When it comes to marketing your webinars and virtual events, how do you create social and digital marketing that actually works?
In this episode of #ThoughtLeaderConversations, V2's Head of Strategy Roger Courville, CSP is joined by Bob Hanson, a super-experienced marketer who focuses exclusively on generating and nurturing leads with webinars (learn more at ForeverWebinars.com).
Along the way they chat about:
The challenges and strategies of promoting webinars and engaging audiences, especially in the context of the changing digital landscape post-pandemic.
The importance of effective social and digital marketing tactics to drive webinar success and the common pitfalls to avoid.
The concept of "forever webinars," a strategy for creating evergreen webinar content that continues to generate leads and engage audiences over time.
The impact of webinar marketing on business growth, illustrated through real-world examples and success stories.
The technical and strategic aspects of executing successful webinars, including the selection of topics, audience targeting, and technology utilization.
The future of webinar marketing and the ongoing need for companies to adapt to evolving digital marketing trends and audience preferences.
The role of webinars in the broader marketing funnel, particularly in nurturing leads and converting them into clients.
Insights on how to optimize webinar content and delivery to maximize audience engagement and business outcomes.
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Series: #ThoughtLeaderConversations Sponsor: V2, LLC, expert virtual and hybrid event production, www.VirtualVenues.com Host: Roger Courville, CSP, https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogerc/
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Unedited transcript
[00:00:00] Roger Courville, CSP: When it comes to marketing your webinars and virtual events, how do you create social and digital marketing that actually works? Well, hello and welcome to Social and Digital Marketing That Actually Works. My name is Roger Courville and welcome to another episode of V2's Thought Leader Conversation Series.
And V2, Virtual Venues, is the sponsor here today, which is the crew where you can interact with us. Instantly scale your virtual and of hybrid event production team with, with this really experienced crew that will help you achieve excellence and results by helping you focus on something other than the tech and the production.
But we're not here to talk about us today, because with me today is A fellow industry old timer. And a little personal disclosure, Bob and I go way back. We like, for instance, did a research project together for a webinar software vendor about promoting and delivering engaging webinars. And that literally goes back to like 2010.
So, but Bob is a legit old timer here. Back when you had to explain explain what the word webinar meant to somebody that it stood for web seminar. And, um, a whole bunch of years ago, uh, worked on building a webinar series for a little company as their head of marketing. He's serious about results, which you will hear about today.
And importantly, all he does is promote webinars. So he knows what works and he knows what doesn't. And Bob. That was like 2010. How crazy is that?
[00:01:29] Bob Hanson: Yeah. Yeah. That was, you know, about a thousand webinars ago. So as I said, uh, you know, I have more gray hair, but certainly hopefully more wisdom to both work with my clients on.
And then I talked with you about today. So good to be back again.
[00:01:44] Roger Courville, CSP: I, uh, I start to refer that to years and pounds ago because gravity, uh, do take their toll. Hey, uh, fill in the gaps. I can give you a very casual intro. Fill in some gaps there. What's, uh, what's your background that kind of leads you up to the expertise that we're going to talk about today?
Hey,
[00:02:06] Bob Hanson: Uh, yeah, I got my start more in the pre internet days with direct marketing. I learned from the guy who was the guy at the time, the highest paid marketing consultant in the world, Jay Abraham. So he charged two or 3, 000 an hour, which was big money at the time. So I was lucky to volunteer at a lot of his seminars.
And then that led to. Developing a seminar system with one of his other protégés. Uh, so we had a program called seminars for results where we reach and influence business decision makers, CEOs, that sort of thing, and basically figure out how to multiply sales leads through seminars. So then, um, a couple, Sort of short stops later getting my MBA and so forth.
And I was got my first gig as head of marketing at a small software company. And there was sort of the, the recent pandemic was a reason to do digital marketing, but we ran into nine 11. So literally all travel stopped. We weren't going to be doing any seminars. So the company I was with sort of scrambled and we.
Invented a webinar program. And so it was in the early days of web delete and, you know, marketing, all those kinds of things. I had to hire, hire a team to run a weekly webinar program. We didn't even really, I'm not even, I don't even remember if we really recorded the webinars. It was so early days, but, uh, yeah, This team of a couple of folks, as well as, um, a company with about 15 people, we quickly, uh, grew and scaled the company, grew Forex.
