Jamie Beck, Cisco's program manager, who will be at the Raleigh Internet Summit Nov. 15-16.

By Allan Maurer

So, you go to your marketing webinar on time and sit there with nothing happening waiting for the presenters to manage signing in. As the minutes tick by, the number of attendees on the sidebar drops steadily.

“This may sound elementary,” says Jamie Beck, services program manager at Cisco, “but make sure you have 30 minutes in front of a webinar to systems checks.”

Beck says he has been on webinars where they spend the first ten minutes dealing with people having a problem dialing in. “I’ve seen it happen in a webinar with 100s of people. It is a pain for attendees if you spend even the first three minutes fooling with that. You’ll see people dropping off. So make sure your presentors are there well ahead of time.”

That’s one of the webinar best practices and strategies Beck will discuss at the Internet Summit at the Raleigh, NC Convention Center Nov. 15-16. Beck is one dozens of digital media thought-leaders presenting at the event, which is the largest digital media happening in the Southeast.

Offer a chance at a gift

Another best practice, he says, is to offer an incentive beyond the content to attract attendees.

“You may think your content is great, but I’ve seen webinars where you end up with two people from 500 invites. Offer people something as an incentive.” Cisco, for instance, will give those who attend a chance to win a flipcam.

“Some of the biggest webinar failures I’ve seen, including one where I was a keynote speaker and had a compelling message, didn’t offer anything but the content. So unless you have people locked into the content, offer a $25 Amazon card or some other incentive.”

Devise a compelling invite

Most webinars are promoted through email campaigns, and a regular text email is not very compelling, Beck says. “You should have compelling information – four or five bullet points – in a nicely designed email, including photos and/or graphics.”

That might be a problem for those without staff skilled at that or an agency. If that’s the case, Beck says, “You can make sure your message is clear and concise. Don’t go into information overkill. If people have to read through four paragraphs they’ll never make it to the webinar link.”

Instead, if you want to supply more information, “You can have a link off the webinar site with a lot of information,” he suggests.

Provide the presentation materials

Finally, Beck says, make sure you offer those who attend access to any presentation materials such as PowerPoint slides or white papers. People can do screenshots anyway, so whatever is presented can’t be kept private. “Make it available,” Beck says. “It’s another piece of incentive.”

Beck says he’s still working on his Internet Summit presentation, “kicking ideas around in my head.” In addition to best webinar strategies, he plans to offer a list of webinar technology available, both free and paid so that “it doesn’t sound like a sales pitch for Cisco’s Webex.”