5 Creative Ideas to PROPEL YOUR WEBINARS

5 Creative Ideas to PROPEL YOUR WEBINARS

CREATURES OF HABIT A great webinar drives leads, engages an audience and positions your company as a thought leader. But too often marketers fall into old habits, delivering dull webinars where the presenter just talks and the attendees just listen. When there s nothing to a webinar but dry slides and a tired voice, there s not much chance for audience engagement. It s a restrictive format that lulls presenters into going over the same themes again and again or, even worse, into pitching products at their attendees. And no one likes that. MOST MARKETERS THINK THAT THEIR WEBINARS COULD USE A LITTLE WORK. BUT WHERE TO BEGIN? Spicing up your webinar program is a lot like spicing up a tired relationship. You need to break out of your routines, try new things and be a little adventurous. Some of these ideas may sound crazy, but sometimes crazy is just what you need to shake up the status quo. We asked over 1,000 webinar attendees how they feel about their webinars. Shockingly, only 7 percent felt that they gave great webinars: 7 % 17 % 21 % 55 % THEY TOTALLY ROCK! I THINK OUR AUDIENCE MIGHT NEED RESUSCITATION WE DON T CURRENTLY DELIVER WEBINARS A BIT DRY BUT NOT BAD Source: Data from ON24 webinar polling, 2014 (total votes: 1,044) 2

CHANGE THE FORMAT We see it again and again: marketers relying on the same you-talk-they-listen webinars every single time. There s nothing wrong with audio and slides, but why not mix it up once in a while? Less formal formats are a fun way to engage your audience in a conversation, and they re especially great for leveraging third-party speakers and taking the pressure off subject matter experts who are less comfortable behind a microphone. Here are a few formats you should try: 1:1 INTERVIEW Pair your big-brained subject-matter expert (internal or external) with a dynamic, engaging host. That way the expert can focus on the information, not on managing the flow of the conversation. PANEL DISCUSSION Bring subject-matter experts, third-party speakers or analysts together for a round-table discussion on a pre-defined set of subjects. Assign a host who can keep the conversation moving and on-topic. These webinars can be audio-only, but they really pop on video. If your guests aren t all in the same place, it s easy to run a panel discussion over webcam. COFFEE TALK A chat format puts an informal spin on any topic. Passionate subject matter experts talking about their areas of expertise and giving practical advice makes for a really fun discussion. LIVE CASE STUDY Invite a customer or three into your webinar and let them talk about your product from the client perspective. You can even integrate videos that highlight your customer relationships and then discuss them with your guests as a part of the conversation. While interviews and group discussions are pretty forgiving when you have a stiff or uncomfortable speaker, a great host really is the key to a successful conversation-based webinar. Find the people in your organization who are the most comfortable with public speaking even if they re not the deepest subject experts and let them guide the conversation. THE PROBLEMS YOU SOLVE SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS WHO CAN T CARRY LONG PRESENTATIONS WEBINARS THAT FEEL TOO STIFF OVERLY FORMAL WEBINAR TONE PRESENTERS WHO AREN T CONNECTING WITH THE AUDIENCE 3

THE PROBLEMS YOU SOLVE BRIEF CONTENT LACK OF SPEAKERS NEED FOR ON-DEMAND CONTENT NEED FOR MORE MIDDLE-AND BOTTOM-FUNNEL WEBINARS THE SHORT-FORM WEBINAR Sometimes you just don t have enough content to put together a full 60-minute webinar. That doesn t mean you have to put your webinar program on hold. It just means that it s time to mix up your run times. Try these simple short-form webinars: BEST PRACTICES Run a short, pre-recorded video demonstrating a best practice, then have a subject matter expert deliver a 10-minute follow-up or commentary. A 20- to 30-minute webinar can be a refreshing way to deliver a quick message, but the shorter format really shines as curated content. Add your quick-hit webinars to an on-demand channel or virtual portal on your website, then syndicate them to YouTube, Vimeo, partner sites or other web sites. That way your audience can access them as needed. QUICK TIPS Record five-minute segments of subject matter experts giving quick tips or best practices, then edit them together and have a host introduce each section. This is great for creating on-demand content. SYNDICATED RERUNS Break your most successful hour-long webinars into short, single-topic chapters, and then publish them to your ondemand portal, YouTube or SlideShare. Equinox On Demand Webinar Hub 4

THE CROWD- SOURCED WEBINAR We need more content! It s one of the constant refrains of marketers everywhere. Why not turn to your customers? They know what they want and expect; all you have to do is ask. And if you do ask, it s easy to crowdsource content themes, some webinar content or even all the content for an entire webinar. Here are some tricks for crowdsourcing webinar content: PRE-REGISTRATION SURVEYS Ask your audience what they want to learn from your webinar on the registration form or confirmation page. Maybe you ve created a general theme for your webinar, but this will tell you what the audience expects before you build all the content. Then you can customize to make sure you address precisely the things your audience cares about most. SOCIAL MEDIA You have social followers and contacts. Why not ask them what their interests are? Lean on social networks to source content ideas and requests. Facebook lets you run polls to gauge interest in content or themes. And you can always survey your customer and prospect databases. POST-WEBINAR SURVEYS At the end of every webinar, ask attendees what topics they would like to see in the future. Make sure to use at least one open text field to get as much insight as you can. THE AUDIENCE-DRIVEN WEBINAR Lose the presentation, collect a panel of experts and use Q&A and polling to drive conversation for an entire webinar. You can have pre-set topic areas, but let the audience guide the direction of the discussion. Create slides on each topic area to provide visual cues for where you are in the conversation. It s amazing how much your audience would like to tell you, if only you would ask. And when they say, This is the content I want, what they re actually saying is, Here are my interests, here are my pain points, here s what I m really interested in knowing All you have to do is listen and respond. THE PROBLEMS YOU SOLVE TROUBLE COMING UP WITH CONTENT IDEAS WEBINARS THAT AREN T CONNECTING WITH YOUR AUDIENCE QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT MATTERS TO YOUR AUDIENCE ISSUES QUALIFYING LEADS 5

