Webinars are a great way to deliver valuable content to your audience. For B2B businesses, especially those operating in the tech industry, they offer a fantastic opportunity to connect with new prospects in a way that traditional content marketing can’t. And it isn’t just us who feel that way:
- 72% of webinar service users say that webinars directly impact pipeline and revenue
- 89% believe that webinars outperform other channels in creating qualified leads
- 90% of professionals engage with webinars ‘at least some of the time’ when researching purchases
We’ve already covered why webinars are so important here, and also told you everything you need to know to host a successful webinar here. But what happens after the webinar has finished? One of the biggest mistakes we see is businesses not following up with their attendees properly after their webinars.
Putting on a webinar takes considerable effort from your team, so it can be disheartening when it doesn’t go to plan conversion wise. Naturally, not every single one of your webinar attendees will turn into a sale, but there are things you can do to maximise the return on your efforts.
Read on and discover the 5 things we recommend you do after your webinar ends to ensure you get great results.
1) Keep providing value
Once your webinar is over, continue to send your attendees high-quality relevant content by designing a suitable nurture flow. This demonstrates your expertise and deep understanding of the topic and industry that they’re interested in.
The length of this nurture flow will depend on your sales process. If you’re selling a technology product with a high average sale value, it’s natural to assume that your sales cycle will be fairly long so your nurture flow should last 4-6 weeks.
Consider what existing assets you have to assess if they can be used in your nurture flow. You may already have lots of content that can be used as-is. However, it’s more likely that you have content that can be slightly tweaked in order to be relevant. The key is to provide more useful educational content entwined with product specific sales information.
2) Offer a free consultation or strategy session
Providing a ‘hook’ to get a serious sales conversation going is an extremely important part of any post-webinar nurture flow.
By providing the consultation or strategy session for free, you’re helping your prospect to develop a sense of trust not just in you, but also in your product or service.
Offering your time for free provides the opportunity to continue the conversation and get more information from your potential sales prospect. The strategy or consultation session allows you to gather everything you need to make your sales proposition personal and enticing.
It also saves your salespeople time and effort. Instead of constantly chasing webinar attendees to see if they are ready to have a conversation, the attendees can book in to speak with you at a time that suits them.
3) Don’t forget the people who couldn’t make it
Things can often happen which will mean interested people can’t attend. This is especially true for decision-makers at organisations, as urgent issues can pop up and require their immediate attention. There will be people who sign up for your webinar then find they can’t make it nearer the time.
Don’t immediately strike them off your list as not interested, instead offer them the chance to catch up with a link to the webinar recording. Don’t forget to ensure they’re enrolled in your nurture flow regardless of whether they attended or not, as it’s still an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise to someone you know is interested in your subject matter.
4) Re-purpose your webinar content
You’ve had your webinar, and sent it out to all of the attendees in case they couldn’t make it or simply wanted to watch it again. The next step is to use that content to your advantage!
Put your webinar recording on a landing page behind a form and push it out on all of your relevant social platforms. This is a great way to make the most of your efforts, and you may get some great form submissions that you can then enrol into your existing nurture flow.
If suitable, you could also turn the webinar transcript into a blog and publish it on your website. It may take a bit of editing to make the transcript an interesting read, but the base content is there to be utilised.
5) Analyse your post-webinar statistics
One of the most important parts of any webinar is analysing what went well and what could have gone better. Did you consider the webinar a success? Some things to consider:
- What was the conversion rate of your sign up landing page? If you had a lot of views but not a lot of sign-ups, it could be a sign you need to improve your messaging or targeting.
- How many people who signed up actually attended your webinar? If you had a low attendance rate then you may need to work on your reminders.
- Did your attendees watch the whole webinar? If you noticed a lot of people dropping off at various points of the webinar, then the content may not match the expectation set at sign up.
- How many conversions happened as a result of the webinar? Ultimately, if you had a great webinar but it didn’t result in any meaningful sales conversations, then it’s time to look at your offering and the sales follow up process.
What do you do after you’ve covered these 5 points?
It’s time to start planning your next webinar! Take everything you’ve learned from your post-webinar analysis and start planning your next event.
If you’d like to discuss how we can help you with your next webinar, please get in touch with chris@enquirylab.com or 01327 368378.
