WEBCASTING

One of the fastest and highly effective ways
to reach a large audience.

Webcasting has evolved into a rich video platform, resembling more than anything else a TV talk show. It has become a highly interactive experience that can be watched live, in real time (live streaming), or after the fact as a recorded on-demand event. And you can digitally track the activities of every single person who attended. Immediately after the event is over, you can know how long each person was there, and whether they asked any questions, how they responded to surveys and polling questions. In short, webcasts are a gold mine of information. They can help advance your company’s demand generation, branding, and thought leadership.

So, what are the keys to success when it comes to webcasting? Here’s a short list to get you started:

• Build and experienced webcasting staff. You need someone to own and direct the program. You’ll need secondary and tertiary hosts to back you up. You’ll want to have a platform expert making sure all of the settings and features are right, and interfacing directly with the webcasting vendor. And finally, you’ll need sales and technical assets to be there during each live webcast to answer questions and engage with attendees one-on-one.

• Pick a cutting edge webcasting platform. Just like every other endeavor in life and business, you want to build on a solid foundation. So pick a reputable, feature-rich webcasting platform that has some legs to it. The more ways that you’re able to interact with your attendees, the more successful your program is likely to become. Some of the leading platforms in this space include Zoom, Streamyard, ON24, and Webex.

• Make each webcast a valuable source of information. The better webcasts that attract the largest audience are informational in nature – not self promotional. Pick topics of genuine interest to your audience. Bring in two or three subject matter experts to keep the audience engaged. Give give them something to think about.

• Share downloadable assets with your audience. The better webcasting platforms allow you to post various digital assets online for attendees to download at their leisure. Take full advantage of this capability. Post promotional materials about your company and its products. Biographies of your guest speakers. White papers. Relevant articles. The more interesting you make it for your audience, the longer they are likely to stay.

• Allot sufficient time for Q&A. Even if you stumble across some truly great content that you want to share, make sure that you allot time for the audience to ask questions and perhaps redirect the conversation. For a 60-minute webcast, you may want to allot 10-15 minutes for Q&A. Note that these targeted questions from your audience could highlight a business need that your sales staff can zero in on after the fact.

• Engage in side discussions while the webcast is taking place. Make sure you have sales and technical resources on hand during the webcast in case attendees start asking specific questions. You can engage them one-on-one even while the main presentation is going on. This is where the opportunity presents itself to convert a webcast attendee into a prospective customer.

• Publish a webcasting schedule. What if people attend your first webcast and thoroughly enjoyed it? What if they want to sign up for more? Give them that opportunity by tipping your hand and publishing a webcasting schedule that projects at least six months into the future. Once you are on someone’s calendar, there’s a good chance that you will stay there.