Webinar Scheduling and Planning

Here’s my step-by-step guide on how we produce highly attended (700+) webinars that result in customers, influenced pipeline, and nearly instant raving reviews from the audience. 1. We decide on the shell/theme of the series → Our content is focused on inside the deals → We want expert guidance from senior leaders → Highly tactical → No thought-leadership talking heads → If someone shows up, they should leave with something they can actually use 2. We lock the topic and the guest intentionally Either we: → Start with a very defined topic and find the right guest → Or define our dream guest and fit the topic around where they’re strongest 3. I run a mini brainstorm with the SME (1:1) → Get their thoughts out on what the content should be 4. I use AI to speed things up → I take the AI meeting transcript from that SME brainstorm (love you, Granola) → Grab relevant LinkedIn posts from the SME and the guest → I drop everything into a defined AI work project with context and have it outline a deck for me → I try to take the first stab to take as much work off the SME and guest as possible (they're being generous with their time!) 5. I create a detailed run-of-show doc Every single detail. Broken out by: → Minutes → Sections → Who runs what → I include bullets and talking points and encourage both the SME and guest to add to it → I want guests to feel extremely prepared before we even meet for the first dry run → I also find it helpful for everyone to have in the background to reference during the event 6. I create the first draft of the deck → It’s not fully flushed out yet → The goal is to take work off the SME and guest’s plate before we meet 7. We have a 30–60 minute working session with the guest We walk through: → The event → The topic (more info to feed into AI afterwards with their content/expertise!) → The run of show → The deck → And get their feedback before locking anything in 8. I finalize the deck and get sign-off → These decks are MEATY on purpose → They do not follow traditional deck best practices → We’re building a tactical leave-behind. Basically a playbook → My biggest goal is that if someone spends time with us, they can implement something the very next day to help hit their quotas or goals 9. We run the event → I try to actively facilitate engagement in the chat throughout → Especially early, with a warm-up 10. Immediate follow-up We create a post-event deal room with: → The recording → The slides → Extra materials → Any examples or content referenced → Speaker and company info (plus any special offers) → We send this out as soon as possible with a very short email → One to two sentences max Why I think our webinars work so well: ✨ They’re well prepared ✨ They’re intentional, with a clear topic and goal ✨ They’re extremely actionable and teachable, from top talent

Marketing to sales: Here is a list of webinar sign-ups, follow-up with them. Sales:...Ignore... Here is how to make webinar sales' favorite playbook, not the most hated: Step 1: Co-create webinar narrative together with sales to make sure it addresses the interests and challenges of target buyer persona. To avoid blatant product pitching, start by answering a question: Imagine having a 60-min lunch with your target buyer persona who is not aware of our product and is not in the market. How would you highlight potential challenges, seed the grains of change and explain the solution? Step 2: Agree on promotional plan. Make sure sales actually want to invite their target accounts. Agree on: Accounts and titles (how many?) Touchpoints (e.g. sales - email + LinkedIn, marketing - newsletter + LinkedIn ads) Step 3. Develop post-event playbook based on account engagement history. What sales hate is when marketing marks all sign-ups as MQLs and asks to follow up. It's a waste of time because of misalignment with the intent: Webinar sign-ups ≠ buying intent. Instead, agree on post-webinar analysis: matching contact engagement to account engagement identifying tier 1 & tier 2 accounts that are already engaged identify new tier 1 & tier 2 accounts (first engagement) for account research define "brdige" activities (e.g. free strategy sessions) to book discovery calls instead of pitching a demo Step 4. Develop a post-webinar nurturing content hub. Content hubs are microsites with nurturing content: - Recording - Slides - Useful resources - Bridge activity - Case studies The beauty of the process? Your buyers will come to the hub multiple times, might share with your team, while you receive notifications about the content consumption and engagement. It creates a perfect opportunity for timely, fully personalized follow-ups. For the last 2 years, our go-to tool for content hubs has been Aligned. It allows us to create post-webinar content hubs in a few seconds and send content engagement to HubSpot by automatically matching buyers to accounts. *See the example of the hub for the most recent webinar here: https://lnkd.in/ddSFQJ5y Step 5. Track content engagement and develop personalized follow-ups with sales. We used this process with top-performing sales reps in "conservative" markets: customs software, real estate, climate data, background checks and were always able to book discovery calls with strategic accounts (feat. Bowin Cai, Raf Schroons, Peter Slater, Samuel Adu-Febiri, Jalynn Close, P.T. Vineburgh). --- TLDR; If sales don't see a value in the webinar, they will never promote or follow-up with webinar "leads". Educate -> engage -> create demand -> research and understand the buyer journey stage and current needs of your prospects -> create "bridge" activities / buyer enablement. This is how you influence the buying process with webinars and generate pipeline TOGETHER. #alignedpartner

