One of our most popular and vital offerings is the webinars that we market, host, and facilitate for authors.
Because we want to continue to serve our clients effectively, a few weeks ago we sent out a survey to our webinar mailing list and asked them to respond with what they liked about our events, why they signed up (or didn’t), and what we could do better.
The responses were overwhelmingly positive, which we were happy to see (because it confirmed our internal impressions), but a few of them also gave us some food for thought and showed off areas where growth was needed.
What We Learned
For example, we learned that the majority of those who responded attend five or more webinars per year. That’s higher than we were expecting, because we know how busy everyone is! We were also pleased to see that most of the attendees came because of our email marketing—again, another pleasant surprise as so many inboxes (including my own!) are flooded and it’s so easy to miss something.
We made the assumption—wrongly, as it turns out—that many of our audience members attended because they recognized the name of our speaker. Based on the responses, we learned that the majority of those in attendance came because the webinar topic was of interest to them. While this might initially seem unfortunate for the reach of our guest speakers, it actually is quite positive because it proves that our webinars work as an introduction to a whole new audience of potential clients, book buyers, and connections!
Other surprise responses included:
- Wednesday is the most popular day of the week to attend.
- Workplace culture is a more popular topic than customer service or career development.
- Keynote presentation with an open Q&A session is the most popular style.
Actionable Ideas
Since we knew that the goal of this survey was to learn from our audience, we also wanted to give them the opportunity to provide open ended answers on the feedback form. These responses provided a lot of value to our team. Some of the suggestions were simple things that we can discuss as a team and see about implementing:
- Make handouts available prior to/at the start of the event rather than post event.
- More powerpoint slides that emphasize the main points of the presentation.
- Offer shorter webinars (25-30 minutes) for those who can’t do an hour.
Positive Feedback
If you’ve never signed up to attend one of our webinars, I’d like to leave you with some of the overwhelmingly positive feedback that came out of our survey, and perhaps you’ll be inspired to join one of our future events!
- Really good content, talented and engaged guests.
- Keeps me up on current events.
- I like the range of topics and women speakers.
- They’re concise – always respectful of the one-hour timeframe.
- The quality of authors.
- I like the fact that I receive a depth of learning rather than just an introduction to the author’s books.
- Attractive, timely topics, professional organization and facilitation and ease of access.
- All presenters seem to be competent and caring, with something substantive to offer!
- The participants have some great knowledge, and present the materials in a way that I can understand, sometimes the materials are very deep.
- Informative and somehow ALWAYS relates to something I am going through at the time.
- They feel like a conversation and not a presentation. Much more engaging than a typical webinar with powerpoint.
So what do you think?
Are you ready to give us a try and come learn along with us on our next webinar? Check out our upcoming webinars, or spend some time reviewing our recordings to catch up on what you’ve missed!
I am the founder/CEO of the Weaving Influence team, the author of Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause, and the host of the Book Marketing Action Podcast. I’m a wife and mom of three kids, and I enjoy running, reading, writing, coffee, and dark chocolate.