1. How to Get Better
Leads from Webinars
with Less Effort
Sponsored by

2. When It Comes to Webinars…Where’s the Real Value?
Most B2B marketers agree that the success of
their content marketing is measured not only by the
number of audience members it attracts, but also by
the quality of the leads their campaigns generate. To
those ends, marketers work hard to develop content
that is appealing to their target audiences, and they
package that content in ways that are designed to
engage and excite the audience.
Marketers like webinars for several reasons. Webi-
nars represent a kind of “live” content that is dy-
namic and interactive. They provide an engagement
experience for the audience that is more personal
than fixed, highly polished content. There is some-
thing more genuine about a live presenter answer-
ing real questions in the course of a presentation.
Also, through their multimedia capabilities, webinars
provide a richer, more memorable experience for the
audience. And finally, webinars create opportunities
for marketers to gauge audience reaction. How does a simple webinar do all these things? • nalyze and Capture – monitor and mea-
A
By combining good presentation practices with a sure audience activity during the presen-
From the marketer’s perspective though, what is business-grade webinar platform, a well-planned tation, capture that data at the individual
the greatest value of a webinar? Is it the opportuni- webinar presentation performs the following lead attendee level, and export the data to a lead
ty to influence an audience with a truly compelling nurturing functions: management application for further use by
sales people.
presentation? Is it a way of generating more leads?
In fact, a webinar represents a unique opportunity • ttract and Filter – Target an audience seg-
A
ment with a topic designed to interest and Attracting the right audience and creating a com-
to do several things at once. If these things are
attract them, and use webinar platform tools pelling presentation for them sets up the conditions
done well, the result is more than a set of quali-
fied leads. They are leads already prepared for to promote and register attendees. for analyzing their reactions and capturing infor-
follow-on contact, and they are leads the marketer mation that enables personalized, post-webinar
• nfluence – Develop a compelling, engag-
I
has learned something about during the webinar ing presentation that teaches the audience engagement. Coordinating these three activities
presentation that enables sales to personalize something, and use webinar platform tools to provides highly qualified leads along with individu-
subsequent engagement. encourage audience interaction. al-level insights into each of them. Let’s see how.
How to Get Better Leads from Webinars with Less Effort
2

3. Attracting and Filtering a Target Audience
Attracting and Filtering a Target Audience worry about—then present your information in that much information makes the process complicated
The first step in capturing qualified leads is attract- context. The more valuable a topic or presenter and discourages registration. A webinar platform
ing the right audience. The basic principles behind (or both) is to the target audience, the more target should automatically send email reminders as the
developing an audience for a webinar do not differ audience you will register for the event. webinar date approaches. Some webinar platforms
greatly from audience development for other kinds support Outlook calendar integration, which inserts
of content. However, webinars are different from Attendees prefer topics with depth that teach them the event into the registrant’s calendar when they
static content in a several important ways: something useful. They are less interested in su- register.
perficial treatments of large topics. Also, always re-
• ecause webinars are scheduled events,
B member that titles mean everything when it comes Building an audience is an essential first step, but
people need to set aside specific blocks of to attracting an audience. once you have an audience, the real challenge is
time to attend them. Attendees can’t skim keeping it.
for the highlights like they might if reading a Webinar Promotion: This is an essential part of
white paper. Committing to attend a webinar
audience development. It can include emailing to
is a higher threshold of commitment than
deciding to view a fixed piece of content like
target audience lists, using social media such as Titles Make a Big Difference...
a white paper. Therefore the value to the Twitter and LinkedIn, paid adver-
audience must be high, and it must be clear. tising, or all of the above.
• webinar platform has tools that help
A Platform Features that Support
promote attendance and collect important
Registration and Attendance:
information about the audience.
The ultimate goal of attracting and
filtering an audience is to ensure
Given these differences, here are several audience
the right people register for the
development strategies:
webinar, and then to maximize at-
tendance of those who register.
Topic Selection – Playing to the Target Audi-
ence: Every webinar plan should include an audi-
A business-grade webinar plat-
ence objective that defines the audience and states
form provides tools that make
what that audience is going to take away from the
registration easy for attendees.
event. It’s not enough to decide what you want
Registration is an important step
to tell your audience. That may be important to
because it is the first opportunity
you, but the audience might not care about it. You
to capture attendee information.
need to understand what is important to the target
But don’t overdo it! Asking for too
audience—their hot buttons and the things they
How to Get Better Leads from Webinars with Less Effort
3

