WebAttract

In good economic times and bad, there is always pressure on marketing to increase demand for opportunities and prospects.

The goal of demand generation is usually to create marketing strategies that raise awareness, interest, and urgency in a company’s products or services.

But the pressures to accomplish this often force marketing to focus on immediate tactics over carefully planned strategies-strategies meant to filter out the quality, seriously interested prospects from the not-yet-ready-to-be-contacted suspects.

Just like marketers shouldn’t rely on a single marketing medium for demand generation, nor should they just generate demand and then call it good. But that is precisely what many marketing departments do-and with dire consequences.

There is little question that demand generation is important. But by itself, it is simply not enough to produce effective results and noteworthy ROI. This is where “lead” or “prospect” nurturing comes in. Since not all demand generation activities have lead generation as the goal, we’ll refer to it as “relationship nurturing.”

Relationship nurturing takes over once demand generation efforts have produced a response. If demand generation initiates dialogue with a target audience to drive awareness and interest in a company’s products and services, relationship nurturing keeps that conversation going.

Nurturing requires multiple touch points throughout the first 60 days, and then less frequent, but still consistent, content touch points going forward. This helps increase brand recollection and the likelihood of engaging with prospects early in their buying cycle.

Relationship nurturing activities can be very similar to demand generation tactics: Trade publication articles and ads, prospect-specific landing pages, White Papers, SEO, SEM, Webinars, direct mail, email campaigns, e-newsletters, etc.

While balanced marketing strategies for both demand generation and relationship nurturing leverage a fusion of online and offline marketing channels, it’s important to recognize that the content needs to be different for relationship nurturing…

Relationship nurturing is all about relevant content, relevant content, relevant content.

Relationship nurturing thrives on content that is focused and targeted according to where the prospect is in the buying cycle. Therefore, your content should remind prospects of the benefits of working with you-not on pitching your company, products or services. This establishes respect, and encourages relationship building.

The more effectively you implement your nurturing strategy and offer relevant, timely content, the more likely sales will shift in your favor.

Moving beyond just demand generation to long-term relationship nurturing can produce more qualified inquiries, help grow existing revenue streams, enhance relations between marketing and sales, and position a company as trusted advisor.

By Lenox Powell
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5874495

As marketers, leveraging webinars as a lead generation tactic, we sometimes forget that it is also a crucial content marketing strategy as well.  Without a plan for how to leverage that content in marketing initiatives, the outcome of a webinar can be reduced to chaos.  Chaos doesn’t stick, content does.

In enterprise technology sales, with a longer more complex purchasing cycle, a webinar is an essential tool.  It’s generally not a bottom of the funnel tactic, but one that’s used to help drive top of the funnel traffic.

A good friend of mine makes 7 figure enterprise software purchasing decisions for a Fortune 1,000 company.  He uses webinars as an early vetting tool.  It affords a certain amount of anonymity while he is learning more about the solution and getting a feel for the way the company operates.

He attends them for a couple of major reasons:
• General Purpose:  Keep up with the technology landscape
• Specific Purpose:  Understand the specific technical approach of a particular solution

Enterprise sales require a much more comprehensive mix of brand and sales touchpoints, but without a webinar component, it’s like a toolbox without a wrench.  A webinar is one of the pivotal sales touchpoints, but what are some planning and delivery aspects you should be paying attention to when dealing with a more complex sales cycle?

Find out More at Rock the Deadline

Post written by Kim Lloyd of Rock the Deadline



Enjoy this post from WebAttract’s Managing Principal & Executive Webinar Producer Mike Agron

Dos and Don’ts Affecting the Planning Around Logistics, Human Factors and Technology Dos

1. Before you go live, always plan to have at least 2 dry runs with the moderator and the other speakers. This is the opportunity to build the trust and understanding of what’s expected on webinar day.

2. During these meetings, discuss how much time each speaker will have, what they’ll cover and will tell the audience. Ask why will the audience care and what is the call to action? Even the most skilled panelists get so excited about their topic they forget to tell the audience what to do next!

3. Webinar audience love multiple voices and even if there is only 1 other speaker, adding a moderator to the mix helps to keep the audience engaged.

4. Determine if they will use a landline or VoIP, type of device, and where will they physically be on webinar day? If you know this in advance, and plan for it, you can avert a potential disaster on webinar day.

5. During each dry run, do a quick sound check on each speaker; make sure that their voice isn’t too loud or too soft. Most speakers are too soft, so encourage them to speak in their best broadcast voice.

