• case studies you can use to highlight a successful project or hot trend
• new customers or contract wins
• new technologies you support that represent trends
• company milestones such as growth, partnerships, etc. that could make a difference to your clients
• stories highlighting service in the local community and beyond
• achievement of industry awards
• the addition of new customer-facing personnel

This is the latest in an occasional series on webinar marketing. Why so much focus on webinars? Because they’re relatively inexpensive to produce, particularly when compared to road shows and other live events. Webinars are an increasingly important tool in the lead generation activities of marketing departments of tech companies. But, if they aren’t done right, the Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) will be adversely impacted.

Read on for five common pitfalls to avoid in your next webinar or series.

Your customers and prospects receive lots of offers to attend webinars. How many emails and other invitations have you received this week urging you to a product or solution webinar? How many have you received today? The important question: how many have you paid attention to and why? For more on how to put together a great webinar, read Maximize the value of your webinars.

Without further ado, here are the pitfalls:

1. Poor branding.

Read more about how to brand your webinars here. This is a big deal, and often a shortcoming for too many companies. How do you measure up?

2. Lack of content

If your webinar is a thinly-veiled sales pitch or you don’t have important information to communicate to the marketplace, a webinar strategy may not be your best option. Read more about why content comes first.

3. Failing at the follow up

We all know that follow up is where a lot of our best laid marketing plans too often fall apart. Make sure the follow up strategy is in place before you launch the webinar. How many days after the webinar will sales follow up? What will be their approach? How will they further quality leads? And, importantly, what role do you expect the webinar to have in your sales process?

4. Missing the mark

It is critical, of course, to deliver great content in a webinar. Secondly, it’s just as critical to use your webinars to build and reinforce your corporate and/or product brand. But make sure the two are not mutually exclusive. It is possible to distance your topic too far from what your company does. Just because you think prospects will opt into a webinar on a hot topic doesn’t mean hosting it will further the objectives of your organization.

5. Not getting the word out

This is Marketing 101. The marketing database and/or list to attract visitors to your webinars has to be a good one. Consider a distribution strategy that includes ads and sponsorship in influential industry media, through partners and other vehicles. Some media groups saturate their readership with emails for webinars, and a small business can get lost in the shuffle. Others are more targeted to industries, verticals, etc. It usually makes sense to opt for the latter.

For more on how to hold webinars that drive revenue, contact sales@q2marketing.com.

With the majority of companies watching every penny they spend, sales cycles will be impacted. You may start to notice that your sales are taking longer to close or companies are delaying purchases for indefinite periods of time. You need to start looking for sales elsewhere. Look at your customer base.

The majority of companies sell to clients and then forget about them. Unless they sold them maintenance contracts, which means they will touch base with the client…once the maintenance is up for renewal. If you recognize yourself in the previous sentence, break the mold. Put together an effective campaign to start communicating to your customer base. Aim to hit the customer base once a quarter with a variety of programs. If you are communicating quarterly, increase your program to monthly. Offer incentives specifically to the base for upgrades, additional services, etc. Review your product/service offerings and segment the customer base appropriately.

You will be surprised with the results. We all know that it is easier to sell to companies who know your company. Who knows you better than your customers?

• Social media, other than blogs—68%
• Enewsletters/email—60%
• Blogs—56%
• Case studies—55%
• Online video—51%
• White papers—46%
• Microsites—43%

A new joint study from Google and Tech Target, examines the search habits of technology professionals when making purchasing decisions. The purpose of the The Google/TechTarget Research Project:

• Reveal the mindset of the IT buyer in context of their purchase process and search mode
• Put marketers in a better position to make keyword buys, choose content to syndicate
• Determine optimal selection and scheduling of content and website media to attract the IT buyer

• Different search terms are used by buyers at various stages of the IT buying process
• There is a concrete relationship between search and branding, as well as lead generation and ROI implications
• Surprises were found regarding buyer utilization of new media including mobile devices, video and RSS feeds
• Information source preferences were established

• 53% of IT purchasers use search to discover vendor solutions they are not previously aware of
• 86% of searchers look for a familiar brand or manufacturer before clicking on a search result
• 67% willing to click on the link of a manufacturer with which they are not familiar
• Over 40% of searchers will click on search ads that are contextual to content on IT Publisher sites, and 46% willing to read those ads.

“We grew our business based on referral business from customers and business associates. We were going gangbusters. But now, a few years later, as we try and grow the company, the referrals aren’t keeping pace with our strategic goals.” 

This is a familiar story for growing small- and mid-sized businesses. It is especially familiar among business-to-government (B2G) companies. Does it have a ring of truth to you? If you fall into this camp, you may be among the many companies that have used referrals very successfully. You may have even been resistant to deploying marketing programs.

“We have grown and evolved a successful business without a concerted marketing engine,” you protest. “We’ve invested in sales, strategic alliances and relationships. We’ve developed repeat business in key government agencies or businesses and gotten significant referral business.”

This sound methodology has gotten you where you are today. No one can argue with the results of these business development strategies. But, consider this: Just because you didn’t need a coordinated marketing effort in the past doesn’t mean you don’t need it now.

Even companies with the best referrals eventually reach a point where they can’t continue to grow the company strategically. What now? This is where targeted strategic marketing comes into play. If your organization has reached this point, ask yourself what marketing programs you should be leveraging to raise your profile with your target audience.

Or, if you think you could be getting more referrals from trusted customers and partners, read:

Increase quality referrals

3 ways to get qualified referrals

3 more ways to get quality referrals

When costs are cut, executives look for ways to streamline marketing costs. If you’re reading this blog, we probably don’t need to state the case to you that webinars, or web seminars, are less expensive than events. The latter includes hotel rental, food and beverage, AV, etc. etc. And certainly, webinars are far less costly than a multi-city road show. 

How much information should we require an individual submit to when they download white papers, view demos, etc? Should we require any data at all? We get these questions a lot. While there are some considerations, there is a clear yes or no answer to this question.