Last week I blogged about fresh alternatives to the B2B marketing lead generation trinity (webinars, whitepapers and tradeshows). While few parts of your marketing mix can help you tell your story, share a demo or answer questions like a live web event, I feel like the medium has become tired. How many sessions about “Best practices in…” or “X Ways to improve…” can your prospects bear?
The format has become as predictable as a “Friends” rerun. You begin with a short intro, followed by a customer or analyst testimonial, then a demo, shameless plug and finally an interactive Q&A. Your prospects may or may not listen to the audio in the background as they get caught up on email or checkout Perez Hilton.
So, what can a software marketer do? Sales is still going to breath down your neck for leads. My suggestions is to take another look at streaming radio. I know this is technologically similar to webinar audio but has a few advantages.
Costs: Unless you are using one of the low-cost, higher-risk webinar providers (ie Gotowebinar or Dim Dim), streaming radio can be significantly less expensive.
Sound quality: A 128K audio stream typically sounds better than the overburdened VOIP or conference call connections from the major webinar services.
Scalability: Webinar providers also often have a different pricing schedule for bigger events (ie over 1,000 people). Streaming radio on the other hand can use a CDN which typically scales to much great levels without arbitrary limits imposed to maximize revenue yield.
Freshness: Who wants to be a webinar attendee? An Internet radio show just sounds cooler.
Podcasts: It is pretty easy to create podcasts from most streaming radio software.
Here are a couple things I have learned:
- You need an alternative plan for chat. I’ve dabbled with Twitter and a custom hashtags. You could also consider Skype or some other chat platform for less social media savvy crowds.
- You need to find a registration system. I’ve used Eventbrite. It is free and easy to configure.
- Live demos are a challenge. You would need to find a screensharing solution.
- You’ll want to build a custom page for radio show URL.
- People can access the show without registering, costing you some leads.
Anyone else have experiences with streaming radio they would like to share?
