It’s so easy to do webcasts these days, what with Zoom and Teams, that it’s tempting to do them all the time. Some ISVs have gone that route, only to discover that, like any other marketing tool, webcasts need to be done right. Done too often, without careful planning, you run the risk of watering down your message and losing your marketing credibility.
Doing webcasts right involves much more than a good platform subscription. It requires these three key basic ingredients:
1. The right partner. Not in the sense of an ISV presenting with a reseller (although that can be a good idea), but rather working with a third-party resource site (like MSDynamicsWorld.com) to share the logistical, promotional, and editorial efforts. Sharing these responsibilities will enable you to increase your reach without spreading yourself too thin, and align your organization with a credible information resource center.
2. The right audience. Make sure whomever you partner with (see #1), has the ability to promote your webcast to the exact audience you want to reach. This is crucial for two reasons. First, you want to take the path of least resistance to attract your target prospects to your session. Starting off with a solid webcast partner will enable you to capture the right prospects’ interests quickly. Second, it will prevent lots of marketing dollars from being wasted on attracting irrelevant prospects.
3. The right message. If you create good content, and it’s promoted to the right audience, it will be consumed. This might sound obvious, but lots of ISVs focus too much on the quantity of webcasts they think they need to do, as opposed to the quality.
The right message is important for attracting your desired group of prospects. If you want to reach out to end-customers, create a webcast only geared towards that group. This will allow you to communicate a distinct message and key-takeaways that are different than if you were trying to attract resellers with your webcast. For example, end-customers want to know how the product can help their business increase efficiency, save costs, etc. Partners want to know how their business can use your company/solutions to retain customers and close new Dynamics deals.
It’s almost just as important to find the right presenter to help deliver your message. Will you get a customer to co-present? A Microsoft MVP, perhaps? It’s worth waiting to find a good presenter, even if it means holding off on running a webcast until you do.
Webcasts may be easier than ever to pull off technically, but they remain as challenging as ever to do well.
