Intellor-gence
Tips, tools & trends for webinars, webcasts & simulcasts More »
When to Host a Webinar
Now that you’ve heard the bad news about webinar timing, we’ve got good news. But first, a few disclaimers. This dive won’t be our deepest, and it won’t account for the differences between webinar categories – i.e. marketing webinars, training webinars, etc.; this first look is simply aggregate data. And we’re not addressing content here, but content is still king. Now for the good stuff.
The Webinar Bests
True, the majority of webinar hosts played it safe, but those who ventured gained attendees. Again, we’re not saying it’s the metric, but it’s certainly one quantifiable metric.
Best month: December
Best day: Friday
Best time**: 5:00 p.m.
So is it time to start scheduling all of your webinars on Fridays at 5? No! (Sneak peek: Especially not if you’re a trainer!) But should some webinar timing taboos die? Definitely! We’ve got more data and a lot of theories about it for you, so stay tuned for more Intellor-gence.
Tried a ‘nontraditional’ webinar time? Let us know how it worked for your audience.
*Based on average number of attendees
**Based on ‘traditional’ business hours (9-5) and stated in US Eastern Time
When Not to Host a Webinar
You’ve got great content, a brilliant presenter, and the right target audience. Now the question is: when should you host your webinar? If your audience is US-based, conventional wisdom suggests a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday afternoon. We decided to challenge conventional wisdom and the results are in: conventional wisdom is not necessarily wise.
Intellor Group compiled a data sample representing more than a thousand webinars (including corporate communications, lead generation, training, etc.) conducted on our platform in 2011.
Webinar Hosts See Safety in Numbers
The majority of webinar hosts stuck with conventional wisdom – mid-day, mid-week, avoiding vacations and holidays.
• 27% of webinars were conducted on a Tuesday
• 1:00 p.m. took the top timeslot
• 13% of webinars were conducted in October
The Webinar Worsts*
If we look at attendance as a measure of success (plenty of room to debate whether that’s the metric, but it’s certainly a metric, and an important one at that) conventional wisdom is sometimes wrong.
• Worst month: August
• Worst day: Tuesday
• Worst time**: 12:00
So the good news is, you should definitely still take that beach vacation in August. The bad news is, it might be time to rethink Tuesdays. Ready for the best? Stay tuned for more Intellor-gence.
*Based on average number of attendees
**Based on ‘traditional’ business hours (9-5) and stated in US Eastern Time
Video: Why Not?
It’s old news that YouTube is the second largest search engine. According to Hubspot, the number of online video viewers will reach 169.3 million in 2012. Trainers cite increased retention and interaction among the benefits of video. Marketers can find statistics to support the positive impact of video on everything from lead generation to SEO to conversion.
So the question is: why aren’t more people using video? The answer’s not that simple, and there’s not just one.
- Hate the webcam. The office is noisy. Nobody looks good under fluorescents. Bad hair day.
- We could use someone’s iPhone, but that will make us look bush league.
- We don’t have the time.
- We don’t have the technology.
- We don’t have the budget.
All these seemingly valid concerns have your competitors dancing a jig on their way to the top of the SERPs, your trainees asking for a double shot before your next class, and your employees yawning through yet another PowerPoint deck.
A webcam has its place. While that place is not your high-profile product launch announcement, what about your internal product training? Why should your team have to stare at a Q&A slide for 20 minutes? Spend a little time setting up your webcam and meeting space and you can make your online training much more, dare we say human? Seek out natural lighting, a clean backdrop and, most importantly, play around with the positioning of your webcam; the right angle means the difference between gray-faced office drone and the dynamic leader your team loves. Same principle applies to the iPhone – great device for collaborative meetings when you’re on the move, but probably not the go-to for you CEO’s Town Hall meeting.
So now let’s talk time, technology and budget. Yes, it takes time to produce professional-looking video. Yes, it takes technology. Yes, that requires some investment. And not every company has the in-house resources to get it done. But if you’re putting the effort into a key webinar (marketing, communications, training or otherwise) shouldn’t you pull out all the stops? There are professional producers (yes, Intellor Group is one) that can address the time and technology issues for a budget that might surprise you. So why not consider video for your next webinar?
