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How To Lose Your Webinar Audience In 3 Easy Steps

By Candyce Edelen

PropelGrowth Blog

I just got done listening to what should have been a really interesting webinar. It had a great panel of experts and was focused on how regulatory changes can spur innovation and growth in the financial industry. A webcast is not a the time be vague and abstract.The invitation to the event was compelling; it had good thought leaders on the panel, and looked very interesting. I actually rearranged my schedule so I could attend.

The panel discussion had great potential, but after it got started, it quickly lost my interest. I stayed connected, but I started working on other things (like this blog post). I wonder how many other attendees were actually working on other tasks while the webcast ran in the background.

In analyzing what they did wrong, I think they made three critical mistakes.

They Targeted Too Broadly

Usually, for a webinar to be effective, it should be targeted to a very specific audience. But marketers find that limiting when they’re on the hook to generate lots of leads. If you’re shooting for quantity instead of quality, then you can target broadly to make sure you don’t miss anyone. But that will mean you’ll have to prepare content that will apply to all buyer personas, all asset classes, all portions of the enterprise, and even broadly across multiple financial services sectors. Some companies go after even broader audiences by targeting multiple vertical industries. But in reality, this just ensures that the content will be irrelevant to everyone and that you’ll get little or no audience engagement. So you might attract lots of registrants, and people might even attend the live event. But the audience will tune out and focus on other tasks while the webinar is running, like I did.

They Kept the Content Abstract

The most effective webcasts educate the audience about how to solve their specific business problems. But if you’re targeting too broadly, you have to keep the content completely abstract because concrete examples will only make sense to a small sub-set of the audience. If you don’t focus on specific business problems, you have to stay abstract, ensuring that no one except your competitors really understands what you’re talking about. This also ensures that no one can apply what you’re saying to their real-world problems.

They Didn’t Tell Any Client Stories

Storytelling engages your audience and makes the content interesting and relevant. Use cases and case studies help prospects get a vision for how they can solve their own similar business problems. But if you’re targeting too broadly, those use cases won’t be relevant to most of the audience. Use case examples and stories of how clients solved their real-world business problems help the audience connect emotionally and intellectually with the content. When we tell reference stories, prospects discover their own stories as they listen, and they begin to develop a vision for how you can help them like you helped the reference customer. (By the way, you CAN create a compelling use case story without naming the customer or disclosing confidential information, so don’t let NDAs become an excuse for not telling stories).

Which is Better for Webinar Results? Quantity or Quality?

By their nature stories are never general. They’re always about a specific situation. So your broad, un-targeted audience is not likely to connect with stories that aren’t relevant to them. But wouldn’t it be better to segment your audience and hold 4 separate webinars telling relevant stories to 4 different target audiences? If the stories and examples would help those specific prospects catch a vision for how you could help them, wouldn’t that generate better quality leads? If that was the case, wouldn’t audience quality and qualified leads be a better measure of webinar success than just raw registrant numbers?

To be honest, I’m really tired of boring webinars that promise so much and deliver so little! If you want to try out some ideas for how to add a little story and make your webinars engaging, interesting, relevant, and effective for generating qualified leads, give us a call. You can reach me at +1.970.300.2280.

Learn more from these “7 Lessons From A Bad Webinar.”

Here are some more fun tips from HubSpot on how to totally suck at marketing.

The illustration above is “The Scream” by Edvard Munch.

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Candyce Edelen
CEO at PropelGrowth
Candyce is the founder and CEO of PropelGrowth. She brings more than twenty years of experience in managing technology companies and has founded four companies prior to PropelGrowth. For the past ten years, Candyce has focused exclusively in the capital markets industry, launching two financial technology companies. Now, she helps financial technology vendors improve their marketing strategy, publish compelling content, and drive revenue through marketing and sales enablement. Contact Candyce at +1 970-300-2280.
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Latest posts by Candyce Edelen (see all)
  • 4 Steps to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for Sales Prospecting
  • The Reality of Cold Calling for B2B Sales
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Filed Under: Content Marketing, PropelGrowth Blog

About Candyce Edelen

Candyce is the founder and CEO of PropelGrowth. She brings more than twenty years of experience in managing technology companies and has founded four companies prior to PropelGrowth. For the past ten years, Candyce has focused exclusively in the capital markets industry, launching two financial technology companies. Now, she helps financial technology vendors improve their marketing strategy, publish compelling content, and drive revenue through marketing and sales enablement. Contact Candyce at +1 970-300-2280.

Company Profile

PropelGrowth helps companies improve their marketing and sales. We start with in-depth buyer research. Then we develop a marketing and sales strategy and customer-centric messaging. Then we coach your team and help you execute on the strategy by developing thought leadership programs, content for every stage in the buying process, sales collateral, and tools to help buyers buy.

Figure out why and how your buyers buy

Develop a customer-centric marketing strategy

Get coaching from a senior marketing strategist

Recent Posts

  • 4 Steps to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for Sales Prospecting
  • The Reality of Cold Calling for B2B Sales
  • Can Inbound Marketing Generate Enough Leads?
  • How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline Using LinkedIn for Prospecting
  • Tips from 8 ERP Resellers on How to Leapfrog Your Competition​
  • How to Win 74% of Your ERP Deals
  • Buyer Persona Research, the Key to Niche Marketing
  • 8 Ways a Niche Strategy Improves the Value of Your Practice

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Ft. Collins, CO 80524
+1 970.300.2280

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  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • Why PropelGrowth?
    • Management Team
    • Acumatica Marketing Team
    • Privacy Policy
    • Back
  • What We Do
    • Marketing Strategy
      • Buyer Personas
      • Strategy Development
      • Acumatica Partner Marketing
      • Integrating PR
      • Creative Design
      • Back
    • Marketing Programs
      • Content Marketing for the Buying Process
      • Content Marketing Programs
      • Thought Leadership In The Buying Process
      • Thought Leadership Programs
      • Lead Generation and Lead Nurturing
      • LinkedIn Sales Prospecting
      • Marketing Coaching Program
      • Back
    • Marketing Content
      • Marketing Automation
      • Email Marketing
      • Website Content
      • Blogging and Article Marketing
      • Case Studies
      • White Papers and E-books
      • Research Studies
      • Live and Online Events
      • Back
    • LinkedIn LeadGen Master Class
    • Back
  • Who We Do It For
    • Who We Serve
    • Client Case Studies
      • What This CEO Learned From Buyer Persona Research Transformed Her Company
      • Back
    • Back
  • Resources
    • Sales Resources
      • Solving the No Decision Problem
      • Back
    • Marketing Resources
      • B2B Lead Conversion Rates
      • Back
    • The TrendSpotters Podcast Series
    • Back
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Search
    • Back