GAME ON Gamification is the hot new buzz word. But can you actually integrate gamification into the webinar experience? You can, and it s happening now. Adventurous presenters are running highly successful webinars that turn existing content into interactive games, engaging their audience in ways that a typical webinar never could. It s cool, it s fun and it s easy to do. Engage your audience with these gamification tactics: QUIZ SHOW Polls can turn your dry data into an interactive quiz show. Before you share a piece of information, use a poll to ask your audience what they expect the result to be. When you reveal the actual answer, they will either be surprised at new information or delighted at their accuracy. Either way, they will be more engaged with your data and probably learn something in the process. TRIVIA Pose open-ended trivia questions and then use Q&A or chat to collect answers. The first attendee to chime in with the right answer gets the thrill of public recognition or maybe an additional prize shipped after the event. LONG GAME Keep the fun rolling by extending the game to social media. Run your webinar polls on Facebook to see how your followers stack up against your webinar attendees. Or prime the webinar audience before the event with sample polls and trivia questions on their favorite social networks. With gamification, you can take a lot of very complicated data and break it into digestible pieces. Your audience will enjoy the chance to test their knowledge, plus they get to learn how their peers are voting, as well. And everyone loves to see what their peers are thinking. THE PROBLEMS YOU SOLVE STAGNANT WEBINARS SHORT VIEWING DURATIONS CONTENT THAT COULD BE CONSIDERED BORING LOW AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT 6

5 GET OUT OF THE HOUSE THE PROBLEMS YOU SOLVE SCARCITY OF WEBINAR CONTENT IDEAS WEBINARS THAT COULD USE A LITTLE SPICE NO BUDGET FOR EXPENSIVE VIDEO PRODUCTION PARTNERS/CUSTOMERS YOU WANT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR WEBINARS GREAT OFF-SITE PRESENTATIONS THAT YOU WANT TO CAPTURE When you keep giving the same webinars in the same way, you end up covering a lot of the same ground literally. If you want to shake up your old routines, maybe what you need is a change of scenery. These days, it s not that hard to use video to capture all kinds of external presentations and events that would make great webinar content. Here are some options for adding video to your webinars: OFF-SITE SESSIONS Are you already presenting at trade shows and conferences? Don t let that content go to waste. Capture your off-site presentations and training sessions with an inexpensive handheld HD camera to create a series of mini-webinars on demand. REMOTE REPORTING A simple video camera lets you interview customers, sales people and product experts from any location, anytime. Video clips from the field provide you with readymade content that can be dropped into any webinar to expand the conversation and provide a multimedia audience experience. ON24 s Mark Borenstein Remote Reporting STREAMING VIDEO You are constantly supporting live physical events like seminars, trade shows, customer briefing center presentations and more. Why not stream these events as a live webinar or use the footage to create on-demand webinars? Streaming physical events as live or on-demand webinars expands both the reach of the content and the value of the presentation. Webinars don t always have to happen in a single room. Think about all the great content you re already creating outside of the office. Turn those into webinars, and you ll find yourself with a captivated audience. 7

SPICE UP YOUR WEBINARS There s no limit to how creative you can get with your webinars. As marketers, we want to deliver on the expectation that we re going to give a great presentation. We re asking people to sit still and stare at a fixed spot for up to an hour. Sure, that audience is going to get some valuable information, but why not make it fun? By mixing up your webinar formats, crowdsourcing material, leveraging gamification and using video in creative ways, you can create new content, spice up old content and get more value from your experts. Best of all, you ll have more fun with your webinars and your audiences will, too. 8

ABOUT ON24, INC. ON24 is the leading webinar marketing platform for demand generation, lead qualification and customer engagement. Its award-winning, patented, cloudbased platform enables companies of all sizes to deliver engaging live and ondemand webinars. Providing industry-leading analytics that can be integrated with all leading marketing automation and CRM platforms, ON24 enables marketers to optimize demand generation, enhance lead qualification and accelerate sales pipeline opportunities. Additional applications for the ON24 product portfolio include virtual training, talent development and town hall meetings. More than 1,000 enterprises rely on ON24, including IBM, CA Technologies, Merck, JPMorgan Chase, Deloitte, Credit Suisse and SAP. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices throughout the world. For more information, visit ON24.com. ON24, INC. 201 THIRD STREET SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103 877.202.9599 ON24.COM 2015 ON24, Inc. For more information on the benefits of the ON24 virtual environment, contact us at 877-202-9599 or visit www.on24.com.