In an interview with Demand Gen Report, TimeTrade CMO Lauren Mead discussed how her team utilizes webinars within their marketing mix to engage target accounts throughout the funnel. She also shared insights into how her team creates webinar content and how engagement compares with other content formats.
Demand Gen Report: How do webinars impact your account-based initiatives?
Lauren Mead: We’re mostly using webinars in a one-to-many or one-to-few account-based strategy —segmenting by engagement level and then persona based on their fit. We use webinars across the funnel, so I think it really depends on the webinar. We have some that we do that are much broader thought leadership, and those ones will go to a much wider audience.
Then we have some that we do that are much lower down funnel where there is a “demo” type of webinar for someone maybe that’s not ready to commit to a one-on-one sales meeting. Those are much more targeted to smaller groups. And then we even do some post-sale for our customers, and those cover anything from best practices to new products and sharing of other customer stories, so they can learn from their peers.
DGR: What is your team’s approach to creating webinar content?
Mead: One example comes to mind. We’re doing a campaign right now that has multiple touchpoints and all different types of content targeted a specific account. Our ultimate goal for them to take a one-on-one sales meeting, but sometimes people just aren’t ready for that type of engagement. So, we have a marketing email and a BDR sales outreach that goes through as part of that campaign, as well as digital advertising. But then towards the end, for the people that engage and take us up on that one-on-one meeting, we offer the demo webinar that is basically the same type of content we would give them if they signed up for a one-on-one meeting, but it’s more one-way. So, it’s more of us telling that overview of the value prop, why TimeTrade and then showing them the product to hopefully pique that interest, so then they would move to that one-on-one meeting.
DGR: How are webinars standing out within your marketing mix?
Mead: Surprisingly, we see the highest signup rate for webinars versus some of our other content types. So, we’ve seen it as a great way to get that initial engagement. And then once people attend and go on from there—those convert really well.
We also find that, even though you need a lead time to promote the webinar, it’s one of the easier content pieces to put together. For internal subject matter experts, sometimes asking them to present on a particular topic versus having to write a long-form piece of content is a little bit less taxing to their time and a little bit easier for them to commit.
We see the same thing with customers. Asking them to be part of a Q&A or a panel is a little bit of an easier commitment compared to volunteering to do a full case study or something of that nature. So, we find it a really easy way to spin up quick content and cover a lot of material in any given period.
And then taking that even further, we almost always will take webinar content, get the webinar transcribed and then turn that into a written piece of content, which I find has a little bit more longevity in terms of usability, but we do obviously promote the recording, as well. It’s a great way to create, I think several pieces of content off of one topic.
DGR: How does webinar engagement compare to engagement you see with other content formats?
Mead: One of the nice things about [webinars] is that we get a lot of engagement, so there’s a pre engage—pre-opportunity where we can promote it. And we do see that sometimes even though the ones that don’t convert, it’s a great touchpoint. Also, a lot of times, we’re doing webinars with third parties, so they’ll promote it on our behalf, so it’s a great source of new people to our database and an engagement point for the existing people. And then a lot of times the content is relevant for people that are already in the sales funnel. So, we’ll use that as an additional touchpoint. Many times, we’ll see 20% of the registrants and attendees we get from these sessions are existing sales opportunities, so we’re helping to continue to nurture the opportunity, even as they’re going through the sales process beyond that initial engagement where marketing hands it over to sales.
DGR: What tips and best practices would you share with colleagues looking to better leverage webinar content in their account-based initiatives?
Mead: It’s important to think about how to make your content have draw. Usually, we always try and have someone aside from TimeTrade speaking on a webinar, whether it’s an industry expert or a customer or a partner pairing up to expand the reach to drive maximum registrations. I think it’s always a great way to think about it because that helps bring in a draw there.
For example, in our customer webinars, we could either go and have every salesperson reach out to their customers and tell them about this new offering, or we could offer this webinar and give them that high-level overview and then let sales follow up with those that are interested. So, I think it’s a great way to put something up there and test the waters to see who’s interested, then use that as an intent signal that can channel further marketing efforts.
