Too many B2B organizations and B2B publishers come to WebAttract looking to invest in our complete webinar management services for just one webinar at a time. They’re engaging their audiences with webinars every 4 months, 6 months and in many cases once a year. There are even B2B organizations that want to host one flagship webinar that they can keep on repeating.

On the other side of the spectrum, I see some B2B organizations and B2B publishers that are not our clients hosting and marketing at least one webinar per month. But, they’re not putting any thought behind the content they are offering. They’re providing “nice to have” content rather than “must have” content. And, they’re leaving many gaps in their webinar promotion efforts so they’re not hitting the registration numbers that the organization or publisher should be getting.

 Either way, these organizations and publishers are not putting a complete webinar marketing strategy in place so they’re failing to build their funnels with hot, targeted leads that are ready to move forward.

At Content Marketing World 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio, I’ll be facilitating a discussion on why B2B organizations need to create a strategy for delivering multiple webinars as part of an ongoing thought leadership series – and how to create that strategy.

Here Are Some Reasons That I’ll Share at Content Marketing World on Why You Should Not Invest in “One Off” Webinars

Reason #1: By investing in one-off webinars, you’re expecting to see a quick return on your investment – which most likely will not happen.

Have our clients closed huge deals after just one webinar?

Yes!

MPi had a prospect call 10 minutes after the webinar asking for more information. They closed at least 4 to 5 big sales after their first webinar. Several emerging B2B firms have closed 7 figure deals after their first webinar.

However, I’ve hosted, managed and marketed hundreds of webinars for our clients and I can tell you right now, only a small percentage was able to immediately turn webinar registrants into clients. We discovered that those who opt for doing a thought leadership webinar series have better results in attracting and engaging prospects to become their customers.

Reason #2: A thought leadership webinar series allows you to make multiple impressions that helps nurture prospects that aren’t completely ready to buy now.

As I mentioned in reason #1 – in most cases you’re not going to get immediate sales results from your 1st webinar.  More touches yield more responses. Marketing programs which implement multiple touches result in higher response rates – and that rings true when it comes to marketing your b2b organization with demand generation webinars.

You see, your webinar success will not just be driven by your ability to create perceptions and actions that move customers through the buying cycle. It will also be driven from the value of repetition and timing. Good marketers know that successful marketing is dependent upon the effective use of multiple communications and touch points to your best prospects

Reason #3:  By educating and keeping them in the know with timely and relevant content, you add value by providing insights to help them solve current challenges

For example, Knovel, a web based analytics firm that sells online solutions and search tools to drive innovation, used webinars to deliver answers engineers can trust.  Their strategy from their first webinar was to provide timely topics to inform and educate their audience on a wide array of topics to help engineers learn how to:

  • Build stronger, better products using interactive tables and equations
  •  Boost their career prospects by using social networks
  • Use social tools to support  wider participation in business –related problem solving
  • Keep them in the know with changes in standards in new compliance and regulatory issues

We’re actually producing the 16th webinar now in this ongoing thought leadership webinars, where an expert panel will discuss a new visual approach to help engineers mitigate catastrophic risks and how they can also gain a competitive advantage while maintaining their companies’ reputation.

By providing timely and relevant information through demand generation webinars, Knovel created a valuable, ongoing forum that has seen many repeat attendees. As a result, Knovel is able to nurture those prospects to move up the funnel that might not have been considered sales-ready after their first webinar.

Reason #4:  70% of B2B buyers do research online before speaking to a sales rep

A recent study and SlideShare Presentation with attribution to Sirrius Decisions, states that “70% of the B2B buying Process happens online”

When you look at http://www.slideshare.net/insideview/social-media-in-b2b-sales-smplus, you’ll quickly recognize that your webinar attendees might simply be browsing to raise their awareness. They may be considering a project, and the time between these phases and actually making a decision to move forward and speak to a live salesperson can be months or weeks.

Regardless of how long the sales cycle is, having a series of highly relevant webinars, as opposed to a “single 1 off”,  you’re in a better position to keep in front of your prospects as they move through their buying cycle. Remember, buyers buy on their time frame, not the sellers. So you have to continue to provide “new value” – not the same old webinars to prospects so when they’re ready to buy, they think of you. 

Reason #5: You want to capitalize on your success

One of our favorite success stories is from a B2B emerging firm that landed a $1 million dollar consulting and training engagement after their first webinar. Now, did they stop after that first webinar – and just keep offering the same one since they got results.

No!

They leveraged that webinar to create a monthly series called “Webinar Wednesdays” where they continue to provide new information. And, they’re leveraging these webinars to offer online courses, which monetize their business further via their Learning Management System.

Now, do you think your organization needs to invest in a thought leadership webinar series?

At Content Marketing World, I’ll be sharing actual case study examples on how emerging firms, such as Knovel, the web based analytics company I mentioned above, Dex One, an online marketing company that caters to the SMB market, and a few healthcare companies, such as Bosch Healthcare and GE-Intel Care Innovations are profiting from a thought leadership webinar series. Plus, I’ll reveal the steps and criteria needed to develop a webinar series strategy, including the key drivers to meet your commercial outcomes while delighting your audiences.

Register for Content Marketing World here and you can also receive a $100 discount off the registration fees:  http://cmi.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=2&aff_id=1054  If you do attend CMW, please join my session as I’d love to meet you in person.

If you want to get started with a thought leadership webinar series right away, I’m available to give you a complimentary 1:1 consultation on how a webinar series would work for you. Email me at mike@webattract.com to schedule your free webinar strategy session.