We weren't, we didn't have any venture funding or anything. We built a list of 75, 000 names in our niche. And then, um, we were told by the webinar provider at the time that we had the fourth largest webinar series. In the country as a team of, you know, just a few dozen people. So, um, so from that, that was my start and I'm, we made all the mistakes along the way.
So, um, I try today not to make those same mistakes, but, uh, um, so that got my start and really started my, appreciation of what a digital marketing professional and especially someone what I call a webinarian, you know, someone who's a professional in this field, uh, what they can bring to the table as well as, uh, all the best practices and really the power of this.
I mean, you can reach, um, I think we met through one of the webinar providers at the time, but, um, Any company can basically reach almost their, virtually their entire market, um, cost effectively if they do webinars as well. So that's the fun of it.
[00:04:36] Roger Courville, CSP: Right. Yeah, boy, that takes me back. You were, you mentioned, don't remember if you even recorded it.
And man, in the earliest days we, we built registration pages by hand. because it didn't, there wasn't registration like built into a webinar system and the recorded things for clients. We literally had DAP machines. We would dial it, dial in a phone line into the conference call and record it onto a DAT digital audio tape.
And then we would, in post production, we would take that audio recording, match it back up with the slides and oh my ancient, ancient, ancient stuff. But hey, let's talk about social and digital marketing. Um, curiosity when, when you, uh, when you kind of sent me that opening question when it comes to marketing webinars, virtual events, hybrid events, I presume kind of go in that same bucket.
How do you create social and digital marketing that actually works? And maybe we start with by saying, what are you seeing that doesn't work? What are the mistakes that are people making?
[00:05:41] Bob Hanson: Well, I think sort of post pandemic, everybody gets the idea that we're in a new environment, right? So what I say is, um, marketing is the new prospecting, right?
And the channels of choice are either social or digital. But you have in, especially some of the big companies that I work with, um, like one comes to mind that I work with, uh, in the past that we're re engaging, they have 5, 000 salespeople. So you can imagine just in terms of the clutter of messaging that if 5, 000 salespeople are trying to send the same social messages to the same people that the marketing department is trying to, and engage folks that way.
So there's a lot of effort that goes into that. into making connections, to creating traffic, to creating podcast content. For example, I mean, every day, there's dozens of podcasts that are started, but because if you look at business to business, you know, today versus say five years ago, the business to business marketer is trying to support twice as many channels as they were just five years ago.
So literally, you know, this is what they look like because at the end of the day, They're not going to catch up if they're still going to be further behind. So there's this sense, especially from a lot of leadership in companies, most of the companies that I talked to is we're doing all this digital and social stuff, but we don't have an organized way of turning what I call connections.
to clients, right? So I think that's the biggest challenge that folks are, um, facing today. The, even once they're, uh, social followers, they can get some notice of the marketplace and do all their activities. Then how do they bring that back to an effect in a business, business sense, building sales pipeline for your salespeople, or if it's more, business to consumer.
How do you get someone to, you know, try your product or, or buy? And obviously, you know, your, your local pizza shop is out there in social media as much as, you know, Google or Meta or any of the, um, you know, the big companies. So it's a, it's a really, um, tough landscape to compete in. So you have to be a little smarter than just let's throw a podcast out there and see how it goes.
[00:08:00] Roger Courville, CSP: Right. So you've been working on some new stuff, right? For instance, Forever Webinar is a new initiative for you. What, uh, what was the genesis behind that, that, that, uh, where you saw a need or a niche to, uh, to fill with regard to bringing value to clients?
[00:08:23] Bob Hanson: I think it's just after doing this a lot of times, you eventually say, okay, how can we boil this down into a cookbook? And then, um, an example I use with folks that I haven't worked with is I say, all right, so I live in, you know, a small suburban town and there's two, really two Italian restaurants. One is professionally managed and you go in there and you think I'm going back to Italy, right?
And, But they're struggling to get customers. Actually, they don't get a lot of repeat folks. People say, Oh, that's good. I've been there. The other one, I mean, you call them and they don't answer. You go in there, you wait a long time, but what they have figured out in terms of Italian restaurants in America, the surefire way of winning customers is to have a cheese brick oven pizza.
