International SOS dramatically improves webinar attendance with new content marketing methods
Here at Adaptive Imagination, we know just how large a role webinars can play in a business’ content marketing initiatives to build relationships, showcase products and showcase ideas and improve ROI. However, if you can’t get people in the door to check out what you have to offer, webinars can fall flat fairly quickly.
Medical and travel security services company International SOS encountered this issue during the early portion of 2010 and embarked upon a multi-year effort to improve their flagging webinar attendance and registration rates, and their strategy is one that companies large and small can take note of. According to Marketing Sherpa, the company saw their attendance rise 400 percent from 2011 to 2014, and registration rates improve by 352 percent.
Refining the webinar subscription process
First and foremost, International SOS did what most companies should do when faced with a significant marketing challenge – implement targeted email segmentation, refine their content to suit each audience and provide clear and concise calls to action that would incline recipients to check out what each webinar had to offer. In the past, the company used a cookie-cutter approach to their email segmentation with users receiving the same emails over and over, which didn’t exactly compel new subscribers to learn what International SOS had to offer.
Secondly, a much larger degree of personalization was implemented in these email segments, such as focusing on buyers and managers, as opposed to other large consumer bases like travelers and expatriates. By altering the message to these differing groups, International SOS’s outreach was far more focused and increased their relevancy to each group significantly.
Last but not least, A/B testing was invaluable in seeing what types of approaches would work with each group, and how to refine messages going forward. By altering color, content and other elements in a 50/50 split to a subscriber base, International SOS was quickly able to understand what appealed to their customers and understood quickly what had to stay and what would be kicked to the curb.
Ultimately, International SOS’s success story showcase the importance of regular testing, as small incremental changes could have big impacts, just as much as the information being presented in the webinars themselves. Those baby steps could add up to a major increase in revenue, and brighter days ahead for any business looking to bring its expertise, products and services to many new audiences.
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/webinar-attendance-email-relevance-testing
