I’m a marketer. I’m used to fire drills in the midst of planning. It’s a new year and not-surprisingly, many critical pieces of the marketing puzzle have changed. Rapidly. For most marketing campaigns, preparation is key. Yet, how do you plan for something if you’re unaware that process may have to be altered? Sometimes you must adjust in order to gain the greatest return on your investment.

Let’s talk specifics – specifically events: virtual, live, or even a hybrid of the two. Marketing departments are beginning to make significant changes in how they use events to market their products or services. With options in technology, budget and social innovations, there are numerous ways to produce (and market) events and conferences.  As marketers, we know how crucial the planning piece is, so if our strategy is outdated, our initiatives fall short and goals are not met. It is critical to be aware of the tactics that will be most effective in generating leads while being cost efficient. What is the best way to capture your target audience? Craft the right message and find the right venue to do so.

Recent industry research shows virtual events are cost-savers in a number of ways (time, reduced travel, logistics, etc.); however, they are starting to be used in conjunction with live events and tradeshows, rather than a replacement. Consider these benefits:

• Ability to attract larger audiences: virtual events can cover more people in more time zones
• Expansive content AND niche content:  Audiences at an event can be targeted and/or broad. The virtual piece enables the them to choose from multiple content tracks that might not all be accommodated at the physical event alone
• Access to keynote speakers: high-demand speakers can skip the travel and pre-record their presentations for the conference
• Monitoring attendee engagement: the ability to track audience activity (chat, downloads, survey questions) and time spent in each area make for enhanced, targeted follow-up; data that funneled into CRM systems for faster sales outreach
• On-Demand Archives: those that were unable to attend a particular session or had multiples that overlapped can now access any presentation that was recorded

If the landscape of events is evolving and you’re still stuck in your ways from years past (of producing or marketing to), you’re missing out on a big chunk of the pie. Join us for an upcoming webinar on January 25 to learn more about the current state of virtual events from both producer and attendee perspectives. Steve Nesich, Principal of MarketStrike, will discuss how these different event types are currently being used and measured. What you’ll learn may surprise you. See what’s working, what isn’t, and how this could impact your company’s marketing and sales strategy and performance for 2012 and beyond.

What have you seen to be successful in your event marketing strategy? Or what would you warn others against? How do you feel about combining both the live and virtual aspects? Share your feedback and questions below and we’ll ask Steve to address them during the webinar.

Simone has been involved with both the sales and marketing teams at ReadyTalk and is currently the role Marketing Demand Manager and manages the monthly ReadyTalk Webinar Series, which is a free  forum for professionals to interact with their peers and other experts on topics ranging from sales and marketing to nonprofits and funding to leadership and professional development. Simone is an outdoor enthusiast – skiing, climbing, triathlons, and trail runs with her dog, Bucket, are just a few of the things she enjoys outside of the office.

With Thanksgiving just days away, I’m feeling stressed about hosting Thanksgiving for 12 people including my in-laws and the in-laws of my in-laws. But, I realized that if I can plan and host a webinar for 1,200 people, I can do a meal for 12. It’s pretty much the same thing, right?

Planning is Required: You can’t expect that Thanksgiving is going to go well if you wait until Thursday morning to grocery shop (think frozen Turkey). Similarly, hosting a webinar requires advance preparation—invitations need to go out in advance, reminders need to be sent and content planned.

The Menu has to Reflect the Guests: Are you serving mash potatoes without gravy? Are you serving tofurkey (tofu shaped like a turkey) to a group of meat eaters? Planning the perfect Thanksgiving menu requires thinking about your guests and their dietary requirements and expectations. Similarly, your webinar content should reflect your audience and their expectations. Make sure your content reflects their experience level, interests and is accurately represented in the webinar abstract.

Good Conversation is Essential: We’ve all been at a table where the conversation is awkward and forced (did I mention my in-laws are coming over?). Your webinar doesn’t need to be like this. Prepare polls and interactive content to engage the webinar audience. For the Q&A portion of the webinar, put together some sample questions; if the audience is too shy to ask questions, you can use these “fake” questions to get it started and avoid the awkward silence. I also recommend put together some questions to spark discussion among your Thanksgiving guests too.

How was that New Recipe?: No one likes to hear that their cooking is bad, but it is good to know that the rolls were a little over done so you can bake them for less time in the future. And, who doesn’t like to hear everyone rave about how it was the best stuffing they’ve ever had? Use a post-event survey to get feedback from your webinar participants. Find out what parts they liked and what parts they disliked. This will help you improve your future webinars and avoid mistakes.

The Leftovers are the Best Part: Who doesn’t love a good leftover turkey sandwich? Just like Thanksgiving, the best part of a webinar is the leftovers. Recording your webinar allows you to repurpose your content in new ways. Share pieces of your webinar on Facebook and your website. Take the Q&A section and turn it into a blog post. There are lots of ways to use the content over and over. And, unlike your leftover mash potatoes, your webinar content won’t expire.

If you have other tips for hosting a good webinar, or a good stuffing recipe, please share!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

As the marketing communications and PR manager, Bo gets to wear many hats (but her favorite is a tiara). When she isn’t tackling branding, messaging, social media and collateral, she enjoys skiing with her husband, running with her dog and watching Formula 1. You can find her on Twitter @bo_knows_

Download the AMA and ReadyTalk's guide to planning successful webinars.

