Author Archives: Jason Stegent

Every B2B company wants more pipeline. Marketing teams invest in technology, purchase prospect lists, launch email campaigns, host webinars, and hire SDRs—all with the goal of creating more opportunities for sales. Yet despite all of that activity, many lead generation programs consistently underperform. The assumption is often that the messaging wasn’t compelling enough or the sales team didn’t follow up quickly enough. In reality, most lead generation programs fail long before outreach begins.

The real issue is usually strategy. More specifically, it’s targeting. If you’re talking to the wrong companies, the wrong decision-makers, or prospects that simply aren’t ready for your solution, no amount of clever copy or persistent follow-up will consistently produce qualified pipeline.

It Starts with the Right Ideal Customer Profile

One of the biggest mistakes B2B marketers make is trying to appeal to too broad of an audience. Casting a wide net may generate more leads on paper, but it often creates extra work for sales and lower conversion rates. A well-defined Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) changes everything.

A strong ICP goes beyond industry and company size. It considers business challenges, technology environment, growth stage, buying triggers, decision-making structure, and the characteristics of customers that have historically produced the greatest lifetime value.

Quality Creates Momentum

When targeting improves, every downstream metric improves with it. Email engagement rises because the message is more relevant. Webinar registration and attendance improves because the topic addresses real business challenges. Sales conversations become more productive because prospects recognize the value of the discussion. Ultimately, higher-quality conversations produce stronger pipeline and better revenue outcomes.

Think Beyond Lead Volume

For years, marketers were rewarded for generating Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs). Today, executive teams are asking a different question: ‘How much pipeline did marketing create?’ That shift changes how successful programs should be measured. Marketing is directly tied to revenue, no question about it.

Rather than celebrating thousands of names in a database, leading companies focus on generating qualified conversations with the accounts they actually want to win.

Marketing and Sales Must Agree Before Outreach Begins

The highest-performing companies align marketing and sales before a campaign launches. Together they identify target accounts, define the ideal buyer, agree on success metrics, and develop content that speaks directly to executive needs and priorities. That alignment reduces wasted effort and creates a smoother path from first touch to closed business.

A Better Way Forward

Successful lead generation isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing the right things in the right order. Start with a clearly defined ICP. Build targeted lists. Create educational content that addresses genuine business challenges. Measure qualified conversations and quality lead flow instead of activity. When those fundamentals are in place, every piece of your lead generation engine becomes significantly more effective.

If your current lead generation efforts are producing activity but not enough pipeline, the problem may not be your outreach. It may be everything that happens before the first touch.

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him at jstegent@elasticroi.com

Most companies treat webinars like one-time events. They put weeks into promotion, drive registrations, host the live session, and then move on.

Maybe they send the recording once. Maybe they post it on-demand. And then it dies.

The reality? Very often, the most valuable part of your webinar happens after it ends.

The Problem: One-and-Done Webinars Kill ROI

If your webinar only generates engagement on the day it goes live, you’re leaving the majority of its value on the table.

Pipeline doesn’t happen in a single moment. It happens through constant exposure, reinforcement, and timely follow up. Your buyers need to see your message several times, in different formats, before they’re ready to engage.

When you stop at the live event, you eliminate those additional touchpoints – and that’s where most pipeline is created.

What Repurposing Should Actually Do

Repurposing isn’t about creating more content – it’s about creating more meaningful engagement with the right accounts and the folks you want to be in front of.

Done right, repurposing your webinar should extend your engagement window, give your sales team more usable assets, reinforce your message across several channels, and ultimately create more opportunities to convert interest into real pipeline.

How to Turn One Webinar Into 90 Days of Pipeline

1. Make On-Demand a Core Strategy (Not an Afterthought)
   

   Most marketing teams treat the on-demand version of their webinar as a passive asset. High-performing teams have their plan in place well ahead of time and treat it as a structured campaign.

   That means continuing to promote the webinar after the live event through targeted call and email, LinkedIn outreach, paid promotion, and other tactics. The reality is that many buyers prefer to engage on their own time, not during a scheduled live session.

   When you actively promote your on-demand content, you significantly extend the shelf life of your webinar and create new pipeline opportunities well beyond the live date.

2. Break the Webinar Into High-Impact Moments
   

   A 45-minute webinar is not a single asset – it can be several smaller, high-value moments.

   Identify the strongest insights, boldest opinions, and most relevant takeaways, and turn them into short-form clips, highlight reels, and social posts.

   These shorter assets are easier for your target audience to consume and can be more effective in driving engagement. They act as entry points that pull your audience into deeper discussions and ultimately back to the full webinar.

3. Give Your Sales Team Content They Can Actually Use
   

   Most sales teams don’t leverage webinar content effectively because it’s not packaged in an efficient, usable way.

   Instead of sending only full recordings, provide short clips tied to specific pain points, along with details about who engaged and how (questions asked, resource downloads, poll responses, etc.).

   This allows sales to follow up in a more relevant, personalized way, and this turns your webinar into a true sales enablement tool rather than just a marketing initiative.

4. Build a Structured Follow-Up Timeline
   

   Pipeline is built through consistency, not one-off follow-up emails.

   A strong follow-up strategy should include an immediate outreach phase, a mid-term nurture phase with continued content distribution through different channels, and a longer-term phase where you re-engage your target audience.

   By structuring your follow-up over weeks and months, you create multiple opportunities for prospects to engage when they’re ready – not just when your webinar happens or shortly after.

5. Layer in Intelligence to Make It Stronger
   

   The most effective repurposing strategies are driven by data.

   Use audience engagement metrics, questions asked, poll responses, and survey insights to understand what resonated and with whom. Then tailor your follow-up messaging accordingly.

   This allows you to stand out from the crowd and create highly relevant, targeted outreach that drives higher-quality conversations and better pipeline results.

6. Turn Webinar Engagement Into High-Value, Data-Driven Assets
   

   Not all repurposed content should be short form. While clips and highlight reels generate great engagement and can be easy to consume, longer-form assets help you go deeper and reinforce your message with your target audience.

   Your webinar already tells you what matters – what people engaged with, questions they asked, and the topics/discussion points that resonated most.

   Use that insight to create data-backed blogs that hit home, infographics that simplify key takeaways, and survey-driven content that adds real perspective. And you can also use audience engagement/feedback to help fuel your next webinar session.

   These assets give both marketing and sales something more substantial to use, and they will help you create true competitive differentiation.

Where Most Teams Miss

Even when companies attempt to repurpose webinar content, it usually breaks down because there’s no clear plan behind it.

They send the same content to everyone, skip audience segmentation, don’t involve sales the way they should, and fail to build any real follow-up strategy.

The result is more content, but not more pipeline. And if it’s not driving pipeline that converts to revenue, it’s not working the way it should.

Remember, the best webinar programs don’t stop at live – they build momentum after.

