Posted in Internet Marketing Strategy	May 15, 2008

A review of the B2B Magazine and InfusionSoft webinar "Launch a Webinar Program End-to-End"

Just attended a webinar called “Launch a Webinar Program End-to-End” with B2B Magazine’s Ellis Booker and InfusionSoft’s Jeff Mask.

It was somewhat of a case study on InfusionSoft and their webinar history. Mask offered some great tips on how his business is using webinars to create leads for their e-marketing software business.

At the beginning of the webinar, attendees were asked which two things they have the most trouble with when it comes to webinars. The two biggest problems attendees had were:

1. The Logistics of Organizing
2. Getting People to Attend

While Mask noted numerous times during the presentation that these best practices were specific to his business, these were some key points he made:

• The best length for a webinar is 60 minutes
  • 30 minute webinars are only good if you have a limited amount of content and you know you won’t go over your time.
  • 90 minute webinars are appropriate if you have enough interesting content to carry the presentation for the full 90 minutes.
• The best day for a B2Bwebinar is Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday
• The best time for a B2B webinar is 1PM or 2PM EST
• Make time zones clear to your users. When you advertise and promote these webinars, make it simple for people to know the multiple time zones. Mask reminded attendees that "attendance is better when the copy is clear".
• Two very different dynamic speakers are the best formula. "Utilize different personality types and speaking styles to connect with different people" Mask noted. If you have speakers in your webinar, choose two that compliment each other. Too many speakers can get confusing, and two un-complimentary speakers can cause attendees to get bored with one or the other.
• Tell attendees that they will receive a free gift for attending. During the call, let your attendees know that they will get their free gift at the end of the call.
• Webcasts are different than Webinars. Webcasts are the podcast equivalent. A webcast generally isn’t live; it is streaming from a static location. A webinar is an interactive, real-time presentation.
• Promote through as many means as possible. Why do email, fax, voice broadcast or direct mail? "Different people respond differently to different media" he noted. This is InfusionSoft's specialty.
  • Promote to your list
  • Promote to your partners
  • Promote through email
  • Promote through fax
  • Promote through telephone
  • Promote through direct mail

Learn more about making money online in the Internet Strategy for Publishers and Authors Handbook.

• Follow up with registrants so that they don’t forget to attend. "Following up with your registrants increases attendance dramatically" he said, "by about 75%". InfusionSoft reminds their users every other day in the week prior to the event.
• Promote your webinar at least a week in advance. In his market, 7-10 days before the event works best. More important events are marketed up to a month in advance, but they found that people forget easier the earlier you start promoting it.
• Give your partners at least a month lead time. If you have partners, you need to get them the copy at least a month in advance because they have their own agenda as well. "If you give them ample time and make it simple, your chances of having your partners promote for you increase substantially" Mask noted.
• Don’t try to trick the audience into a sales pitch. "If you are going to sell or give an offer during your webinar and you market the event as an educational event, you are not being consistent with your message and your sales will decline dramatically."
• If you are hosting a free sponsored seminar where you’ll be pitching something, you have to be “real” with the audience. People are more skeptical about your content if they know they are trying to be sold. You don’t want to leave a bad taste in their mouths as con-artist marketers.
  • Give something to the person listening to make it worth their time
  • Make sure your content is going to help them
  • Give testimonials, live customers, video testimonials, text testimonials
  • Be real
  • Give meaningful statistics and outside sources that backup what you're saying
  • Give a time-strict offer and don't budge on the deadline
• Don’t ever go over your assigned time. People will drop like flies after the clock strikes. This is especially important if you have a sales pitch at the end. "We have learned from experience that if you tell your audience 60 minutes and you go to 70, you are dead" he noted.
• Use surveys at the end of your webinar. As marketers, we should want to know how our presentation came across to our guests.
• Follow up with your surveys. “If someone took the time to fill out the survey and tell you how they felt, you better follow up with them,” Mask told attendees.

Overall, good webinar. GoToMeeting was the sponsor and their platform is quite impressive. And they didn’t drop a sales pitch once, so that was refreshing.