Lead Generation Webinars through the Lens of Adult Learning

Content marketing is powerful. Webinars are an engaging medium. Yet regularly organizations struggle to achieve the results they want.

The answer for many might be to consider their content marketing in light of how adults are motivated to learn.

As a framework, below are five principles shared by my friend, fellow CSP, and Hall of Fame speaker, Barbara Glanz who, besides being a brilliant speaker and trainer, did her master’s thesis to find the adult learning principles that were common to all empirical research into andragogy.

To enjoy the learning

A frequent question I get is, “What do you do with a boring topic?” When I’m feeling snarky I say, “Don’t be boring.”

The inconvenient truth is that your content is interesting to someone in some context. Find that angle, and you’ll find more leads. Oh, and boring presenters are the number one reason people bail out of webinars early, so there’s that whole “need people to stick around and hear the message” thing, too, if you want to affect change.

To be able to apply the knowledge

The most powerful response mechanism is the promise of benefit. Make your webinar’s promotional efforts pass the “So what this means to me is…” test.

To be able to describe that knowledge to someone else

Teaching something to someone else is a powerful way to solidify your own learning. When it comes to lead generation programs, this might be messaging that your webinar will help someone become the trusted advisor on the topic. It may be that during the webinar tactics like repetition are used to solidify the key point which, if you’re generating leads, means that people need to remember what you’ve said and that you’re the one who said it.

To feel confidence in the presenter

Often times it is the credibility of the speaker that will draw people in (during the invitation process). The same goes for the opening introduction. Say what needs to be said but no more.

To be respected by the presenter

This might be hard to do in a single webinar’s promotion, but hosting a series of webinar that interconnect is a force multiplier to webinar promotional success. Helping presenters talk with people instead of at them is essential.

The bottom line

There are no silver bullets for promoting webinars. The best weapon you have is to create compelling educational content. Your challenge, if you’re up for it, is to marry the foundational principles of adult learning to amplify how that content resonates with your audience.

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