For years, webinars have been a fantastic way to increase brand awareness and to generate leads. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and in-person conferences were not possible, there was an explosion of online educational offerings. Instead of one or two interesting webinars each week, suddenly we were all inundated with dozens of webinars. Are webinars still a good marketing tactic?
We sat down with Sarah Strom, VP of Marketing at Panda Health to discuss this topic and get her take on what’s working when it comes to B2B healthcare marketing.
Who is Sara Strom?
I feel very fortunate to know Sara Strom. She is a courageous, smart, and accomplished marketer who has a passion for healthcare. I first met Sara at the 2017 HITMC conference in Las Vegas. At that time, she was new to healthcare and was looking to learn more about the industry. I’ll never forget the determination in her voice when she outlined all the sessions that she was planning on attending.
What I didn’t know until our most recent conversation (watch the video below), was that Sara had ALWAYS been passionate about healthcare: “I always thought I was going to be pre-med or nursing, but it turned out biology classes weren’t my thing and I went into marketing instead.” When her career took her to a Health IT company in 2017: “It felt like my career had come full circle. I was finally going to be able to use my communication, marketing, and media skills in healthcare.”
Earlier this year Sara won the 2022 Medigy HITMC Award for Marketer of the Year – recognition for her outstanding work.
Are Webinars Still Viable?
The Award was part of the reason why I wanted to get Sara on-camera. The other was because Panda Health had run a series of successful webinars in 2021/22 and I wanted to find out more.
“We still do webinars, but we’re running more ROI analysis on the effort that goes into a webinar and the output that comes out in terms of leads, conversions, or meetings,” said Sara. She added that in addition to giving more weight to ROI, it’s important to focus on quality, educational content that isn’t a sales pitch.
“People will still come to webinars if there’s something really valuable in it for them,” she continued. “But marketers should be cognizant that attention spans and ability to devote time to online learning are both shifting. What I’m seeing is shorter webinars – 30-minute, 15-minute and even 10-minute sessions. People are definitely moving away from full 60-minute webinars. Nobody has time for that.”
During our conversation, Sara offered a fantastic bit of advice. She suggests avoiding the term “webinar” altogether because it now has a slightly negative connotation. Instead, she recommends calling it a “virtual event” or a “lunch and learn”. Those, she says, can help you garner a few more registrations.
Other great tips from Sara:
- Don’t make your webinar recording available on-demand, chop it up into smaller bite sized pieces to post on social media
- Turn your webinar into a podcast
For Sara and the team at Panda Health, webinars are still part of their marketing mix, but they are less prominent than in the past. They are putting emphasis on other strategies and other forms of content.
Watch the full interview with Sara Strom to learn:
- Where podcasts belong in your marketing plan (and what the drawbacks are)
- How much you should be spending on videos (you might be surprised!)
- Where to go to get inspiration and ways to keep your marketing fresh
- How to think beyond email to get a message to your audience
Learn more about Panda Health at: https://panda.health/
Panda Health is a supporter of Healthcare Scene.
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