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Why are webinars so effective for engineering audiences?

10 reasons why marketers should use webinars to target engineers

2015 has seen a breakthrough in the number of webinars for engineers that ENGINEERING.com is running. Last month, for example, webinars were booked on every available date. What’s going on?

In this post we’ll explore why marketers and engineers alike love webinars.  We’ll also share two customer stories about different, yet successful, webinars. Finally, we'll share some tips on getting the results you need.

Marketers love webinars because they can:

  1. Tell their brand story in a deeper and more thorough way. For example, marketers commonly give product demonstrations as part of a webinar
  2. Reach an engaged audience. The engineers on a webinar specifically set aside time in their day to learn about the topic
  3. Align their brands with thought leaders
  4. Collect registration data for future lead nurturing
  5. Repurpose content from case studies and surveys
  6. Gather market data by asking poll questions during the webinar

Engineers love webinars because they can:

  1. Learn the details of a product without engaging in a sales cycle. Many engineers like to find out everything they can before contacting a sales rep. Webinars are one of the best ways for them to validate that a product meets their requirements without having to actually speak to anyone.
  2. Follow thought leaders on important trends
  3. Engage directly with experts and ask questions on topics that matter to them. This is why so many engineers tune into the live presentation rather than simply watching the recording after the fact.
  4. Accrue professional development credits in many cases

One of our clients did nothing but a product demo during their webinar

Product demo in an engineering webinar

A product demo webinar example (see it here)

We typically suggest that our customers use two speakers in a webinar.  One speaker usually sets out some industry trends or tells a story about a successful application of the product in question.  Then the second presenter, typically an application engineer from the client-side, speaks in more detail about the product and its specifications.

In this case, we skipped the first part and went straight to the application engineer talking about the product.  And it worked.  We were concerned that the webinar would not be well attended and that the attendees wouldn’t be happy with a 45 minute product demonstration.  We were wrong.

The engineers who attended the webinar were looking specifically for that type of solution.  They wanted to see the product demo and engaged with lots of questions after the fact.

Another client ran a “live event” webinar

Live webinar for engineers

A "live event" webinar example (see it here)

One of our clients was hosting a live event and decided to extend the potential audience through a webinar.  This was a very successful idea for three reasons.  First, it leveraged the speakers who were already present.  Second, it gave prospects who could not attend the live event, either for geographic or time reasons, another way to participate.  And finally, the live event feel added a certain energy to the webinar.

A few hints on running a successful webinar

Here are a hints on how you can run a successful webinar:

  • Be completely truthful about what you are going to discuss. If all you have is a product demo, say so.
  • Be clear about who is sponsoring the webinar and what products they sell
  • Recruit industry experts to add value whenever possible
  • Use an application engineer as your company spokesperson rather than a marketer or sales person

And if you had any more questions on this - download our brochure on webinar programs here.

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