Mike Agron at WebAttract sent me an email introducing his new eBook describing WebAttract’s approach to producing, delivering, and benefitting from lead generation webinars. They refer to their philosophy as WebinarReady™ methodology (trademark included, thank you very much).
Mike got sponsorship from Citrix GoToWebinar® (registered trademark, thank you very much), and there are references to Citrix’s technology platform sprinkled throughout the book. But Mike’s best practices are not dependent on the technology – they apply to any marketing webinar on any platform.
Mike wrote that he wanted to create something substantive that went beyond the usual 20-page fluff piece that gets skimmed once and deleted. He hired a graphic artist to lay out the pages like a book, with chapters, graphics, checklists, and reference tables. He accomplished his goal nicely. There is plenty of real value packed into the document, and it does bear repeated study and reference.
I agree with Mike’s methodology and recommendations, so there isn’t much for me to say about his tips other than, “Well, yeah!” The emphasis is very clearly on B-to-B lead generation, probably more for corporate webinar hosts than Mom ‘n Pop small businesses.
Mike demands a lot of dedicated preparation and rehearsal time. Of course he is right… An attendee can easily tell the difference between a hastily assembled, under-rehearsed webinar and one where the messaging, content, and delivery has been refined and optimized for clear messaging and relevance. But I have found that there is a huge gap between knowing this and applying it in actual practice. Doing things better than the ordinary takes extra work and time. And spending extra work and time are not popular options in most companies.
Can I find things to gripe about? Yes, but they are trivial and petty. As you may have picked up from my opening paragraphs, the use of trademark symbols throughout the text are overwhelming, distracting, and inconsistent. I think that’s a Citrix decision rather than a WebAttract decision, but it’s a pet peeve of mine and I relish the opportunity to get snarky about it.
I also found that the landscape layout of the document reminded me too much of text-heavy PowerPoint slides rather than the portrait orientation of book pages, which I find easier to deal with. I think the book would be easier to read in hardcopy form than on screen. There are enough reference-worthy checklists to make printing it out worthwhile anyway.
So much for my negative nattering. The book is available for free download, so I can’t think of any possible reason why you wouldn’t want to get a copy for yourself. Probably the easiest link is http://j.mp/wready but if you don’t trust shortened links, you can visit the WebAttract home page and click the banner at the upper right.
