After last week’s blog post, 8 Reasons Webinar Marketing Is so Promising for Financial Advisors, I got several questions from advisors about the best technologies for creating webinars. I’ll be honest, DIYing your own webinar is a lot of work. But if you’re fairly tech-savvy and ready to put in 8-12 hours of work, a webinar can be a powerful investment in your marketing. If you want to learn everything you need to know to create your first webinar, watch Webinar Marketing for Financial Advisors. Ready to get started? Here are my recommendations for the 8 technologies you will need to create your first webinar.
1. PowerPoint
The first step to creating your webinar is writing your presentation. There are a variety of technologies out there, like Prezi and Keynote, but I recommend using good old PowerPoint, even if you’re using a Mac. This way, you can have a graphics expert design the slides and send them back to you in an editable format.
2. Upwork
To turn your slides from text-only bullet points into a beautiful presentation that features your firm’s branding and color scheme, you’ll want to work with a great graphic designer. We have a talented designer on our team that does all of our client presentations. If you don’t work with us, I recommend finding one on Upwork.com, a freelance hiring website. Search for PowerPoint designers and make sure they have five-star reviews. Plan to spend at least $2 per slide to get your project designed well.
3. A Good Camera (Optional)
It’s not necessary, but if you want to be on screen during your webinar, you’ll need a good camera to film yourself. There are a few options that will work well. Try using your iPhone to capture a landscape video. Or, if you have a MacBook, the built-in camera is fantastic. Want to go big? The Canon G7X is the best camera on the market for this type of recording. Just keep in mind that you’ll need a memory card, tripod, and other accessories for a luxury camera setup.
4. A Great Microphone
Whether you plan to record video of yourself or simply do a voice-over of your slides, you’ll need high-quality audio for your webinar. A USB microphone that plugs directly into your computer is your best bet. My favorite, the Blue Yeti is the top-rated microphone for podcasting and available on Amazon for about $130. Keep in mind that this microphone takes a little bit of work to learn how to use. Be sure it’s in Cardioid mode, sitting straight up and down, and that you speak directly toward the logo. I also use this tiny sound booth to make sure there’s not too much ambient noise.
5. Screen Recording Software
Once you have your PowerPoint designed and approved by compliance, it’s time to record your webinar! If you have a Mac, QuickTime will already be installed, so you can just click to “Start New Screen Recording.” For PCs, try SoapBox from Wistia, which makes it really easy to record from your built-in webcam then switch to recording your screen with audio. Another good option for PCs is Camtasia.
6. Video Hosting
Once you’ve recorded your webinar and gotten the final version approved by compliance, you’ll need to host it somewhere on the Internet. I use Wistia, which is free for your first three videos. I find that it looks less cluttered and more professional than Vimeo or YouTube.
7. Webinar Automation Software
The key to running an effective marketing webinar is setting it up to run on autopilot so that you can use it forever. Webinar automation software takes care of things like the registration page, reminder emails, countdown clocks, and actually playing the webinar at the time someone signed up to watch it. Then you can customize follow-up and reply emails. I use EasyWebinar, which is $497 per year.
8. Email Marketing Software
After someone watches your webinar, you’ll want to follow up with them to persuade them to take the next step with you. By scheduling follow-up emails in the days and weeks after the webinar, you can maximize your conversion rate. I recommend MailChimp to set up a four-email workflow that runs automatically. It’s free for fewer than 2,000 contacts.
Once you have your webinar set up and your follow-up email sequence on autopilot, it’s time to promote your webinar. Use email, social media, and your referral partners to spread the word. Consider direct LinkedIn messages and Facebook ads. After you’ve invested the time and energy to create an automated webinar, you can focus on promoting it to generate new leads in perpetuity.
I know this all may seem like a lot of work. When you sit down and look at an empty PowerPoint slide, it may be overwhelming. I typically spend two to three full days per month creating, recording, and setting up my monthly webinars.
Are you interested in how top advisors are using webinar marketing to get new clients? Register now for Webinar Marketing for Financial Advisors to find out everything you need to know about the next frontier of marketing!
About Claire
Claire Akin runs Indigo Marketing Agency, a marketing firm serving top independent financial advisors. Claire is a former Investment Advisor Representative who holds her MBA in Marketing from the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego as well as a BA in Economics from UC Davis. It’s her goal to help specialist advisors target their ideal prospects with content marketing.
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