You’ve heard of James Anthony Bailey, right? No? How about Ezra Fitch? How many of you have ever ridden a “Davidson”? Are we striking out yet? Hmmm, how about David Packard, Joseph Barbera, or James Gamble?
The point of the above exercise is to never be second. Barnum & Bailey. Abercrombie & Fitch. Harley Davidson. Hewlett Packard. Hanna Barbera. Proctor and Gamble.
Lot’s of people ride Harley’s. Go ask a biker what Mr. Davidson’s first name is. Go ahead. We’ll wait.
It’s been argued that P.T. Barnum was one of The Greatest Showmen and marketers in history. And yes, that musical a mostly true story of Phineas T. himself.
Is there a point here Webinar Team?
Everything about promotion is key to a good event.
Build a store at the end of a dark alley and not tell anyone its there…
Said no one ever! Yet we constantly see companies and entrepreneurs short the promotion side of the equation. How much do you spend to promote your webinar or event?
Let’s bust this down. How much do you spend to promote your business? What’s your overall ad or marketing spend? Gartner’s 2020 CMO survey confirms most marketing budgets rest around 11% of total company budget. Another source says 8-12%. But when you started your business what did you spend? Likely not enough. But this is just a webinar. Maybe, or is it a micro business for the moment?
The Budget
Build your webinar budget like any other serious business product you’re considering. Your speakers will cost “x”. You’ll invest “Y” for assistance from The Webinar Team. Are there give aways? Fees to Eventbrite or other platform? Cost of the platform to broadcast the webinar? Watch Shark Tank sometime. We don’t think you can get through an episode without hearing about the cost of customer acquisition. What is yours? What do you hope to accomplish sales-wise in this webinar if that’s the purpose?
Like any startup, the first one you do will take more to get it going then ones held later. With the internet, there is no shortage of places to market and promote a webinar or event. But what’s next?
- YouTube
- Snapchat
Is popularity important? When choosing to spend on social media advertising, consider that one survey shows these as the top sites on social media when ranked by popularity.
Everyone of those platforms have free and paid components.
One strategy is the long-game. Let’s use Instagram as an example. Start content as early as possible. Content you create that shows you know your subject and start gathering followers.
Then when you’re ready to have that webinar, a regular post will garner immediate followers AND you can then add paid promotion. There’s another component here. Just throwing money at social media outlets is potentially ineffective at best and budget draining at worst. Correction: The worst is having no money left for the right marketing and promotion!
The Long Game vs. The Short Game
If you’re a golfer, you know you have to have both to consistently win. If you’re in a hurry to do your webinar, or scheduling just works that you must hold it sooner rather than later, it will cost more to promote and reach the same number of potential attendees than if you have more time to organically build that audience. Do you currently have a strong social media presence?
What’s a realistic event or webinar promotional timeline?
- Post in social media groups
- Email marketing: Email previous attendees, give an early bird discount, etc.
- Create a Facebook event, “go live”
- Promote influencers/speakers/sponsors
- Launch website/landing page
- Create event-specific branding
While an interesting list, it misses so many things and really isn’t a time-line. When promoting, you normally have the same things to do (short game vs. long), but its all more compressed. Look at this resource if you want some ideas of where you can promote for free.
We’re here to assist in promoting your event!