Laura Heinrich on Webinars for B2B’s

I’m not sure if it’s premium content or not (i.e., whether you need to be a paid member to get at it), but Laura Henirich has an excellent article  over on Marketing Profs on incorporating webinars into your B2B planning.

Laura lays out a number of different areas - product launch, release of an analyst report, regulatory changes, channel/partnership programs - that provide good opportunities for a webinar. Throughout her piece, the emphasis is on webinars as part of the mix - and tied to the sales cycle, not just thrown out there when you’re in lead generation crisis mode. In fact, while Laura is not that explicit about it, in my opinionated opinion, webinars that are designed purely as lead geno vehicles often find those vehicles crashing and burning. You may get some people to sign up, but if you’re not careful with the content - i.e., if it’s really just a thinly veiled sales pitch - attendees will be dropping off before you can say “on this slide.” (Which, of course, you should not be saying to begin with….)

Not to say that webinars can’t be used for lead generation: you may be able to draw in lots of people if the content is vital and interesting - technical trends, industry issues, those regulatory changes Laura cites.

I have a client that has run a series of successful webinars for small businesses. They feature a small business customer who’s used our product to successfully shift their business model from low margin Point A to high margin Point B. Our product isn’t the whole story - it’s just part of it - and our prospects just eat up hearing from similar companies who have turned their businesses around. The key here, of course, is having “real people” do the talking - and it’s not always easy finding folks willing to share their stories who also have the right personality to come across effectively in a webinar. But let me tell you, these webinars work!

Here’s something particularly good that Laura has to say about webinars:

The reality is that B2B sales happen over a period of several months as trust builds between the prospect and the seller. Webinars may be used not just to bring new leads in the door but also to move existing leads through the pipeline to a final contract.

Bingo!

Think about how useful it might be for your sales people to be able to contact a prospect to let them know that there’s an upcoming webinar on an issue that will (or should) be of interest to them. Here’s an opportunity for your company to look smart and helpful, not just pushy and shovey (as in, “I really need you to sign the contract by Monday so I can make my quota for the quarter”). Here’s an opportunity to gauge whether a prospect still has any interest left in them - or whether this one ain’t just dormant, it’s dead. Here’s an opportunity to let that prospect know that the new release of the product overcomes the reservations they had about functionality.  And all of this can be done in a relatively low-key fashion that doesn’t put the prospect on the “buy now” spot.

Post webinar, you’ve also given your sales folks a reason to contact both those who attended, with a “Thanks/what did you think/do you have any questions” call or e-mail; and those who didn’t attend: “Here’s what you missed: bullet-bullet-bullet - and here’s the link.”

Having the webinar content on your website is also very useful, especially if people have to sign up to get at the goodies.

As Laura points out, B2B sales typically occur after an extended process that has multiple touch points in it. Webinars make a very useful touch point. Just don’t rely on them to do all the marketing work for you - because they won’t. But as part of the mix, they can be quite useful.

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I wrote about another client’s webinar approach here.

And a shout out to Laura Heinrich: you were leaving Genuity just as I joined the company (which was then GTEI), and I believe you were part of my interview process. Nice to see your article over on The Profs.

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