That's going to be hot. So when the family wants, you know, uh, not to cook, everybody's tired on Friday night. They're like, okay, well, where are we going to go? I don't know. And then eventually they all just, you know, grab two or three of these things from the one restaurant. So, um, I figured out cutting through all the clutter.
If you have what I call a forever webinar, um, that Your social and digital channels can all point to right. So one presentation, um, that's going to be a formula for success. And so I, I broken it down into, and everybody on this podcast, I literally am giving away a lot of my system. So I have a 21 step.
Checklist that I've developed that basically how do you turn connections to clients with this forever webinar? Then I have that that I've broken it down into that many steps so the um, so sort of the the other part of the story is My wife's a very good cook. I'm not but if she says all right, here's the exact steps in order, right?
Here's exactly how you do it. And maybe I Mess up once or twice or ask some questions. I can do, you know, make risotto that makes the family wow, or makes guests wow. And it's only because I'm following the steps very, um, you know, specifically. And then, um, also in terms of webinars, if you have a one webinar that you're getting out or one presentation that's getting in front of your audience, chances are you're going to be able to have a presentation that's good.
So that's always something that works in your marketplace. That's a winning presentation that if you give in person or you give to a prospect, they'll say, Oh yeah, now, now I understand what you do. And I want to know more. I want to try your product or engage with a salesperson. So those are sort of the, the bigger context, but essentially, um, we want to be able to use like sort of the R2A2 formula.
which is an older one that I don't see much now going back to the old days, but, you know, recognize, relate, assimilate, apply. So just as my wife can teach me to at least with a few dishes seem like an expert chef, um, and I, you know, writing it down and putting the notes in my iPhone or whatever, but, but any company.
Um, can basically, or any marketer can be a webinar superstar and any company can have a winning webinar program just with this one strategy alone I found.
[00:11:40] Roger Courville, CSP: So when you are talking about forever webinars, you're talking about creating content lives on in perpetuity that you continue to drive stuff to?
[00:11:53] Bob Hanson: Right. So, so the, after I built my original kind of webinar series and it was a lot of work, um, that company got sold off. And as part of that, I met. Was part of a protege program with another marketing guru, Dan Kennedy, who's still around. He's written like 25 books on marketing. Um, and there's literally spawn, you know, a thousand millionaires through his coaching programs.
But I described, I said, well, you know, my last company, we're doing all this stuff. It was a lot of work. And he said, Oh, So I know you don't need to do those weekly webinars of all different content, different parts of the, you know, value ladder or marketing funnel. Here's the concept, same talk, different audience, same talk, different audience.
So I said, aha, I got it. So I'd also learned from Jay Abraham. Jay Abraham consulted for like dozens of companies and would walk in and he wouldn't know anything about the product or the industry typically. But what he would do is he would find the person who was the best salesperson, interview them, take all their You know, how do they describe the problem?
What's their call to action? What are the benefits they offer? What's the problem? You know, basically the TED talk, whoever has the best talk for that company, and every company is successful. There is a talk at some point that somebody has. And you're very familiar with Ted Talks, but nobody applies that to webinars.
So take your one talk and then create an evergreen webinar or video. You know, it's going to be similar in similar mediums. Um, and yes, it should be something like 22 minutes. That's why sitcoms are 22 minutes. People's attention span lasts that long. But, um, so basically the forever webinar is a specific sort of proprietary system that works.
In in virtually any industry where we take a lot of these principles that are out there and cut through all the clutter and say, okay, so file this proven formula. I know it's going to work. There might be other strategies out there, but here's one talk that you can use in evergreen format. You can give it live to suggest people give it live at some point, especially to perfect it, or you can just create a video.
Some, some companies that I work with, they say, okay, we got it. Let's just create one video. And then they barely do any live webinars. They just point social connections, website traffic to a web form where somebody registers for that video. In essence.
[00:14:15] Roger Courville, CSP: Fair to say then that though you could take that same kind of forever webinar idea and the format could be live or simulated live or on demand.
[00:14:29] Bob Hanson: I get thatquestion a lot. Yeah. Or, um, another format that folks like is we record the presentation. Right. As a video. And then we do live Q and A. So that way, for example, if you have, um, like some smaller companies, they will have like one person who's like take financial advisors. Right. So, um, that's one of my niches.
