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Are Webcasts the New Wave in B2B Marketing?
Here’s why your peers are raving.
from AICPA Custom Media Solutions

Webcasts are going through its second coming. As the economy has B2B marketers tightening their belts, they are seeing the light in Webcasts. For one thing, they don’t have to spend money on their staff traveling to and from conferences. For the other, B2B marketers have at their fingertips a niche audience that is tuned into their brand of advertising. Yes, you can have your cake and eat it too.

Steve Gershik, Vice President of Marketing Innovation at Eloqua Corporation, a company that helps marketers, believes that with Webcasts B2B marketers can reach almost anyone using extremely targeted programming. “We target people who would be interested in a particular topic, and they're going to get something out of [our Webcast]. It's valuable to them and it's easy", said Gershik to BtoBonline.com. “It allows you to engage in a conversation at a deeper level with customers,” he added.

Melanie Turek, Principle Analyst from Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, seconds that emotion. “Webinars allow us to change the way we think about qualifying leads. We can get very detailed and do it around specific information points that go well beyond industry and size of company, explained Turek. “We can poll and see which way different people vote, [and] then sell along a particular issue,” she added.

Keeping the economy in perspective, SAP drew a niche accounting crowd via AICPA. They recently conducted a Webinar, Going Beyond Just Surviving a Difficult Economy, that brought in expert panelists to help small and midsize businesses maintain momentum in a weak economy. About SAP-sponsored AICPA’s Webcasts, Steve Ernst, notes, “The CPAs participating came from all the segments of the profession and those in public practice came from firms of all sizes.”

Of repeatedly sponsoring AICPA Webcasts, Ernst says, “SAP is pleased to be associated with and sponsor the AICPA-produced Webcasts. They have consistently included solid and timely content that is of interest to CPAs in public practice and in the private sector." See related story in this issue.