Webinar Best Practices:
From Planning & Marketing to Execution & Results

Online seminars called webinars have become a dynamic tool to deliver educational content to clients and prospects. Webinars can enrich individuals’ engagement with your brand or organization, support marketing efforts and position your team as industry experts and leaders.

While delivering content online may sound simple, online events entail significant planning, preparation and marketing.  Kellen Communications has been developing and implementing webinars for both business-to-business and consumer clients. Although the target audiences for these webinars vary, the best practices are universal.  Here are some guidelines to consider if a webinar is part of your plan. 

Consider technical capabilities carefully. Prior to selecting a webinar platform, determine the capabilities and features you will want for the event. From viewer experience to database management, vendors offer various packages and services.  Not every platform will provide detailed information gathering. (For example how long did each person stay in the webinar?) Consider too, the technical savvy of your intended audience.  Select a platform that provides the best solution for your specific needs.

Make presentations effective and engaging. Consider using highly visual graphics and video in your presentation to deliver content that is as compelling as it is informative. Make the presentation readily available for download.

Select an emcee, not just a moderator. Choose an individual who will relate to your audience and speak well.  When Kellen Communications produced a series of “Navigating Elder Care” webinars for Partners in Care, an affiliate of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, we engaged Mary Alice Williams, a former network news anchor, who has hosted television specials on health topics and who has had personal experience as a caregiver.  Her professionalism, familiarity with the topic and experience combined with the expertise of the speakers to make the webinar series shine.

Choose speakers carefully.  Be selective. Your speakers should be both expert on the topic and comfortable presenting.   Consider offering professional presentation coaching if you think your speakers might need a little polish.  Make sure to rehearse the presentation several times and to practice using the technical platform. 

Add a marketing partner. A complementary organization or a media outlet such as a trade magazine can make a powerful marketing partner and offer additional perceived value and credibility to the presentation.  Kellen Communications recommended that its client the International Copper Association partner with BNP media for a series of webinars about the use of MicroGroove copper-tube technology in air-conditioning and refrigeration products. The partnership included several email blasts to highly targeted lists as well as online and print advertising.  The result was a total of 900 registered attendees for the webinar series.

Promote, promote and promote! Make sure your webinar budget includes sufficient marketing funds.  In addition to a third-party partnership, advertising, publicity, direct marketing and social media help to get the word out. You might consider incentives such as a raffle to help drive attendance and secure participation.

Analyze and utilize.   Ask participants to complete a brief satisfaction survey.  Analyze their responses as well as the data collected on the registration forms to identify trends, gain added audience insight and find opportunities to improve future events.  Use the registration database for sales lead cultivation.  Archive the webinars and market them after the event.  Capture and review that data, too.

Serve a webinar sandwich.   Well-executed webinars are a win-win for your organization and for the attendees.  You benefit from reaching a highly interested audience and participants gain educational content.  For optimal sales lead generation think of your presentation as a sandwich:  layer your “sales pitch” between two layers of fresh, home-baked, useful content and the audience will be asking for seconds. 

Kellen Communications is a full service public relations and interactive media agency. We help brands and organizations build awareness and audience engagement through carefully crafted communications programs.  For additional information visit: www.kellencommunications.com or email info@kellenpr.com