Having worked for a professional hospital CIO association for over six years, I’ve moderated and attended my fair share of health IT vendor webinars. I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. Webinars should not be taken lightly, and should ultimately provide educational insight to attendees and your business. A webinar can help establish you as an industry expert, attract new customers, and add value to your brand.
Here are seven tips to help boost your next webinar and key mistakes to avoid.
1. Don’t be a Car Salesman
Nothing will kill a presentation faster than an overly aggressive, unsolicited sales pitch. Leave that to your sales team. If you want to be truly compelling and solidify your company as a problem solver, focus on the key issues that impact your audience and share best practices for overcoming them. Rather than sell every bell and whistle of your product, draw upon examples of how your business is allowing existing clients to reach their goals. Focus on lessons learned.
2. Don’t Pull a Bait and Switch
Your webinar title and abstract say you are going to discuss how to build and maintain an effective population health strategy, yet you spend 60 minutes doing a product demo.
3. Be Polished and Prepared.
The best presenters are experts in their field, have a strong voice, and are experienced. It’s always good to have a presentation outline in hand with concise bullet points for each slide. Don’t write a script out word for word. Not only will you sound like you’re reading it, you’ll end up relying on it and if you lose your place, you’ll become flustered. Plus, it’s a distraction from the computer screen should any technical issues arise (i.e. you are on the wrong slide, a question is asked).
4. Don’t Save Questions for the End
Don’t save the Q&A until the end of your presentation. Strike while the iron is hot and take periodic breaks throughout the webcast for questions. This makes the presentation more interactive and gives you a breather from being just a talking head. Also, not every attendee can stay the full duration and will appreciate the opportunity. Additionally, it helps if you have a team member dedicated to monitoring questions or comments that come in from the audience. This is an effective tactic to ensure questions are addressed or even skipped over. Nothing worse than reading a question a loud and it’s one you can’t answer or completely irrelevant/inappropriate.
5.Survey Your Audience
Nearly ever webinar platform has a poll feature. Take advantage of your audience as your own personal focus group. They have already proven interest by registering and showing up, so leverage their time and insight to help your business. Plus it makes the webinar that much more engaging if the audience feels involved, and they will be interested in the feedback of their peers. Just be sure to give attendees sufficient time to weigh-in. Strong questions ought to lead into the next presentation topic and help dictate the amount of time you should spend on that issue.
6. Don’t Bedazzle Your Slide Deck
Slides should be visually appealing but keep the animations at bay. They rarely ever work on cue, and slow your presentation way down. Also, don’t use hyperlinks in your slide deck. Any sites you’d like the audience to visit should be posted in the chat window. Keep your slide deck font simple. Avoid elaborate fonts that almost never translate to webinar platforms. Arial is an easy to read, universal font. Try to stick with one color palette and select data and images that reflect your key points.
7. You Nailed It, Now Continue the Engagement
When the webinar has ended, continue the engagement by sending attendees a pdf of the slide deck and an archive link to the recording. Be sure to include the speakers contact information and request attendee feedback via a brief survey. Entice your participants with a special offer or prize drawing.
With the above in mind, here are a few other tips to ensure your next webinar is a winner:
Be cognizant of time zones and holidays when selecting a date and time for your webinar.
Send an attendee reminder the day of and the day before.
Log in early. Show up at least 15-20 minutes to ensure the audio and technology is working, Test advancing your slides as well.
Industry veteran Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola Communications, shares how digital media is changing the world of public relations. Watch this video to learn how the lines between earned and paid media are getting blurred.
For what seems ages, you’ve mulled over an issue that you’re now convinced deserves a wider platform for passionate debate. Perhaps it’s an alarm to sound that no one in your industry is articulately ringing or a bold challenge to wake up a complacent profession. Whatever the intent of your message, if you’re a credible messenger, it’s time to start writing your manifesto now for a January 2017 release. Likely what you have to say is too important not to get started ASAP on one of two strategies (more on both coming up) until you have something sweepingly profound to share with the world, at the start of the new year a highly symbolic, and thus, effective time to share your message.
What all good manifestos have in common
Stylistically, how you craft your message is up to you. Take a look at these three notable manifestos, each very different, from word count to the writer’s level of fame. Yet all are an industry clarion call from a credible industry insider the recipe for a message that gets passionately discussed and debated.
Intel CEO Andy Grove’s 2010 missive “How America Can Create Jobs” that warned about the naive fixes being advocated to solve America’s trade-related jobs crisis.
Paypal founder Peter Thiel’s 2011 essay “What Happened to the Future?” which issued Thiel’s now-classic lament: “We were promised flying cars. Instead, we got 140 characters.”
