Webinars are a popular and valuable form of content that various industries utilize to inform, inspire, and build brand awareness. Their popularity, especially in recent years, is a direct result of their easy-to-consume nature, high value, and digital delivery. Webinars provide the perfect opportunity to share information and connect with potential customers, clients, peers, partners, and industry leaders without the costs of attending and presenting at an in-person seminar. Webinar attendees are highly likely to become qualified leads, and many B2B professionals attend webinars regularly, making them a boon for B2B companies now and into 2024.
Proper planning is essential to the success of almost any endeavor, but especially one where your final product will represent you and your company in front of an audience. By laying the groundwork for your webinar first, you can make sure you know your subject matter inside and out and will keep your audience interested. This expert standing will create a more valuable resource that you can promote long after the live event and ensure you’re leaving the best possible impression.
Our own experience at Sagefrog has proven that webinars are a valuable tool in the marketing arsenal. We even use webinars ourselves. If you’re planning a webinar, our team’s ten tips for successful webinars can help you create a real knockout.
Top 10 Tips for Planning a Webinar in 2024
1. Start Planning ASAP
What good is a plan when you don’t have the time to use it? If you want your webinar to succeed, you can’t procrastinate. It’s best to begin the planning process at least three months in advance. You’ll need to look at the materials and tools required, manage your timeline, schedule brainstorm meetings and prep sessions, and more. If you wait until the last minute to start planning, you may not only find that you’re rushing but that your production lacks crucial elements that can make or break your webinar.
2. Establish Clear Goals and KPIs
You must know what you’re hoping to achieve when planning a webinar so you can accurately measure success when the webinar is over. If brand awareness is your main objective, set a goal for the number of registrants. If marketing qualified leads (MQLs) are what you’re looking for, measure attendance. Or, if sales leads are what you seek, how many will you need to deem the webinar successful? Take time upfront to establish these goals and KPIs—at minimum, you’ll walk away from the webinar with a clear measure of success.
3. Know Your Topic and Target Audience
When planning a webinar, it’s essential to identify your topic and your target audience. What do you want to talk about, and why is it of interest to the audience you hope will attend? Will you need to tailor your presentation to suit that audience? Do you have obvious credentials around the topic that you make you a subject-matter authority? You should answer these questions early in the planning stage to guide development, ensure your mastery of the subject matter, and deliver the best result possible.
4. Consider a Webinar Partner
You don’t necessarily have to create a webinar on your own. You can consider choosing a partner to feature in the webinar, whether it’s a representative from the platform hosting the event or another company that can offer a relevant point of view in a similar or adjacent industry. A partnership can broaden your outreach, increase your audience, and add value to the content by including varied resources and opinions for the audience.
5. Create a Custom Landing Page
Create a custom landing page for your webinar event with the date and time, speakers, details about the subject, and what the audience can expect to learn from attending. Creating a landing page like this one developed by Sagefrog can help increase web traffic and drive registrations.
6. Promote Your Webinar
One of the most important tips for successful webinars is to promote your webinar everywhere possible—leveraging social media, email marketing, digital advertising, and more. LinkedIn is especially effective when promoting a webinar to B2B professionals. Beyond that, if you’re partnering with another business, ask them to help you promote it by creating their own materials or sharing yours over social media. You’ll want to begin this process at least two to three weeks before the event.
7. Branding is Key
When you’re spending time producing a top-quality webinar, don’t forget to include your branding everywhere possible. While the subject-matter of the webinar is the main show, your brand should be the opening and closing act. When using webinars as part of your marketing strategy, it’s vital that you’re doing everything possible to associate the subject with your brand to position your company as industry thought leaders. You want audience members to remember you, especially if building brand awareness was one of your goals.
8. Get the Audience Involved
Planning some audience interaction should be on your webinar checklist. Whether it’s a poll, live Q&A, contest, giveaway, or a form for questions on your landing page, including one or more of these options can lead to a more exciting and memorable experience for the audience.
9. Practice Makes Perfect
Remember that you’re representing your company during a webinar. Nothing turns attendees away quicker than an unprepared presenter. Practice everything! From your introduction and speech to your slide transitions and camera angles. Scheduling time to practice and doing a few dry runs can help smooth out hiccups, ensure you know your part, and keep your webinar from running too long. A well-executed webinar tells your audience that you know what you’re doing and what you’re talking about.
10. Don’t Forget to Hit the Record Button
Webinars are a great resource and one that is valuable to preserve and re-promote. You can share a webinar long after the live event has ended, so recording them is a definite best practice. Recording the event is vital to your post-webinar marketing. After the event, promote the webinar as an “on-demand” resource to those who could not attend live, were unaware, or are currently searching for resources.
Webinars in 2024
With a new year coming up quickly, many companies are considering marketing in 2024 and trying to identify valuable opportunities and tactics. Webinars are one tactic that will continue to be popular next year! Particularly if you’re thinking about a webinar early in 2024, now is the time to begin the planning process. And the good news is we’re here to help—from concept to post-webinar marketing.
If you’re looking for new ways to get your company noticed in 2024, our team is ready to chat. Contact us today to get the conversation started!