Day 1 - This is exciting. Day 7 - I'm fine. Day 14 - What is sleep? Day 21 - I'm hallucinating more than ChatGPT. In the last 23 days, I've hosted 21 live webinars for up to 400 attendees per session. My audience were mid-senior corporate professionals seeking career advice. Each session was 3 hours in duration. My back almost gave up around Day 14. My voice followed shortly after. But here's the thing — I learned more in those 3 weeks than in the previous 3 years of hosting webinars. So here are 13 things that actually work. I hope it helps you. 1. Don't undersell yourself - charge more. Higher ticket price = better audience. They show up. They engage. They don't message you at 11pm asking for a recording they'll never watch. 2. Ditch Zoom's webinar format. Use the Meeting format instead. Mute everyone, unmute one by one during Q&A. Turn cameras on. The energy shifts completely. 3. Run a live Q&A for 30 minutes at the end. This did more for my sales than any pitch I've ever made. People buy from people they trust. 4. Start on time. Every time. Waiting for latecomers punishes people who respected you enough to show up. Don't do it. 5. Get a standing desk. I resisted this for years. I was wrong. For sessions longer than 2 hours, it's not a luxury. It's basic survival. 6. Upgrade your setup. Good webcam. Prosumer mic. Overhead monitor light. That's it. You don't need a studio. You just need to not look like you're calling from a moving autorickshaw. 7. Kill the virtual background. Unless you have a proper green screen, your floating head in front of a sunset in Goa is fooling absolutely nobody. 8. Engage every 10 minutes. Poll. Question. Mini exercise. Anything. Social media has destroyed our attention spans and your audience is three seconds away from checking Instagram. 9. One headline. One image. Per slide. If they're reading your slides, they're not listening to you. You cannot win both battles. Stop trying. 10. Watch "Death by PowerPoint" on YouTube. Free. Brilliant. Will make you delete half your deck immediately. 11. Don't tell people you're recording. The moment they know there's a recording, 40% mentally sign off and plan to "watch it later." They won't. Keep the urgency alive. 12. End with one clear next step. Not "thanks everyone, take care, bye-bye." Tell them exactly what to do next. Buy. Book. Apply. A confused audience does nothing. I have the revenue data to prove it. 13. Bonus point: Get a good team to support you. You cannot host large scale webinars yourself - and you shouldn't try to. You'll need at least two assistants to manage the ops. PS. Indian webinar audiences are genuinely terrific. Respectful and polite, but their BS meter is high and they expect full value for money - rightfully so. Got questions about live webinars? Let me know in the comments.

Client ran 12 webinars last year. Average attendance: 31%. Watch time: 11 minutes. Pipeline generated: Zero. They'd blast the database, get 200 registrants, 60 show up, 50 drop after the intro. Meanwhile sales is asking why webinars are such a waste of time. Because you're not running webinars. You're running hour-long product demos nobody asked for. Here's the system that actually gets people to show up and buy: 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 1: 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀 Most companies: Blast everyone, hope someone shows up. We flipped it. Pick 20 target accounts. Build the entire webinar for them. One client went from: - Old: 200 registrants, 31% show (62 people), zero pipeline - New: 40 invites, 85% show (34 people), 3 opportunities Fewer people. Actual pipeline. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 2: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀 72% 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 3 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁: Call your top 20 accounts. Actually call. "We're covering [problem you mentioned]. Want a spot?" 2 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁: Get a customer to co-present. Their network shows up. 1 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝘁: Send the actual deck. People show up when there's no mystery. 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲: Text your top 10 registrants. Yes, text. 90% show rate for those who respond. 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗳: Calendar hold 1 hour before. Start exactly on time. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 3: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 30-𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 - 2 min: What you'll learn - 10 min: Customer shows actual results - 10 min: How they did it - 5 min: Live Q&A - 3 min: Next steps No company overview. No product tour. Just value. Watch time went from 11 to 27 minutes. 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄-𝘂𝗽 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 2 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀: Everyone gets: - Recording + customer's templates - Implementation guide Target accounts get: - Personal video - 15-min working session offer (not a demo) Others: - 3 emails on implementing what they learned Result: Client went from 12 useless webinars to 6 that drove $1.8M. Half the webinars. Triple the results. The problem isn't webinars. It's that you're running them for everyone instead of someone. This week I'm fixing fundamentals: Monday: ICP Yesterday: Events Today: Webinars Tomorrow: ABM Pick 20 accounts. Build your next webinar just for them. Watch what happens when you stop trying to please everyone.

