Master the Execution of Webinars by learning 11 key Drivers for Success of Webinars for Doctors
In our last insights article on the ‘ ROI for Web Events ’,we discussed Why the returnon investment is higher on digital Web Events.Having addressed the ‘ Why’ question,we move on to answering ‘ How’ the webinar needs to be orchestrated for getting the best possible outcome.In thisinsights article,we highlight all the key aspects of doing a successful webinar by dividing it in Six different stages.Then we will go over each stage one by one and define the KPIs for each stage and provide you with useful tipsthat can help you achieve the best outcome for that phase.
The first step is to understand that measuring performance is a key tool that helps link strategy with implementation.It ensures that the business is delivering the way it is planned to.It is also needed for decision making andreview.
Decision makers need to invest time&resources into measuring the performance of any activity that they do,and Webinars are no exceptions.
“Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement.If you can’t measure something,you can’t understand it.If you can’t understand it,you can’t control it.If you can’t control it,youcan’t improve it.”
― H.James Harrington
While setting&managing objectives& KPIs for the event,keep in mind: Fewer are Better .Concentrate on the important aspects that are linked to key business drivers.Let’s reviewthe most important stages and the key drivers of success in each of these stages.
PLANNING STAGE/PRO-WEBINAR PHASE
1 Event Theme,Topics and Speaker: One of the best ways to ensure a record event attendance is tohave the BEST keynote speakers and interesting topics that will pull a crowd and please your audience.Our HCP survey on ‘ What Doctors expect from an Impactful Webinar ’ about 41% mentioned CPD points followed by the Topic and Content(27%) are the most important drivers while attending the webinar of doctors mentioned that the topics and faculty is the single mostimportant factor for them to attend the webinar.
Power Performance Tips
- Every event needs inspirational and motivational speakers.The audience wants more than just content&lots of information – they want a great personality&presence and prefer an entertaining show as well.
- Try to choose a topic that is fresh and new while focusing on how it can help the doctors in their day-to-day practice.Doctors are not much interested in old boring topics from such events.
2 Timing of the Webinar: The events should be planned in a way that doctors can fit it in their busy schedule.Marketer should look out for a relatively lean season when doctors are not too busy with their patients.The event should not be too long tointerfere with their practice.
Power Performance Tips
- Our HCPsurvey on ‘ What Doctors expect from an Impactful Webinar ’ shows that c hoosing evening to late evening or weekends for your webinar sessions increases the number or attendees.
3 Format of the Webinar: There are multiple options available like:One Speaker,Interview Style,Moderated Panel Discussion,and Interactive ones.Each one has its own pros and cons.Choose a format that is best suited for your requirement,budget,andother resources.
Power Performance Tips
- Irrespective of the format of the webinar,it is always good to have a moderator in place whose purpose is to coordinate with all the speakers and the audience.He/she can collate all the relevant queries from the audienceand pass the relevant ones to the speaker.Moderators ensure that the discussions during the session are on track and aligned to the event agenda.
- Having moderators early in the team help them build rapport with the speakers and plan the presentations,visual aids and other items for the session as well.
PROSPECTING STAGE/PRE-WEBINAR PHASE
4 Target Audience Size is the total number of doctors you would like to reach out to.This is the total universe size of the doctors for which your message is relevant.This should be further segmented into following categories:
- Core Audience: These are the doctors from the specialty which belong to your calling list and are key to your event success.
- Extended Audience: These are the doctors who are not in your calling list or you were not able to reach out through your own channels.
Marketers must reach out to all the doctors in the larger audience(core+extended) group via different channels and partners.
Power Performance Tips
- Often these extended audience are provided by your marketing partners or webinar channel partners.Doctor networks like MedSynapse are highly effective in bringing their member doctors and increase the Extended Audience .
5 Target Audience Profile You understand your target audience well when you have deeper details about the HCP.This starts with the basic information like specialty,professional,and educational details.Having further demographic information about themlike age,gender,city etc.further helps in slicing and dicing the audience group to create relevant and personalised marketing campaign for them.Additionally,it helps in understanding the key drivers of success and failureduring the review process.
Power Performance Tips
- Having additional details like publication data,clinical trial participation,professional body membership about HCP helps identify the interest area of doctors and plan the campaigns by matching the topics with his/her interest area.This vastly improves the doctors’ participation in the event.
