Internet technology today has evolved to the extent that it offers marketers a new answer to the question: “What are the best channel options available to transmit the components of our marketing message in a way that delivers maximum bang for our promotional buck?”
For some messages, platforms like blogs, Facebook and Twitter can be used effectively – the Holy Grail here being the elevation of a message into the ‘gone viral’ stratosphere. However, success depends largely on the message having the critical mass of social appeal required to propagate effectively through such channels, which, unfortunately, is simply not the case in many B2B applications. All is not lost though, as a tailor-made solution has emerged that enables new age media to reach tightly targeted audience groups that can be located geographically anywhere in the world.
Web-based seminars have many advantages
Wikipedia defines a webinar as a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar that is delivered over the Web to an audience who pre-subscribed to participate in the event. In terms of segmentation this should be music to any marketer’s ears – where else (other than an expensive venue specific conference) will you find an audience attentive enough to register to listen to your message? Targeted lists of leads aside, there are many other benefits to be gained from adding the dynamic of an interactive online presentation to the sometimes inert messages conveyed in the traditional media through advertising and editorial articles.
For instance, presentations get done in real-time and reach potentially larger audiences than can be achieved using traditional interactive methods: modern software platforms add this dimension by providing participants with the ability to log questions for the presenters to answer at the end of the session. These events are also a great way to build credibility for the advertising component of a campaign through the thought leadership and application and product knowledge of a company expert. Of course editorial articles do this as well, but a lot more can be covered in a forty-five minute presentation than could ever be conveyed in a two-page printed article. It also allows a broader than usual knowledge base to be assembled, as the experts are only required for a couple of hours and are then free to return to their daily operational responsibilities.
These are all tangible benefits sure enough, but perhaps the most compelling of all is the ability to record the presentations and make them available online as a source of ongoing reference and for those who were not able to attend the live broadcast.
So what is the role of a publisher in all this?
Simply put, the answer is to leverage economies of scale for mutual benefit. Firstly, licensing the technology does not come cheap and it would be difficult to motivate if it were only going to be used a few times every year. Technews has decided to put its money where its mouth is in this regard, since the same platform and business model can be applied across all of its publications. Use the licence privileges a few times every month and suddenly the numbers make a lot more sense.
And it is not just the financials that can be leveraged; publishers generally have a large database of subscribers that almost by definition fall into the audience of interest. When added to an advertiser’s in-house contact list, the result can be a formidable universe of prospective registrants. Once this universe is established, the publisher then uses its existing tools, both print and online, to market and promote the event and so drive the registration process for the sponsoring company. After the event is over, a comprehensive list of registrants is provided to the sponsor who is then free to initiate whatever appropriate follow-up activity is required.
Jim Pinto – first up for SAI&C
To get the ball rolling for SA Instrumentation and Control, regular columnist and industry commentator Jim Pinto will be presenting the magazine’s first webinar on the company’s newly licensed Webex platform. We hope you will join us online on the afternoon of 6 July to listen to Jim present on the subject ‘Emerging Technologies & Opportunities in Factory Automation & Process Control’.
We believe that this new offering is the best way to bring readers and suppliers even closer together through the mutual sharing of information online. For more information on the Jim Pinto event, or the possibility of presenting your own in the future, contact Jane or Tina at the regular Technews addresses.
I hope you enjoy this issue.
Steven Meyer
Editor: SA Instrumentation & Control
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