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him at jstegent@elasticroi.com

Generating webinar registrations isn’t easy in today’s B2B environment.

Inbox fatigue is real. Buyers are overwhelmed with invites and increasingly selective about where they spend their time. As a result, many B2B marketing teams struggle to hit their registration and attendance goals.

Yet even when those goals are met, pipeline impact often falls short.

If your B2B webinar strategy isn’t consistently influencing revenue, the issue isn’t the channel. It’s the conversion engine behind it.

The Two Main Webinar Challenges B2B Marketers Face

Most teams struggle in one (or both) of these areas:

1. Driving qualified webinar registrations
2. Converting attendees into sales opportunities

Solving just one doesn’t fix the pipeline problem.

Why Many B2B Webinars Don’t Drive Pipeline

Even strong content underperforms when the structure around it is weak. Common breakdowns include:

• Broad targeting instead of ICP-first promotion
• No sales alignment before launch
• One-size-fits-all follow-up
• Treating the webinar as a one-day event instead of a 60-day asset

The result? A list of names — but limited revenue impact.

How to Turn Webinars Into Revenue-Generating Assets

1. Target the Right Accounts (Not Just More Contacts)

Define your ICP. Identify target accounts. Tailor messaging to executive-level pain.

2. Align Sales Before the Webinar Launches

Define follow-up expectations, meeting goals, and priority accounts before promotion begins.

3. Segment Follow-Up Based on Engagement

Differentiate messaging for live attendees, on-demand viewers, partial viewers, and high-intent participants.

4. Treat On-Demand as a Pipeline Window

Most pipeline happens in the 30–60 days after the event. Structured nurture and meeting CTAs are critical.

The Execution Gap in Webinar Lead Generation

Many teams understand what should happen after a webinar. Few have the operational bandwidth to execute it consistently.

Driving registrations, aligning sales, segmenting engagement, and tracking pipeline influence requires structure and discipline.

Final Thought: Registrations Are the Start — Not the Goal

Increasing webinar registrations is important.

Turning those registrations into meetings, opportunities, and revenue is what defines success.

The teams winning today aren’t chasing webinar volume — they’re building structured webinar engines designed to convert engagement into pipeline. And that shift makes all the difference.

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him at jstegent@elasticroi.com

Hosting a webinar takes a lot of work — planning, promotion, production, and follow-up. But your webinar’s value doesn’t end once the live event is over. Repurposing your webinar content can stretch its impact, boost ROI, and reach a wider audience across multiple channels.

Here are the top 5 ways to repurpose your webinar:

1. Turn It Into a Blog Post (or Series)

Extract the key takeaways from your webinar to create an engaging blog post. Better yet, break it into a multi-part series if the content is deep or technical and can’t be fully captured in a single blog.

Bonus Tip: Use AI tools to speed up the process. Tools like Otter.ai or Descript can give you a near-instant written draft. If you go this route, be sure to humanize it to make your blog authentic.

2. Create Highlight Reels for Field Marketing and Social Media Campaigns

Highlight reels are videos that capture the key moments of your webinar. They can be longer – in the 5-6-minute range – or you can chop them up into shorter 30-60-second clips. These are great pieces of content to email to prospects and customers and promote through social channels (we prefer LinkedIn). Be sure to promote the on-demand version of the webinar alongside the highlight reel.

Why it works: People love snackable content — and these videos can drive your audience back to the full webinar which will boost on-demand attendance.

3. Design an Infographic or Webinar Summary & Roadmap

Pull out key stats, quotes, or slides/visuals from your webinar and turn them into an infographic. This will be an ideal asset for your email marketing and social media campaigns as well.

Webinar Summary and Roadmap documents are becoming increasingly popular. These are typically 2–3-page pieces of literature that summarize the webinar, highlight key takeaways, and provide a roadmap for what your audience should do next. These are great educational tools that will help enhance your lead generation efforts.

Keep in Mind: Short form content works best here, so stay away from creating overly long pieces of literature. Your audience should be able to get quick value from these assets.

4. Launch an Email Nurture Sequence

Use the webinar content to create a short email series — one email per main point or takeaway. This is also a nice way to re-engage folks who registered for the webinar but didn’t attend.

Pro tip: Link to clips and reels, blog posts, or downloads in each email to keep your content engaging and value centric.

5. Create A Survey

Use the content from your webinar, the key takeaways, and the engagement metrics from your audience to create a targeted survey. The survey will help you gain additional audience insight that you can use to sell and market smarter to your prospects.

Next Step: You can leverage the survey results to create a report or executive summary. Yet another piece of content that will extend the shelf life and value of your webinar.

As you can see, webinars are content goldmines. Never focus solely on the live event…think bigger picture and all the different ways a single webinar can drive demand, generate quality leads, and accelerate revenue for your business.

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him at jstegent@elasticroi.com

Webinars have become a cornerstone of modern marketing, lead generation, and B2B communication in general. But while the concept seems simple—log in, go live, engage—anyone who’s ever hosted a webinar knows it’s much more complex than that.

From tech hiccups to last-minute speaker changes, managing a professional webinar can quickly become overwhelming, especially when the stakes are high. That’s where managed-service webinar providers come in.

Instead of managing everything on your own, you get a dedicated team of experts handling all logistics, production, and technical details—so you can focus on putting together top-notch content for your target audience (they can help with that too).

Here’s why more organizations are turning to managed-service providers for their webinar success:

1. End-to-End Support

Managed-service providers offer a complete turnkey solution, from pre-event planning to on-demand archive. They handle:

• Customized registration, confirmation and reminder emails.
• Platform setup and testing.
• Live-event production and support.
• Audience engagement tools that foster involvement and improve webinar ROI.
• Follow-up emails, analytics and reporting.

This takes the burden off your internal team and ensures every detail is covered by seasoned pros who live and breathe webinars.

2. Flawless Execution from A to Z

Webinars are all about process and meticulous planning to ensure your company and your audience have a great event experience. With a managed-service provider, you’ll have:

• Live event production and support to ensure everyone has an optimal webinar experience.
• Backup plans for unforeseen circumstances like internet issues or no-show speakers.
• Professional moderation to keep things on track and help improve the flow of the webinar.

It takes away stress and gives you complete peace of mind that your webinar will run smoothly no matter what.

3. Elevated Production Quality

Today’s B2B audiences expect more than just a webcam and slides. Managed providers bring:

• Custom branding and overlays that make your webinars stand out from the crowd.
• Professional-grade video and audio capabilities.
• Pre-recorded content and videos blending seamlessly with live segments.
• Different ways to execute your webinars – 100% live, simulive, completely pre-recorded.

These enhancements boost brand credibility and will give your webinars a competitive edge.

4. Better Engagement & Interaction

Managed-service teams often bring advanced features like:

• Live polling, surveys, resource centers, and Q&A management.
• Breakout rooms and/or moderated chat.
• Real-time analytics to monitor audience engagement.

