and 1,000,000 fans, found that only 6 percent of the more than 31.7 million analyzed fans actually engaged with a brand’s Facebook content.

This means that increasing your fanbase does not necessarily correlate to a boost in fan engagement. For example, the study showed that brand pages with more than 900,000-1,000,000 fans had 60 percent less engagement than brand pages with 500,000-600,000 fans – which is why brands should focus on providing their Superfans with a better social media experience.

Superfans are defined as a brand's top 20 most engaged fans. The reason these fans are valuable is because the engagement of one Superfan is equal to that of 75 fans – meaning that although brands work hard to build a big fanbase, only a small fraction of those fans are active on their Timelines and influential to other social media users. This is important to note because the study found that Superfans influence how much other fans interact. For instance, the top 10 most engaged Superfans received 2.3 times more Likes and 1.8 times more comments than less active Superfans.

"Superfans are vitally important to telling a brand's story," said Riley Gibson, co-founder CEO of Napkin Labs. "These numbers show that brand marketers need to focus less on the volume of fans and more on engaging the fans that they have. Involving engaged fans in richer experiences rather than just pushing messages is one key way to keep communities active and interested."

In order to build a community of Superfans, brands should encourage their fans to engage with posts as well as avoid superficial interactions, such as posting too many promotional messages and offers. Additionally, brands should show appreciation to their Superfans by offering them special incentives or rewards.

What's Engagement Mapping, Anyway?

Administrator — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:24:00 GMT

Page views are dead - long live "engagement mapping".

Microsoft announced Monday that it would begin testing a new way to measure the effectiveness of Internet advertising. Engagement mapping is due to begin (in beta of course) on March 1st. This for many has signified a radical departure from the current standard wherein marketers tie sales, leads and traffic to the last advertisement that a user clicked on online.

Engagement mapping will take into account all Internet interactions that lead consumer to purchase products, giving advertisers a more accurate assessment of how to plan their online marketing campaigns. The new approach will better convey how each ad exposure (display, rich media, search - seen multiple times on multiple properties) influences eventual purchases.

From a Reuters article, ""The 'last ad clicked' is an outdated and flawed approach because it essentially ignores all prior interactions the consumer has with a marketer's message," said Brian McAndrews, senior vice president of the advertiser and publisher solutions unit at Microsoft.

'Net Features : engagement mapping

Simple Steps to Engaging Webinars

Superfans Drive Facebook Engagement

What's Engagement Mapping, Anyway?