So typically when somebody signs up to be a client in some form or fashion, they're working with one financial advisor. So we can record the financial advisor in their presentation. And then there could be like a power plan, a power planner or assistant. who, um, could answer questions from the audience.
So you get that balance and you've probably seen the same studies that I have that actually just as zoom figured out, it's more about audio than video, right? They don't want an audio lag. Video lag is okay. But in, in webinars, people actually, Prefer video content versus all live because they figure, well, if somebody created a video, then it's actually going to be good and edited and, and that kind of thing.
So the, the audience actually responds to that very well. So we do a lot of those as well. And that's, that's a fun format, but yeah, you can do any kind of flavors. They're all. You know, when people are going out for ice cream, um, you know, well, there's different flavors of ice cream, but they're all ice cream.
So you're achieving your goal of going out and getting ice cream. So any of those flavors works. There's some nuances, but I would say at the end of the day, I mean, we can talk about this next, but, um, I think one of the things that, especially, um, executives that aren't part of the millennial, uh, generation, like older folks, everybody wants to return to work.
So I think one of the advantages that folks that will watch this podcast will have against folks that are in the return to work mode is, you know, webinars are sort of have a bad name because they're lumped in with sort of Zoom fatigue and web meetings and you know, going back a couple of years to virtual happy hours and, you know, You know, Donald Trump and things that, you know, we, we don't worry about now, but, uh, anyway, so the, um, uh, but actually zoom fatigue applies to virtual meetings, not to what webinars are, which are ultimately, it's a video with a, in front of that as a lead.
So you're getting a lead and then you're getting a video and then you're figuring out, okay, well, this person spent 28 minutes with us. Maybe there's something there in terms of interest so we can follow up with that person.
[00:16:57] Roger Courville, CSP: Right. Do you track, uh, I don't know what system you're using, uh, now, but I know that, uh,
[00:17:05] Bob Hanson: We've, we've used them all.
[00:17:07] Roger Courville, CSP: Well, I know we use several, right. And, uh, you know, for instance, one of the things on 24 does, does a good job for is one of the main platforms that we. use and one of those metrics that you can get down in the weeds with is what you just mentioned, which is how long did somebody watch this, right? It's one thing for them to register.
It's another thing for them to register and attend or register and not attend, which is something that even that. A lot of folks don't fully utilize in terms of, I mean, I, I'm sure you have as well, you know, you get some follow up phone call. Hey, you see you attended our webinar. Uh, no, I registered, but I didn't attend.
And now you sound like you don't know what you're talking about. Um, right, right. Yeah. Those metrics are really cool. Did they actually, if they attended or came to the, to the digital asset, did they stick around, right? Did they stick around for five minutes or did they stick around for 50 minutes?
Probably would be an interesting indicator. Um,
[00:18:07] Bob Hanson: right, right, right. So yeah, so that you can track all that and then actually use the data, which would be helpful. Um, and then, so one of my top clients that I've worked with over the years. Um, what they would do is we would have, we would run a like sort of a weekly webinar series.
And that was because we figured out if at four o'clock Eastern time, every Thursday there were webinar leads for the salespeople, they would actually follow up with those. So we figured, well, having weekly leads builds that weekly, you know, uh, weekly routine. So, um, so that was a benefit of, it was a little more work, but, uh, I haven't seen any statistics to the contrary, but, um, In terms of sales leads, 70 percent of sales leads don't get the proper followup.
So that's one of the key benefits of, to your point, well, if somebody attends and they interact and they ask a question and they're there for 28 minutes, well, they have more interest than someone who just downloaded a white paper and. didn't even give their real email or whatever. So, um, so these are enriched leads and then webinars still have a perceived value, right?
So I just, um, after we're done this podcast, I'm going to join a webinar, which I do a lot, uh, just to see what other people are doing, but. But somebody even asked for like the LinkedIn profile. It's a business to business setting on the webinar registration form. Right. And, um, so if you have a white paper download, for example, and you're just getting first name and email, if you ask for a LinkedIn, um, thing, like, you know, more robust profile information, like a LinkedIn address, you're not going to get that because the perceived value of a webinar is higher.
If people are going to invest. you know, 30, 45, 60 minutes on something. Typically they're willing to give more information. So it's a little bit more of a relationship. You're building it that way.