Webinar Hosts, Speakers and Participants That Make Us Go Hmmmm
Barking dogs and crying babies? Goes without saying. Gate change and all aboard announcements? Been there, done that. The potato chip cruncher? The nose blower? Yes, we’ve all been on that webinar. (Think I still take the cake, though, for the sales meeting which a colleague took from the shower. But that’s another story.) From the sublime to the ridiculous, webinar hosts, presenters and participants are guilty of more than seven deadly sins, but we’re choosing a few doozies for your delight or despair.
Mute me, will you?
Some of the webinars we produce require participant audio lines to remain open. We advise participants to mute their lines when not speaking and that we’ll mute any lines causing audio interference. Most follow instructions. Some forget, and we mute lines. A few, however…. Well, let’s just talk about “Guest 36.” Guest 36 was either participating from a tarmac or having her hair blown out during the meeting, so our operator muted the line. Guest 36 unmuted it. Mute. Unmute. Mute. Unmute. Our operator sent a private note to Guest 36, indicating the line was being muted due to extreme background noise. Guest 36 wondered how she was supposed to know her line was too noisy. Participants, if you’re hearing background noise where you are, it’s you. If an operator mutes you, it’s you. And if you really don’t think it’s you, most webinar software will show you when your line is active. If you’re not talking but your line is, it’s you. Please, as a courtesy to your fellow participants, embrace the mute button.
Raise your hand if you can’t hear me
Speakers are human. Occasionally the power goes out and the connections drop. Coughing fits happen. Lines get flubbed. Sometimes the presenter forgets the medium for a minute. And that’s okay, for a minute. But the presenter who asks – verbally – that participants unable to hear the audio send a message? Okay, in a classroom, a ballroom, an auditorium, you get that “can’t hear you” buzz from the room. But with most webinars, there’s no live visual. So if they can’t hear you over the webinar audio, and they can’t see you either…?? Once, fair enough. Twice, ooookay. Third time? Speakers, remember that your audience is not in the room. Meet the needs of your audience in the medium – post a message to the whiteboard, send a chat, launch a poll.
Duct tape is not an acceptable audio solution
Some companies get an A+ when it comes to engaging remote employees, analysts, clients, investors, prospects, etc., and some get an F. Lots of factors go into those grades, but audio is definitely high on the list. There is nothing more frustrating than being “part” of a meeting in which you can’t hear the speaker, the sidebar conversations or much of anything. If you’re hosting an event and planning to include remote attendees, please, make a choice: do your remote attendees really matter? If so, do it right – a professional webinar production with quality audio. If you don’t have the facilities to produce quality audio, find them. There are professional studios you can use (yes, Intellor Group has a professional production and recording studio just outside Washington, DC) and there is hardware you can buy. (We don’t sell it, but we produce, so drop us a line if you’d like to pick our brains.) If those remote attendees aren’t critical and you don’t have the facilities to support them, please, don’t waste their time.
Glutton for punishment? Come back next month for the rest of the story.
Is It All About You? Your Webinar Really Should Be.
I get tons of webinar invites. The marketing field moves pretty fast and a webinar can be a great way to keep up, so I attend my fair share. As a marketer for a webinar producer, admittedly, I bring my own unique perspective and bias to these productions. But is it me or is it astounding that from promotions to landing pages, webinar platforms often promote the vendor as much as the host?
Now I’m not nitpicking things like vendor/platform names in URL strings, configuration/technical details in access instructions or privacy policies in footers. Those sorts of things are certainly fair and reasonable. But promotional emails that speak as much or more to the vendor as the event host/content? Only co-sponsors are welcome to promote their companies/products to my list in my invite, thank you very much. How about a landing page that features the vendor logo but doesn’t have a place for mine? What about requiring attendees to create an account with the technology vendor? Personally, that drives me nuts; I really do not need yet another account out there. But forget the nuisance factor for a moment. Every member of my list, every registrant for my webinar is my asset. Why should I turn my asset over to you? What will you do with it?