QUALIFICATION STAGE/IN-WEBINAR PHASE
6 Total Doctors Registered : Doctors who have shown interest to the webinar invitations can register for the webinar sessions.These are the people who are highly motivated to attendthe sessions as they found the webinar topics and speakers relevant.A high conversion ratio from Target Audience Size vs.Total Doctors Registered shows that the audience selection,topics and speakers have beenselected and targeted well.
Power Performance Tips
- It is recommended that the first awareness campaign is done at least two weeks in advance so that doctors can plan to attend the session and fit it in their busy schedule.
- A personalised marketing campaign based on individual profile and interest of the doctors is likely to give a high conversion rate.
CLOSURE STAGE/WEBINAR LAUNCH PHASE
7 Number of Attendees : The number of webinar attendees is the single most important KPI to measure the success of the event.It is very encouraging for the speakers andfaculties to address a large audience and have an interactive session with them.For the brand managers and marketers in Pharma,a high number of attendees reflects the brand’s credibility.It shows that doctors trust their contentand they are willing to give attention to their product offerings.
Every live session from the event should be archived and hosted for viewing later by the same audience or for the ones who could not attend it in real time.The KPI for total number of attendees should also include the doctors whoviewed the recorded and archived session.
Power Performance Tips
- It is advised to send a reminder a day before the actual event to those who either registered for your event or showed interest by opening your invitation email.
- Additionally,final reminders should be triggered to every registered HCP.
8 Average Session Time: The attention span in digital space is low and people are distracted very easily by deluge of information available on theirsmartphone and desktop.The average session time of the doctors reflects how valuable the doctors found the webinar.
Power Performance Tips
- Keep the awareness,registration and reminder campaign messaging fully aligned with the actual sessions.While attending the sessions,Doctors must get a feeling that they are getting what they were promised.
- Send campaigns which are highly personalized and targeted so that the doctors are communicated of the relevant and most important sessions.In such cases doctors are more likely to watch sessions for longer period.
- Keep the webinar session duration short and crisp,between 30 to 45 minutes.It is extremely difficult to watch an academic video session longer than that without losing interest and enthusiasm and doctors lose interest in alonger session.
- Ensure that the key message is delivered in first 5 minutes of the session.Even if the doctors drop off early,the key message is delivered.
- Repeat the key message on regular intervals as it helps cement the key concepts in the minds of audience.
INTERACTION STAGE/WEBINAR SESSION PHASE
9 Number of Discussions : A webinar with high number of discussions shows that audience is participating from their side and it is no more a one-way communication.This creates anopportunity to not only communicate your message to them but to listen what the doctors think and what their key concerns are.By addressing these key concerns,both during and after the webinar,the marketers can improvecredibility of their brand.
Power Performance Tips
- Attach short quizzes,interactive widgets,quick comment chips and polls to increase and catalyse the interactions during webinar sessions.
- Having a moderator to sort and forward the relevant questions to the speaker panel helps in addressing the audience question in a coherent way.
- Appreciate and thank doctors for their positive comments and encourage them to share their experience and learning with other doctors.This will increase your net promotor score.
- Treat negative comments in the discussion as opportunity to engage with the HCPs and address their key concern.
10 Additional Information Requested: This KPI helps measure the touchpoints where doctors/HCPs want deeper insights into the topic by downloading the presentations,product literature,Clinical Trial data and other related items to the session.Doctors may also requestphysician samples.These are simply the opportunities for further interaction with the doctors.
Power Performance Tips
- You must always ensure that your medical affairs or sales team gets in touch with these HCPs(in person or virtual meetings),to discuss these further.
INTERACTION STAGE/WEBINAR SESSION PHASE
11 Post Webinar Communication : After the webinar is over,all the sessions should be archived and hosted on the event web page.Post event,there should be a communication campaignthanking the doctors for their support and sharing the link for the archived content.This way the doctors who were not able to attend during live sessions can still come and view at their time of convenience.Other doctors who wantto repeat view the content can also use it.
Power Performance Tips
- In the post webinar communication campaign,the organisers should also do a feedback survey to understand the HCP perspective and their takeaways from the session.Their suggestions help with improvements for futurewebinars.
