I'm giving a webinar tomorrow, June 21. I'll be covering ways to improve ongoing ROI from your webinars after the live event is over. I hope you'll come. It's free and it's quick… Just 30 minutes of jam-packed tips followed by 15 minutes for live Q&A.
Do you see what I did there? I promoted a single webinar, very specifically. I didn't even bother with the full, official title. I highlighted the main topic as a value proposition for yourself, and overcame two objections before you could formalize them (I can't afford it / I don't have the time).
What is harder for you to see is what I didn't do. I didn't direct you to a page of upcoming webinars. These pages exist… I have one on my company website and BrightTALK has several versions on their company website (by date across all topics, and segmented according to business interests).
Many marketers and business executives make the mistake of thinking that their promotional efforts will be more effective if they use a generic message to drive prospects to a selection list that offers many different options. That way, there must be at least one webinar that will engage them - right? The single promotional piece (ad, email, newsletter mention…) serves multiple audiences and creates a "larger funnel opening" in that classic marketing concept of capturing as many views as possible at the beginning of the process, because there is a fixed percentage loss as the funnel gets narrower.
I say thee nay. Directing people to a selection list is usually less effective than directing them to a specific event. You fall prey to three potential problems:
1) The promotional value proposition is weak. "We have a lot of good content… You should look it over and find something that appeals to you." There is no mention of a specific value to taking the action, nor is there any guarantee that they will find something of value. All you have done is ask them to spend additional time and mental effort on a task that may or may not pay off. That's an easy request to ignore.
2) The promotion does not match the click-through destination. This happens when your promotional copy is specific to a single webinar, but you drive people to an "upcoming events" page instead of to the page specific to the promoted event. At worst it feels like a bait-and-switch. You promised them specific value from a single event, but drove them to a page asking them to look over many other offerings as well. They were willing to register for the one thing they thought they would get value from, but they aren't interested in looking over everything you are creating.
3) The prospect abandons the selection process. The shorthand for this problem is "options paralysis." If you interest someone in a particular topic and drive them directly to that webinar's registration page, they only have two choices: Complete the registration or abandon it. Since they were interested enough to click through in the first place, abandonment should be a relatively rare choice. But if you present prospects with a list of webinars to choose from, their options expand exponentially with the number of choices. "I can choose webinar A or webinar B or webinar C or webinars A and B or webinars A and C or webinars B and C or webinars A, B, and C." They are unsure which single event or combination is most likely to provide maximum value for their limited availability of time and interest. The safest option is to choose none. That way they know they haven't wasted time in the selection process and in trying out multiple webinars that clog up their calendar.
In tomorrow's webinar I'll be linking this same concept to my topic of improving ROI after the live webinar. Just as you should promote a single upcoming webinar and drive people to its individual landing page, you should promote a single recording and drive people directly to its playback page. Everything I mentioned for upcoming webinars holds true for recorded content. Don't force people to make a second choice after their click-through action. Give them the specific content you promised.
By the way, if you are reading this post AFTER my live webinar (Tuesday, June 21 at 10am California / 1pm New York) you can view the recording using the same specific link you use to sign up for the live webinar: https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/1166/210519
That's a nice feature of BrightTALK… The original link serves double-duty both before and after the live webinar. And it always takes you directly to the event of interest.