Different vendors have different answers to those questions. Some may market their company/product. Some may market other webinars – up to and including your competitors’ – using the rationale that your webinar marketing will also reach your competitors’ assets. Clearly, some marketers subscribe to that theory, but it doesn’t work for me. Each of my prospects is hard-earned and highly valued. There is a plan for the nurturing campaign that will move them through the funnel. I can’t imagine the interruption of your blanket campaign will add value to my prospects, so I’ll thank you not to market to them, webinar vendor.
You’re hosting a webinar for your prospects, your clients, your learners, your employees. Shouldn’t your webinar vendor make it all about you?
Set the DeLorean for “Before There Were Webinars”
Fast Company served up a tasty little treat for marketers last week – Howie Jacobson’s flashback to the pre-email software, pre-Google AdWords marketing era. (Does anyone remember what we actually DID back then?) In way-back mode, Jacobson ponders talking with customers and prospects over the phone and web, and even “shooting for the moon” and recording those events. Pretty incredible, when you consider his audience is a marketer in 1998.
MarketingProfs says: 70% confidence in webinar effectiveness
So of course the technical reality Jacobson defines is table stakes for today’s marketer. But pop quiz: how often do you pull this tool out of your kit? Not often enough, if the MarketingProfs/Content Marketing Institute’s 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report is any indicator. While we have a 70% confidence rating of webinar effectiveness, only 46% of us are using this tactic. Seems like we should move that needle…
Closing the webinar vs. in-person event gap
And while we’re moving needles, can we narrow the “not the same as being there” gap that Jacobson references? True, the webinar will always be short the lukewarm coffee, frigid ballrooms and rubber chicken dinners of its big brother, the in-person event. And, yes, sometimes the audio crackles or a slide lags a few seconds. Maybe some of us even miss that glass of warm white wine with hot prospects at the networking reception. But the reality is we’re all going virtual – at least some of the time – and there are plenty of ways we can give our customers a better webinar experience.
Service
The last time I turned up at a users’ conference, staff members stood ready and waiting to check participants in, provide conference materials, answer questions, moderate panels, manage Q&A, and generally create a positive experience. Not once did a presenter have to climb off the podium to handle any one of these activities. That’s a danger with webinars – the idea that, since it’s all virtual, the presenter should just handle it. The reality is that does a disservice to the presenter, the audience, the participants who have questions and, in the end, the content. Food for thought: during one webinar we produced last week, there were 14 chat questions within the first 5 minutes. Option a) the presenter ignores those, frustrating part of his audience. Option b) the presenter pauses to reply, frustrating a majority of his audience. There’s a reason in-person events staff for audience support; a producer can make your webinar run equally smoothly.
Networking
Even when the white is warm, networking is hot. It’s one of the reasons some of us still go wheels up to trainings in Houston, sales meetings in Chicago and user conferences in Miami. Absent the wine and stick-on nametags, how can you give your customers the benefit of a little peer brain-picking? A little planning here goes a long way. In this brave new social media world you can certainly embrace social tools for a little pre-event connecting. If your event size is appropriate, you can encourage some good old-fashioned ice-breaking. If you want to foster in-session discussion, pre-screen your registration list for a few credible, collegial faces you can call on to start quality conversations. Leave time at the close of your event for some friendly chit chat, or consider offering a breakout room or two for those who might want to continue a debate. The possibilities are endless, with just a bit of preparation.
The long and short of it? There are things folks will always miss about in-person events. But time and budgets mean your customers are likely attending more webinars than in-person events. With a little effort, can we shift the customer perception from “not the same as being there” to “you really should’ve been there”?
A Plea to Webinar Presenters
It’s not just Boy Scouts who should be prepared. Please, please, please, if you are hosting a web meeting, be prepared. (Disclaimer: If you’re just brainstorming/reviewing materials/redlining a document with a couple of colleagues, carry on. This plea goes out to the trainer with 50 learners, the marketer with 250 quality prospects, and the corporate communicator addressing 500 employees.)
