In the last blog posting, I sang the praises of recycling the content in your webinars into white papers, eBooks or other printed content.
The process is not quite as straightforward as posting the transcript online. Some webinars are easier than others to recycle. Here are a few considerations.
Repurpose if needed
Your paper doesn’t have to faithfully replicate the webinar. You should look carefully at whether the webinar can be repurposed to fill a ‘gap’ in your marketing content. You may eliminate sections of the webinar altogether, or spin a long webinar into several, targeted pieces.
For example, if you need a piece targeting decision-makers at the early stages of the buying cycle in a specific industry, then you can supplement the webinar content with industry-specific examples and target it for those prospects.
Optimize for the printed form
You cannot assume that someone will read through a paper end-to-end the way they might watch a webinar. So, make adjustments for the differences in media.
Make it easy to scan and browse the paper or eBook. Use sidebars, captions, subheads and bullets where appropriate. You might include excerpts from the spoken transcript as pull-quotes.
Usually, a webinar provides you with a rich source of illustrations and screen shots from which to choose. Add captions and use them to enliven your document
Pay attention to the Q&A period
Did your webinar have a lively question and answer session? Audience feedback gives you valuable insight into what the webinar missed, what concerns your prospects might have, and what they find confusing. You can use these concerns and questions to make the printed piece more effective.
If the Q and A brings up any particularly potent or recurring concerns about your technology, then you should address them head-on in your paper. They may merit their own paper as part of your regular content mix.
Anne Janzer 