They know how to use the tools available to keep your audience active and invested in your webinars.

5. Time Savings and Scalability

Running a successful webinar takes a lot of preparation and there’s no way around it. With a managed-service team, you and your staff can:

• Spend less time learning the ins and outs of the technology and stressing about ‘what if’ scenarios.
• Focus more on content, event promotion, audience engagement, and your on-demand plan.
• Run more webinars without stretching your internal resources. You don’t have to worry about bandwidth.

With the right partner, scaling your webinar strategy becomes a breeze.

6. Strategic Guidance

You’re not just hiring tech and production support—you’re getting experts who’ve helped run thousands of successful webinars. The right managed-service provider brings:

• An iron-clad process to the table that is proven and efficient from pre-event to post event.
• Knowledge of what works (and what doesn’t) for the type of webinar you’re looking to execute.
• Strategic advice to align with your goals and improve webinar ROI.
• World-class technology that is secure, trusted, and user-friendly.

They should act like an extension of your team that is solely focused on making your webinars stand out from the crowd.

7. Sense of Urgency

Many times when a company decides to execute webinars in-house as opposed to working with a 3rd party, there’s not the same sense of urgency to get them scheduled and produced. Companies keep kicking the can down the road because there’s nobody to hold them accountable and keep them on schedule, no investment has been made, and they end up either having a scattered webinar strategy or they don’t get webinars off the ground at all. Bringing on a managed-service provider will help you:

• Run more webinars. They will make sure you stay on task and execute webinars at an ideal pace.
• Generate more and better leads from your webinars.
• Extend the reach of your webinars through outside-the-box promotional ideas.
• Extend the life of your webinars through better on-demand promotional plans and content repurposing.
• Realize that webinars just might be the best tool you have to establish subject matter expertise, drive demand, and accelerate revenue for your business.

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him at jstegent@elasticroi.com

By now, it’s crystal clear that virtual events are here to stay. While there are occasions when physical events are the way to go, savvy companies and marketers see virtual events as an additional digital channel they must leverage to reach more of their target audience, drive more measurable results, and do so in a much more cost-effective way. With 2025 event planning right around the corner (if it’s not already in full swing), here are eight compelling reasons why companies should invest in virtual events.

1. Wider Reach and Accessibility

Virtual events break down geographical barriers. Whether your audience is in a different country or just across town, anyone can participate from anywhere. This accessibility allows companies and marketers to cast a wider net, increase brand visibility, and engage with more of their ideal audience. Think about your in-person events now and how much of your audience you’re missing out on simply because it doesn’t make geographical sense. Regional roadshows don’t need to be regional. Local lunch and learns and workshops don’t need to be local, and the list goes on and on. Organizations don’t truly realize how geographically hamstrung they are by in-person events.

2. More Cost-Effective Event Solution for Everyone

Hosting a virtual event can significantly reduce costs compared to traditional in-person events, sometimes by as much as 90%. Expenses for venues, catering, travel, and accommodations are almost completely eliminated. This allows companies to invest in high-quality content, technology, and marketing efforts that can enhance the event experience for everyone involved. Think about the cost burden for your attendees as well. It’s been well documented that cost and time away from the office are the top two reasons why people don’t attend in-person events. And due to the uncertainty of today’s economy, companies aren’t sending their employees to nearly as many in-person conferences and events as they used to. Give your audience a solution that takes cost and time away from the office out of the equation.

3. Greater Flexibility and Convenience

Virtual events offer unmatched flexibility and convenience for event organizers and their audience. Attendees can join from the comfort of their homes or offices, making it easier to participate without the hassle of travel. Companies can schedule events at times that suit their global audience, accommodating various time zones and increasing attendance at the same time.

4. Enhanced Engagement Tools and Interaction

The best virtual event platforms (such as Elastic Events) come equipped with interactive features like live polls and surveys, video chat, imbedded webinar technology, live demos, breakout rooms, appointment scheduling, gamification, etc. These tools foster real-time interaction, making the experience more engaging for everyone involved. By creating more opportunities for discussion and feedback, attendee involvement and satisfaction increases significantly. It also provides more data points that companies can leverage to effectively measure event ROI.

5. Wealth of Data and Audience Intelligence

Virtual events generate a wealth of data that can help dictate sales and marketing strategies and enable companies to make smarter post event decisions. Organizations can track everything – registrations, attendees, sessions attended, content downloaded and viewed, peer to peer interactions, questions asked, polls and surveys responded to, event spaces visited, time spent within the virtual environment, etc. In a nutshell, with the right virtual event platform you can track every movement made within your event. Now compare that to in-person events and the data, or lack thereof, that you capture. There is simply no comparison. Virtual events provide companies with audience intelligence that they can use to sell smarter, market more efficiently, and strengthen their brand and customer/prospect relationships.

6. Sustainability and Environmental Impact

A lot of companies talk about sustainability and decreasing environmental impact, but by going virtual they can walk the walk. Virtual events offer an eco-friendly alternative to in-person events. By eliminating the need for travel and reducing waste associated with physical events, companies can align their practices with environmental values. This commitment to sustainability can enhance a brand’s reputation and appeal to environmentally conscious prospects and customers. If you’re trying to be a sustainable organization, be genuine about it and go virtual.

7. Networking and Collaboration Opportunities

Virtual events offer networking opportunities that in-person events often struggle to match. Attendees can engage with industry leaders and peers several ways, such as sharing virtual business cards, video chats, instant messaging, dedicated networking lounges, and topic-driven breakout rooms. Many virtual event platforms even feature matchmaking tools, allowing attendees to find others with similar interests or qualifications. These enhanced networking capabilities can lead to more ideal connections, partnerships, and collaborations that might not have happened in a physical setting.

8. Increased Content Shelf Life and Impact

Typically, when an in-person event is over, it’s over for good. Most organizations struggle to capture key elements of their events and extend their shelf-life. With virtual events, that’s not an issue at all. Your entire event experience can be archived on-demand for as long as you want – our Elastic Events platform comes stock with 90 days of on-demand archiving. Essentially, your virtual event turns into a content hub that you can leverage to educate, generate demand and leads, and drive pipeline for months to come. Much of the content from your virtual event can be repurposed into other content formats, of course. But the data, audience engagement and intelligence you uncover from your event can help create content that truly resonates with your target audience. This makes your content more impactful and increases your virtual event ROI even more. In-person events simply can’t deliver this kind of post event value…not even close.

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him @ jstegent@elasticroi.com

There are several lead generation tactics B2B marketers can use today, but one of the most effective (and incredibly underrated) tactics is a well thought out survey. They provide a wealth of target audience intelligence that enable your teams to market more efficiently and sell smarter, resulting in better leads and greater pipeline growth. Here are the reasons why leveraging surveys can take your B2B lead generation efforts to the next level.