Marketing to sales: Here is a list of webinar sign-ups, follow-up with them. Sales:...Ignore... Here is how to make webinar sales' favorite playbook, not the most hated: Step 1: Co-create webinar narrative together with sales to make sure it addresses the interests and challenges of target buyer persona. To avoid blatant product pitching, start by answering a question: Imagine having a 60-min lunch with your target buyer persona who is not aware of our product and is not in the market. How would you highlight potential challenges, seed the grains of change and explain the solution? Step 2: Agree on promotional plan. Make sure sales actually want to invite their target accounts. Agree on: Accounts and titles (how many?) Touchpoints (e.g. sales - email + LinkedIn, marketing - newsletter + LinkedIn ads) Step 3. Develop post-event playbook based on account engagement history. What sales hate is when marketing marks all sign-ups as MQLs and asks to follow up. It's a waste of time because of misalignment with the intent: Webinar sign-ups ≠ buying intent. Instead, agree on post-webinar analysis: matching contact engagement to account engagement identifying tier 1 & tier 2 accounts that are already engaged identify new tier 1 & tier 2 accounts (first engagement) for account research define "brdige" activities (e.g. free strategy sessions) to book discovery calls instead of pitching a demo Step 4. Develop a post-webinar nurturing content hub. Content hubs are microsites with nurturing content: - Recording - Slides - Useful resources - Bridge activity - Case studies The beauty of the process? Your buyers will come to the hub multiple times, might share with your team, while you receive notifications about the content consumption and engagement. It creates a perfect opportunity for timely, fully personalized follow-ups. For the last 2 years, our go-to tool for content hubs has been Aligned It allows us to create post-webinar content hubs in a few seconds and send content engagement to HubSpot by automatically matching buyers to accounts. *See the example of the hub for the most recent webinar here: https://lnkd.in/ddSFQJ5y Step 5. Track content engagement and develop personalized follow-ups with sales. We used this process with top-performing sales reps in "conservative" markets: customs software, real estate, climate data, background checks and were always able to book discovery calls with strategic accounts (feat. Bowin, Raf Schroons , Peter Slater , Samuel Adu-Febiri, Jalynn Close , P.T. Vineburgh --- TLDR; If sales don't see a value in the webinar, they will never promote or follow-up with webinar "leads". Educate -> engage -> create demand -> research and understand the buyer journey stage and current needs of your prospects -> create "bridge" activities / buyer enablement. This is how you influence the buying process with webinars and generate pipeline TOGETHER. #alignedpartner

