Webinar Marketing for HR Tech has rapidly become one of the most effective strategies in today’s fast-evolving digital market.
With HR technology changing the landscape around how organizations manage talent, compliance, and the employee experience, simply reaching buyers through traditional marketing channels is not practical anymore.
Webinars give you the ability to engage prospects in meaningful conversations with real-time interactions while demonstrating thought leadership.
It helps in bringing value to your product in an environment that builds trust and strengthens relations.
Various studies have shown that 73% of B2B marketers say webinars generate quality leads, making them an often crucial element of the pipeline for HR Tech in speeding up the sales cycle.
In this article, we will explore the best practices for Webinar Marketing for HR Tech, from deciding the right format and event planning to promotion, engagement methods, and most importantly, post-webinar conversions.
Whatever your goal, whether it's introducing a new product or even building your brand authority, this will help throw the spotlight on opportunities in Webinar opportunities and convert attendees into customers!
HR Tech can be complex. Typically, buyers include HR leaders, IT teams, and finance decision-makers, and the buying cycle will be much longer - and more consultative- than a simple B2C market.
With an HR Tech product, webinars fit perfectly in the mix because they allow you to educate and engage all of the relevant stakeholders as a group.
Here are the key reasons why webinars are so effective for marketing HR Tech:
HR Tech buyers need to understand how the solution fits their unique problems and the functional nature of the product.
Webinars provide a length and more in-depth format to describe all of the product features, benefits, and use cases. Unlike ads or short emails, webinars can describe a solution in detail for a large group without blowing their mind.
Webinars are great because prospects can see and hear a real-life expert live. They can ask questions in Q&A and clarify specific doubts or concerns.
It adds a human element, where buyers need that trust when evaluating a large purchase of a software product.
HR Tech can be complicated. A live demonstration of software during a webinar allows buyers to see firsthand how the software works in an actual situation. This lowers doubt and expedites the buying process.
Webinars attract an engaged audience interested in a focused subject area, HR. Once you promote to segmented lists or communities, you can be certain attendees have a real need for your solution that the webinar would address.
This significantly increases the quality of leads.
Webinars have a great place for all aspects of the funnel.
You can create early-stage webinars that focus on trends and challenges in the industry, or mid to late-stage webinars that involve product demos or customer successes.
This flexibility provides a great mechanism to keep prospects warm through a long sales cycle.
In summary, webinars create a pathway to awareness and purchase for HR Tech buyers. They create a powerful, solid platform for education, engagement, and conversion, all represented by an element of trust, an understanding base within the market.
Learning from real-life examples of webinars and their potential can boost the considerations of HR Tech marketers to increase engagement and conversions.
Theoretically and best practices provide a basis for audience action, but seeing real companies achieve success with measurable outcomes brings actionable data and encouragement.
The following are three actual case studies that illustrate how the right strategy to market the webinar led to improved results, attendees, qualified leads, and a closed sales pipeline.
Leading provider of health services, Optum, wanted to enhance the quality of leads and speed up their sales pipeline through better engagement.
To do this, they leveraged the ON24 Intelligent Engagement Platform, which they integrated into their current marketing technology stack. With that integration, Optum was able to provide a personalized, data-driven webinar experience that resonated deeply with their target audience.
Optum had incredible results. They experienced a 300% increase in Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs), allowing them to drive their marketing efforts with more efficiency and effectiveness.
By tapping into the webinar analytics and accessing new levels of integration across platforms, Optum boosted its lead scoring and nurtured prospects more accurately, which reduced the sales cycle.
For HR Tech marketers, Optum's success presents the value of marrying great webinar technology and data integration to build lead generation and qualification.
When Synthesia,an AI-based video generation company, wanted to expand its audience and engagement using webinars, it turned to Zoom Webinars as a scalable platform that still featured many interaction-based capabilities.
Synthesia focused on hosting engaging and valuable content that allowed for interactivity via polls and Q&A through Zoom webinars.
The results were extraordinary: a 500% increase in attendance, as well as attendance and engagement levels that were even higher than their previous webinars.
This overwhelming success can generally be attributed to Synthesia being well-coordinated and all attendees being engaged from the very beginning to end.
What can HR Tech marketers take away from this?
The key takeaway is to choose the right platform and utilize interactivity to engage the audience and give them a reason to participate, especially in a competitive marketplace.
IMPACT is a well-known digital marketing agency that wanted to significantly increase attendance for its webinars. IMPACT worked with their partner Wipster and developed a promotional campaign to target engaged audiences, which included email outreach, social media ads and engagement, and relevant content positioning.
The result was the most registrants (almost 1,000 attendees) for a single webinar, which created brand awareness and a strong lead funnel.
The case study outlines how deliberate planning, intentional targeting, and consistent follow-up were all contributors to reaching their desired attendance results.
For HR Tech webinar planners, IMPACT's story shows that planning an intentional promotion and targeting the audience is as imperative as building the content of the webinar itself to ensure attendance.
When producing webinars that convert, HR Tech marketers should focus on actionable strategies to engage their audience and drive response and results. Here is a roundup of the five best practices, along with key takeaways to help you put them into action.
Copying and pasting your previous webinar type won't help you engage and convert your audience as it relates to their buyer's journey. Here are some tips:
Utilize educational webinars for awareness and building trust at the beginning of the journey.
Product demos or case studies help prospects who are looking for alternatives.
Interactive Q&A sessions or expert panels give deeper engagement.
Try multiple types of webinars to find what resonates most with your audience.
Getting the proper attendees registered for your event is half the work done.
To promote your event:
Send a targeted email and talk about it on social media channels
Collaborate with webinar marketing organizations or influencers on social media to promote the event
Create your social media event around real problems your target audience has
Don’t forget to send constant reminders leading up to webinar day
Technology can make or break the experience. The technology you choose should include:
Robust streaming technology that won’t hiccup.
Interactive features, including polling, chat, and Q&A
Easy integration with your customer relationship management (CRM) or marketing software
The ability to produce your anticipated number of attendees.
Avoid one-sided conversations. A webinar will be a success when it is made interactive by:
Conducting quick polls during the presentation.
Taking questions and answering them live during Q&As.
Encouraging chat so that individuals can participate in discourse.
Keeping slides simple and content straightforward!
The work is not done at the closing of the webinar, and since it’s important to value your time, your audience's time, and your content, you should always follow-up. Such as:
Quick thank you emails.
Send out the recording of the webinar, as well as any extra resources that you provided.
Point next steps, as in next steps - demos, meetings, calls, etc.
Follow-up messaging based on how engaged people were, the more engaged, you would assume, calls to action are followed up differently.
While planning for webinars, it is important to choose the right format. It will help your audience at every stage in the buying cycle. Promote webinars strategically through various channels to attract the right audience.
Use a reliable platform that includes interactive features to keep attendees engaged. Use polls or ask questions to encourage engagement and participation throughout the webinars once you have them there. Then quickly follow up with your attendees in a relevant and meaningful way to help take their interest and turn it into action.
For HR Tech marketers to build relationships, provide education, and attract qualified leads, a webinar is an excellent option. As we've seen in examples from our client experiences, like Optum, Synthesia, and IMPACT, having the right format, planning the right process, using the right technology, and constantly engaging your audience were the keys to proven success.
If you follow the best practices we've covered here, choosing the right types of webinars based on buyer needs, promoting them correctly, allowing for interaction, and following up, you can maximize attendance and conversions. Ultimately, a great webinar program can become the backbone of your B2B marketing program, placing you further in front of your pipeline growth and brand in your competitive HR Tech environment.
To participate in our interviews, please write to our HRTech Media Room at sudipto@intentamplify.com
