As the COVID-19 crisis wears on, entire industries are working through the problem of prospecting and lead generation at a time when no one’s meeting face to face. When virtually all live marketing events were cancelled or postponed, many organizations took their messaging online, replacing meetings with webinars. It’s just logical, and for many marketers (especially B2B) it’s the only realistic option for top-of-the-funnel message delivery.
Webinars can be very effective in normal times. Done right, they can be engaging and informative. And, looking back, we know people will show up for webinars, at least in part because it provides an excuse to hole up in one’s cubicle for an hour, waving off interruptions and letting calls go to voice mail. It can be a welcome respite from incessant meetings. Realistically, though, even under normal conditions, a lot of your webinar attendees are only half-present. The temptation to multitask can be irresistible.
The attention deficit problem gets even worse when everything your prospective customer is doing is online. A webinar is no longer a respite from routine. It’s another reason to be in front of a screen.
You can still get leverage by capturing the event as a recording and getting prospects to share the link or rewatch it later. Many organizations view webinars as components of a larger library of gated marketing content. But you may be missing an important opportunity if all that you get from your event is the recorded video.
This eBook was built from the recording of an earlier webinar. It’s an example of Content Extension — repurposing content you already have for a new audience.
This marketer got considerable leverage by converting the webinar content — presentation materials, presenter’s pitch and comments from the audience — into this new document. The conversion process was quick and the cost was much less than it would have been to produce an original eBook from scratch.
Recorded webinars can be underutilized orphans in the libraries of marketers whose sales teams are crying for fresh content. But every webinar is a unique content creation opportunity.
A white paper or eBook could give you leverage to reach prospects who won’t make time to attend your webinar (or who zoned out during your webinar and didn’t fully absorb your messaging).
Care to talk about it?
