september2021 - 17

MARKETING YOUR FIRM
The Ins and Outs of Webinar Success
DURING 2020, WEBINARS skyrocketed. Were you a bit
envious of your colleagues promoting their new, shiny
lead generation tool? If so, you too can use webinars to
drive leads and impact the bottom line.
According to RingCentral, " The
2020 pandemic prompted companies
and marketers to change their strategies.
That's why there's a sudden
surge in webinar viewership. 67%
of marketers invested more time
on webinars. U.S. brands increased
webinar offerings by as much as
36% - that's just between February
and March 2020. "
What can you do to make a
webinar successful, i.e., bring in
leads and generate income?
13 TIPS TO INCREASE
SUCCESS
Increase your webinar success with
these tips:
■ Know your audience. Consider who's
attending and what their pain points
are. Once you know this, you can
weave a story introduction that has
them nodding their head in agreement.
See webinar formula below.
■ Keep mobile in mind by making
font sizes larger and visuals more
impactful. Test your slides on a
mobile device before the live date.
■ Hook 'em with the headline. Think
like your customer and craft
headlines that would get their
attention. Not sure how to do that?
Try a free, online headline generator
for inspiration.
■ Prepare some questions ahead of
time to lead the Q&A session. It's
also important to have someone
assist you with the webinar to
capture any questions in chat or on
social media.
■ Consider mixed media during the
live session, for example, imbedding
a video, sound bite, or animation to
drive home a point.
■ Be dynamic and conversational.
Somet imes it helps to have
another person online when you're
presenting so it feels more like a
conversation. If that's not possible,
talk to the camera like it's a person.
■ Pick the right day and time. According
to GoToMeeting, Thursday at
11 a.m. is the best time to host a
webinar.
■ Have a stable Internet connection
and good headset to help deliver the
information effectively and clearly.
■ Conduct a dry run. This is also a
good time to record the session as a
backup in case something happens
during the live session. If you need
a script, practice with that. Keep in
mind, going off script or ad-libbing
is okay too.
■ Create a webinar landing page
on your website to capture leads.
Include the topic, date, time,
speaker information, and a few
topical highlights. Instapage has
several, high-converting landing
page examples.
■ Announce the webinar on social
media with a unique hashtag, create
event notices on your firm's social
media profiles, send an email series
to your list, and include a link in
your email signature to promote
the event.
■ Post event, follow up with participants
by sending the playback link
and additional content.
■ Track results to determine webinar
success and growth over time,
including the number of registrations,
top registration sources, actual
attendee numbers, and time spent
on the live session.
WEBINAR FORMULA
Begin with a story that has the pain
point front and center. Add a few
bullet points about how you helped
solve the pain point. Then, end with
a call to action that doesn't cost a
dime, such as downloading a case
study, getting a checklist, calling for
a demo, etc.
Story Pain Point
+ Solution
+ Call to Action
= Webinar Success
WHAT SHOULD I AVOID?
Keep in mind, " 78% of webinars have
fewer than 50 attendees, " says Search
Engine Journal.
If you've tried webinars in the
past, but just haven't been able to
break the " attendance " record, it
might be due to your headlines and
promotional materials. Or, it could be
one of these mishaps.
■ Leaving out interaction within
the webinar - people remember
engaging speakers and activities.
Include a poll question or two during
the webinar to increase engagement
between you and your audience. You
can do this with a chat, polls within
the platform, like Zoom or WebEx,
or by simply asking for a show of
virtual hands.
■ Avoid using your slides as a
teleprompter. According to Jeff
Bullas, " Attendees will retain 65%
of your presentation if you use both
oral and visual content, compared
By Becky Livingston
to retaining only 10% of your
material if they rely on hearing your
presentation. "
■ Lack of webinar promotion. Start as
early as four weeks ahead of time to
promote the webinar. Most of the
registrations will come in about a
week before your event. However,
you can encourage promotion by
asking registrants to share that
they are attending. Create a series
of social media posts they can copy/
paste into their social media profiles.
■ Sidestep the sales pitch. Sure, you
can give the audience something
to remember you by with a call to
action. However, a hard sales pitch
is a no-no.
■ Dodge the desire to tackle too many
goals in one webinar. Rather, focus
on one topic, with three to five bullet
points you expand upon during the
session. Then close with a follow-up
piece in your call to action.
■ Passing on the follow up. You've
put a lot of time and energy into the
webinar. Strike while the iron's hot
with the session follow up.
Let's get started! You have the
success tips and the pitfalls. What
you're lacking is the template. Don't
worry. I've got you covered. HubSpot
offers a free webinar planning toolkit,
including a strategy template,
checklist, and guide. https://tinyurl.
com/d92bv5px
Looking for some fun, webinar
social media post ideas? Here are
some examples from The Bean
(https://tinyurl.com/398dfrh8) specifically
for LinkedIn. Now that you're
armed with what you need, tackle
your next webinar with confidence
and style. ■
Becky Livingston is the president and
CEO of Penheel Marketing, a NJ-based
firm specializing in social media and
digital marketing for CPAs.
SEPTEMBER 2021 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
17
https://www.tinyurl.com/d92bv5px https://www.tinyurl.com/d92bv5px https://www.tinyurl.com/398dfrh8 http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
september2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of september2021
