In 2020, once it became clear that marketing & BD teams could no longer rely upon in-person gatherings for business development, we saw a 600% increase in webinar promotion by clients on JD Supra.
...a 600% increase in webinar promotion...
Our friends at ON24 reported a similar spike, with Katie O'Rourke writing that the platform saw a 330% increase in hosted webinars in March, 2020, alone.
Despite the occasional, anecdotal article suggesting a saturation of law firm virtual events (which was not true: traffic numbers indicate that our readers remain deeply interested in these programs), with the isolation of COVID-19 webinars and virtual events are clearly here to stay.
And while everyone who is interested in increasing visibility and registrations should consider promoting their events via JD Supra, here are three additional, easy ways to ensure that the right people know about your virtual programs in advance:
1. Mention Who (and Why) In Your Titles
What is true of well-crafted titles for your thought leadership remains true for your webinars and virtual events. You earn the attention of your audience — readers indundanted with choices of what to click all day long — by communicating who should be interested in your program, and why.
For example, here are three program titles that do exactly this, taken from a list of the most popular webinar promotions on JD Supra during 2020:
TIP: When crafting a title, ask yourself: can my intended audience tell that this upcoming webinar has been planned and produced with them in mind? If the answer is no, rewrite your title.
2. Promote Upcoming Programs Within Your Related, Written Thought Leadership
Avoid random acts of content. You've no doubt heard this many times before. Translated for webinars, this wise advice around content strategy means: if you are hosting a virtual program about, for example, blockchain in the next month, mention it at the end of every blog post, article, or alert you issue on blockchain leading up to that date. In this way, your content is not random, but part of a sustained campaign around a subject of strategic focus.
...mention your webinar at the end of every blog post, article, or alert you issue on the subject
Every article manages to stand as valuable thought leadership by itself and promotes an upcoming interactive program that matches the interests of your actual readers. (AKA: tell them while you've got them.)
TIP: build into your webinar promotion plan the release of three or more stand-alone articles or blog posts, bylined by the people who will be hosting your webinar, covering some of the issues that will be included in the program, and promoting the webinar with a call to action/link to register.
3. Use Data to Drive Programming Decisions
One beauty of producing and disseminating your thought leadership: you're able to use reader data to learn what people actually want, what keeps them up at night, which issues matter the most to them at any given moment in time.
...give your audience what you are able to learn they want
This is a marketer's dream come true: give your intended audience what you are able to learn they're interested in, versus what you hope they want.
For an in-house professional navigating the personalities and agendas of a team of people internally, such data can also build consensus. Data can show everyone a clear path forward. Not only can you focus in on specific topics that deserve the commitment of time and resources it takes to produce a webinar, you can also potentially determine:
- which individuals or practice groups to include in your programs (look for popular authors writing engaging thought leadership),
- which guests to invite (look at who is reading your related thought leadership), and
- which industries/sectors might be especially interested in your upcoming program (again, available in your reader data).
TIP: if you are a JD Supra client, use Beacon Insights dashboards for industry, company, and subject insights to build data-driven webinar programs.
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[Related - case study: how one firm used JD Supra's webinar promotion service to increase attendance and generate qualified leads...]
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Sandra Del Tiempo is National Director of Business Development at JD Supra. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