6. On webinar day, a final sound check and pre-game warm up where all of the speakers and moderator “meet” is a must and needs to be on everyone’s calendar weeks in advance. Do this one hour in advance of the actual webinar start time. Better to have an extra 15-20 minutes to spare than getting everyone stressed out prior to showtime.

7. Always start on time and end on time. Your audience will appreciate you that you respect their time.

8. The moderator welcomes the audience, quickly gets off the first slide, sets the stage on what to expect, does a brief bit of housekeeping on how to ask a question, vote in a poll, reminds them a copy of the webinar is being recorded, and keeps the webinar panelists moving on track.

9. When the moderator sees live questions are coming in, they will tell the audience, and assures them they are in the cue for Q&A, or spontaneously tosses one out to the panel.

10. At the conclusion of the discussion and right before Q/A, the moderator wraps up with some next steps to help the audience get started, including how to get more information and thanks the speakers and of course the audience for their attention.

Some Don’ts…

1. Don’t try to wing it and not rehearse or practice. If a speaker rambles and ends up taking even a few minutes more, it will impact the other speakers, who might end up sounding rushed and the audience will sense that the panel sounds unprepared and will lose interest in the webinar.

2. Resist having the moderator try to manage more than 3 speakers, especially for a one hour webinar.

3. Discourage the speakers from reading their slides or they’ll sound scripted as that will also turn off an audience.

4. Manage a speaker who starts overtly selling by encouraging them during the dry runs to provide information based on their experiences and lessons learned, if they keep trying to sell, lovingly work to get them back on track by having them focus on their key messages.

5. Don’t use speakerphones, mobile phones, wireless devices or an open microphone and speakers on their PC or Mac. Speakerphones are not as warm and cause an additional barrier between the speaker and the audience making them sound distant and hard to hear, the other devices are to be avoided as all of them will risk bringing a great webinar to its knees with a myriad of audio problems from a tinny sound, dropped connection, to an uncontrollable echo.

6.If there is a technical glitch, such as losing of one of the speakers on air, (be calm as there should be a behind the scenes webinar producer who will manage this) a skilled the moderator will improvise and keep the webinar moving on, including going to another panelist while the problem is being fixed.

7. Don’t forget to have fun, this is a live show, the internet can throw some curves, but a well delivered webinar is about connection, not perfection.

WebAttract delivers you an End2End Solution for Webinar Demand Creation

A common question about webinars – especially one that’s raised by experienced trainers and presenters – is about webinars seeming more distant and remote than a face-to-face presentation.

I saw the question phrased like this recently on a LinkedIn group: “In a webinar environment how does this lack of human interaction impact on how well a webinar can be delivered in comparison to the tradition face to face session?”

Obviously, this person was already making the assumption that webinars had no human interaction!

I challenge that assumption.

First, just because somebody is there in person doesn’t mean they are truly present. Your audience members might be paying attention, but they might also be drifting off elsewhere in their mind. And in modern presentation environments, they might be on their iPhones, laptops, netbooks or tablets, doing something else entirely.

But that’s the negative side of the coin. On the positive side, some people feel more comfortable interacting from the “privacy” of their desk – much more than they would in a group. They don’t have to feel any group pressure, they are more “anonymous” and they can ask questions anonymously (by typing them).

My own experience as a webinar presenter is that some webinars are just as intimate and “real” as small-group workshops, and more intimate than larger groups. You do have to be comfortable and confident with the technology; otherwise your audience will feel disconnected and distant (not to mention this hurting your credibility!) But when you can put them at ease, it can make them feel more connected than ever before.

Here are some specific things you can do to increase the level of human engagement:

* Allow people to speak out loud – for example, when asking questions – rather than just typing questions into a chat room.
* Address people by name when answering their questions (being aware of privacy and confidentiality, of course).
* Start the webinar a few minutes early, and use that time to greet people as they join.
* Stop for questions at various points during the webinar, not just at the very end.
* Ask for their questions in advance, and answer them during the webinar.
* Tell people they can remain anonymous, if they wish, when asking questions.

So be confident that you can reach your audience.

I hope you feel more confident now about making a real human connection with your webinars. I’m not just saying this for your benefit, but also because you’ll probably have to convince some clients that webinars really can work well for them.

By: Gihan Perera
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6877301

What can you do to keep participants involved from the beginning to the end of your webinar program?