People register, but never show up to your webinar. Here’s why (and how to fix it) Most webinars have a live attendance problem. Registrants sign up eagerly. Then life gets busy. Emails are missed, reminders ignored, and your attendance rate suffers. After hosting hundreds of webinars, here’s what I found genuinely works: 1/ Timing is everything Schedule webinars midweek (Tuesday to Thursday) if your audience works standard hours. Avoid Mondays and Friday afternoons; they’re notoriously poor for attendance. Then, automate your reminders: - 1 email one day before - 1 email four hours before - 1 email 10 minutes before Emails help, but SMS reminders drive attendance even higher. Set them up if you can. It’s worth it. 2/ Offer something exclusive Your audience needs a reason to attend live instead of watching the replay. Provide downloadable templates, checklists, or guides only for live attendees. Make these bonuses clearly time-sensitive. People will rearrange their schedules if they see real value in showing up live. Oh, and never mention there will be a recording available. 3/ Promote smarter 🟠 Tease your webinar with short clips of past sessions. Share quick insights or exciting moments that build curiosity. Share behind the scenes of you preparing for the webinar. 4/ Be specific about live benefits Tell your audience exactly what they’ll miss if they don’t join live: - “Live Q&A with industry experts” - “Real-time feedback on your challenges” - “Networking with peers” Repeat these points in every reminder. Repetition helps because people skim emails, and they don’t read them carefully. 5/ Showcase your expertise Your credibility sells the webinar. Briefly mention achievements relevant to the topic: - “This helped me grow revenue by 230% last year.” - “Sarah has trained 300 sales leaders in 2024 alone.” Real results build trust. 6/ Optimize for mobile Choose a webinar platform with strong mobile support. Don't forget to clearly instruct attendees to download the required apps ahead of time. Use these tips to get more attendees showing up live. They’ve worked consistently for my webinars. Reshare ♻ to help others do better webinars. PS: I share daily webinars, marketing and AI tips at Jakub Michalski

Webinars still work. In Q4 2024, Champify's webinar program drove 71% higher ACVs and touched 28% of our opportunities. Here’s our 4-step webinar playbook (and the full results): My core marketing philosophy is to continuously deliver value to our potential customers. We can’t always control timing, so our goal is to be top of mind when they are in market. We do this by delivering as much educational content as possible to help our audience be better at their job. With the rise of AI generated slop and on-demand content, there are few better ways to deliver value to your customers as cost effectively as live webinars. Here’s our simple 4-step Live Webinar Playbook: 1. The topic is important, but the guest is 10x more important We focused on using our network, customers, and customer’s networks to attract guests we know our audience will want to learn from. We think deeply about what’s in it for them and how to make them the star. 2. Use multiple methods to drive attendance We drove attendance through Linkedin outreach, closed lost nurture campaigns, targeted marketing emails, and customer invites sent via our sales team and leadership. We also used the invite as a hook to build value at accounts we wanted to break into - offering a Q&A with a renowned leader that most people want to learn from. 3. Focusing on quality content during and AFTER the session Do not go broad. Find one hot topic and go deep as possible. What draws a crowd is how respected or “impressive” is your guest. If your audience wants to learn from her, they will show up. If they don’t care about her background, they won’t. Add a Q&A section as people will directly show up just to get burning questions answered. Use the gold from the webinar to creative tactical guides, teardowns, and summaries, to share with all those who signed up (regardless of attending or not) 4. Nail the follow up: We meticulously look at the list post-event and put people into two key buckets: - Marketing Owned: Follow up included tactical guides and a highlight reel - Sales owned: Tailored outbound to key titles with 1-2 specific plays/asks based on the content/audience combination. THE RESULTS: - Of our last 228 new business opportunities - 71 of them had at least 1 registrant (28%) - Win rate of opps with a registrant from opp created is ~25% higher than without (%, not points) - ACV 71% higher Too many teams are taking the easy way out… Blasting AI-generated and overly generic content We see the same thing happening in outbound. But at the end of the day….it’s about delivering value to build trust. And being top of mind for your prospect universe when the problem you solve arises. Webinar are still the way to do that in 2025.

What's the secret to seamless virtual events? A Run-of-Show! Virtual events are like live performances—they require precision, timing, and teamwork to shine. Yet, one critical tool is often overlooked: the Run of Show. Think of it as your event’s blueprint, ensuring everyone involved knows what’s happening and when. From transitions to timing, a well-crafted Run of Show keeps your event on track and stress-free. Here’s what a solid Run of Show includes: ✅ Segment breakdowns: Every element of your event, from the welcome to the wrap-up. ✅ Roles and responsibilities: Who’s doing what and when. ✅ Tech checks: Built-in time to address potential issues. ✅ Time cues: Specific durations for each segment to avoid overruns. ✅ Contingency plans: What happens if something doesn’t go as planned. By investing time in building a Run of Show, you create an experience that feels effortless to your audience—even if you’re managing multiple moving parts behind the scenes. I use a Run of Show for every event I produce, and it has saved countless hours and reduced stress for me and my clients. Whether you’re planning a virtual conference, webinar, or hybrid meeting, this tool is a game-changer. Have you used a run-of-show in your events? What’s your top tip for keeping virtual events smooth and professional? Let me know in the comments! #VirtualEvents #EventPlanning #RunOfShow #ProfessionalTips #CalmClearMedia

