When costs are cut, executives look for ways to streamline marketing costs. If you’re reading this blog, we probably don’t need to state the case to you that webinars, or web seminars, are less expensive than events. The latter includes hotel rental, food and beverage, AV, etc. etc. And certainly, webinars are far less costly than a multi-city road show.
These cost cutting benefits are all good. But webinars are not the panacea. We’ve noticed some interesting trends as of late in the world of webinar marketing and execution. For one thing, there are a lot more of them for the reasons highlighted above. Like the deluge of sales and marketing related emails we all get, most of us in the tech marketing world are inundated with invitations, ads and other overtures to log onto webinars.
We’re going to take some time to explore this ever-growing marketing tactic in upcoming columns. But the first and most critical problem of webinar marketing is the issue of branding.
I’ll spare you my personal brand definition. Agencies often carefully wordsmith their own unique definition so as to brand themselves distinctly as branding experts. According to Wikipedia: “A brand is a collection of symbols, experiences and associations connected with a product, a service, a person or any other artifact or entity. Brands have become increasingly important components of culture and the economy, now being described as “cultural accessories and personal philosophies.”
If you have a webinar strategy, ask yourself, how well are your webinars branding your company? I can’t tell you how many webinars I schedule myself to attend, but have no connection to the hosting organization. Too often, moments after I log off, I won’t even remember the name of the benevolent organization that held the seminar. They haven’t made an impression with who they are, what they do and why the attendee would care. The onus to address those questions is upon them, not the attendee.
Webinar marketing must be treated with the same fundamentals of brand building that you would for an ad campaign, direct marketing initiative, etc. If the corporate or product brand is not tightly integrated with the content of the webinar, then it is a miss.
More on the dos and don’ts of webinar marketing in upcoming blog entries. Check back. You’ll be glad you did.