How B2B Marketers Can Create Impactful Hero Content With Engaging Webinars

Every brand has a story to tell… a unique perspective on an age-old problem, a new way to achieve common goals and a product or service that promises to deliver. And we use hero content to get that story out into the world and in front of as many people as possible.

What is Hero Content?

Traditionally, hero content serves as a foundational piece of content — a report, study, benchmark guidebook, white paper or e-book — that would sit at the very top of a brand’s campaigns and programs and support the overall marketing strategy.

These hero pieces typically include a brand’s core messaging and value proposition. These assets would serve as the foundation for smaller, more snackable pieces of content, including social media posts, infographics, blogs — you name it.

Audiences Have Changed and Our Hero Content Needs to Change Too

We now live in a digital-first world where audiences expect more from the brands they follow and the content they consume.

White papers, e-books and blogs are great! But they don’t give audiences a chance to interact, ask questions or take the next step in their journey. Today, people want to engage and be part of the experience.

Static Content Lacks Insight

Let’s talk about what happens when a buyer downloads that hero white paper we keep talking about (for the record, we have nothing against white papers).

Let’s say this white paper is about the best way to plan a vacation. You now know that an individual is interested in a vacation, but do you know where they plan to go? How often do they travel? Do they prefer planes, trains, hotels or a vacation rental? Are they traveling solo or with family?

Not knowing makes it difficult to understand our audience and create meaningful connections with them.

In opposition to our static content, we have digital experiences, like webinars, virtual conferences and more. These events can include multiple CTAs, event invitations, opportunities to connect and even links to targeted content hubs.

With digital experiences, your soon-to-be vacationer has the opportunity to ask questions, make comments, reply to polls and even chat with your team or fellow attendees.

With engaging digital experiences, you don’t have to guess who they are and what they want. They’ll tell you! And when they do, you can put your best foot forward by delivering relevant content, personalized messaging and warm sales intros — when they’re ready for one.

Engagement is the Answer — And Webinars Drive Engagement

No matter how great your written content is, there is nothing more effective than delivering real, human experiences your audiences can interact with.

A webinar gives your audiences the chance to hear from and interact with a real human being. A dynamic webinar presenter will convey your brand’s story much more effectively than a piece of written content.

Now factor in the CTAs, content offers, surveys, polls, chats — the list goes on and on — that you can surround your attendees with and THAT’s an experience.

Plus, one hero webinar can easily be transformed into a blog post, infographic, e-book or even … wait for it… a white paper! But the possibilities don’t end there. In fact, they don’t end at all.

Here are a few more ways you can repurpose webinar hero content:

• Offer your webinars as on-demand experiences after the live event date so audiences can tune in late or revisit the parts that resonated with them.
• Chapterize webinars to make it easy for audiences to skip to the parts that interest them, saving them time and generating juicy insights for you.
• Repackage event presentations as webinars, webinars as video teasers, and create targeted resource pages that promote on-demand webinars as simulive experiences where audiences can still ask questions in real-time.

From Hero Webinar to Hero Experience

A campaign as a journey of experiences

The journey your audiences are on doesn’t stop once your webinar ends. In fact, it’s probably just beginning. So before letting your attendees move on, make sure you give them something to move on TO.

How? By taking that hero webinar and making it a part of a larger hero experience.

Here are a few ways to do just that:

• • Create a targeted landing page or resource hub for your webinar to live in
  • Use clips from the webinar to create a short greeter video
  • Include links to content offers that delve deeper into topics discussed during the webinar
  • Include CTAs to chat, ask questions or request a meeting with a sales rep

With webinars, virtual events and interactive content experiences, you no longer have to wait through Forrester’s expected 27 touches that it takes for a prospect to make a purchase decision. All of those touches can live within one experience and keep buyers on a continuous journey with your brand, from awareness to purchase.

First-Party Data

The best part is, every time someone engages with your webinar, downloads a content offer or clicks a CTA, you’re able to capture those insights to create a 360-degree view of your buyers.

Those insights will give you all the information you need to create relevant follow-up messaging and warmer sales intros. You can even use these first-party data insights to fuel your account-based marketing initiatives.

Campaign as a Journey of Experiences

You have a story to tell, so tell it! But do it in a way that connects, engages and inspires. Hero content is no longer limited to white papers (we love you white papers!), e-books and blogs. In fact, hero content no longer has to be content at all. It can be an entire experience that all started with — you guessed it — a webinar.