Know your technology: Ever used the platform? Been trained on it? Don’t make your meeting attendees guinea pigs. If you have to ask if they can see the slides, you’re not exactly starting at the pinnacle of credibility. If your video doesn’t launch, your interactive survey isn’t interactive or your web tour isn’t touring, your audience is focused on their frustrations instead of your message.
Be ready to manage it: Someone’s dog will bark in their home office. Someone’s flight delay will be announced. Someone will make it a lunch meeting. Know how to mute problem children, manage the chat, turn off the whiteboard if you’ve got a wannabe Picasso in the audience, moderate Q&A, etc.
If that sounds like a lot of administration in addition to delivering the content, you’re right. Whether an audience is sizeable or needy, managing can be very time consuming. Think of it this way, when you’re on the ballroom dais, you’re not expected to run through the audience with a mic taking Q&A, are you? Is it so different when you’re presenting virtually? Shameless plug: Hiring a producer can be a sensible investment in your webinar’s success.
Worth the Stretch?
Reach more people due to easy access and reduced expense. Reach people longer with post-event recordings. Yeah, we mentioned that in the last post. Everybody mentions that as a webinar benefit. But is it really worthwhile to stretch your content with a webinar? You betcha!
Over the coming weeks we will be sharing real-world ideas and impacts gleaned from the thousands of events we’ve produced. As a sneak preview, though, here’s a thought: 13%. We recently produced a demand generation webinar with an on-demand archive. Of course the webinar generated leads, but the archive increased the number of leads by 13%. So any double-digit increase in leads is interesting, of course, but let’s think about this specific case for a minute. The content was already done. The target audience was already defined. The only thing to be done was to pop it on to a hosting page and let people know about it. (Disclaimer: in this case, we did both on the client’s behalf.) Not really breaking a sweat and generating 13% more leads? Definitely worth the stretch.
Speakers, Schedules, Spend and Stretching
Times are tricky for event organizers. The economy is what it is. Budgets aren’t what they once were. High-profile speakers are tough to come by. Splashy launches and spendy sales meetings are about as rare as a Redskins touchdown these days. T&E just isn’t as much fun as it used to be. But the training must go on, the products must launch, the customers must be reached. Even the travel companies have embraced “virtual” as a piece of the portfolio. So when and why reach for “virtual”?
Speakers & Schedules: Having the budget for a speaker is one thing. Coordinating speaker and executive schedules is another. Offer them a two-hour commitment (60m dry run and 60m event) vs. a day-long trip to Dallas?
Spend: Facilities. Food. Travel. Check out AT&T’s ROI calculator for an eye opener.
Stretching: Now that you’ve wrangled your speakers and schedules and trimmed your budget, you can stretch. Reach more people due to easy access and reduced expense. Reach people longer with post-event recordings.
Used a webinar to stretch in an interesting way? Share a comment below.
Training Webcasts Are Exciting!
Stop laughing. Don’t roll your eyes at me. (Put “young lady” at the end of that sentence and I’m having teenage flashbacks….) Suspend your disbelief for a moment and let’s consider.
There was a nice blog post on TrainingIndustry.com a few weeks ago about Injecting Excitement into Web-Based and Blended Training. Much of it is geared toward self-paced training, but there are some worthy takeaways for online, instructor-led training.
Friendly Style: While the author speaks to written content, trainers take note: your audience hears your smile. We produce a LOT of instructor-led training sessions here at Intellor Group, meaning we listen to a LOT of instructor-led training. A friendly voice and an approachable style can go a long way to keeping your audience engaged.
Different Types of Practice: Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! If you’re wondering whether your learners are engaged, ask them! You can ask for Y/N affirmations of understanding (BORING!) or you can get creative. Polls, surveys, whiteboards – your webcasting platform has all sorts of tools you can use. Or you could get really crazy and actually get your learners talking – about real-world challenges and successes that relate to the topic at hand.
A Touch of Media: People get sick of PowerPoint. Sometimes before you flip the title slide. Multimedia content can give your learners a brain break and help keep them engaged throughout your session. We see a lot of video, of course, but a client who recently used gaming as an element really wowed us.
Got a trick for making training webcasts exciting? Share it below.