You've heard that webinars can become a company's best lead-generation tool; now get the scoop on what goes into planning a great online event, with insider tips from MarketingProfs' own Ann Handley and Shelley Ryan.

For cooking up new leads or positioning a company as a thought leader and trusted industry resource, webinars serve as an effective tactic. They create dialog and tempt prospects to get to know you better.

A webinar gone awry, however, can have the opposite effect, so it's not an affair to be quickly thrown together. Instead, you must take the time to properly plan and prepare, beginning with the following five essentials.

1. Compelling Content

First nail down your business objective and the specific audience you'd like to reach. Then determine the topic—and the content—that will speak to the distinct needs of that group; at the same time, you will be making sure they realize that you offer a solution to their problems. However, the value of that solution will be best understood if your prospects come to that realization on their own, rather than feeling as if they have just sat through a glorified sales pitch. Accordingly, the webinar content should be relevant, useful, engaging, and focused on the audience:

• Relevant and useful to the target. What are the audience's interests and concerns, and how might you offer the insight to help them fulfill their needs? Training webinars tend to work well, but also consider discussions of hot topics such as major issues facing the industry, regulatory changes, or newly released reports or findings that may have an impact on their situation.
• Engaging. People are busy, so ensure that your topic is stimulating and thought-provoking enough to make it worth their while.
• Audience-focused. Keep it about them, not about you and your sales pitch or your speaker's sales pitch. You'll come off as much more trustworthy if you offer vendor-neutral perspectives, tips, and advice.
  
  For example, one way that billing- and revenue-management solutions provider Softrax illuminated its association with the webinar content, without resorting to a sales pitch, was to include a five-minute overview of the topic points and noteworthy examples, hosted by the company's president at the beginning of each webcast.

If you feel that you are unable to provide in-depth coverage of the topic in a single session, or you're concerned about including ideas that are either too basic or too advanced for some attendees, consider breaking up the webinar into two or three parts, with the subsequent presentations building on the previous ones.

A note of caution from MarketingProfs online seminar maven Shelley Ryan, however: Though this approach can help to create stronger connections, it can also deter attendance by prospects unable to commit to the time required.

2. A Captivating Speaker

Your choice of speaker should revolve around three key criteria:

• Outstanding Web presentation skills, which can differ from those of a seasoned in-person speaker. Voice tone, for example, becomes an important factor when there's no gesturing or stage motion to keep the audience's attention.
• True expertise that is deemed credible. You might consider the prowess residing within your organization, or the skillfulness of a partner or satisfied customer. For a larger draw, however, you'll be better off hiring an outside authority with an established reputation—industry experts and influencers, for example—especially if you're targeting prospects at the top of the sales cycle.
  
  Panels are another consideration, but are best reserved for video webinars, since multiple presenters can add confusion for attendees who are viewing slides and cannot discern which party is speaking.
  
  Another option for offering diverse expert opinions is to incorporate pre-recorded video interviews into the content. The key, however, is to edit well and to involve a live moderator who can ensure the webinar remains interactive for participants, who expect more than a long video presentation.
• A passion for sharing with and educating the audience, as opposed to promoting themselves and their services. Paying a speaking fee will help make this more feasible; you might also consider allowing the speaker's logo to be included on the webinar slides.

Both Ann Handley and Shelley Ryan, who have learned through personal experience running the weekly MarketingProfs online seminars, agree that it's better to compensate your speakers and to do so in dollars, not shared leads. "They'll adhere to deadlines more closely (and take your event more seriously) when actual money is involved," said Handley.

Other tips offered by the dynamic duo:

• Establish clear expectations, a production process, and deadlines for key deliverables in the beginning… then stick to them throughout.
• Incorporate any verbal agreements directly into the written contract.
• Work with the speaker directly, not via a PR firm or an "entourage of assistants."