[00:19:50] Roger Courville, CSP: That's a great point. You can develop trust over the life cycle of an event. In a way that there is no life cycle when you, you know, download a white paper, right?
So the, or, or I should say it unfolds or manifests differently, right? You put up a reg page, say, get the latest trends report. Somebody, you know, you, to your point, somebody gives you their contact info and Yahoo, throw away email and it's done, right? Whereas with a, with a virtual event or a webinar, You've got a chance to not only get them there, but, uh, I did programs for clients where we actually made use of the qualitative, like the Q& A data and the integration of the marketing program with the sales team was actually, in this particular case, training the sales team to use the qualitative data going, um, Hey, Bob, I see you not only attended our event, but you asked this question.
Right. How do you, how do you launch widgets on Tuesdays? Uh, did, did that question, did your question get answered in the webinar? Or can I help you with how to launch widgets on Tuesdays? And now you sound like, you got a warm intro and you sound like you know what you're talking about. Right. Right. Right.
And for And that qualitative thing. I now know Bob asked this question about Launching widgets on Tuesdays. And that is radically personal, right? It doesn't get any more one to one than that in terms of what Bob's thinking. And what did Bob ask? And, and so the, when, then we worked with the, the, the, the, the, the presentation team, because it was a, it was an eight part series to even help them prompt how to get people to put something into chat, that would be, that would be useful for the sales team to follow up on in a qualitative sort of way.
So I don't think there's a perfectly right or wrong way to do it. You got more experience. This, this, in that particular case, the, the story really is a success story about integrating or use of the content or the results by the sales team rather than what you're doing, which is more top of funnel. Um,
[00:22:09] Bob Hanson: Yeah, well, the, the fascinating brings up.
Yeah. Yeah. A couple, a couple points there. So. Number one, webinars like this, I mean, for some folks, for example, with the forever process, we can go from like concept to, um, webinar pretty quickly, and you don't necessarily have to touch it again. It's still going to be a valuable asset, right? It's not like a podcast that you have to do every week, right?
But the, um, uh, the way of taking it to the next level would be, okay, so we run, um, 10 webinars. What questions did we get? Were they actually, were people just not paying attention or do we not answer them within our content? Right? And then one of the studies that we did a while ago and the data hasn't changed is what's the number one reason people register for your webinar, right?
And you know, the answer to this, but most, People don't is especially, and keep in mind, it's kind of like the statistic, it was, you know, 10, 000 people are turning 65, uh, every day. So for like, for, again, the financial advisor example, well, if your marketing's messed up now, that's okay. Tomorrow that we hold new group of people that you can get some good marketing in front of.
But, um, but let's say. you know, typically in the bigger companies that I work with, webinars are a step in the process for someone to get out of webinars and move into like, you know, product management or, or running a big team of marketers. So most of the folks that are actually hands on with webinars are relatively inexperienced marketers and so forth.
So they, they won't know this. And then in five years we'll have to teach them again, those folks. But the title of your webinar is the number one reason why people will register. Right. And that's not only sort of the, the neighborhood of, you know, if you think of in housing location, location, location. So if I have a house in a good school district, it's going to have some value, right?
So, um, so that's the, uh, you know, the topic and then the specific words that you use is the title, right? And most folks in terms of their social programs, they don't think, oh, well, yeah, we did a webinar and of our podcast listeners, very few people went, well, they don't spend a lot of time to say, well, why didn't people attend?
Was our topic really interesting people? And there you again, you go back to the questions. Well, in our seminar system, I mean, if you're about to spend, six figures on a roadshow and your goal is to engage specific type of executives. You better believe you're going to do a research, you know, research and say, well, is the topic of our seminar.
And we typically, in those cases, we bring an outside speaker. Is that going to answer a top problem that people have in our market, right? Or this specific decision maker, what are they most worried about? So those questions that you get in your webinar can then inform you of a, how do Improve the content, but then b, how do you improve the strategy, which is what's the, the topic and the title, and is that matching up, um, with what folks want?
Does that make sense?
[00:25:18] Roger Courville, CSP: Yeah. Oh, totally. I wanna go back to something that you said a little earlier, and I think you kind of said it in passing, but I think it's worth putting an exclamation point.
[00:25:26] Bob Hanson: Yeah, I tend to do that. I apologize, .