We’re looking to scale out our webinar program this year. It’s been a really good source of high-quality leads for us. The problem is I used to spend way too many hours building out webinar registration pages, promo emails, and social posts. We’re a lean team and I only have so much bandwidth—so I built an AI workflow that cuts production time by about 90%. IMPORTANT NOTE: The key to this whole thing is the quality of your human-written content brief—it determines everything downstream. Most people try to shortcut the brief and end up with generic, junky AI content. Here's what actually works: 1. Start with a killer content brief that includes: - Core webinar value props and specific audience pain points - Speaker credentials that actually matter - Key learning outcomes with concrete examples - Technical depth and complexity level - Brand voice requirements and list of AI “no-no” words 2. Feed that quality brief into strategic prompts for: - High-converting registration page - 4-email promo sequence (2 weeks, 1 week, 3 days, 24hrs) - Post-event follow up emails for attendees, registrants, and non-registrants - LinkedIn posts engineered for engagement - Asset consistency guidelines AI handles content scaling and variations, but only after you've built the strategic foundation. Been testing this for months—the correlation between brief quality and output is nearly 1:1. Rushed brief = generic AI content. Detailed brief = compelling assets that drive registrations. The workflow includes specific prompts for maintaining voice consistency, building credibility through concrete benefits, and avoiding the typical AI content red flags that kill engagement. 🔗 Want the exact process? Grab the complete workflow with brief templates, prompts, and implementation steps in the comments below. [No need to comment “workflow” for the asset. That’s lame.) Running webinar campaigns with AI right now? Drop your questions below. Always testing new approaches to refine this process. P.S: Track your brief quality scores against registration rates. The data will show you exactly where your brief needs more detail. #AI #Marketing

The strategy is important, but execution makes or breaks the result. Here’s an example for everyone running SME Live events (webinars). Here’s my experience as a speaker. Most of these events invite the SMEs to speak on topics relevant to their expertise. Usually, they send over a quick prep document or just ask the SME(s) to connect on their own or create the content. If there are multiple people speaking, they just hope the talking points and chemistry work. After all, they are SMEs, so the content will be good, right? Not necessarily! ❌ They do the event, and the content is okay but not as good as it could be. Why? Preparation and content validation. You need to make sure it is valuable for your audience. Every SME does have something valuable, but it needs to be focused for your audience. The event concludes, and you don’t see much after the event as a speaker or participant. You’ll get a link to the recording and maybe a blog summary. ✌️ Two big misses 🟡 There is NO CONTENT VALIDATION OR FEEDBACK before the event. 🟡 Content creation and distribution strategy post-event that includes the SMEs. Here’s how you should do it ⬇️ 1. Be organized - provide a run of show, key talking points you want to SMEs to touch on, and operations (calendar invites, docs, promo assets etc.) 2. Facilitate a great prep session - Secure key talking points, who is going to talk about what, and who will lead and support each key point, and allow the speakers and host to get to know each other so the conversation is more natural. (Trust me, this helps the speakers be more confident and deliver a better live experience) 3. Share the post-event plan and set expectations - How will the video be repurposed, and if they plan on using your content, how so? If they plan to create a written asset will you get to review it before it goes live? Enable your speakers to share the event after (video clips, social posts) and also be a distribution engine for any additional assets produced from it. If you take the time to do this, your speaker's content WILL BE BETTER, the additional content you can create WILL BE BETTER, and it WILL RESONATE BETTER with your audience! Win-win-win Shoutout to Corrina Owens and UserGems 💎 for running a top-notch virtual event process. I was blown away in our prep session earlier today. See you next Wednesday, Adam Jay ♾️ to talk about The Cheat Code to Unlock More Pipeline.