One of the most common questions we get at ON24 is how webinar producers can generate registration and attendance. Unfortunately, this is one of the most difficult things to do and there’s no guaranteed method to generate attendance. But there are some helpful tricks you can deploy. Partner marketing webinars are one trick you can deploy. Let’s get into it now.
A partner marketing webinar is a simple concept. All it requires is you and a partner organization teaming up to host a webinar on a shared topic of interest. We do these all the time and they’re a great way to introduce a new audience to your company and expand your email list.
Why You’d Want to Participate in a Partner Marketing Webinar
Okay, so there are a few reasons why you’d want to get into a partner webinar in the first place. First, a partner webinar helps establish your brand as a thought leader. Doing so associates your brand with forward-thinking perspectives — an increasingly vital association to have in today’s knowledge-based economy. This type of association also helps you to retain a loyal following, boost your brand and opens your organization up to future partnership opportunities down the road. Partnerships are extremely beneficial in the long run, especially if your organization is growing.
Another reason why partner marketing webinars are great is because you can access someone else’s database. Now, I’m not saying you’ll have access to the whole database (especially as strict privacy laws come into effect), but  — depending on how many people your organization registers — you should have shared access to interested leads. It’s a great opportunity to expand your contacts and, typically, is a win-win for everyone involved.
Finally, hosting multiple people, companies and perspectives makes for more interesting, and more engaging, events. Engaging events are critical for identifying qualified leads as these leads tend to interact more with conversations that resonate with their needs. An interesting webinar also reinforces our first reason why you’d want to do this: interesting webinars show that your organization is on the cutting edge of discussion in your sector and tightens your brand’s association with thought leadership.
There are a few things you should know if you decide to host a partner webinar. You’ll need to be organized with UTM codes, social media kits and a few policies that define who gets entry to a shared database and why. So let’s get into that now.
How to Organize a Partner Webinar
I mentioned earlier that one of the best reasons to participate/host in a partner marketing-based webinar is that you get access to a database filled with new potential leads and contacts.
While that’s true, you’ll first need to establish and agree on any requirements for your event, how you’ll track success and ensure everyone’s committed to the success of the program. This will require some communication with partners.
While we have tracking in mind, you’re going to need a way to trace who registered who. For this, we recommend a relatively straightforward setup.
First, create one landing page and one landing page only. This makes it easier to keep track of sign-ups through Marketo or your Marketing Automation Platform of choice.
Second, craft some UTMs unique to each partner. This way, attribution is simplified. And that’s it, really.
Finally, it’s time for execution. If you’re hosting the event, you’re going to want to make it as easy as possible for your partners to participate. Typically, this means you ought to provide images and assets that partners can use over social media. If you provide sample posts to share, even better.
For example, we’ve partnered with PathFactory and LookBookHQ over the years to discuss subjects relevant to marketers (i.e., a debate over page gates and A/B testing). To help us get the message out about the event, PathFactory provided us with images for LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter along with GIFs, sample messages and tracking URLs complete with UTM codes.
The result of PathFactory’s effort wasn’t only a very well-attended webinar, but also fast and accurate attribution.
Partner marketing webinars are a great way to boost the number of contacts in your database. You get a lot of benefits from them — from thought leadership to new contacts. All you have to do is stay organized and communicate with partners. Good luck!