[00:25:28] Roger Courville, CSP: No, no, no, no, no. I just, I think it's worth, I think it's worth reiterating because you, you, you kicked out a number of, uh, a number of things, but, um.
In a way, what you're describing with, we'll call it your, your forever webinar, is different than that weekly or monthly webinar series. Yes. And you used the phrase, um, same presentation, different audience.
[00:25:55] Bob Hanson: Yes.
[00:25:55] Roger Courville, CSP: Right? Go a little more deep into that. Give an example or two of, of, Of how that might unfold for somebody.
[00:26:05] Bob Hanson: Well, I'm sure everybody's been now on social media and so forth. You've been approached by a financial advisor. Again, I'll use that example. It's sort of a common currency. So, um, I got a, an email from someone who worked at an advisory firm and his boss was actually on TV, you know, on CNBC a couple of times a month.
So this was a real thought leader and they had tried a webinar and gotten 20 people there and really, you know, no, No sales prospects. So they said, can you help? And I said, well, I don't know. I mean, I know how to do this, but let me look at what you did. So the, the presentation that they had, um, the whole core business that they were in, the reason this person was going on CBNBC and talking about was it was value investing.
In other words, um, let us manage your money and we'll invest like Warren Buffett, right? So, so a clear sort of point of view on what they did and how, how they were different in the marketplace. So I said, Oh, well, tell me about the topic that you use for the webinar. And it was something that was, I don't even remember what it was, but it was like, if you did a survey of, of their prospects, Perspective investors.
This would be not even on the list. It would be like 21 things now. So I said, well, do you have, I've seen your, you know, uh, your thought leader on TV and everything, so he's a good presenter. Do you have a presentation that's like on your, your value investing strategy? I said, oh. Um, yeah, actually we do. And, um, yeah, when we do, um, these little seminar things, uh, we give this presentation and it works really well.
And I said, well, gee, could we try that as a webinar? So we did. We use some, you know, better marketing strategies to try and get it out there using all their social and digital channels and everything. So we went from, you know, 20 registrants and zero leads. you know, pretty much the same audience. We got 192 registrants to the webinar, roughly 100 people attended.
Again, they, they, they stayed on and they had within seven days, they had 3 million in new assets that they had identified. So what I want to So it was more, but they said within seven days, we're going to have, um, you know, in essence, um, infinite more results, but, uh, you know, we had almost as many leads as they had had attendees before, but we were basically just using the presentation that there was their core presentation on, um, their strategy.
And it was sort of the number one reason why people did business with them. New. So, um, so that's, that's one example that I think people could resonate with. Another one is, um, uh, one of the companies I was working with, it had a real, it was ahead of its time, but it had a real, uh, specific technology solution related to security.
And one of the founders was, um, back when it was Twitter, now it's X, but, um, one of the founders that worked there and basically identified a security flaw, uh, within Twitter. So they had created a company to fix this particular flaw. I mean, it worked for other social media companies, but, um, they were in negotiations to sell the company and they said, well, You know, we haven't done any marketing around this and we really need some, um, to show to the, to Twitter that we know how to solve this problem.
So we basically just did, um, we were pre recorded it because the primary speaker was not, uh, English was a second language and, and we would literally have to repeat every phrase multiple times and I had to edit it all together for a cohesive whole. Um, and then the founder who was, uh, you know, going to be a, you know, Have a big role within Twitter post acquisition was not a good presenter at all.
So we kind of went through the same problem, but through creating a video that basically just told their story, right? And, um, they basically within a few weeks of the, the webinar that we ran, I mean, there were other people that attended and they promoted it, but really it was just the, uh, you know, Twitter that we wanted there.
Um, so we did the webinar. Yeah, yeah. So, so they, um, uh, so it wasn't necessarily like a billion dollar offer, but I'm told the founders did very well and, um, and I found out all this. You know, posts so they, you know, we can't even use obviously the webinar as an example, but basically just that's an example of having a technology that maybe is a little hard to understand and then building a story around it and then key element was it sort of to be able to touch and feel it.
The person who could tell the story the best with the case study, right, was, um, someone that we had to coax a little bit to and do a little editing, get the story out of. So you can do. everything from trying to appeal to everybody who's a value investor in the United States, right? That could be your market, or it could be one, you know, in a business to business sale, sometimes one sale or one partner, it's worth doing, uh, you know, a good webinar for.