Uncover Target Audience Intelligence

It’s very important that you craft surveys meant for a specific audience, whether that be by industry, company type, job function or title. Surveys should always speak directly to your target audience. By asking the right questions, you can uncover pain points, preferences, initiatives, and trends from your audience that you wouldn’t have otherwise had. You will then be able to use this intelligence to fuel your sales and marketing efforts moving forward. Very few lead generation tactics can match the amount of actionable prospect data that surveys provide.

Faster Lead Qualification and Greater Efficiency

Surveys can help you qualify leads faster and more effectively based on their responses, segmenting them according to their level of interest, challenges and needs, budget, timing, etc. This approach allows your sales team to focus on high-potential leads, work more efficiently, and improve conversion rates as a result. It also lets you know who isn’t interested and/or not a fit for your offerings, so you won’t be wasting time and resources on prospects that don’t make sense for your business.

Enhanced Customer and Prospect Experience

Surveys demonstrate that you value your prospects’ opinions. When you invite them to share their thoughts, it creates a sense of involvement and partnership. This not only enhances their experience with your brand, but it also positions you as a thought leader that prioritizes customer and prospect feedback. A positive customer experience can significantly influence lead conversion and brand loyalty. Finally, incentivize participation by offering survey respondents a free copy of the results or entry into a prize giveaway. This will increase engagement and improve their experience with your brand that much more.

Measurable Results and Data-Driven Decision Making

The beauty of surveys lies in their ability to provide measurable results. You can then use these results to inform your sales and marketing strategies and personalize your approach. When you put together a lead generation survey the right way, your prospects will tell you who they are – their role in the decision making process; what their current environment looks like; what they like about their business and what they wish they could change about their business; the main challenges they’re faced with and how that impacts their business and them personally; initiatives they have to solve those challenges and improve; budget they have allocated for those initiatives and how soon they’re looking to invest. As mentioned above, this insight will enable your sales team to sell smarter and move leads through the funnel faster. It will enable your marketing team to build campaigns that speak directly to your prospects and the unique positions they’re in. This is simply a more efficient way to work, and the result will be a beefier pipeline and more customers for your business.

Content Creation and Thought Leadership Enhancement

The insights gained from surveys can serve as the foundation for valuable content creation and deeper engagement with your audience. You can share key survey findings through executive briefs, webinars, blogs, and videos, positioning yourself as a subject matter expert in your space. This will not only attract new leads but also nurture existing ones, keeping your brand top-of-mind for when they’re ready to buy the products/services that you offer.

Conclusion

Surveys are an elite B2B lead generation tool for a reason. They offer unmatched insights that can shape your sales and marketing strategies, allowing you to personalize your approach, enhance engagement, and attract more customers. As you plan for Q4 and 2025, prioritize lead generation tactics that deliver quality data and empower you to make quicker, more informed decisions for your business.

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him @ jstegent@elasticroi.com

Executing a great webinar isn’t easy. It takes hard work, meticulous planning, the right technology, and the proper PROCESS to generate the results you’re looking for. There are several things that can sink a webinar campaign, but nothing quite kills it like a bad process.

So, how can you ensure your process is iron clad and covers all the bases? Simply ask yourself these questions and see if you can answer them with confidence.

Have you put together a project plan?

This is where it all begins. Depending on the size and scope of your webinar, an ideal project plan can be anywhere from 6 to 8 weeks. It covers everything – from the title and focus of your webinar to your on-demand plan. Too many organizations don’t put together a well thought out project plan, and instead fly by the seat of their pants. This is a recipe for disaster. Be detailed in terms of what is going to be done each week and who is going to own certain aspects of the plan. This will eliminate frustration, anxiety, scrambling, and everything else that comes with a poorly planned webinar.

Who is your target audience and why?

For marketing in general, the spray and pray model is gone. The same holds true for webinars. It’s critical that you identify your target audience and why, because this will dictate the content of your webinar. You want your content to be curated for your audience…it needs to resonate with them. Is the webinar going to target a certain industry(s), job function or title, key account list, prospects that are in specific areas of your sales funnel (top, mid, lower funnel)? These are all things that need to be considered to help define the focus of your webinar.

What is going to be on your registration page?

For whatever reason, too many companies don’t give their webinar registration pages the attention they deserve. They’re vanilla, boring, don’t tell a compelling story, and often fall flat. Don’t be that company and don’t be that marketer. Make your registration page pop with logos, banners, and color schemes that engage and represent who you are as a company. Clearly articulate the value of your webinar and what’s in it for your attendees…highlight the reasons they should attend and what they’ll learn. Provide headshots and brief bios of your speakers, positioning them as experts on what will be covered in the webinar. When it comes to registration fields, less is more. We’ve found that no more than 7 fields is ideal (we like First Name, Last Name, Company, Title, Email, Phone, and perhaps a customized question that provides more insight into the registrant and why they’re signing up).

What is your promotional strategy?

There are a ton of webinars out there now, so it’s important that you promote harder, longer, and through as many marketing channels as possible to stand out from the crowd. In our opinion, you should begin your promotions a month before the live date (sometimes 5 or 6 weeks for larger scale events). In terms of tactics, smart and compelling email marketing is still the most effective way to generate registrations. The webinar should also be promoted on the home page of your website (perhaps with a pop-up banner); through social media (LinkedIn and Twitter have proven to drive the best results); through paid ads if you have the budget to do so (not necessary, FYI); through partners and other 3rd parties that have a stake in your webinar success; and with a press release that you can distribute to the masses. And when someone does register, be sure a confirmation email is sent to them instantly with their login details. Also be sure that all registrants receive two reminder emails, ideally a week before and the morning of the webinar. This will help improve your registration to attendee ratios. Finally, have your sales reps get it in front of their key contacts through personalized outreach. Don’t leave any stone unturned when it comes to generating traffic for your webinar.

Who are your presenters?

This is something that should be determined when you’re putting together your project plan. It’s important for your speakers to be engaging and charismatic, yes, but they also need to be authorities on the webinar topic. Find presenters that fit that criteria, and you’ll be in good shape.

Are you comfortable with your webinar technology?

Before going live, conduct multiple tests to ensure your webinar platform and setup is technically sound. Make sure your audio, video, and presentation tools are working exactly like they should. You can run these tests on your own and during the dry run(s) with your presenters. And guess what? Sometimes you do all these things and have checked all the technical boxes, but something still goes wrong the day of the event that is completely out of your control. That’s why it’s critical to have a backup plan in case of any technical issues. Finally, be sure you are comfortable with your live day technical support team in case any issues need to be troubleshooted for your presenters and/or attendees.

How are you going to engage your audience?

