3 Questions to Create Market Focused Webinars

Webinar technology has come a long way, and now more than ever it is affordable for businesses of all sizes.  The media has caught up to the masses.  Now that anyone can run a webinar, how can you run a webinar that stands out?  How can you run a webinar that maximizes the experience for both attendees, and you the host or presenter?  Answering these questions (with questions), and acting on them is key to creating valuable webinars.  Read on, and you’ll see what I mean.

3 Questions to Create Market Focused Webinars

Webinar’s are powerful marketing tools.  Essentially it is a way to do a presentation without all the dress up.  Using one of the popular webinar services, a presenter invites their audience to a compelling and relevant presentation, and get’s to share that information with all attendees via Internet connection.  This is not a step by step guide on how to sell from a webinar, or host a webinar, rather to make the webinar market focused by asking questions.

Questions Are Key

My late uncle stated something that has stuck with me to this day.  “If I don’t ask, I don’t know, now I know.” Marketers who ask questions of their market can create more relevant content.  This is something Alex Mandossian speaks of adamantly, and developed an entire “Ask” web service around this concept.

Questions of Registrants

When people take time to register for your webinar, let them know you care by asking them what they hope to get out of the webinar.  One question format I’ve had success with is, “What is your more important question when it comes to [insert your market focused keyword] – dog training?” There have been many occasions in the past when answers to my initial question altered the content I was planning to present.

Questions of Attendees

Now that you have an audience on the webinar, ask them relevant questions.  I’ve found the most effective questions help uncover their current challenges, and see if what I have in store to present will meet help address these challenges.

Most webinar services have this capability for in-webinar questions.  The one I’ve used (here) has a polling function that pops up on attendees screens one question at a time. It gives you the option to display the results (charts) instantly.  This can provide excellent insight, and can pump up the presenter to deliver the content.

Polling Style Questions to Consider:

• How long have you been using [insert product or service of interest]?
• What best describes the role you have in your company [bullet list of options]?
• How are you currently addressing [major problem industry is facing that you provide solution for]?
• Why are you attending today’s webinar? [multi-choice options, insert some humor if appropriate to keep it light]
  • Researching solutions to this problem.
  • Your reminder email came through, and it looked like a good investment of time.
  • I’m about to purchase a solution, and want to be sure I’m on the right track.
  • My boss told me to attend or else!
  • Other: [text box]

Post Webinar Survey

Once the webinar has ended (consider ending with a raffle or a special prize, this helps keep them for the entire webinar), have a survey popup inviting feedback on the presentation.  Ask questions that help you understand if the content met their expectations, how it could be improved, and if they would attend future webinars you provide.

Add to this list: Chime in with your own thoughts, and additions.  Useful?  Boring?  Sky’s the limit.  Use the boxes below to engage and enhance this post.

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