This Spring, Webinars Get the Gold Star for Superior Content Marketing. More, More, Please.

Something happened in April. Free webinars from every corner of the industry hit my email inbox like rolling thunder. A quick and casual count reveals I have been offered 31 webinars since April 1. Experts like MindFire, Marketo, HubSpot, Printing Impressions, MarketingProfs, and Vocus have shared what they know. And they know a lot.

Sure, all these folks are selling products/services, but I couldn’t care less. In the last few weeks, I’ve attended five Webinars, with two more scheduled in May. I even have a “webinar” folder in my email so I can go back to see who, what, where, how. What’s going on here?

For way too long, marketers saw webinars as a way to make money, charging $199, $297, $499 and up. Providers have gotten MUCH smarter. This spring, content marketers are keeping webinars free and short (one hour max). What a gift!

•For my part, I take notes while I’m listening. These turn very quickly into blog posts. Sometimes five minutes after the Webinar is over I’ve blogged and Tweeted. I figure it’s the least I can do for the great information I’m gathering!

I’ve gathered a couple of stories while listening. For one, Guy Kawasaki’s computer decided to do a software update during his Enchanted presentation. Viewers saw the prompt on his computer to "upgrade now." When Kawasaki said “sure, go ahead,” the software download took over. He couldn’t get back online with his slides for seven minutes. Let that be a lesson.

Bryan Yaeger’s phone rang while he was making his Printing Impressions presentation. We heard the ring, but fortunately the phone was not on speaker. Lesson number two.

What features have I most enjoyed in my various webinars?

• I love the button that lets me “download slides now”, since I tend to miss some stuff while furiously typing.

• I find I can monitor email and work while I am listening. Super efficiency.

• Thank you, thank you for post-webinar download options. It’s great archival material that I can refer to in the months ahead.

Advice to webinar Mavens? Please do send me a reminder the day before and TWO on the day of. I do forget what time it is and fail to tune in on time (if at all)

Bottomline: Webinars are a super-duper learning environment. I’m hooked on Webinars!

-- scrubbed by Marketing Brillo