1. Interactivity. Make the most of the webinar interface by planning at least two audience polls during your talk. Have a confederate logged in who checks on the poll numbers for you and announces them to both you and the group. This keeps the communication two-way, to a certain extent, and the atmosphere spontaneous rather than canned.

2. Enough slides to keep things moving. A good rule of thumb is one slide per minute. If you have a series of points to make on one topic, present slides portraying one point at a time instead of keeping one slide containing all the points up for many minutes.

3. Minimal bullet points. A lecture that’s a succession of bullet points takes on a dull, predictable rhythm. Instead of filling slide after slide with bullets, consider questions, charts, graphs, photos or images that either encapsulate your theme or suggest your point without summarizing it outright.

4. Suspense. Since people attend webinars on their computer, participants always have many temptations for multitasking or drifting away altogether during your presentation. At least once during your talk, mention something enticing you’ll be talking about later to help keep them tuned in.

5. Questions in reserve. Participants appreciate it when you give them the opportunity to ask questions. But they don’t always jump in when invited. Have several questions in reserve, to avoid long silences and to help shy people gather the gumption to speak up. Introduce your dummy questions by saying (truthfully) “I’m often asked about…” or “Here’s a question…”

6. Unexpected beginning, strong ending. Start with a bold claim, a surprising statistic, an eye-opening incident, or something else with impact. When time is up, don’t simply trail off but end with a punchy summary of your advice or your bold claim. Plan your ending to follow the Q&A period.

By using these tips to create a lively online presentation, your webinar has a much better chance of accomplishing its aims: Participants have learned as planned or moved closer to becoming your paying customers.

By Marcia Yudkin
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6702130

Now that you are preparing your own webinar, you are probably thinking about what kind of balance you need between the informational or teaching part of your presentation and the promotional or selling segment. There is no set percentage of content versus promotion that you need to follow but there are some things to think about that will make your webinar work more effectively.

During your webinar you are going to need to take enough time to explain your product properly and build its value in the minds of the audience. If you do not take the time to extol your product and the reasons why they should buy it, no amount of pitch at the end of the webinar is going to sell your product or service. You need to teach your lesson or explain your product, taking the time to ask and answer questions and explain everything that is included in your offer. Explain exactly what they will be buying, show testimonial letters if you have them, and show them the ordering process.

Many people find that one hour is a good length of time for webinar. In a typical one hour presentation you would be looking at about 45 minutes of teaching or informational content and 15 minutes of sales promotion. But as we mentioned earlier, there is no set ratio of content to promotion, you need to give your presentation in a way that is effective for the products and services that you are selling.

You can make an excellent presentation in your webinar but if you forget to pitch your product properly you will not get very good sales results. The purpose of most webinars is to promote a product or service, so you need to allow enough time in the presentation for a good sales pitch.

If you spend most of your webinar pitching your product you are not going to build up trust and rapport with your audience. Without these you are going to have poor sales results.

If you get excellent sales results from your webinar then you probably have the balance of content to sales pitch right. If you are not getting good results then you need to think about either increasing your content or increasing your sales pitch while reducing the other component.

An effective webinar is going to have content that fully explains the value of the goods and services being offered. It will have a question and answer session, show testimonial letters and explain the ordering process. Once these things have been done in order to gain trust in the product, a competent sales pitch, using proven sales techniques, should be used to close off the webinar.

Using the suggestions above will help you to create a webinar that has both the content and the sales pitch necessary to make your presentation a success.

By Robert Plank
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4944407

Two ways that you can advance your business development efforts is by using teleseminars and webinars that provide a friendly, non- intrusive environment for your prospects and clients. This process allows for you to be in front of your prospects and clients whenever you can make the time. They can then participate when they feel comfortable and the time is right for them.

By using both of these methods, you can accomplish four things:
1. Reconnect with your prospects and/or clients on a continual basis.
2. Share information that may be important to their business.
3. Test and do research with a captive audience that will probably give you feedback and information that otherwise wouldn’t be available to you.
4. The ability to offer up one of your products or services for purchase or demo.

So how can you use these two formats to better your ‘biz dev’ efforts?

Teleseminars work well for those that are technically challenged and need a simple way to communicate. It’s also a fantastic method that enables you record the call and then make it available for playback at a later date.

Webinars are great when you have lots of visual images and for bigger ticket products or services. They also have the ability to be automated so you can offer your prospects and clients who were not able to make the live session(s).

So I want to encourage you to add teleseminars and webinars to see how they can enhance your business development efforts and maintain a better connection with those who you have contact with.

By Dave Krygier
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6796587