Companies today invest a lot into webinars and online marketing. Some base the “success” of the webinar on how many people attended, but that has almost nothing to do with its success. 1,000+ people could attend your webinar and 1,000+ people could walk away bored and disinterested.
If someone creates a product launch webinar, and 10,000 people attend, but only 25 buy, that is a very low conversion rate, and it’s doubtful that anyone would consider that a success. Conversely, if 5% or 500 people buy that would likely elicit a much more positive review of the presentation.
This article discusses what you should truly be using to measure success.
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Measuring The Success Of Your Webinar
Depending on your type of webinar, there are different ways you can measure success, but for webinars that aim to showcase a product or service, or collect information on potential clients, these are some of the best metrics:
The number of people who purchase your product or service as a result of the webinar.
This, of course, is your ultimate goal in hosting a sales webinar. If you can obtain this information, this is a great indicator of success. This kind of information is often difficult to obtain, though. If possible, track sales by using identifying information. For example, compare the email addresses (or names, addresses, etc.) that participants used to register for your webinar with those of people who buy your product(s) in the following months. You can always issue a follow-up survey after the webinar to ask participants if they made a purchase of your products or services after the event.
The percentage of people still connected at the end the webinar compared to the beginning.
The audience retention rate from the beginning to the end indicates how many people remained interested in your topic for the duration of your webinar. This is certainly an indicator of success.
The level of the audience’s engagement during the webinar.
The audience’s engagement can be determined by how many people asked questions or made comments, how willing they were to participate in the Q&A and the degree of enthusiasm expressed by participants.
How well you met the audience’s expectations.
Post-webinar surveys are great tools for collecting information and also for reminding people about the information they learned. Follow-up is a critical step for every webinar. Be sure to ask what the audience’s expectations were prior to the webinar and whether those expectations were met. This will help you evaluate success and also plan for an even better webinar next time.
The amount of follow-up response after the webinar.
When you send out a post-webinar survey, the number of people who respond is an indicator of overall interest. Even more so, the number of people who follow up with you apart from a survey is a strong indicator of interest. For example, people who email you with questions, requests for more information or requests for a copy of the presentation are clearly interested in your company. It’s important to follow up with these specific people later down the road to remind them of your products and services.
Whether your own objectives were met.
One of the biggest mistakes that people make when creating webinars is not considering the goals and objectives they wish to achieve beforehand. For any webinar, specific, measurable objectives should be clearly defined before the webinar is even designed. This helps to guide the development of the webinar and measure progress. Some people may base the success of their webinar solely on this metric. Objectives define what you aim to achieve, and if you determine that some or all of your objectives are met by the webinar, then this is an effective measurement of success.
Ask attendees to sign up for your email-marketing list.
One of the best gages of success is whether people were so impressed by the information they heard that they sign up for your list. Most people appreciate value, and when they find a source of it, they want more. Offer a subscription towards the end of the webinar, and be clear about the details. This is not only a great opportunity to gage their response and therefore the success of the webinar, but it is also a great opportunity to build a list of customers for email marketing purposes.
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