Ahead of your webinar, it’s important to identify the tactics you’re going to use to engage your audience and get them touching their keyboards. Live Q&A sessions, resource downloads, attendee chat, polls and surveys, social sharing, and post webinar breakout rooms are some of the ways you can make your webinars more interactive. These engagement tactics will also give you a wealth of data that will enable you to more effectively gauge attendee interest, leading to smarter, more personalized post event follow up on your end.

Do you have a defined on-demand plan?

Does your company put together the on-demand plan for your webinar after it’s on-demand? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. We’ve found that most companies make this mistake. Your on-demand plan should be in place when you’re putting together your overall project plan. A few things to consider:

• You should make your webinar available on-demand shortly after the live date, ideally within 24 to 48 hours.
• Send an email to all attendees and those that registered/didn’t attend, providing them with access to the on-demand version.
• Send a post event survey to your attendees, asking them about their webinar experience. Their feedback can help you understand where you thrived and how you can improve, and provide you with content ideas moving forward.
• Send a series of emails to your target list that didn’t register at all, enticing them to register for the on-demand webinar so they can see what they missed.
• Promote it through your social channels (again, LinkedIn and Twitter typically drive the best results) to maximize your reach.
• Have defined call, email, and social messaging scripts that your sales team will use to turn webinar registrants and attendees into qualified leads for your business.
• Take the key moments of your webinar and condense them into a 6-7-minute highlight reel. These shorter format videos have proven to be outstanding assets for field marketing and social media marketing initiatives. You can leverage the metrics and analytics from your webinar to build additional assets as well – blogs, case studies, executive briefs, surveys, video interviews, and other webinars.

I know this seems like a lot, but conducting a great webinar isn’t easy. It takes a detailed plan, consistent communication amongst all parties involved, and a clearly defined process to generate the webinar ROI you’re looking for. With all the webinars flooding the market today, an iron-clad process is no longer a nice-to-have…it’s a necessity.

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him @ jstegent@elasticroi.com

Boosting your webinar ROI involves a mix of strategic planning, relevant content, and effective engagement techniques every step of the way. Here are seven engagement tactics that will help your webinars stand out from the crowd and deliver the ROI you’re looking for.

1. Targeted Pre-Webinar Promotion

• Segmented Outreach: Tailor your promotions to specific audience segments to ensure they receive content relevant to them. Personalize your promotions through as many channels as possible – email marketing, website, social media, press releases, 3rd parties, call outreach – to generate maximum response.
• Compelling and Concise: Your registration page and all marketing materials should clearly highlight your brand and the value of your webinar. Why should your prospects attend? What’s in it for them? What will they learn? If your registration page and promotions don’t answer these questions, you’re doing it wrong. This should all be done in a concise manner…don’t be long winded with your value proposition and call-to-action (CTA).
• Incentivize Your Audience: Offer free trials or consultations, access to exclusive content, or entry into a prize drawing to encourage registrations and attendance.

2. Choose Dynamic Speakers

• Expert Presenters: Choose speakers who are not only knowledgeable, but also engaging and charismatic. Lively presenters can significantly boost attendee engagement.
• Practice and Preparation: No matter how good your speakers are, don’t overlook the importance of practice, practice, practice. Be sure to schedule dry runs so your speakers maintain a smooth flow throughout the webinar. Also be sure they are comfortable from a technical perspective. The last thing you want is a technical mishap the day of the webinar that could’ve (should’ve) clearly been avoided.

3. Increase Your Registration to Attendee Ratio

• Confirmation and Reminder Emails: Registrants should receive confirmation emails instantly, providing them with their login information and details about the webinar. Automated reminder emails should be sent leading up to the event, including a final reminder on the day of the webinar to maximize attendance.
• Nurture with Content: From the time they register up until the webinar date, nurture registrants with relevant content that will provide additional value. This will get them even more familiar with your brand and increase the chances of them attending.

4. Webinar Timing and Duration

• Optimal Timing: Schedule webinars at dates and times when your audience is most likely to engage. In terms of days, Tuesday and Wednesday are best and Thursday is good as well. For times, we’ve found that 1pm Central/2pm Eastern is the ideal time to host a webinar.
• Concise Content: For the most part, the days of the 60-minute webinar (or longer) are over. Your prospects want to get in and out quicker, but still receive the value they signed up for. Keep your webinar duration manageable to limit attendee fatigue and drop off. We’ve found that anything around 45 minutes is ideal.

5. Live Webinar Engagement and Interaction

• Live Q&A: Be certain that you allocate time for a live Q&A session where attendees can ask questions and interact with the presenters. These Q&A sessions can provide valuable insights for attendees that they wouldn’t have otherwise received.
• Chats and Polls: Use live chat and polling features to encourage attendee participation and gather instant feedback during the webinar.
• Downloadable Assets and Resource Sharing: Offer downloadable assets and resources such as slide decks, whitepapers, reports, eBooks, videos, and blogs to provide additional value and keep the audience engaged beyond the webinar. And if you’re using the right webinar platform, you’ll be able to see who downloaded and engaged with these assets.

6. Webinar Next Steps and Additional Interaction

• Clear CTAs: End the webinar with clear, actionable next steps, such as scheduling a meeting or demo, signing up for a free trial or consultation, or providing them with a link where they can get additional valuable information.
• Breakout Sessions: Use breakout rooms for smaller group discussions or interactive workshops after the webinar to enhance attendee engagement and provide a more personalized experience.

7. The On-Demand Engagement Plan

• On-Demand Access: Provide all attendees and those that registered/couldn’t attend with on-demand access shortly after the webinar, preferably within 24 to 48 hours. Then promote the on-demand webinar to generate additional registrations and attendees. It’s all about extending the shelf-life and value of your hard-earned content.
• Feedback Surveys: Send follow-up surveys to gather feedback on your webinar’s content, delivery, and overall user experience. Leverage the data you receive to improve your webinars moving forward.
• Repurpose Your Webinar: Webinars can create a treasure trove of additional content. Beyond the on-demand recording, you can use your webinar to create highlight reel videos, blogs, case studies, and webinar briefs. You can also use audience engagement data as the foundation for future webinars. This is why, when done properly from beginning to end, webinars are the ultimate lead generation tool.
• Take Immediate Action: Follow up with attendees and registrants through personalized call, email, and social media campaigns. Use your engagement metrics and analytics to market more efficiently and sell smarter to your webinar participants. This will increase conversions and take your webinar ROI to the next level.

Implementing these tactics can help you create a more engaging and valuable webinar experience from beginning to end, ultimately increasing conversions and greatly improving webinar ROI.

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him @ jstegent@elasticroi.com

You just attended a webinar and came away thoroughly impressed. The entire experience from the registration page, to the look and feel of the webinar environment, to the speakers and the presentation was first class. Guess what? That didn’t just happen overnight. It took meticulous planning and preparation to deliver that experience. After years of executing countless webinars and digital events, we’ve come to the conclusion that the ideal webinar project plan should consist of six weeks. Here’s what each week should entail, along with what you should do the day of the event to ensure webinar success.