And these are both examples of forever webinars.
[00:31:14] Roger Courville, CSP: Is there a specific technology that you use, or is this just? technology agnostic.
[00:31:20] Bob Hanson: I think the, the bottom line, when I work with new companies, I say, what are you using today? We'll fill in any gaps for our first webinar. Basically, we're going to be collecting leads through some sort of registration form.
I personally like registration forms that are done a certain way. Right. So the, um, so when you, whether it's on your phone or on a, um, some sort of desktop or PC or whatever, you can actually see part of the registration form in the upper right, and there's a heading and then there's benefits on the side, so it's formatted, it's a certain way, but, um, so ideally somebody has a marketing technology or they have web forms that they're currently using, right.
Um, so typically we use those. And then a lot of times. if it's a zoom or go to webinar behind that. So we're integrating with those technologies. Um, those are good for our first webinar, but certainly everybody's technology stack is different. And at the end of the day, what you have is a lead and then a video.
So the, the, the biggest technology that I use is video editing. So whether it's before the webinar after, um, yeah, if this is my client, I would say, all right, hopefully within hours of your live webinar, We have a perfect video of this event. We edit out any mistakes. The thing, when you push play, it starts, you go right into the presentation.
There isn't five minutes of dead air waiting for people to join. Which is, you know, kind of like a limp hamshake. You want to make a good first impression. But, um, so at the end of the day, you have those two things, but certainly there's a lot of whiz bang things you can do. Um, but, uh, I would say behind the scenes, one of the technologies that I like, I mean, certainly zoom is.
Something that's workable. It's not ideal. There's a lot of workarounds. So we actually do, in essence, virtual live webinars with Zoom, even though that's difficult. It's sort of a hack , but people are familiar with the technology. But, um, but anyway, go to webinar is nice because you can do, um, live events, you can do virtual live.
It, it. We'll throw a video out there and you can do the video, uh, portion with live Q and a, uh, those kinds of things. And then it has a registration form that's passable, but certainly, you know, um, whether it's any kind of planning, uh, like a marketing plan, a lot of times I'll say, well, do you have a webinar marketing plan?
They say, well, not really. I say, well, what's stopping you? Well, we don't, you know, we were worried about this or we're waiting for that. We'll just have a plan. You know, a plan today is better than a. possible plan, you know, tomorrow or, um, you know, sort of a 1. 0 version is better than no version. So whatever technologies you have today, I would recommend using those.
And then at the end of the day, you want that video that you can use. Cause if anything, you can show it to your salespeople, you can show it to prospects in the future. So I think the technologies are more. Um, uh, based on what you have today, where you can fill in the gaps. And then, uh, it does depend a little bit on if you want to do a live webinar, zoom events is fine.
Um, but at the end of the day, you have a video and that's an MP4. So that's the, right. You have a lead in MP4 still today. That's what we have.
[00:34:38] Roger Courville, CSP: What are some keys to success with webinars?
[00:34:44] Bob Hanson: We talked about a couple, right? So you want your title to appeal to your audience So I have a three simple three step framework in the forever webinar process if you've never done a webinar before So the first thing we do right is we say, okay, who's the market for this webinar?
Right, so you can use the most common example of forever webinar is sort of in the middle of the marketing funnel, right? So if you have engage, educate, convert, right? So in the educate phase and getting to someone to convert, getting the end of the webinar is yeah, here's how you can try So here's how you can you know, initial.
Um, so, um, in that, uh, kind of step, we want to have, um, say, who is someone who is a potential buyer, uh, for your, you know, product or service? What are some of the problems that they have? And then initially, especially with your initial webinar, like what email list you have access to, what social channels are you using?
So as an example, you don't want to just Run like 50 podcasts without ever trying to convert those podcasts listeners to customers, right? So you could just have this webinar that you run and there's a you know A link in the show notes or your mid roll is well, we're having a webinar next week. So attend so You want to basically now in on that target, um, that we talked about and have a topic, uh, and a title of the webinar that resonates with that specific target market.
So one of the things that we used to talk about in the old days is webinars are narrowcasting, not broadcasting. So make sure In your next webinar, you're clear on, here's the problem that we're going to discuss, and here's the specific audience that we're engaging. And then here's where that falls within, in that case, say, uh, the prospect funnel, because you could even more powerful, actually.