4. Presentation Best Practices
Choosing and promoting a topic that attracts • ncourage attendees to use chat chat
E
the right audience is just the beginning. Gen- and QA functions to make comments
erating quality leads depends on an audience and ask questions. Keep an eye on the
staying engaged during the webinar. This is im- chat box, and speak to the audience.
portant not only to influence the audience, but • ose questions that relate to your topic,
P
also to measure their reaction to the presenta- and address specific answers you receive.
tion. Retaining the audience is all about good
• ssume your audience is multitasking
A
presentation practices. and you are competing for their attention.
There is lots of great advice available about
presentation techniques that keep audiences Leveraging the Platform
interested and engaged. It is not our intention
Features for Better Audience
to repeat all that advice here. However, here
are some key points that will improve audience Engagement
engagement:
Audience engagement is incredibly important for
• ever start a webinar with long-winded
N two reasons. First of all, it keeps the audience
introductions and speaker credentials. attentive so they get your message. Secondly,
Dive into the value they will be getting more interactivity provides more opportunity to
from it. analyze the audience.
• Teach and inform. Do not sell.
Platform features that support interactivity in-
• ake the presentation crisp. Spend no
M clude chatting (or instant messaging), annotation
more time on a topic than is necessary to
tools, and polling. A poll can be used to alter the
make key points.
rhythm of a presentation, introduce a new topic,
• udiences have shorter attention spans.
A gauge audience attentiveness, and assess the
It is often easier to attend one or two engagement of individual audience members.
30-minute webinars than one 60-minute
event. So far we have discussed attracting an audience
• uring promotion and registration, solicit
D and providing a spellbinding presentation. Now
questions. During the presentation, refer we come to the heart of the matter – measuring
to those questions, and answer them. the audience to qualify leads. Let’s see how.
How to Get Better Leads from Webinars with Less Effort
4

5. Measuring the Audience
From the moment a webinar attendee registers, • Chat: Chat is valuable because it is con-
they are providing information that is valuable at tent that provides insight into the intent of Market Insights
two levels. First, as part of an audience, they are the person who writes it, and that intent
saying something about how receptive the target typically relates to what is happening in • Total number registered
population is to the topic and key messages. Sec- the presentation when the chat occurs. • Total number of attendees
There are a many ways to engage with • Attendance rate
ondly, as individuals, they are saying something
chat during a presentation. While the pre- • Average attendance duration
about themselves and their own interest in the
senter is speaking, a colleague can post • Average attentiveness
topic. A good webinar platform will capture and comments and questions, and attendees • oints in presentation where attentiveness
P
report all this information in ways that are useful can do the same. Chat can be used to changed
to marketing and sales. make an offer, such as to send links to • Average attendee interest rating
related information, and responses can • Polls response rate
For example, a business-grade webinar platform say something about group attentiveness • Number of questions asked
will be able to collect and generate reports based as well as the individuals who respond. • nd-of-webinar survey response rate
E
on information gathered before and during a • Polling: Polling is useful because it pro-
webinar session, such as data points listed in the vides real-time audience feedback while Sales Insights
table on this page. keeping the audience engaged. It also
provides information about how individuals • Registration information
Strategies for Improving the Quality stand on a particular question. One great • Registered but a No-Show
of Audience Analytics strategy is to poll on a question from an • Join time and leave time
industry survey, and then show audience • Duration on the webinar
We have already discussed that the best way to results alongside survey results. • Questions the attendee asked
create an opportunity for collecting audience data • Questions the attendee answered
• Attentiveness level
is to attract the right audience and keep them • QA: Questions provide information • Interest rating
engaged. Once attendees have joined the webi- about how engaged an audience is at a • Poll and survey responses
nar, using platform interactivity features enables particular moment. However, they also • Comments and chat discussions
you to measure many aspects of audience and work to increase audience interest, and • Completed end-of-event survey
individual interest. they provide information about what
How to Get Better Leads from Webinars with Less Effort
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6. interests specific individuals. Presenters
should pose questions regularly. Encourage
attendees to ask questions so speakers can
respond verbally in real-time. A moderator
can answer housekeeping questions directly
while passing on content-related questions
to the speaker to address for all attendees.
Leading webinar platforms have features that give
the moderator dashboard-style feedback on audi-
ence attentiveness and interest. Attentiveness
ratings show the percentage of attendees who are
actively clicked on the webinar window, rather than
on other windows open on their computers, implying
that they are following the presentation rather than
being diverted by web surfing or reading emails.
Interest ratings measure each attendee’s behavior
and level of engagement through their clicks, at-
tentiveness, questions asked, questions answered,
and chat messages. This feedback helps present-
ers modulate their presentation, but it also provides
valuable insights into how individual attendees
respond to different parts of the presentation.
What Really Matters When It Comes to Video Conferencing? 6

