Smash Your Content Marketing Goals with Recorded Webinars

 If you’re a marketer, the chances are that you have been involved in delivering webinars in some way, whether from a content or technical point of view.  Webinars are a great tool for B2B content marketing, but can be a source of much stress if they are not planned correctly.  Webinars should be the jewel in your content marketing crown, they shouldn’t be giving you grey hairs! That's why you should consider recording your webinars in advance. 

Not only are Pre-recorded webinars one of the easiest ways to immediately remove a bit of the pressure, they can also help you hit your content marketing goals.  When we talk about content marketing goals with clients, they are usually one of more of the following:

• Generating/Converting leads
• Developing brand awareness
• Increasing website traffic
• Providing thought leadership content

So, how can pre-recording help you smash your content marketing goals? 

Record multiple webinars in one day

We know that in marketing there’s usually less budget and resources floating around than you would like. Having the ability to pre-record webinars allows you to plan campaigns well in advance.  You can even devote a day to recording a number of webinars that can then be pushed out at later dates. 

Having this all planned in advance means that you can push out regular, themed webinar content, and concentrate on the content that goes with your webinars like case studies, blogs and mail shots.  Regular content keeps you fresh in the minds of your prospects, and increases traffic to your website, especially if you create a channel for your past webinars. 

Get rid of those nerves!

The other factor that is important to consider is that presenting a webinar can be a big deal for people.  Some of us are more confident than others when it comes to delivering presentations, but you don’t want to let that stop you getting the most qualified person for your webinar subject.  Pre-recording the content for your webinar can be a quick and easy way to make your presenters feel less nervous about the prospect of presenting.  A less nervous presenter also means more natural, engaging content for you and your prospects and further strengthens your brand.

Invite your presenters at a time that suits them

Trying to find a time that suits everyone can be a bit of a headache.  Having the ability to pre-record means that you can invite your presenters when they are available.  You can even invite presenters to record their part of a presentation at a different time to the rest, and then edit it on to the rest of the presentation. 

Concentrate on the bigger picture.

Setting a pre-recorded webinar away leaves you free to concentrate on the other features of your event.  You can log in and monitor questions coming in, push out polls and be active on social media.  Delivering a webinar that makes use of these features will give your attendees a more engaging experience and can help you generate useful leads, or even convert leads in to customers. 

Don’t leave your message down to chance

Developing brand awareness means that you want your message to be perfect.  This can be difficult to achieve in a live setting.  Delivering a webinar live gives your presenters free reign to drift off topic, mention a product that hasn’t yet been released or use terms that you are keen to avoid.  Pre-recording gives you the flexibility to edit your media and re-record anything that you’re not happy with, so you have the most perfect version possible. 

Be a little bit sneaky?

 Just because your webinar isn’t live, it doesn’t mean that you can’t do a live Q&A at the end.  You can have the best of both worlds – a no stress presentation, but still give your audience the engagement that they want with presenters.  You can even be really sneaky and pre-record the Q&A too.  At first, this may seem a little contrived, but this gives you ultimate control over the questions and subjects that you cover. 

Give your team the confidence to take the plunge

Webinars are a tried and true way to enhance your content marketing, but taking the plunge yourself can be a difficult task because of the many variables involved.  Pre-recorded webinars can be a great way to encourage your team to give them a try because it means that they can vet content before it is made public.  Marketing campaigns should be well thought out before they are implemented, and pre-recorded webinars are just an easy way of making sure that you can plan everything down to the last detail. 

Key takeaways

I’ve talked about having more control over the content in your webinars quite a lot already, but how does this help you smash your marketing goals?  The takeaway message here is two-fold:

• Developing brand awareness and providing thought leadership content is all about getting your message right first time.
• Generating and converting leads, and increasing your website traffic takes time, devotion and a measured approach to your campaigns.

Pre-recording is the perfect way to ensure that you’re doing both of these things well.  Have you delivered any webinars that could have been improved by pre-recording your content?