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Marketing Tips to Stay off the Naughty List

December 15th, 2015 Haleigh Clark

Like most adults, you are probably wringing your hands as you nervously ponder where you stand on Santa’s infamous list. If you are anything like me, it may be too late to save face when it comes to sticking to that diet or regularly calling your mother, but you may still be able to make the “nice” list when it comes to webinar marketing! Here are a few examples of Naughty and Nice webinar marketing that may help you avoid any lumps of coal this year:

The Nice List

  • Helpful, informative content: What will the audience walk away with after they watch your webinar? Will it help them do their jobs better? Has it improved any part of their day or routine? Nice marketers know that their audience’s time is valuable and always make sure there is a clear ROI for their attention.
  • Engaging, interactive audience experiences: Few things in life are more thrilling than listening to a Product Marketer discuss best practices over a PowerPoint deck, but nice marketers like to go the extra mile just to ensure their audiences stay engaged. Adding audience polls, prompting users to ask questions that are answered live on air, branding your console, and incorporating video are all great ways to provide an excellent audience experience.
  • A thoughtful follow-up: Nice marketers know that webinars are a great way to drive engaged leads through the funnel — and they aren’t leaving money on the table. Having your follow-up email and/or calling campaign planned out and tracked in your CRM will ensure you can demonstrate ROI on your webinar program.

The Naughty List

  • A sales pitch: In top-of-funnel content? This is the naughtiest! Webinars used for demand gen need to position your brand as an expert in the subject matter. Not that a webinar platform isn’t great for a demo (we definitely do that), but nice marketers know to save the pitch for later.
  • Barriers to entry: Loading up that reg form with 10 different fields? Making your audience download software in order to view your content? Content that disappears as soon as the webinar is over? Naughty, naughty, naughty! If you want to make the nice list, you need to make your content easily accessible to your audience. This means lite reg forms that will allow for follow up, but don’t ask for a life story; a browser-based webinar platform that doesn’t delay access to the content through a download; and content that is available on-demand after the webinar is over, just in case a prospect can’t make the live event.
  • Bad planning: There are a few ways you can create quick content in a pinch, but they won’t make up for bad planning. To stay off the naughty list, make sure your slides are done ahead of time so they can have the best quality images. Speakers should also be prepped and trained on software well in advance to avoid any embarrassing mishaps. If you really want to make the nice list, promotions should also begin at least four weeks before the day of the webinar to ensure a robust audience.

For more examples of webinar marketing that surely made the “nice” list, check out “Webinars That Rocked 2015”.