I have been doing a lot of webinars lately through my Teaching Tuesdays program and in doing so, I am constantly refining my processes for all of the tasks that need to get completed before, during, and after the webinar.
The Click Dimensions integration with GoToWebinar is a huge timesaver, in this regard, so I thought I would take a few minutes and document my process in hopes that it would be helpful to anyone else doing this type of work.
Stages
There are three distinct stages to any webinar:
- Preparation
- Presentation
- Follow-up
Let’s discuss each one in turn.
Preparation
The first stage covers all activities leading up to the actual presentation itself. Everyone will probably have a different set of tasks, but here is what I currently do:
1. Create the Webinar in GoToMeeting.
This, of course, is the first step. Don’t forget to put it on your calendar. (yes, simple, but sometimes you get busy and forget)
2. Create a blog post announcing the webinar
3. Send a tweet pointing to the blog post.
4. Post a note on LinkedIn pointing to the blog post.
These three steps are actually handled through the same process. I use WordPress for all of my web sites and I have plugins that handle the tweet and LinkedIn post automatically.
5. Create an email template containing the announcement.
I have a standard blank email template that I just clone and insert the information into. I talk about this process in this article.
6. Send an email to the contacts in CRM who I think would be interested in attending the webinar.
I have two main subject areas (CRM and Xamarin) in my xRM Coaches CRM instance and have marketing lists for each. I just pick the appropriate list and send the email to them.
7. Webinar registration confirmation
When someone registers for the webinar, GoToWebinar will automatically send them a confirmation email.
8. Reminder blog post
Since my webinars are on Tuesdays, I create a second blog post on Friday, reminding them of Tuesday’s webinar. In most cases, this reminder post drives additional attendance. This is automatically tweeted and placed on LinkedIn.
9. GoToWebinar reminders
GoToWebinar will automatically send a reminder emails one day and one hour before the webinar, unless you change the setting.
Presentation
This stage encompasses more than just conducting the webinar. There is actually a lot more to it than that:
1. Start the webinar.
In most cases, you need to start a few minutes late to accommodate stragglers. Just delay long enough to get around 25% attendance or so, then start.
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2. Make sure you are recording the webinar.
I forget this one about half of the time. Put a sticky-note on your monitor and use the “what attendees see” option on the GoToWebinar control panel to verify they are seeing the correct screen and application.
3. After the webinar, save the recording to disk.
You will be prompted to save the recording. This process can take as long as 30-60 minutes, depending on the length of the recording.
4. Upload the webinar
To my YouTube Channel. Again, this will take many minutes, depending o n the recording length. I also create a custom thumbnail by taking a screen shot of my presentation title slide and use that for the recording. This eliminates YouTube from attempting to pull a random slide out of your presentation itself.
Follow-up
The follow-up stage closes the loop with your webinar registrants. One of the things you need to decide is if you treat attendees (those that actually attended the webinar) different than absentees (those to registered, but never attended).
Your numbers will vary, but if you get a 50% attendance rate you should be jumping up and down with joy because that is outstanding. Most of the time, a 25-30% attendance is the norm.
1. Create marketing lists
Click Dimensions automatically creates the following CRM records for a webinar:
- Event
- Event Participants.
- Contacts (which are tied to Event Participants)
You can use the participation to create the following types of Marketing Lists:
- Registrants
- Attendees
- Absentees
There may be cases where you want to give only certain information to Attendees or you have a different message for Absentees, so you might wish to create separate Marketing Lists so you can target each group individually. The Registrants Marketing List has everyone.
I personally have used all of the above, depending on the webinar.
2. Create email templates for follow-ups.
As with the notification email, you need to create an email template to perform a Click Dimensions Email Send operation.
3. Sent an email to the various Marketing Lists
Again, depending on how you want to handle Attendees and Absentees, will determine the number and content for the emails.
Note: Keep in mind that GoToWebinar can also send out a follow-up as well so you probably do not want two messages going out.
In my emails I typically add any links that I discussed in the webinar as well as a link to the recording.
4. Put a link to the webinar on your web site.
Depending on how you have your web site structured, you can put a link to the recorded webinar or embed a player directly on the page. I am still trying to find the best fit for my sites, for this step, but I will probably end up with the embed option.
5. Blog Post (Optional)
I am still trying to decide if I want to do this step but you can always post another email pointing people to the webinar recording so that others may find and view it. I am undecided if this is to much “chatter” about the same event.
Conclusion
So there you have it. That is what I currently do, and it is always subject to change. I am thinking about adding some custom tools to help me with some of this process but they are only in the conceptual phase.
If you have things to share in your process, then leave a comment on this post.
I’d love to hear what you have to say.
