Webinars for Lead Generation
Recently we ran our first Webinar in conjunction with the Lemon Club and we thought you might like to know how it went and whether it generated any Sales Leads.
Well this was a completely new venture for us, despite having attended many webinars ourselves.
Preparation
Preparing for the webinar was pretty straightforward. As we were partnering with the Lemon Club, who were hosting the webinar, we only had to concentrate on the content and audience. Preparing for a webinar is much the same as that required for a physical presentation to a live audience. We were using Microsoft Powerpoint to generate the slides which would be viewed by the webinar attendees. This was therefore a process familiar to most if not all of you. We had to decide on the topic, Boost Your Leads with Google AdWords, then the content structure. All of this was quite easy really.
Rehearsals
The organisers suggested that we needed:
- A Technical familiarisation with the Webinar software – So this was duly undertaken using GoToWebinar and was easy to master.
- Presentation Rehearsal – Firstly to practice this technique, secondly (as it would be recorded) to act as a back-up, in case of disasters on the day of the webinar!
Well the Presentation Rehearsal went well but be warned, it feels a bit odd! Why? It feels odd because when you are presenting you are just talking into a microphone and you are not getting any feedback at all. Great for people who like monologues but not so great if you want a dialogue. Possibly the presentation rehearsal is worse than the real thing in this respect as at least on the live webinar you can connect “virtually” with the audience.
Inviting the Audience
As we were partnering on this occasion sending invites to people who might wish to join the webinar had mainly been taken care of for us. However normally this would be an essential part and one that would have to be executed in a targeted way, to ensure the most appropriate attendees. Clearly the more appropriate the audience the greater the chance of Generating Sales Leads.
Live Webinar
So having done the preparation the team was feeling pretty confident about delivering the webinar. We had requested attendees to submit any questions they had in the webinar sign-up process. So we included these in the presentation The questions were however an “eye-opener,” as we suddenly realised that our audience had completely different levels of understanding of the subject matter. Nevertheless the webinar started on time and we were “live.” As with all the “best” live presentations it wasn’t without issue. We “lost the screen” a couple of times as we attempted to use a system highlighter pen. Fortunately with the help of the organiser we didn’t loose either the audience or the presenter! Anyway after these minor glitches the presentation went fine. Atleast this is how it seemed as once again we felt as if we were presenting to a microphone rather than people, even though we could see who was attending. After the formal presentation we invited questions from the attendees and they came thick and fast. Once again we were reminded of the diversity of experience and understanding the attendees had. Fortunately none of the questions were “show stoppers” and were were able to answer them all.
Lessons Learned
Presenting to an audience via a webinar is easy and, apart form technical gremlins, certainly nothing to be feared. It is a very convenient way for both presenters to deliver material to an audience and for attendees to receive it. All of this without either parties moving from their PC, Tablet or Mobile. It’s also a great way of finding out the questions your potential customers have. Indeed in this respect it acts as a great Market Research tool. So much so that it gives you plenty of good insight in terms of what you need to be communicating with your prospects.
Webinars For Lead Generation
So what about using webinars for lead generation? Well this wasn’t exactly a scientific study, as it was only one webinar and our first. There are plenty of resources available by searching on the internet to get tips e.g. how to use webinars for Lead Generation, 10 Reasons Smart Companies Use Webinars For Lead Gen
Certainly our first experience was very positive, with good feedback and it generated a number of Sales Leads straight away. So we will certainly be using this technique for Sales Lead Generation and we would urge you to consider it too.
If you would like help with Lead Generation for your business then please Contact Us.
