Webinar 2020 - what have we learned?

Digital switchover

2020 was the year of digital transformation - even for a digital agency. Webinars have become a big part of our everyday life here at InboundCPH. Since COVID-19 announced its arrival, we've been working to be able to share knowledge with you.

Nearly 3,000 have signed up for our SEO webinars, which have delved into nerd SEO as well as SEO at a more strategic level. We've been thrilled and surprised by the level of interest in our SEO webinars, despite COVID-19 kicking off a flurry of webinars.

At the beginning of Corona, we saw how some of our loyal customers felt compelled to stop their marketing activities. Many companies were faced with an uncertain situation and chose to cut where it seemed most appropriate for them. This trend didn't last long as companies realised that digital marketing, including SEO, Google Ads and SoMe, was not the right place to cut corners.

Then came a huge wave of people who had woken up to digital sales channels, eagerly attending our webinars. Throughout, participants have been great at providing feedback and sharing their experience with us. In this blog post, we take a closer look at how our webinars actually went, how we create value for participants, and what we learned to do better.

We will continue with webinars in the new year and do not expect traditional physical seminars until the summer. Please read on if you are considering attending one of our webinars. If you're looking to run a webinar yourself, you can also use the post to give some thought to your approach - and avoid some of the biggest pitfalls.

Evaluations from our webinars

First of all, it is important to look at whether the webinars you are organising meet the expectations of the participants. When talking SEO, it is a difficult balancing act between the levels of the participants and what knowledge they possess in relation to SEO. We have continuously adjusted the content and thanks to the feedback of the participants, it can be seen that the satisfaction on this parameter has increased.

The feedback we got was that the level was too high - but also too low. This set in motion a process of reflection on how best to embrace the wider audience. It required a softer introduction to SEO, while more elaboration in concrete cases seemed to grab participants at a different level.

When the more nerdy stakes came into focus, we warned participants that now things were getting a bit technical, and that made them stick around even if parts of the webinar weren't interesting to them. In addition, we created specific webinars on delineated topics that focused on specific parts of the SEO efforts.

Below are some selected comments:

• "You make (for me) complicated topics more accessible (e.g. the Migration book + SEO 2020, and the webinar today) - thanks for that :-)"
• "Really useful and concrete knowledge that I take with me. The host was a super good facilitator!"
• "Good graphs, gives a good overview and makes it not boring when there is something visual and some numbers to relate to."
• "Super good webinar, really good powerpoint and presentation, clear and interesting! Good opportunities to ask questions."

What have we learned?

In 2020, we learned that webinars are a great investment. It's time-consuming to set up and there can be a lot of bumps in the road - especially when it comes to technology.

At InboundCPH we invested in good equipment in terms of sound and image, but unfortunately that doesn't mean we've come through clearly every time. We learned that when technology is involved, it's almost impossible to avoid minor complications - no matter how well prepared you are.

We experienced problems with people seeing black screen, which neither we, our platform nor the recipient could explain why. We experienced problems with sound and connectivity. The best way to get through the technical challenges was often to talk it through with the participants, and then it was taken with a smile. We're all only human, and people were willing to stick around as long as we kept them up to date on what was going on.

Automated marketing was big in 2020, and we took advantage of that in our webinars. Unfortunately, it's not flawless and we experienced quite a few bugs throughout the year. These included emails being sent out incorrectly, too many emails and too few emails.

In addition, we learned that feedback from participants is worth its weight in gold. The feedback was often concrete and constructive, which allowed us to improve from time to time. In addition, the feedback also highlighted new issues that we could work from to develop new topics.

We learned that dialogue and questions take the webinar to a whole new level. By opening it up, you show that the webinar is live and not a recording, you get the opportunity to make sure all participants understand the content while creating a closer relationship with the participants and their starting point.

Here is our best advice

1. Prepare as best you can, but don't imagine a perfect webinar.
2. Collect feedback afterwards (people are great at responding).
3. Use a platform you are comfortable with (in addition, some asked to be able to see the host + slides throughout, which was not possible on our platform).
4. Provide participants with concrete and useful knowledge (beware of too much focus on sales and abstract content).
5. Be personal and make sure you create a relationship with the participants even if you can't see them.

It's been a learning year and we look forward to welcoming you to many more webinars in the new year!