My B2B Webinar Marketing Best Practices

Are webinars dead? Absolutely not. Sure, a lot of people got burnt out on webinars during COVID, but they still make time for high-value content. You just have to give them what they want.

What Makes People WANT to Attend Your Webinar?

The right topic is everything. People’s time is precious. You MUST choose a topic that is what THEY want to know and learn, not what YOU want to tell them. Pick a hot topic that people are having trouble getting good, actionable information about from other sources. Include proprietary research and insights if you can. 

The right TITLE is what will prompt people to register. If you have a great topic but a boring title, no one will be interested. Be specific about what they will get out of attending.

As an example, here are the titles of my top 3 most popular webinars:

• 8 ways to get more leads in the next 90 days
• 5 ways to make your brand impossible to ignore
• 25 ways to make social media work better this year

Want to see a replay of my "8 Ways to Get More Leads in the Next 90 Days?" Click the image below.

When considering which topic to choose, first define the audience for your webinar. Some webinars are top of funnel and the topic needs to have broad appeal. Others are to rewarm existing leads and help them make progress. These are more about answering specific questions that help them move forward. 

Dos and Don’ts of B2B Webinar Marketing

Don’t do a webinar at the last minute. Start advertising your webinar at least 8 weeks in advance. Yes, 8 weeks. Don’t expect that you can just plan a couple of weeks out and actually fill it. This takes time and effort.

Do rely on partners in your ecosystem to co-promote with you. The most successful way to fill a webinar is to not just rely on your own reach. Having a partner with a list of 20,000 contacts will take you much farther than your own list of 2000 contacts. This is one reason to pick a topic that your partners also benefit from and can participate in as a sponsor or as a co-host.

Do set up polls that can be activated at pre-planned moments during the event. Even asking yes or no questions and getting people to respond in the comments is good. You want to train the audience to stay engaged.

Don’t do a webinar alone. Have someone on your team who is in charge of the chat, answering questions, muting people, kicking out troublemakers, launching polls, etc. This will help you focus on the presentation.

Do begin with your face on the screen instead of your slide deck. Let people connect with you as a person before you turn into an educator. Have fun!

Do start the webinar on time. Respect those who showed up punctually. It is fine to open the webinar room early to let people in. Have a conversation with them while the clock ticks down. It’s a great way to have a more relaxed presentation.

Don’t only focus on attendees. You will experience significant attrition between registrants and attendees, but if your topic is strong enough, you’ll be able to create a tail of results in on-demand views, creating an evergreen funnel with the recording, adding it to your blog or newsletter, and/or grabbing shorts for social media to drive to the full recording

Want to see our full discussion on this topic? Visit our YouTube channel.

LinkedIn Lives vs. Zoom Webinars

LinkedIn lives work best for impromptu, personality driven presentations or when you have trained an audience to meet with you weekly. With lives, there is a higher likelihood of tech problems since there are more things to integrate. You also have less ability to capture MQLs this way. 

Zoom webinars (which you can easily advertise on LinkedIn) give you the ability to easily capture leads for follow up and remarketing, automates reminders, and has lots of built in features that are easy to use like polls and surveys.

Ways to Add Value in a Webinar

Send out a follow along checklist or assessment tool to the attendees prior to the webinar. This gives them something to act on during and after the webinar and primes them for follow up.

Example: Brand self-assessment (click file, make a copy or file, download to make your own copy to use).

Do a live giveaway. Have people drop their name/email in the chat and do a live spin the wheel drawing. Announce the winner right away, not after the fact.

Do answer questions during the webinar (either live or have your assistant do it in the chat). This is in addition to the Q&A at the end. Answer questions that are about the current slide, save other questions to the end to avoid breaking the flow.

Always offer the replay of the webinar afterward. Offering the deck is a bonus! People requesting this is the #1 sign that you have picked a high value topic.

Example of Steps for Setting Up a Successful Webinar

• Select topic and create a compelling title
• Identify any co-presenters 
• Choose a date/time 
• Purchase Zoom webinar package ($690 for a 1 year subscription) 
• Set up registration on Zoom 
• Brand the Zoom webinar portal
• Create speaker bio (including headshot)
• Document key points for presentation 
• Select image for social media 
• Set up LinkedIn event or other landing page
• Boost webinar post on social media
• Create and design slide deck
• Build question set and polls to engage audience (Yes/No questions) 
• Build workflow to pull marketing contacts into CRM
• Create and schedule pre-event email/messages (create versions for copromotion partners to send out as well)
• Do LinkedIn/social posting and boosting
• Send LinkedIn invitations (including bulk invites) 
• Create and send post-event email follow up with the replay and deck
• Add webinar recording to website (landing page and form)
• Pull transcript and pull snippets for social media marketing
• Advertise availability of the webinar recording

Example of a Recent Client Webinar

The goal was to move prospects from mid-funnel into bottom of funnel. Many were opportunities that needed rewarming. The educational webinar was focused on ROI for the solution they offer. It gave “brand champions” a way to bring all stakeholders together to better understand the value of the proposed solution. There were 3-4 people from the same organization attending. Others request the replay and deck to share with their team.

Outcomes: 

• 100 people registered (just from their own list of 2000, no co-promotion)
• 50% attended (good is 25%)
• 100% stayed to the end
• 80% participated in polls
• 100% said the webinar was helpful
• 4 immediately moved into a late stage sales conversation with more on the way

What's the Takeaway?

With the right topic, title, and tactics, webinars can play an important role in your B2B marketing strategy. Reach out if you want to learn how Blender can help you build a strong lead generation system for your business!