And very few companies are using this is if you have, let's say you have a comp, uh, customer tiers of, keep it simple, silver, you know, gold and platinum. So you have subscribers that are, you know, trial or initial customers that you want to keep and migrate up to folks that look like your best customers with the highest lifetime value.
So if you have a sort of. a webinar that takes those silver and gold customers and migrates them up to platinum, right? So that's another use of a forever webinar is saying, well, okay, we're going to take that audience. But in that case you're not going to invite prospects, right? You're just going to specifically invite customers and say, all right, so you've already tried us now, here are all the benefits of being a platinum customer.
And that, that's going to do very well. But, and I had one company that tried the forever webinar strategy in this case with that. Um, thesis. They said, I think if we go back and mark to folks and tell them all the benefits of being a platinum customer and give them a special deal and a guarantee and all, you know, make our best sales pitch by our best salesperson, then, um, that it'll work.
And they increased, you know, the number of platinum customers by 33 percent just with this strategy. So it's pretty powerful stuff.
[00:37:54] Roger Courville, CSP: Awesome. Well, my friend, what is the core service that you offer relative to? foreverwebinars. How do, uh, obviously I put foreverwebinar. com up on the screen, but how do people get in touch with you?
[00:38:07] Bob Hanson: Um, yeah, so basically we have a souped it up process where at the end of the day you get that video and we run, uh, the initial webinar and it's all the, the marketing and production behind the scenes to make it happen. So you actually don't have to worry about whatever technology you use now. We'll, we'll look at it.
So it's kind of the A to Z process. Um, but, uh, basically if you go to foreverwebinar. com, then, uh, you can sort of start to kick the tires with, uh, 21 proven steps. to turn connections to clients with a forever webinar. It's pretty simple. And it's, you know, similar to the strategy that, you know, try and, uh, walk the talk there.
What folks are doing that we see in the marketplace is obviously all your social connections, like podcast listeners, will get engaged with them in different ways, start to add value. And then a certain percentage of those, they'll use your ideas or they'll, um, the folks that are right, they'll become customers and try out.
So that, that's what. We kind of try and walk the talk as well.
[00:39:06] Roger Courville, CSP: Awesome. Well, Bob, I appreciate you taking a little time today. My last question for you is Are there any questions I should have asked you that I haven't?
[00:39:15] Bob Hanson: Um, I think we touched on one, but, um, I think if, if you are, um, doing a lot of social marketing and frustrated that it's not working, there are other strategies that you can use.
Um, we talked about another one, like a white paper is a viable strategy to get people, uh, in the list and then migrate them up to the engage and, and the, uh, try and buy. But if you try this strategy, then, um, everybody that has tried it this way, they have been successful to some degree. And basically, um, if you describe this to, if you're, um, uh, Sally B to B marketer on a marketing team, the biggest, um, uh, the biggest objection you'll get is from people within your team and say, well, we've done webinars.
We tried that. Say, well, have we tried it this way? And are there prospects out there that didn't see our webinar last year? Right. Or, um, this crazy guy, Bob has been doing 2000 webinars over 20 years. He says it works. And if it doesn't work, we're going to find out where his webinar studio is. And so if you look at it that way to say, really, what we're doing is we're generating leads and we're getting feedback.
Uh, we have a video and we're getting our best presentation in front of our best prospects. Uh, and this is all a test and we're going to see how it works. I think that's, um, you know, you got to get it out there and try it. Cause I would say majority of folks, they still think zoom fatigue applies to webinars.
It does not. People are still watching videos. My son is an Ivy league college student, but what does he do two hours a day? He's watching the Pat McAfee show on video that that's, you know, and he even, uh, Pat McAfee was local to us. over the Christmas holidays. He went down and met Pat. So, uh, this is a way of, uh, um, a strategy that's working with every, you know, generation that, uh, anybody can use.
Just go ahead and, and try it and you can kick the tires easily with some of my tips.
[00:41:20] Roger Courville, CSP: Awesome. Well, again, thank you to, uh, Bob Hanson, foreverwebinar. com and, uh, get those 21, that, that 21 step. process and learn a lot more there. And thank you again to our sponsor today, Virtual Venues, where you can instantly scale your virtual and hybrid event production team.
And we will catch you on the next episode of Thought Leader Conversations.
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