CHANNEL INSIDER
Glyn Yates is Principle Consultant, GTM International. In this monthly column for
Intelligent Tech Channels, he shares his expertise and views on the channel and partner community.
DISCLAIMER: I have walked many roads and worn many hats and, although my experience and expertise can be valuable, my outlook on the world at large is my own and does not necessarily represent that of ITC.
The webinar is dead,
long live the webinar
During lockdown the ‘event’ calendar
has been wiped clean and this has
created a massive hole in marketing
plans. There are some glimmers of hope and
a few regions are optimistic of hosting local
and international events later in the year
but the confidence from the ever-important
attendees is at an all-time low, coupled with
uncertainty about travel restrictions and
company policy.
There are many companies and vendors
which have restrictions in place until a
minimum of the end of the year and others
are monitoring month by month. We see
the new spikes/waves hitting our friends
across the globe for what seems like Round
2 of a heavyweight clash and while we are
all wishing to go back to ‘normal’, we can all
agree the ‘new’ and ‘next’ normals will guide
our new and next strategies. Many of our
friends in the event space have experienced
an annus horribilis.
Interestingly, this has provided an unusual
upside. Events are expensive – from a halfday
cookie cutter seminar costing US$5,000–
US$10,000 to full-blown events such as RSA
and GITEX costing US$10,000–US$100,000+
to exhibit, sponsor or even attend. That
means a lot of marketing funds to reallocate
and a lot of marketing resources now focused
on other channels. Attention shifted to
the webinar and has largely stayed on the
webinar – and for good reasons.
Before COVID times, the webinar was
seen as one of the most effective sales
engagement tools – it could reach a wide
audience, had engaging content, was easily
consumed, could be recorded/published
and offered on demand, was relatively
inexpensive to produce and generated
relatively strong leads in the form of MQL
and SQL, with lead nurturing and direct
follow up by sales teams easily accomplished
on the back of the session.
Then the world changed and if we look
back into the early COVID days, not only
did the market dynamic change and the
go-to-market shift, but marketing needed to
rebalance and align to what was possible . . .
the webinar became king.
Faster than you could say face mask,
every marketing engine roared into full
throttle pumping out webinar after webinar,
replicated by all vendors in all sectors.
Mr Customer was in for a shock – and an
absolute bombardment.
Very soon we had cookie cutter webinars
dominating our calendars – 100 webinar
requests from 100 vendors wanting you to
see how they secure endpoints . . . who to
choose to watch and why? Too much of a
The best marketeers understand
they must love their customer,
trust their product and
differentiate the engagement.
Glyn Yates, Principle Consultant, GTM International
good thing and the webinar has become a
victim of its own success.
So, what’s the answer? Ditch webinars?
Of course not – they can be very effective
– but here is where marketing teams have
such a vital role to play. The content will
take care of itself, but the key element is
in differentiating the actual engagement.
The standard ‘speaker/slides/Q&A’ format
no longer commands as much attention or
initial interest.
So, what can be done? Well, a few ideas
that you may want to consider.
Think about creating intrigue in the buildup,
draw the customer towards the session.
Ask for the customers input to the session, a
simple survey on what they want to see, not
what we want to show them.
Allow questions at the beginning of a
webinar – have flexibility to bring that into
the session. Create mid webinar engagement
– peer breakouts or audience participation.
Build a reputation for having surprise
guest presenters (of value or humour) –
your post webinar actions and recordings
will have such a higher impact if you also
introduce that an expert/celebrity joined the
conversation, even if it was a two-minute
video segment.
Host small round tables and discussion
panels, whether customers or experts . . .
leave the slides at home. And there are plenty
of other ways to differentiate.
Today, I see many companies which love
their product and trust their customer to
differentiate. The best marketeers understand
they must love their customer, trust their
product and differentiate the engagement.
The webinar can be king again. •
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