Learn how to get started with B2B webinar content marketing.

In the past few years, the practice of hosting a webinar has gained popularity, and when done well, it has proven very effective. Businesses have learned that hosting a B2B marketing and sales webinar is a great way to boost brand awareness, attract new leads for every sales funnel stage and keep customers engaged.

89% of marketers believe webinars outperform other channels in creating qualified leads.

Most B2B companies are already using webinars as a part of their content marketing strategy and generating new leads and revenue.

But, just like all other marketing efforts, webinars are only effective based on your planning and execution. Nonetheless, creating a webinar that resonates with your target audience can be challenging.

In this article, you’ll learn how best to organize and host your B2B webinars.

What is B2B Webinar Content Marketing?

A webinar or a “web seminar” is a term that describes live online events hosted by individuals, businesses, or groups. Webinars can cover many topics, typically with an expert in the subject to speak or present.

A webinar prioritizes two-way communication between the speakers and the attendees within a single session. Features like discussions throughout the session, Q&As, and real-time attendee feedback set the webinar apart from webcasts and other virtual events.

Owing to the content that gets created, distributed and shared before, during and after a webinar, they form an integral part of B2B content marketing strategies.

Why is B2B Webinar Content Marketing Powerful?

Webinars work for every aspect of B2B marketing, including lead generation, sales, conversion, and even customer success.

Webinars also build personal connections, as you can interact directly with the attendees during the Q&A session at the end and answer direct questions.

Additionally, webinars are also scalable because you can simultaneously communicate with hundreds of people about a specific topic.

There are numerous types of webinars that can be conducted, such as:

1. Demo webinars

When you want to introduce prospects to your product or service in a little more depth, catering to their specific needs.

2. Training webinars

These are great for lead generation and customer service as they are focused on educating the audience about their goals, challenges and the solutions available through you.

3. New Feature Release

Instead of the usual social posts, adding a webinar to a new feature release is like a surprise reveal video to keep your existing customers engaged.

4. Educational Webinars

As the name suggests, these are focused on educating specific target audience segments and are hence best suited for building topical authority.

It’s best to have a webinar library where you’re stocking your recorded videos and keeping people engaged by creating new content.

How to Create a B2B Webinar Strategy?

Before creating a webinar, you must have a solid B2B webinar strategy in place.

The basis of the strategy should be to help you define your goals and support your actions with the available resources. It should all be documented if you have doubts about your webinar’s framework, content, and goals.

Your B2B webinar strategy should include some of the following factors:

• The goal of your webinar
• The formats of your webinar
• Audience profile and its segmentation
• The content you want to cover
• Experts or speakers you will invite
• How best will you promote your webinar
• The best webinar platform

If you want your webinar to be a success for both you and your attendees, then you must take the time and effort to plan and strategize for it to succeed.

As Benjamin Franklin has said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

Each point mentioned below is a webinar planning and marketing best practice that will help you deliver the most effective B2B webinar possible.

1. Create Clear Objectives for Your Webinar

Before you begin, you must understand and identify what you want to accomplish with your webinar campaign. Here are a few questions to ponder before you start planning your webinar:

• Do you aim to educate your audience with thought leadership?
• Do you want to prioritize top-of-the-funnel lead generation?
• Do you want to boost sales and further develop sales opportunities?

Whatever your webinar objectives are, you must carefully analyze the agreed-upon metrics. This will help outline how your success will be measured and provide measurable data to align your future strategic decisions.

2. Understand Your Audience

Have a clear view of what kind of audience you want to appeal to and how you can provide genuine value to this group.

Once you have identified your target audience, you must consider their vital needs, the difficulties they face regularly, and the possible solutions. This will help you identify the topics more likely to provide value and how best to build your webinar campaign.

3. Plan Impactful Quality Content

Your webinar will be shaped based on the content you plan on covering. The most extraordinary webinars educate their audience and provide visible benefits; hence, choosing the right topic and title can shape the kind of audience you attract and the sessions’ outcome.

The content you cover should be informative and engaging, displaying your company image and values. Hence, it’s crucial to understand how you present the content, considering the type of participants you will be addressing and their purpose in attending your webinar. Attendees will leave if you sound too salesy.

4. Choose the Right Tool

There are several broadcasting options to choose from to host your webinar. Microsoft Teams and Zoom are popular options, but you may also consider using WebEx or Facebook Live.

But, it’s always best to go with the platform that you think your audience may already be most familiar with and that is easier for them to set up.

Look for the platform that best suits your webinar’s style and purpose. The right software should:

• Fit into your budget
• Include all the features such as polls, screen-share, and more that can be used easily
• Host your attendees without any snags

Schedule a test run well in advance to check whether you are using the right software. Doing so also allows you to test the microphone and headphone quality, speed of video transmission, and video conferencing features you plan to use during the session. It’sIt’s essential to check all these vital things before your webinar to avoid delays and technical glitches.