6 Weeks Out

• Define who the audience is. Is it for net new prospects? Existing leads and opportunities that you’re looking to move down the funnel? Is it for existing customers where you’re looking to educate and upsell? Defining this will dictate what kind of webinar you’re going to have in terms of what will be presented and how. For example, a broader webinar to establish subject matter expertise might make more sense for net new prospects, while a case study and ROI driven webinar could make more sense for existing opportunities that you’re looking to close. It’s very important to match the content with the audience. Make it relevant.
• One you know who the audience is and the type of webinar you’ll be delivering, now is the time to begin working on topics, webinar descriptions, and the information you want to get from your registrants. When thinking about topics, make sure they’re not overly long. Shorter topics that let your audience know they’re going to learn something tend to work best. We’ve found that using numbers and “How to” in webinar titles really resonates with folks because they know they’re going to be educated more than being sold to.
• Determine who your speakers are. Look for presenters that have experience, are dynamic, and will keep your audience engaged. Your presenters can make all the different in the world, so choose wisely.
• Lay out your promotional plan and cadence. Be sure to use a multi-pronged approach to get in front of your audience and drive registrations – email, social, outbound calling, digital ads, SEO, press releases, premium placement on your website,, leveraging partners to help spread the word. Everything is on the table and now is when you want to get your promotional mix solidified.

5 Weeks Out:

• Now that your webinar topic and description are defined, it’s time to build your webinar registration page. You need to have the ability to optimize your registration page and build one that is on brand and has a clear call to action. Include your logo and color scheme, custom banners, multimedia, presenter pics and bios. Be sure visitors to this page can save it to multiple calendar types and have the ability to test their system to ensure they’re properly setup to view your webinar. In terms of registration fields, get the information you absolutely need. It’s been proven that too many fields can turn off potential registrants. We’ve found that 5-7 is the sweet spot and asking a question during the registration process is always a good idea. It will give you a better sense of who they are, challenges they’re faced with, initiatives they have, etc. There are a lot of boring registration pages out there, so stand out from the crowd and make yours engaging.
• Determine if you’re webinar is going to be 100% live or what we call simulive. A simulive webinar is one that is pre-recorded and then broadcast as a ‘live’ event with certain live elements like Q&A, polling, etc. Live vs. simulive is another blog for another day!

4 Weeks Out:

• Begin the promotional engine with an initial email blast to your targeted audience. We’re bullish on four weeks of promotions to drive an optimal audience. Remember, leverage a multi-pronged approach.
• Get your presenters together for a brainstorming session to discuss the flow of the webinar. The topic and description are already defined, obviously, but now is the time to begin thinking about how the discussion will flow. Along those lines, you’ll notice I used the word “discussion.” Webinars should be collaborative, engaging discussions that make your attendees want to engage. Make it relevant, lively, and energetic. If you make it boring, your audience will think you are boring and nobody wants that.

3 Weeks Out:

• Not that you’re starting to get some registrants, how are you going to engage with them from now until the live webinar date? Provide them with relevant content leading up to the webinar as a way to nurture them and keep them engaged. Doing this will Improve your registration to attendee ratios as well.
• Now that your presenters have brainstormed on the flow of the webinar discussion, now is the time to start building your PPT deck. Stay away from death by PPT, which is a real thing. Too many slides that are overly complicated can lose an audience. Your slides should be a foundational element that act as a jumping off point. They should not tell the whole story. We always tell our customers that their slides should be constructed as such that they provide little value to the audience by themselves. To understand your slides, people have to attend and hear you talk against them. Finally, stay away from overly animated slides. They often serve little purpose other than providing your attendees with strained eyes and a headache. Less is more here.

2 Weeks Out:

• This is when your initial dry run should take place. If you’re dealing with really experienced, seasoned webinar professionals, it may only take one dry run. With that said, we always recommend two dry runs to give everyone peace of mind that they’re going to nail the presentation. Dry runs don’t have to be exactly like it’s going to go the day of the event, but they do need to cover responsibilities, key talking points, and how the webinar is going to be delivered overall.
• During the dry run, you want to ensure your presenters are technically sound from an A/V perspective. Make sure their speakers and microphones are optimal and that their audio is clear and crisp. If they’re going to be on camera, their video needs to be high quality and not grainy. Additionally, if they’re going to be on camera be sure the room they’re in provides good lighting and they are clearly visible with no distractions. If your webinar platform has background options for your speakers, now would be a good time to test this out. I personally like a real, professional looking background if it’s available.
• Define the engagement tactics you’re going to use during the webinar such as live Q&A, polling, surveys, resource/content downloads, attendee chat, social feeds, etc. If your platform has the ability to go into breakout rooms after the webinar for a deeper dive discussion, that’s another thing to consider.
• Finalize how the webinar user interface (UI) will look. You want your attendees to enter your webinar environment and be wowed. Like your registration page, the webinar UI should be on brand and look like it’s your event. Ensure you’re using a webinar platform that enables you to customize your UI several different ways.
• In addition to all the other promotions you have going, now is a good time to send your 2nd dedicated email blast to your targeted audience,

1 Week Out:

• At this point, your presentation and slide deck should be finalized. It’s understandable if you still have a few edits to make on your PPT, but it should be mostly complete at this stage.
• A second dry run, if necessary, should be executed the week before the webinar to be extra sure everybody is comfortable with the webinar presentation and their setup for the event.
• Your first reminder email should be sent to your existing registrants, reminding them about the webinar date/time and their login details.
• In addition to all your other promotions, now is a good time to send your third dedicated email blast to your target audience.

Week of and Live Day:

• Make sure your slide deck is final two days before the webinar. No last minute, live day changes if it can be avoided!
• If your presenters want to have one last discussion to tie up any loose ends, have them do it a day or two before.
• If your registration numbers are lagging, sending one more email blast 1-2 days before to get some last minute registrants is always a good idea.
• The day of the event, send a 2nd reminder email to all existing registrants a few hours before the webinar. This will keep your event top of mind and help improve your registration to attendee ratio.
• If your webinar is going to be 100% live, make sure your presenters login to the platform 30 minutes before the webinar starts. Logging in early enables you to do last minute system tests and performance checks, and it reinforces how everything will be handled if a presenter loses connection or is disrupted somehow. It’s technology and anything can happen, so always be testing and have troubleshooting plans in place for worst case scenarios. You’ll be thankful you did.
• You’re live. Knock it out of the park, engage your attendees, and give your audience multiple reasons to keep coming back for more webinars down the road.

As we all know, with webinars it’s more about just planning for the live date. You can substantially extend the shelf-life and value of your webinars through a well thought out on-demand plan. Be on the lookout for a blog in the coming weeks that will provide you with a roadmap for on-demand webinar success.

