Selecting Your Webinar Platform – 7 Factors to Consider for High ROM Results

Concerned people keep asking me how my business has been impacted by COVID-19 and the absence of events. Have you looked in your inbox recently?  Doesn’t it feel like every other email is inviting you to join a free webinar, a virtual conference or an exclusive online conversation with an expert? It’s not your imagination. According to ON24, a digital experience platform provider, April 2020 saw a 167% increase in webinars run just on their platform compared to the 2019 average.

So, is it time for you to jump on the webinar/ digital experience bandwagon, but you don’t know where to start? First, you must remember: the need for high ROM results is more important than ever to build your business, strengthen your brand and connect with your high-value stakeholders, so when venturing into this unknown territory there is a lot to consider. A critical item to evaluate is the actual delivery platform. You can have great ideas, great content and creative delivery plans, but if you don’t start with a platform that meets your goals, these other factors are guaranteed to fall flat. Let me put it in 2019 terms: would you host a 10 person intimate, high value client dinner in a cavernous convention center exhibit hall or sponsor a 500 person day-long educational conference in a windowless, basement level classroom? Your high ROM moment needs to happen in the right location and digital platforms are the virtual venue.

Know Your Moment’s Why

Like in-person events, the first step is to know the “why” of your digital experience. Not only will this help you set ROM goals and drive a more thorough post-event analysis, it will help you narrow down the countless delivery platforms currently available.  Wondering where to begin? Here’s a #FreshTip… there are six primary reasons to produce an online event, as outlined by Steve Dotto in a July, 2018 blog:

1. Presentations. Great for sharing information with large groups of people. Use presentation-style webinars to run online training and events or teach large groups of people.
2. Marketing. Designed to promote a specific product or service, marketing webinars can work at various points of your sales funnel.
3. Sales. Sales webinars are used towards the end of a funnel and are purposefully designed to help you sell a product or service to your audience.
4. Meetings. A webinar doesn’t have to be a large affair– you can run small-group meetings like team meetings, masterminds, or small-group online trainings.
5. Training. A training webinar usually happens in-team or within an online course and is designed to help the instructor share high-quality material with the participants. These types of webinar work best if your software has a strong Q&A function.
6. Shows. Who said you can’t run entertainment-style shows in webinar format? This is a great format for audience building.

I’m focusing on the first three – presentations, marketing and sales.  They are all about sharing information, but what differentiates marketing & sales is the idea that you are driving attendees toward your sales funnel, which in my opinion, should be a key ROM measurable for this kind of event.

Vendor Factors to Consider

Here are 7 factors to consider when selecting a marketing & sales digital experience delivery platform, compiled and shared by Khrys Steven, a digital sales expert.

1. Sound & video quality – this is your venue. It should be in brand alignment, delivering the quality your clients expect from  your business
2. Number of Attendee capabilities – be sure to understand the platform’s capacities.
3. Interactive capabilities – people are still craving connection. Can your platform allow for connecting opportunities like polls, surveys and real-time Q&A?
4. Ease of use (for clients and producer) – don’t make clients jump through countless hoops (uploads, downloads, logins, etc.) to access your event. Can your staff manage the event? Will it require weeks of learning to smoothly produce an event on the platform?  If so, do you have that kind of time?
5. Be reasonably priced –. Would you prefer a platform with a free trial window before you purchase? How many consider how many digital experiences you’ll be producing?
6. Email Marketing Service compatibility – can you integrate this service with your digital platform?
7. Payment Gateway – are you charging for your webinar? Are you creating an immediate CTA that involves an “on-site” discount? Be sure that your platform and your gateway are compatible.

Ready to Jump In? Let’s connect

Want to learn more about finding the right online venue for your digital experience, how to set goals and measure the effectiveness of these digital moments? Click here to set up a time for us to connect.