Don’t ignore the post-webinar follow-up process—it’s the most important part!
Ok, so you’ve worked closely with the MSDW team to carefully plan and execute a webinar. Leveraging MSDW’s hyper-targeting audience system, the event was promoted directly to the group of Microsoft Business Applications community members you specifically wanted to reach. This effort resulted in 100 highly-targeted registrants, with an impressive 65% attendance rate–and that’s not even considering the on-demand leads still to come. Those are fantastic numbers, and those pre-webinar activities made it happen! However, with the webinar concluded, now comes the crucial phase: the post-webinar follow-up.
Every year, MSDW organizes and promotes over 200 webinars led by Dynamics ISVs and partners. Many of these companies are proactive, having well-defined processes to engage with leads generated from webinars. Yet, a considerable number are still without a structured follow-up strategy in place. No matter how outstanding your webinar content may be, what truly matters is the consistent engagement after the webinar. Without a dedicated strategy to sustain this engagement, the hard work poured into creating and planning the webinar might not yield the desired ROI.
After discussions with lots of ISVs and partners about crafting an effective post-webinar follow-up strategy, we’ve assembled a list of the top 5 recommended actions that go way beyond sending a “thank you email” (although that’s important, too!).
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- Dive Deep with Data Segmentation: Don’t just glance over your webinar data; dissect it thoroughly. Understand the full scope of your reach. Who registered? Who among them attended? How long did they stay engaged? If you’re an ISV, how many partners and/or end-users did you attract? Which industry categories do these end users belong to? Every detail can drive your next strategic move.
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- Personalize Email Communications: Remember, every individual who registered for your webinar has a unique story, and you know some of it by the data they submitted when signing up. While they collectively all showed interest in your session, it doesn’t translate to identical needs and preferences. Rather than treating registrants as a single group of leads, view each registrant as a unique individual. Based on the data they provided, they should receive a thoughtfully tailored follow-up email that speaks directly to them.
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- Champion Continuous Engagement: View your webinar as the ignition spark of a longer, inspiring content exchange journey with every registrant. Given the insights you’ve collected about each person and their demonstrated interest in your session’s topic, it’s pivotal to keep the momentum going. Serve them with further content tailored to their potential interests, ensuring that their engagement with your company remains strong and meaningful. Keep in mind the importance of also establishing your company as a thought leader and expert in your specific focus area. Offering them a consistent flow of supplementary content, such as white papers, case studies, videos, and the like, is an effective strategy to achieve this.
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- Conduct a Post-Webinar Strategy Discussion: Given that your registrants all displayed interest in your webinar’s topic by signing up, it’s logical to extend the conversation. Host a subsequent group discussion to delve deeper into the themes introduced during the session, fostering further engagement. This follow-up discussion can uncover areas of particular interest, sparking further questions and insights. It also showcases your company’s dedication to not only introducing topics but thoroughly exploring and clarifying them for your audience.
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- Promptly Identify the Buying Cycle Stage: Recognizing where each registrant is in their buying journey is crucial. In fact, it might be the most pivotal aspect of the post-webinar follow-up. By understanding their current stage, you can tailor your communications and interactions more effectively, ensuring that your outreach is both timely and relevant. This insight not only deepens the relationship with potential clients but also optimizes your resources, directing marketing efforts where they’re most likely to yield results. Moreover, a well-timed approach can significantly boost conversion rates and foster long-term loyalty.
Overall, organizing and promoting a webinar is essential, but its true success is measured by what happens after. The relationship with your registrants doesn’t stop at the webinar’s conclusion; it’s just the start. Using the actions mentioned above can transform a single webinar encounter into a long-term bond with your audience. Remember, in this digital era, continuous engagement and tailored communication are vital. Treat each webinar as a starting point for deeper connections. As you move forward, ensure that your post-webinar strategy is as robust, if not more so, than the preparations that went into the webinar itself. By doing so, you’ll be setting your company up for sustained success!