Chances are, you are very familiar with the many moving parts that go into setting up a webinar. With assistance from the American Marketing Association, we created a best practices document to offer help sorting through those details.

As a supplement to this document, the members of our Events team came up with the following additional points to consider while setting up a webinar.

• Be sure to schedule your webinar as far in advance of the actual date as possible – ideally, at least 6 to 8 weeks prior – in order to allow enough time for proper marketing of your webinar.
• If you have a custom script, be sure to send it your Event Manager at least 24 hours in advance of your webinar.
• If your participants will be listening to the audio via their phone lines, you might consider adding something similar to the text below to your invitation or confirmation email.

To ensure you are able to join this event successfully, please dial in 10-15 minutes prior to scheduled start time. You will be greeted by an operator. Please be prepared to give them your full name and company name. You will be placed on hold until the call begins.

If you are using the broadcast audio function (allowing your participants to listen to the audio via their computer speakers, you might consider something similar to the text below.

When you log into the web portion, you will automatically be connected to broadcast audio which will allow you to hear the presentation through your computer speakers. Please make sure the volume on your speakers is set appropriately to your location and is respectful to those around you.

• Prepare an introduction slide to show prior to the beginning of the webinar. This slide can include the login information and is very helpful, especially if the dial-in number is listed. Also, if the webinar uses broadcast audio, you can also use this location to remind participants to make sure the volume on their speakers is set appropriately.
• Prior to the live webinar, you might consider sending an email to all speakers with their dial-in and log-in information.
• Prepare a few “canned questions” just in case you need them to fill time during the Q&A session.
• Think about audience engagement!!! Come up with a few ways of interacting with your audience!
• Be aware of your platform’s limitations before the live webinar (participant limit, desktop sharing, video, etc.)
• Find out what type of support you have from your platform provider before, during and after your webinar.

If you use any setup best practices that are not listed here, we would love to hear from you! Please feel free to share your thoughts as others may find it helpful in their webinar setup.

Social media is here to stay.

And it keeps. On. Growing.

The three major players, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, continue to garner the most users in both the B2C and B2B arena. ReadyTalk customers often conduct large webinars on a regular basis for several purposes, such as online training, new product launches, and most often, lead generation and qualification.  This is where social media and webinars marry, since our customers are constantly looking for ways to easily engage with their audiences and increase registrations prior to their event, especially with tools they already use.

To continue our focus on the marketing user, ReadyTalk has added the following social media features to Conference Center to help our customers leverage their own social networks, as well as those of their audience) to expand their reach and drive more qualified leads:

• LinkedIn Integration for Scheduled Meetings (ReadyTalk already offers automated promotion through Facebook and Twitter)
• Enable your participants to easily share your upcoming webinar on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn through the registration page and event emails

As a chairperson, you have the option to turn the ability for your participants to share your event on their social networks at any time.

And that’s not all. We’ve also added the ability to add an upcoming meeting to Google Calendar, to help increase the efficiencies for both the chairperson and participants.

Remember to refer to last week’s blog post to learn about some of the user interface changes!

Beth is a Product Marketing Manager and works with our customers to understand their needs as they relate to event services and our conference center, which is used to setup the details of our clients’ upcoming meetings. Outside of the office, Beth loves to spend time with family and friends, cook, and hit the slopes.

The world of conferencing continues to change. First, it was bringing small groups of employees across various office locations together on the phone, followed by the need for web conferencing to show others what you were working on.  Now, those groups are no longer small, or limited to your own organization.  The use of audio and web conferencing has grown to much more than a way to cut down on costs, but as a successful way to generate leads through webinars, or train users on your product.  The use cases seem endless, and maybe even complex.  But something that should not be a brainteaser? Pricing.

ReadyTalk understands that our customers want to concentrate on the subject of their meetings, or content of their webinars, instead of the possibility of the unpredictable costs of their audio and web conferencing use.  We want to provide the highest quality, service and reliability, as part of our pricing.  With that expectation in mind, we introduce our five new web and audio subscriptions:

• Web Meeting Pro (25, 150)
• Webinar (500, 1000, 3000)

What’s unique about these? High-quality audio, included with every package.

The Web Meeting Pro subscriptions include unlimited web conferencing and a bundle of included toll and toll-free domestic audio minutes, at a flat monthly fee.

The Webinar subscriptions include unlimited web conferencing AND unlimited Broadcast Audio, enabling participants to stream high-quality audio through their computer speakers. Again, for a flat monthly fee.

So how do you know which subscription is right for you, or your company?

Do you conduct a fair amount of smaller, internal meetings or  present projects to external clients and vendors where high-quality audio is critical?  Then the Web Meeting Pro options are right up your alley.

Are you managing larger webinars for lead generation, online training, etc, more than once a month?  The Webinar subscription options can give you the cost-effective solution you are looking for.

Interested in learning more?  Contact us today to find out more about our new subscription plans!

Beth is a Product Marketing Manager and works with our customers to understand their needs as they relate to event services and our conference center, which is used to setup the details of our clients’ upcoming meetings. Outside of the office, Beth loves to spend time with family and friends, cook, and hit the slopes.