Anil Dash’s “Toward Humane Tech”…a penetrating second-guess about Silicon Valley’s preoccupation with disruptive technologies.
Here’s a second important ingredient for a message that gets noticed: the element of surprise, either in content or the messenger. Grove’s manifesto definitely caught a lot of people off guard who couldn’t fathom why a capitalist was warning about unfettered global capitalism. This shock generated the necessary attention on the point he really wanted debated: that massive job creation doesn’t happen during the invention phase of a product (directly contradicting an oft-repeated trope that the best economic prescription is to invest in technology innovation), but rather, the scaling out phase in which the now-invented product is ready for mass manufacturing. The latter, of course, has been taking place outside of America for some time now.
Dash’s message to Silicon Valley also shot a dart through some prevalent platitudes. An excerpt: “We could start to respect legal processes and the need for thoughtful engagement with policy makers but still be cavalier about the privacy and security of our users data. We could continue to invest in design and user experience but remain thoughtless about the emotional and psychological impacts of the experiences we create. We could continue to bemoan the shortcomings of legacy industries while exacerbating issues like income inequality or social inequity.”
Honest question: are you prepared to similarly hold up to examination and directly contradict some commonly held gospels in your own industry? If so, read on to learn how to get started.
Two writing approaches to a manifesto that mesmerizes
There are a couple of paths you can take to execute this important project, both aimed at getting a compelling and effectively structured message out by early next year. One is to conceptualize and outline the entire piece now and then begin the research and writing work on it. Or you can take a more incremental approach by writing a series of thought leadership articles that touch on various aspects of the manifesto you eventually want to write, and eventually pull them all together into a single piece.
The primary benefits of the second strategy are 1) you have multiple pieces you can distribute earlier than next year and 2) you can test the waters of the over-riding message of your eventual manifesto that is, assess the reception and feedback you receive from each point raised in your various thought leadership articles. Both important merits, but take care that you don’t end up writing your longer message based solely on which thought leadership articles garner the most attention. The end goal is a truly authentic and substantive piece. Not “click bait” with a short shelf life.
On that note, I’ll now deliver the single self-promotional message I have to deliver on this topic: unless you can (and have the time) to write any of the above very well, team up with a professional writer and a media consultant on this project. Benefits abound, from formulating your message more clearly, to delivering it with maximum impact.
Once written, what do you do with it?
Actually, a true clarion call should be a fairly evergreen piece. Initially you would want to secure coverage in one or more publications, get it out on social media, and so on. Obviously the higher your profile, the more likely Bloomberg, Computer World, Forbes, et al is going to feature your message on their home pages. But if you’ve got a killer message and a credible background, you’re going to get good coverage, regardless of how famous you are. (For example, I’d actually never heard of Dash until I read his essay on LinkedIn. I’ll certainly be following him now.)
Your essay can also follow you pretty much wherever you go, including your company website, as a hyperlink in your online bio and resume, and as part of the pitch materials given to reporters in advance of your various media interviews. It can even form the basis of a speech or presentation you become well known for.
Piqued to learn more about getting your manifesto off the ground? Get in touch with me at sjanard@acmarketingpr.com. I’m interested in hearing your proposed message…and if you’re a credible industry insider, chances are, so is your target audience.
Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized and award-winning public relations, content creation and marketing firm specializing in healthcare and health information technology, announced that HGS Colibrium Inc. has expanded its content and social media programs. The Atlanta-based company is a subsidiary of Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS), which is also an Amendola client public relations client.
Colibrium’s expanded partnership with Amendola was based in part by the creation of a significant internal feedback report. Amendola interviewed more than a dozen of the company’s employees and payer clients. The interviews covered the lifecycle of the Colibrium experience, including identifying health plans” pain points and business needs; the RFP process, demos, and tipping points; marketing and sales efforts; implementation, including transition from sales staff to stand-up; and, when available, metrics and return on investment. The information gleaned from the interviews informed the design of the company’s website and critical components of its marketing, branding, and communications strategy.
Amendola will continue to support that strategy with the ongoing development of case studies, infographics, white papers, press releases, eBlasts, social media as well as bylined articles and media interviews.
“We knew it was essential to retain a health IT-focused public relations firm to help us gain a share of voice in a very noisy marketplace,” said Mark Poling, CEO of Colibrium. “I know that Colibrium, our clients, and our thought leaders are well-represented in the marketplace with Amendola as an extension of our team. They will expertly showcase the tremendous value we bring to the health plan community.”
Colibrium’s Tuo platform solutions are designed to provide health plans with both turn-key and modular solutions, as well as market segmentation and comprehensive functionality across the entire health insurance enterprise.
