“Webinars are boring!” I’ve heard those exact words from both marketing leaders and webinar attendees. And for the most part it’s true. If you are still doing webinars in which the third-party pundit speaks first, then your company spokesperson gives a product pitch, your audience is probably mumbling those same words.
It’s time to break out of the traditional webinar mode and create webinars that are creative, engaging, inspirational, and informative.
Creativity is simple. It just means breaking the old webinar mold and being willing to try something new. Consider one of ten creative webinar ideas that help you break out of your old habits: live briefings, newsroom, trendsetting, overcoming challenges, conversational, return-on-investment discussion, storytelling, demo with commentary, white-boarding, or panel discussion.
Talking at people is not engagement. Think of your webinar as part of your ongoing dialogue with both customers and prospects, a conversation that starts long before the webinar and continues after the webinar is complete. What questions or input would you like to get from attendees before the webinar? What do you want to hear from them during the webinar? What do you want to offer them after? The best engagement doesn’t give everything away during the webinar; it keeps the audience wanting more.
Oxford defines “inspiration” as “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative, or a sudden brilliant, creative, or timely idea.”[1] To inspire your audience, consider two options: One, choose a presenter that has some passion, someone who is truly excited about the topics being presented; two, spend time helping your audience understand what they can do with your offering, not just what your offering can do for them.
The challenger sales methodology is famous for its discovery of the idea of a “commercial teaching,” a compelling, factual, data-driven concept that changes the way potential buyers think about solutions to common challenges. It either provides a new avenue to a solution or it intensifies current frustrations to the point of urgency. A truly informative webinar will provide this kind of information for the participants.
The bottom line is simple. Webinars are boring…unless you make them creative, engaging, inspirational, and informative. For your next webinar, think outside the box, create a dialogue with your attendees, wake up their creative minds, and surprise them with solid commercial teaching.
[1] https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/inspiration