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him @ jstegent@elasticroi.com

We now live in a digital event world and virtual events continue to be a key digital channel that marketers use to engage, educate, and generate leads for their business. With that said, sometimes it’s good to go back to the basics and remind ourselves why virtual events are so valuable and advantageous in the first place. Here are the five main advantages of virtual events.

1. They are more cost effective than in-person events.

Not only are virtual events more cost effective for the organization hosting, but they’re more cost effective for your attendees as well. Think about everything that goes into hosting an in-person event and how expensive they are. Virtual events have been proven to cost 80-85% less than physical events. Now think about the cost involved in attending an in-person event and everything that entails – travel, hotels, entertainment, time away from the office. There’s a lot of economic uncertainty right now and travel, entertainment, and physical events are typically first on the chopping block for budget conscious executives. Virtual events offer you a budget friendly alternative to stay in front of your target audience and drive revenue for your business.

2. They are more time efficient.

Again, the advantage is realized by the host and attendees. The main reason people don’t attend in-person events is because they can’t justify the cost and time away from the office. Let’s face it, going to a conference can be a time killer for your audience. They’re gone for 3-4 days and then they get back to the office and find themselves behind. That’s obviously not an issue with virtual events since people can attend from anywhere on any device. Additionally, creating a virtual event is more time efficient than creating an in-person event. The average virtual event takes 6-7 weeks to plan and execute, while an in-person event can take 2-3x longer on average. Think about all the time you can save, and increase in efficiency you’ll realize, by going virtual.

3. They offer greater reach with less restrictions.

No need to worry about hosting an event that is close or central to your target audience. With virtual events, your reach is limitless. Yes, you still want to have folks attend your event that meet your ideal profile, but you’re not limited by geography. You can 10x your attendance by going virtual, providing you with more opportunities to engage, educate, and create meaningful relationships that convert into revenue for your business. I know I may sound like Captain Obvious here, but I believe organizations lose sight of just how many restrictions in-person events have compared to virtual events.

4. They are more measurable.

Getting a list of registrants, attendees, and scanning a badge simply isn’t enough. And guess what? That’s all you get for most in-person events. By going the virtual route, you gain 360-degree visibility into everything your audience is doing and how engaged they are – how long they’re in the environment; spaces they visit; sessions they attend; content they view and/or download; questions and interactions they have; connections they make; how they respond to polls and surveys; how satisfied they are with the overall event, etc. What you can measure with the right virtual event platform is head and shoulders above what you get from in-person event data. Going virtual will provide you with a deeper understanding of what matters to your target audience, enabling you to market more efficiently and sell smarter to them. The end result? Better leads that convert to revenue, providing you with significantly enhanced event ROI.

5. They have a longer shelf-life.

With in-person events, more often than not they are over when they’re over. Most organizations don’t do a good job of capturing certain elements of their physical event and making it available for on-demand viewing and engagement. Virtual events can be archived for months (events on the Elastic Events platform come stock with 90 days of on-demand archiving), continuing to act as a marketing resource and lead generator for your business well after the live date(s). Many of our customers like to turn their virtual events into virtual resource centers that are updated with fresh new content and educational material on a weekly or monthly basis. To get the most out of your on-demand virtual event, it’s important to have a multi-pronged promotional strategy in place well ahead of time to ensure you get significant on-demand traffic. Doing so will increase your virtual event ROI that much more.

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him @ jstegent@elasticroi.com

Webinars are a B2B marketer’s best friend due to the reach, audience insight, leads, and pipeline they generate. For those of you that haven’t yet taken the leap and are wondering if you’re ready for a webinar program, here are four questions to ask yourself:

1. Have I clearly defined who my target audience is?

Like any well-planned marketing and lead generation program, it’s vital to define who your target audience is. This will dictate the content you use, your messaging, presenters, and calls to action within your webinars. You can look at your audience through multiple lenses: prospects vs. customers; industries and company types; job functions and roles; where they are in their buying journey, etc. It’s important that your content matches the audience you’re trying to engage. The right content at the right time will improve your conversion rates and generate greater webinar ROI.

2. Do I know the type of content I want to have within my webinars and how I’m going to position it?

This piggy backs off the first question you must ask yourself. Once you’ve defined your target audience, you need to create webinar content that speaks to them. If you’re going after brand-new prospects, you’re attempting to educate them, establish yourself as a credible organization with expertise, and move them into the sales funnel. It’s very important that you offer ways for your prospects to engage within your webinars (polling, surveys, handouts, Q&A, chat, breakout rooms, etc.), so you can uncover insight that will enable you to sell and market to them more effectively. If existing qualified leads are the target of a specific webinar, you’re looking to drive them further down the funnel. In this instance, your webinar may not be as high level, but instead focus on specific challenges that folks like them may be faced with. In these sessions, you can drill down into how you solve a specific challenge, provide a demo of your solution (if applicable) and/or provide case studies on how you’ve helped similar personas and organizations. Of course, existing customers are another story. Your customer-centric webinars should focus on enhancing the customer experience through education and updates, which hopefully leads to improved retention rates and upselling opportunities. Again, the right content at the right time…delivered to the right audience.

3. Am I confident that I have the right presenters to educate and engage my audience?

When it comes to webinars, regardless of the audience, engagement is the name of the game and good/bad presenters can make or break your webinar program. Whether its your own employees, customers, partners, or 3^rd parties you’re bringing into the fold, look for presenters that:

• Have webinar presentation experience and/or presentation experience in general.
• Are energetic, conversational, and will get your audience touching their keyboards. If they’re boring and uninspiring, your attendees will think your organization is boring and uninspiring.
• Have technical acumen and the equipment necessary to deliver a technically clean webinar experience for your audience.
• Can get to the point and deliver value for your attendees in an adequate amount of time. If your presenters are long winded, you run the risk of your audience losing interest and logging off. Keep your attendees engaged and make the best use of their time.

4. Do I know how to properly promote, technically manage, and get the most out of my webinar investment?

When it comes to your webinar promotions, it’s all about time, your marketing mix, and who you’re going to promote it to.

• Time – plan on a 6-week project plan for each webinar, giving yourself four weeks’ worth of promotions.
• Marketing mix – a multi-pronged approach is crucial to generate the audience you’re looking for. Use all channels at your disposal – website, email blasts (4 over the course of 4 weeks), social media, newsletters and press releases, 3^rd party databases that you have access to, and phone. Yes, the phone still works!
• We talked about your target audience earlier – your promotions need to be geared towards the specific industries, companies, and personas that you want attending your webinar.

Technical and production details must not be overlooked, because technical mishaps can kill your webinar program. If you don’t feel comfortable producing and technically managing your webinars, work with a managed service webinar provider that brings their technology and management of the webinar process to the table.

