webinars Archives - Marketing Fundamentals

Has Live-Streaming Killed the Webinar?

Mike Pitt — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 09:36:04 +0000

Live-streaming is everywhere at the moment. You only have to pick up your smartphone and you can watch livestreams on Facebook, Instagram, Periscope, YouTube Live, Google Hangouts and Instagram. There’s also Blab and specialist live stream services such as Ustream, Twitch and YouNow. There’s a lot of choice and varying levels of content quality but it seems that live-streaming is here to stay. What does this mean for the business webinar? Has live-streaming killed the webinar? Has it been left behind like VHS Cassettes and record players? Please note, I am aware that there has been a Hipster-led revival of the record player but let’s leave that discussion for another time.

Has Live-Streaming killed the Webinar?

The Advantages of Live- Streaming

One of the clearest benefits of broadcasting a live-stream from a brand or company’s perspective is that it is immediately accessible to your followers and supporters. Within a couple of clicks they can be participating in your live-stream and you can react to their comments and questions in real-time. Traditionally webinars needed to be pre-promoted beforehand and then attendees needed to access a webinar link at a given time. Pre- recorded webinars are also used by many companies and are available on demand. Some live- streams are pre-promoted but it is clear that a lot are broadcast at relatively short notice.

From a video creators point of view live-streams are easy to produce. There’s no requirement for hours of editing or time consuming studio setups because you can simply record from your smartphone or laptop. So has the widespread adoption of live-streaming brought only benefits? Not exactly…

The Disadvantages of Live- Streaming

When compared to a well-structured and or well-edited video from your favourite vlogger or company the average live-stream is a much poorer audiovisual experience. The lighting is not as good and the sound quality is not as good. In most cases sound and video quality do not match the levels achieved by pre-produced videos. The live connection with your audience is extremely valuable but for those watching a recording of the live-stream later the experience is not as satisfactory.

Many live-streams last around 60 minutes which means a significant part of your day could be taken up watching talking heads.

Is the Webinar Dead?

No. For B2B companies there is still a a place for webinars within their marketing arsenal. Content quality is important. A perfectly scripted and focused webinar with a mix of presentation materials, live action and audience interaction has proven to be particularly effective with a targeted audience. The webinar remains an excellent method of selling B2B products and services. Many successful B2B companies including Salesforce still make extensive use of webinars and I’m sure they will continue to do so.

B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this offer useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

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Mike Pitt

Founder, Marketing Fundamentals Ltd

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This is blog post post number 394.

The post Has Live-Streaming Killed the Webinar? appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

Business strategy – Is Productization Right for you? 5 Considerations

Mike Pitt — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 13:02:09 +0000

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

Hello everyone. I am going to start this post with an ugly looking word – productization. It is ugly but beautiful at the same time. Let me explain with a story. There was a business owner called Brad who owned an accountancy firm delivering professional services to small businesses. Over the course of a few years, he built up his client base and increased his number of staff to handle the increased number of clients. Brad’s business was growing – but only slowly. As the business got bigger Brad was getting pulled into activities that he did not perceive to be his strengths: activities like Human Resources, Health and Safety, Logistics. It seemed that the every small increase in profitability came at great cost to him in terms of time and focus.

During a weekend seminar, Brad heard about productization; productization is the process of creating products out of the services that your company or organisation provides. He also learned that it is easier to sell products online than it is to sell services. Bingo! Brad then created a new product development strategy that created products that included the following: proprietary accounting software, Ebooks, books, online courses, online workshops, webinars, downloadable PDFs, apps, podcasts and audio files. This enabled Brad’s company to reach many more customers than he and his staff could physically meet with during normal working hours. Over the course of the next 3 years, Brad’s company grew by a factor of five aided by productisation and appropriate use of technology.

Are you a professional services firm that would like to grow as Brad’s firm did? Below are 5 reasons why you should consider productization.

Productization – 5 Things to Consider

1. Scale – Productization well executed will create the opportunity to scale your business rather than grow.

2. Revenue – Productization can transform your website from purely an informational website into one that actually generates sales and revenue.

3. International Expansion – Once you have a suite of products available online you are able to do business internationally from the comfort of your own laptop. Platforms such as Amazon, the App Store and iTunes (for podcasts) deliver a level of kudos for your business too.

4. Business Card – Having a critically acclaimed product is a much better business card than any conventional business card. At networking events, you will be remembered.

5. Do the work once – Once you have created the product it is done. The book, the online course, the video series can be sold multiple times without you having to do any additional work. You may want to consider updates in the future but for the present the work is done.

We hope you have found this information useful. Productization can form part of a comprehensive Content Marketing strategy.

If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following:

Should Your Book Also be an AudioBook?

Podcasting vs YouTube: Which is Better for Your Business?

Professional Services: How Do You Fill Your Sales Funnel?