7. Leveraging Webinar Analytics in a Lead Nurturing Strategy
Analytical reporting from a webinar provides a attendee. If a webinar audience numbers in the
great deal more than feedback on the effectiveness thousands, that can produce enormous amounts
of a presentation. Webinar analytics show how the of attendee-level analytical information.
market reacts to presentation content. They also Fortunately, some webinar platforms offer
provide valuable attendee-specific information that elegant analytics reports for collecting lead-
can increase the effectiveness of any lead nurtur- level webinar analytics.
ing activity.
Simplifying Audience Data
Consider these examples that show how individual Capture
information can personalize follow-up contacts:
The best way to capture lead-level analytics
• he no-show. Tom Sawyer registers but fails
T is to transfer captured information directly to
to show. Subsequent follow-up: “We missed individual attendee records in sales automa-
you at our recent webinar. You might be tion and lead management solutions such
interested to know that the audience found
as Marketo, Eloqua, Hubspot, Pardot, and
one topic particularly valuable. Did you know
Salesforce. True business-grade webinar
that……………. We recorded this presenta-
tion – would you like me to send you a link?” solutions, such as Citrix’s GoToWebinar, of-
fer Application Program Interfaces (APIs) to
• he highly engaged attendee. Jane Smith
T simplify the transfer of attendee information
registers and stays engaged throughout, and analytics from webinar reports into lead
including asking a question. Subsequent fol-
and sales management solutions. APIs are
low-up: “Thank you for your participation and
applets that any non-technical person can
your great question. I have some additional
information on that topic that might interest set up. When set up, they automatically feed
you, as it is specific to your business. Can information from the webinar software to the
we schedule a call to discuss this week?” marketing automation solution. The inter-
faced systems create new contact records
Of course, in order to take full advantage of the for attendees who are new prospects, and
information that a business-grade webinar platform the update existing prospects’ profiles with
is able to capture, the platform must have report- valuable metrics like attentiveness and inter-
ing capabilities that provide data in understandable est ratings. The availability of off-the-shelf APIs can
and actionable formats. This is especially true for be a huge time-saver in automating the capture of
the detailed information that is captured on every webinar analytics.
How to Get Better Leads from Webinars with Less Effort
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8. The Key to High Value Webinars: Capturing Actionable Webinar Analytics
A webinar is an ideal medium for attracting a tar-
geted audience and presenting that audience with
a message. However, the technical platform used Essential Capabilities
to host webinars also provides a way to acquire
valuable information about individuals in the audi- Full registration support, including customizable registration forms, self-service
ence. Selecting and promoting the right topic and registration, calendar integration, and automated reminder messages.
delivering an engaging presentation are essential
prerequisites to gathering audience information. Robust audience engagement features that include QA, chat, polls, audience
To capture that information in a form that is useful hand raising, real time engagement dashboards, and post-session surveys.
for further analysis and lead nurturing, the webinar
platform needs to support essential capabilities Robust session reporting based on global audience indicators such as total at-
listed here. tendees, attendance rate, average attendance duration, attentiveness, attend-
ee interest rating, poll response rates, QA activity, and tracking key metrics
Taking full advantage of a business-grade webinar throughout the presentation.
solution can turn a webinar into a powerful lead
qualifying and nurturing tool. For more information Detailed attendee reporting including registration information, show or no-
about webinars as well as other desktop and mo- show, join time and leave time with duration of attendance, QA activity, chat
bile collaboration tools, visit Citrix GoToWebinar. activity, attentiveness and interest ratings, poll and survey responses, and
tracking key individual metrics against the presentation timeline.
APIs (application program interfaces) that automate the exporting of individual
attendee webinar analytics to lead management software solutions like Sales-
force, Eloqua, and others. NOTE: Look for simple APIs that quickly and easily
provide a connection to your sales automation tools without the help of IT or
technical people.
An easy-to-use interface that is intuitive so both presenters and the audience
take full advantage of its engagement features.
How to Get Better Leads from Webinars with Less Effort
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9. About GoToWebinar
Webinars Made Easy™
Citrix GoToWebinar is the easiest-to-use do-it-yourself event tool that projects your
message to up to 1,000 online attendees. With GoToWebinar, you can reduce travel
costs, generate more qualified leads at a lower cost and enhance communication with
customers, prospects and employees. Host unlimited webinars for one low flat fee and
give attendees the option to join from a Mac, PC or mobile device. GoToWebinar
Premier Event is also available to provide custom-built solutions for thousands of
attendees and available with video streaming.
Learn more at www.GoToWebinar.com.
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motivates, inspires, and captivates audiences. We believe people make better technology
decisions when they understand the operational advantages and human benefits of technical
solutions. Our clients are leading technology companies that include IBM, Microsoft, Apple,
Oracle, SAP, and many others. To learn more about content that changes minds, go to our
website at www.StudioB.com.
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