Finally, to get the most out of your webinar investment, think beyond the live webinar itself. Webinars are so much more than the live date. Think about how you’re going to execute an on-demand plan that will extend the shelf-life and value of your webinars. And think about how you can take your webinar content and repurpose it into other content formats that engage your audience, drive demand, and accelerate revenue.

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him @ jstegent@elasticroi.com

Great virtual events start with a well thought out project plan that details everything that must happen from event conception to event archive. If you try to wing it, or become undisciplined and skip steps in the process, you’re setting yourself up for a failure that will have a negative impact on your brand.

Here are 10 steps we’ve identified that should be a part of any virtual event project plan:

1. Define your event’s goals and objectives – what do you want your event to be? Is it an event to generate demand and drive pipeline, an event to enhance the customer experience and forge stronger relationships, or something else? Defining the goals and objectives of your event will set the tone for how you promote it, who you promote it to, and what your virtual environment will entail. Just like every marketing and demand generation campaign begins with laying out goals and objectives before officially executing, you should take the same approach with your virtual event.
2. Create a budget – the type of virtual event you plan on hosting will dictate how much you should budget for. When you’re looking at 100% virtual events, the amount of event spaces within your environment, how much content you’ll have, and how many concurrent users will attend your event will determine your costs for the most part (other a la carte items and extras can impact pricing as well). If you’re going the hybrid route, you also need to consider the costs involved for the in-person setup and everything that entails. Whereas 75% of your budget would typically go to the venue for your in-person event, 75% of your budget will most likely go to your technology provider/partner for your virtual event. Plan accordingly.
3. Build your content and event space plan: quality and on brand – now that you know the type of event you’re going to execute and how much it’s going to cost, you should build out your content and event space roadmap with a focus on quality and being on brand. What impactful speakers will you be bringing to the table? How are you going to personalize content to your specific audience? Whether it’s webinars, videos, or a piece of literature, you want to provide content that is engaging and gets your audience touching their keyboard. As you look at your event spaces, think about the different ways you can highlight your brand and products through logos, banners, advertisements, and various CTA’s.
4. Identify a PARTNER for your specific event and technology needs – executing world-class virtual events aren’t easy. They take a lot of meticulous planning and work to get it right. It’s imperative that you align yourself with a PARTNER, not just a technology vendor, that will act as an extension of your team and help manage the event process from A-Z. Your ideal virtual event partner should have great technology, be in constant communication with you, and bring an unwavering commitment to impeccable customer service. That’s what we bring to our customers every day, and you shouldn’t settle for anything less.
5. Registration page and promotional roadmap – when you build your registration page, there are several things to consider: will your platform provider have registration page capabilities, or will you have to host it on your side or through some other 3^rd party? How will you highlight your company, brand, and agenda for the event to increase your chances of driving quality registrations? What information do you want to capture about your event registrants? You need to make sure you get the registration page right because it’s the first impression your target audience will have of your event. Next, think about how you’re going to promote the event and for how long. As with all digital events, we highly recommend a multi-pronged approach that leverages several channels to attack your audience and drive the event traffic you’re looking for. While email is still the most effective way to generate registrations, use every promotional tool at your disposal – website, social, press releases, partners, 3^rd party publications, etc. In terms of the time needed to promote, it really depends on the size and scope of your virtual event. While the average promotional window for a webinar is around 4 weeks, for example, you’re looking at about 8 weeks on average for virtual events.
6. Attendee engagement action plan – many companies make the mistake of only thinking about engagement during the event. You need to be thinking about how you’re going to engage your audience before, during, and after the event. When somebody registers, sending them a gift box or pre-event swag can increase the chances that they will attend. Providing your registrants with relevant information and content before the event could increase your chances of them becoming event ambassadors. And think about allowing your registrants to set their agenda beforehand, so they can maximize their time and be efficient the day(s) of your event. During the event, think about the different ways you can engage your audience – personalized content and webinars for their specific job function; video chat and breakout sessions that connect them with peers and industry experts; gamification that immerses them in your event experience and separates you from the competition, etc. Post event, the engagement shouldn’t stop. Archive your event on-demand and continue to give your attendees access for a certain amount of time. Create snippets or highlight reels of the virtual event and deliver it to your registrants and attendees…essentially key moments from the event that they can easily consume. And finally, get their feedback. Send them surveys that ask them about their event experience – what did they like, dislike, and what would they like to see from your digital events moving forward? This feedback can be critical in setting up your virtual event roadmap moving forward.
7. Education, training, and testing across the board – before the event, send tutorials to your registrants that show them how they can navigate the environment and make the most out of their virtual event experience. Educate your speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors (and educate them again) on how to use the technology so they’re prepared to execute on the big day. Finally, test your event environment and test it some more. We recommend that the last 7-10 days before your virtual event is dedicated almost solely to testing and ensuring that everyone is fully comfortable with the platform and their role in the virtual event.
8. Live day support – if something goes wrong, how are you going to troubleshoot it? What does your customer support team look like to ensure that your attendees, presenters, sponsors, exhibitors, and partners are having a great virtual event experience? These are things that need to be flushed out well before your event goes live. As noted above, properly testing everything before the event can drastically limit the amount of support tickets you have to deal with, but if you’re hosting a virtual event with a lot of participants it’s likely that someone out there is going to have a technical difficulty. We’ve found that it’s almost always on their side and not the platform provider, but it’s your event and your job to put your best foot forward in helping them have a glitch-free virtual event experience. This is one of the areas where having a managed-service virtual event provider really helps. At Elastic, we put together a team to help manage your virtual event and this includes customer and technical support for your live day(s). Your technology partner should be able to connect with your event participants through email, text chat, video/audio chat, and phone. As your go through the virtual event technology selection process, ask providers about their support capabilities. It could make or break your event.
9. Event intelligence through analytics and reporting – there are two things that will set the tone here:

   1. The registration fields you require on your registration page. It’s extremely important to determine upfront the data you want to capture from your attendees.
   2. The virtual event partner that you work with. As you source platform providers, ask them to see what their reporting and analytics look like. You should be able to see all movements attendees make within your virtual event environment. One of the great things about virtual events is they offer a wealth of data and superior metrics and attendee insight compared to physical, in-person events. Make sure that you choose a platform provider that can equip you with the data and insight you need to make smarter sales and marketing decisions post event.
10. Extend the shelf-life of your event for greater ROI – for the most part, when an in-person event is over it’s over. With virtual events, you can extend their shelf-life through on-demand archiving so that they continue to generate ROI over a longer period. However, don’t wait to set your on-demand plan until after the live event is over. When you’re determining how you’re going to promote your event to generate live day attendees, you should also be putting your on-demand plan together. You should promote your archived event with the same urgency that you promoted your live event with. Virtual events are a content marketer’s dream, and you have a wealth of content that can continue to generate leads and drive pipeline for your business long after the live event is over. Capitalize on it!

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him @ jstegent@elasticroi.com