5. Get a Team Together

A successful webinar relies on a team that makes sure everything runs smoothly. Your team should include the host, moderators in the chat streams, and people to manage any technical difficulties.

Assign specific individuals to every area to avoid overlooking any vital part of the webinar, even the marketing via targeted ads or the sales from the webinar.

Getting your team together before the main event will give them ample time and opportunity to ask questions and ensure everyone knows what’s happening. Doing so can also highlight possible challenges in different aspects before the webinar begins.

6. Design your registration page

Keep your registration page simple. Mention the key points that your audience will learn with an emphasis on the presenter, especially if they’re experts in that subject.

Have a clear CTA, or keep it simple to sign up. Don’t emphasize too much information; you’ll just need their name and email. Include the proper date and time, and mention the time zone as well if viewers are distributed. A webinar session of an hour is ideal; it allows 40 minutes for the presentation and 20 minutes for Q & A.

7. Produce the content

Once you have zeroed in on a topic and the relevant tool, it’s time to create the content based on the type of webinar you plan to host. Whatever the format, maybe, you’ll have to produce the content and prepare for the big day.

If you plan on a PowerPoint, you must create your slide deck, ensuring all the slides highlight your points. Along with being visually appealing, the slides should include exciting graphics, such as images or GIFs.

If you’re planning for a discussion-style webinar, plan out your speakers, collect all audience queries, and list any other questions you might have to prioritize your time during the webinar.

8. Generate buzz

Start your promotional campaign well in advance to attract crowds to your webinar. Leverage your social media, email, and other platforms. Request the host to prepare and share a short video invitation, which should include the date, time, and topic.

Schedule email reminders for a week and then a day before the event. Consider sending “Don’t Miss Out,” “Seats Are Filling Up,” “Last chance to register,” or “Only a few seats left.” emails as the day gets closer.

Send the webinar link to your attendees about an hour before it starts so they don’t have to search for the link in their registration email.

9. Follow up with leads

Webinars are a great sales opportunity; you don’t want people to forget you once the webinar ends. Send a thank-you email and gather feedback from the attendees to plan better webinars in the future.

Send your attendees a link to the recording afterward, so they don’t have to take notes during the webinar. Send the recording link even to people who had registered but couldn’t attend.

10. Integrate your webinars into the overall inbound strategy

Webinars are effective and scalable because you can do much more with them. For instance, if the content you’ve created is truly evergreen, you can store it on your Resources page for a long time and continue to generate leads.

By now, we all know that webinars help generate your leads. Once you have a measure of audience and engagement, you can determine your webinar’s level of interest and commitment, which you can pass on to your sales team.

You can also repurpose your webinar content by creating podcasts, videos, FAQs, etc. So, by integrating your webinar into an overall inbound strategy, you will have various content marketing options that will help boost brand awareness and generate leads for a long time.

Webinar Mistakes to Avoid

Now that you have a list of to-do’s for hosting your webinar, here’s another list of common

webinar mistakes that you should avoid:

• Not considering your audience’s time – Start your presentations on time and end them on time. Everybody has a busy schedule, and respecting your audience’s time will work in your favor to get as much done as possible in the given time.
• Not engaging your audience – Make your webinar enjoyable by being more conversational than just a plain presentation. You can equip your webinar with valuable tools like polls and live Q&As. This will make the webinar more engaging for your attendees as you’ll invite them to participate.
• Not focusing on promotion – Despite all your mammoth efforts and excellent content, people aren’t automatically going to gather for your webinar. Your webinar’s attendance won’t reach its full potential unless you put real effort into promoting your webinar. So, plan your promotion by focusing your marketing efforts on the social media channels your target audience spends the most time at.
• Not analyzing leads – Don’t forget to analyze your leads beyond simply recording their primary data in the CRM. The data gained after hosting a webinar can work wonders for producing a more tailored digital marketing campaign.

Wrapping Up

Webinars are making a grand comeback in the content marketing world, not just as an effective marketing tool but also as an effective sales and lead-generating tool. But, for this, your sales team should have the appropriate information, content, and tools to move prospects down the funnel and close deals.

Hosting webinars regularly helps build a community of loyal viewers and prospective leads. If you succeed in consistently engaging your audience with valuable content, it will establish you as a reliable source of knowledge. This eventually helps in building trust and boosting sales. So get started with hosting your webinars, and good luck!

Need help integrating webinars into your content marketing strategy?

Feel free to reach out to me or contact my team at Contensify to supercharge your B2B content marketing efforts!