3. The Right Web-Conferencing Technology

When shopping for a technology vendor, consider (a) how its customers feel about the service and (b) whether it offers the specific features you'll need, keeping in mind that unnecessary features could take up bandwidth.

Recommended features:

• Moderated-chat capability
• Data collection and reporting capabilities that match your systems and preferences
• Mac and PC compatibility for both speaker and audience
• Compatibility with all Internet-connection speeds
• Ease-of-use for moderator, speaker, and audience
• A customizable interface that allows for branding

Other considerations:

• Whether you can use VoIP or need to employ a teleconference service
• File-sharing capabilities, including video and music, and live screen-sharing and webcam video
• Whether the technology is licensable and allows you to run the webinar on your own server
• Availability of interactive features such as whiteboards and instant polls

If you're planning to archive the webinar after the event date—which will allow attendees to revisit the content and open the door to those who were unable to make the original event—Ryan further suggests considering whether...

• The technology offers the ability to record and replay the broadcast on-demand
• The format is editable
• The webinar can only be replayed via a browser, or can be downloaded to a desktop or other device, such as a smart phone
• You would lose all of your recordings if you cancel service or switch to another tool

4. Convenient Timing

Keep the audience's schedule in mind when setting a webinar date. For example, it's best to plan for the middle of the week (Mondays and Fridays tend to be busy and will yield low attendance numbers), perhaps even the middle of the month (if end-of-the-month quotas might come into play). Also, avoid encroaching on holidays.

Time of day is another consideration. "Lunch time" is often the easiest hour to take time from work, but if your audience is spread among different time zones, you should pick a time that is suitable for all.

5. Advance Promotion

Start promoting the webinar up to three weeks in advance so that you give attendees a chance to plan, but not enough time to forget.

Web channels such as email, banner ads, and e-newsletter or blog tie-ins work well, especially assuming that registration will take place online; but you might also use tradeshow and whitepaper promotions to get the word out.

For broader promotion, you might also consider purchasing lists or leveraging partners or affiliates. Encourage your speakers to publicize the event in their circles, as well.

It's also a good idea to spend some time on your registration landing page in order to optimize conversion:

• Provide all the usual details, such as date, time, length, and cost (if your webinar is free, it will help to advertise that fact, as well).
• Include an inspiring overview. A video preview can be particularly effective, if you can spare the time and resources to create one.
• Highlight what attendees stand to learn, and speak to the professional virtues of your speaker.
• Include a list of frequently asked questions, as well as contact information for addressing any questions or concerns.

Of course, you'll also want to collect some personal information from prospects during registration, especially if you're planning to use the event as a sales or lead-generation tool, but be wary of making the sign-up form too cumbersome, else you risk turning users off. Your sales team can always dig a little deeper after the event when attendees have a better feel for the value and expertise you provide.

To maximize attendance on the day of the webinar (on average, one-third of those who register actually attend a free event), Ryan and Handley suggest including an "Add this event to my calendar" feature to the registration page, as well as a link to share the event with friends and colleagues.

You should also always confirm registration by email and use that opportunity to once again ask registrants to invite others to join. Then, for one final reminder, send another email out a day or two before the event with a rundown of all the important information that registrants may require.

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Stay tuned. Next week we'll cover what you can do to ensure the webinar goes off without a hitch and how to leverage the event to achieve your business objective.

Plus, don't miss this week's seminar, "Behind the Online Curtain: Secrets to Building a Successful Webinar Program," for more tips on planning, producing, and promoting a webinar that kicks.

Not interested in webinars, but still looking for some lead-generation strategies and tactics to take your marketing to the next level? Check out more than 150 lead-generation resources in the MarketingProfs Library.

Premium Plus Members may especially enjoy viewing How to Make Your B2B Website a Lead Generation Machine, a highly rated tutorial in the MarketingProfs Seminar Library on how to turn Web site traffic into qualified leads.

We hope these resources help you bring fresh eyes to your lead-generation efforts.