HGS has also experienced tremendous success with Amendola, enjoying an aggressive earned media program that includes interviews with key thought leadership and bylines in critical healthcare payer publications. Amendola works closely with HGS social media and blogging team to coordinate publishing efforts, ensuring maximum exposure of HGS payer and provider services in the U.S healthcare market.
For example, Amendola authored a blog based on a byline the PR firm earned for the company, and it ranked among the most popular in blog’s history with nearly 1,000 views.
The AC team provides ongoing strategic counsel on market developments and messaging to support media relations, speaker and award initiatives, and support for HGS social media team.
“We value our partnership with Amendola,” said Andrew Kokes, Chief Marketing Officer for HGS. “Brands are built on what people are saying about you, not what you’re saying about yourself. The Amendola team has already elevated many of our key thought leaders through earned media placements, and have helped us foster critical relationships within the healthcare industry.”
Based in Lisle, IL, HGS is a global leader in business process management and provides end-to-end innovations for all facets of provider and payer lifecycle management. As a client partner of five of the top 10 U.S. healthcare payers, multi-state health systems, and large provider groups, HGS brings transformational care management to revenue cycle management, lifecycle management, claims benefits management, and medical cost management.
“Amendola Communications is a natural fit for innovative companies like HGS and Colibrium, and we are excited to tell their stories,” said Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola Communications. “Health insurance reform has been a game-changer in our industry, and our in-depth knowledge of the highly competitive payer marketplace will help position both companies for success now and in the future.”
View a video testimonial from HGS here: https://youtu.be/9zqs_kKIMVg.
About HGS
HGS is a leader in optimizing the customer experience and helping our clients to become more competitive. HGS provides a full suite of business process management services from marketing and digital enablement services, consumer interaction services to platform enabling back office business services. By applying analytics and interaction transformation design to deliver innovation and thought leadership, HGS increases revenue, improves operating efficiency and helps to retain valuable customers. HGS expertise spans the telecommunications and media, healthcare, insurance, banking, consumer electronics and technology, retail, consumer packaged goods industries, as well as the public sector. HGS operates on a global landscape with 29,000+ employees in 60 worldwide locations delivering localized solutions. HGS, part of the multi-billion dollar Hinduja Group, has over four decades of experience working with some of the world’s most recognized brands. For more information, please visit www.hgshealthcare.com.
About HGS Colibrium, Inc.
Founded in 2005, Colibrium, an HGS Company, delivers integrated software solutions designed specifically for the health insurance industry. Colibrium’s award-winning Tuo software empowers health plans with a best-in-class private exchange solution to enroll, engage, and retain members in individual, group and Medicare markets. Colibrium’s pre-configured Tuo 360, their CRM overlay built specifically for Salesforce and Dynamics platforms, enables health plans to gain a 360 degree view of their members to improve marketing effectiveness, customer service and member engagement. For the past two years, Colibrium has earned industry recognition including Microsoft Dynamics Partner of the Year for Health Plans and a recent listing in Hype Cycle for Healthcare Payers report from industry analyst Gartner. For more information about Colibrium or view recent case studies and client results visit www.colibrium.com.
About Amendola Communications
Amendola Communications is an award-winning national public relations, marketing communications, social media and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation by PRSourceCode for four years running, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and healthcare IT industries. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros delivers strategic guidance and effective solutions to help organizations boost their reputation and drive market share. For more information about the PR industry’s “A Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Media Contact: Â Matt Schlossberg | 630-935-9136 |mschlossberg@ACmarketingPR.com
Don’t let its deceptively sterile name fool you the venerable white paper still packs a lot of punch. It remains the ideal medium to educate and make a comprehensive case for a new product or approach, and B2b marketers repeatedly cite it as a top producer of leads on their websites. You can even extract smaller articles and blog posts from it. In short, the white paper is beautifully versatile so much so, there’s room for getting even more mileage out of this marketing and PR favorite with just a few new updates. Here are four to get you started:
Pair your white paper with a Periscope interview of the author. Your white paper is full of new and provocative information so broadcast it! With the Periscope live video streaming app, interviewing the author about some of the white paper’s most intriguing points is a snap.
Include an infographic. Make use of catchy graphics to capture the most interesting information in your white paper. Encourage members of the media to republish your white paper’s infographic in their coverage (and don’t forget to add it to the digital assets library in your online media room).
Create an audio version of your white paper. This will especially appeal to road warriors with perpetually attached earbuds. Add your new narrated white paper to a playlist of other audio pieces, which you can promote as a “Know on the Go” series.
Call it a “guide” instead of a white paper. This just has a warmer and more helpful ring to it, doesn’t it? And it’s an accurate term for a piece that guides prospects to making a wise and informed decision. Of course, no matter what you call a white paper, it needs substance and it needs to be deftly written.
