B2B Marketing Webinars: How to Create a Lead Gen Webinar

This post was originally published on MarketingProfs. 

Lead generation is always top of mind for B2B marketers. Generating leads for sales to qualify, follow up with and eventually sell to drives a business’s success and revenue. While there are a lot of lead generation tactics, it is important to consider current industry trends and the ideal target audience for the product or service. As we have seen recently, our world is changing right in front of us with the transition to all things digital, making “digital marketing” become “marketing,” Due to this, certain marketing activities have become more widely used. One of those is webinars. 54% of B2B marketers engage with a webinar weekly and nearly 87% of marketers find it an effective strategy to include webinars in a marketing plan. A lot goes into successfully executing a lead gen webinar, but marketing webinars can be used as a core driver of lead generation. And who doesn’t love an increase in inbound leads? We cover how lead-gen-focused webinars and webinar marketing can boost B2B lead generation and sales.

Building Blocks of a Webinar

Know the Audience

The audience is one of the most important parts of a webinar because that is who the webinar serves. Before planning the webinar, think about your audience. The audience will drive every other aspect of a webinar, the topic, the type and the pre and post-marketing efforts. To know the target audience for the webinar is to know your ideal buyers.

Take a closer look at the characteristics of your buyer personas. Are there certain pain points that seem to be unsolved? Is there a certain industry most buyers are in? Whatever decision is made as to who to target, each group has characteristics that make them unique and guide in the creation of the webinar.

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Choose the Type of Webinar

After defining the audience, it is crucial to choose the type of marketing webinar. There are a few different types to consider:

• Informational: This is the most common type of webinar, one that shares information and educates an audience. Speaking to the audience’s pain points, talking about general best practices or even discussing new trends can all be achieved in an informative webinar. This webinar is a perfect example.
• Use Case: This type of webinar tends to be directed at a different audience than an informational webinar. Use cases are a perfect piece of content for someone that is a bit further on in the buyer’s journey and considering a product or solution to purchase. Presenting a use case gives those that are juggling their options more insight into how your offering works and how a real client has seen success. This type of webinar can be of great interest to audiences and generate many leads.
• Demo: A demo webinar is for audiences that are primed for a purchase decision. Walking through a product and its features or discussing services in-depth gives the audience an exact understanding of the value they will gain.

Create the Content

Now that the audience is defined and the type of webinar has been selected, it is time for the fun part – choosing the topic and creating the content. The webinar type will drive the topic.

If you are presenting a use case or a demo, there is no need to worry about a topic. But, if the webinar type is informational, this is where a topic comes into play. Have no fear, choosing a topic is less complicated than one might think. Consider the pain points of your buyer personas. It could be a good idea to select one pain point you see most often and discuss how a certain strategy or strategies can help solve it. You could also consider sharing current industry trends that tie into your company offering. Fundamentally, be sure to choose your topic wisely. If the topic is not enticing, it’s likely that your attendees may not convert.

Creating content comes next. Content should be short and to the point. It might be a slide deck with visuals and engaging elements, it could be a live recording of the speaker walking through the deck as well. There are several ways to present the webinar, but keep in mind that engaging the audience should be top of mind. Understand what audiences are looking for and create content that will speak to that. Doing so will continue to generate leads time and time again.

Webinar Marketing: Before and After

Now that the webinar is planned out and ready to begin creating, your marketing efforts should be enacted. Here we discuss pre-and post-event marketing tactics that all marketers should know for effective B2B lead generation.

Pre-Webinar Marketing

There are many ways to market your lead gen webinar before it takes place, but email marketing and social media tend to be the best when looking to generate leads and registrations.

• Social Media: B2B prospects are present on several social media platforms and these platforms are an excellent resource to utilize to market your upcoming webinar. Consider the audience of your webinar and consider what audiences frequent each channel. If the webinar is made for the decision-maker audiences of your buyer personas, then posting on LinkedIn might be the best option as many key decision-makers use LinkedIn. Using paid social media ads is an option if the budget and time allow for it.
• Email Marketing: Using emails can be one of the best marketing efforts for promoting a webinar. Whether it be emailing your current database list or purchasing a targeted list to send emails to, emails are one of the most popular B2B channels. Create email copy that includes a call-to-action (CTA) to register for the webinar, and stick to a single CTA to keep your audience focused on the best course of action

Post-Webinar Follow-Up

Post-webinar follow-up should be taken very seriously. With webinars, many things can happen. Some sign up with no intention of attending in the first place, some have a conflict and cannot attend, or others simply just wait for the additional resources. Regardless of who they are, making the webinar available on-demand after is non-negotiable. This helps reach even more individuals that could be your next sale. Using email marketing and including the CTA to view or download the on-demand webinar is ideal. Offering downloadable content, extra resources and even personalized demos are also perfect touches to consider. These are proven lead generation tactics.

Aside from follow-up, this is also a perfect opportunity for internal marketing to get ahead. Using the information from the webinar, marketing can easily turn it into a blog, infographic, eBook or white paper. The information provides additional content opportunities that can then be used for other lead generation efforts.

Ready to elevate your B2B lead generation efforts through the power of webinars or other marketing efforts? Contact us today or request a free marketing consultation.