Six Reasons You Should Host an Aviation Marketing Webinar

You have probably seen webinars from aviation companies.

You may have even considered hosting an aviation marketing webinar in the past.

If, like many aviation companies, you’ve relied on trade shows to get new leads, meet with clients and potential clients, explain key concepts, demonstrate your product, and move your sales process along, now’s a perfect time to consider adding webinars to your marketing arsenal.

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Paula Williams:

Welcome to this week’s episode. I’m Paula Williams.

John Williams:

I’m John Williams.

Paula Williams:

And we are ABCI. And ABCI’s mission is?

John Williams:

To help you folks out there in the aviation world sell more products and services, even now.

Paula Williams:

Even now. So this is April, 2020. If you’re listening to this later, we are in the middle of… What the media is… Every single headline is about COVID-19, the pandemic and [inaudible 00:00:34]. So-

John Williams:

Notice they call it 19. That means there were 18 other ones in front of it, we never heard about.

Paula Williams:

Right, exactly. But anyway, the point is, this episode is six reasons aviation companies should host webinars. That was easy for me to say. Especially now, this is a really great time to think about doing webinars, even if you have never thought about it before, right?

John Williams:

I’ve never done one. You maybe probably have attended one, but might not have considered doing one yourself.

Paula Williams:

You’re right. Exactly, hosting one. All right. So this episode is brought to you by our brand new product, our newest product, which is an aviation marketing webinar, as part of your sales process. and this webinar is actually designed to demonstrate and further the sales process for a product or service that you are offering, right? So this is an online sales webinar. We manage the tools and the tech and everything else. We also do coaching and rehearsals with you to make you feel as comfortable as possible. Some people have more or less of a comfort level in front of a camera. And also, we do all of the advertising, and invitations, and follow-up, and everything else, other than phone follow-up, which we’ll provide the outlines and accountability and everything else if you want to get your team involved with some of those activities. But all of the emails, and all of the postcards, and all of the press releases, and everything else-

John Williams:

Pre-webinar postcards, post-webinar postcards etc.

Yes. So if you want the details on that, it’s on our website, abci.flywheelstaging.com/webinars.

John Williams:

Good.

Paula Williams:

Yeah. And that will give you all the details with all of the rhyme and reason, and pricing, and everything else. So, if it is in the second quarter of 2020, we are offering a promotion. Basically, we’re offering postcards as part of that promotion of your webinar. So, we’re using the postal system, which is still illegal to use in the United States, we can’t do shows, but we can still do mail, to invite people to your webinar, and then also as a post-show follow-up for people who want to see the replay.

John Williams:

Right.

Paula Williams:

Okay. All right. So, first of all, let’s talk about webinars versus trade shows. There are lots of reasons that trade shows… Trade shows have actually been the biggest, I would say, marketing spend for an awful lot of aviation companies.

John Williams:

Oh yeah.

Paula Williams:

A lot of companies, especially the larger ones, spend a ton of money on their exhibits, and on travel, and on meals, and on entertainment, and everything else about a trade show. And the reason for that is because it gets them in front of a whole lot of people in a very short amount of time. So it’s a wonderful thing. But a couple of things have happened. COVID-19, right?

John Williams:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Paula Williams:

There are lots of reasons that people wouldn’t be able to make it to a show. Some people have health conditions and other kinds of things. I remember talking with someone a couple of years before this that had just entered a foot and wasn’t able to make it to any of the shows that summer. And it just about really impacted his business because of a health issue. So, it’s COVID-19-proof to be able to do a webinar. We can do this four weeks from today and we don’t-

John Williams:

Even if you test positive.

Paula Williams:

And we don’t have to worry about masks, and we don’t have to worry about swabbing people down or taking their temperature as they come in, or any of that stuff. So it is COVID-19-proof. It is also weatherproof. I don’t know if you remember Hurricane Harvey. I think this was in 2017?

John Williams:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Paula Williams:

When NBAA was in Orlando, and the attendance was way, way, way down, because Hurricane Harvey was coming in. People were worried about getting there in time. People were worried about leaving in time. A lot of the flights in and out were impacted or delayed and all kinds of things. So being weatherproof is a wonderful thing.

John Williams:

Was that the year we drove?

Paula Williams:

We drove.

John Williams:

Yeah.

Paula Williams:

So we were there but not very many other people were. So, that was not the best attendance. And a lot of people who think a lot of money into that show were disappointed.

John Williams:

I’d say.

Paula Williams:

Okay. Number three, it is rules-proof, right? So your webinar, your rules. This is actually from the exhibitor guide from NBAA. There are rules about each one of these things; registration, booth events, booth rules, carpeting, catering, children, cleaning, co-exhibitors, companies sharing exhibit space, demonstrations, direct selling, drying, approval, electrical equipment. It goes on and on and on and on. So all of these things are rules. And just as an example, John had an idea. I don’t know if you want to share this.

John Williams:

Well, I just thought it’d be nice to put in a radio controlled blimp. The light is floating around with a sign on it. It says, Come to booth blah-

Paula Williams:

Yeah, hit one of these shows. Wouldn’t that be fun?

John Williams:

However-

Paula Williams:

However, there are probably rules against it, unmanned aircraft systems.

John Williams:

Unmanned aircraft systems.

Paula Williams:

Right. There it is right there. Remote-controlled aircraft and helium balloons.

John Williams:

Yeah.

Paula Williams:

So they have rules about all of these things. And if it is your webinar, then anything that we can technically help you manage, we can do. Right?

John Williams:

And then, my backup was just to hold the balloon and walk around. You can’t even do that. No balloons.

Paula Williams:

Well, I think they do a lot of balloons, but there are very strict guidelines about when, and where, and why, and how you can use balloons. So if you’re on someone else’s turf, they make the rules. But if you’re hosting a webinar, it’s your rules, right?

John Williams:

Yes.

Paula Williams:

Okay. So we’ll do whatever is most effective for you and whatever fits your brand the best. And all of those things are a wonderful thing. Number four, it is competition proof. So if you are in one of these trade shows, and you’re in a 10 by 10 booth that’s in the middle of the room, all of the big booths, all of the 20 by 20s, 30 by 30s, 40 by 40s and larger are on the edges of the room typically. And those are the spaces that get bought up first, and that’s where everybody goes. So they all want to go to the Textron booth, they all want to go to the Honda booth, they all want to go to the Rockwell Collins booth.

Paula Williams:

And if you are a mom-and-pop, small to medium-sized aviation company that just has a 10 by 10 or a 10 by 20, you’re not going to get nearly as much attention as some of those larger companies. So that’s trade shows. When you host a webinar, it is your show, 100%. If you want to co-exhibit with someone, and then you want to… You have a co-branded situation that you want to have a guest speaker at your webinar, you can do that. You make the rules. But you get to invite them or not, as you see fit, and you get to make all the agreements about who says what, and who gets how much of your time, and who gets how much attention. All that stuff.

John Williams:

Exactly.

Paula Williams:

Right. Okay. Another thing is that they are expiration-proof. Trade shows are very, very perishable. You go, you come home, you’ve forgotten about it two weeks later. If you do a webinar, we record it for you, and it exists forever on your website or on a CD that you can send to someone, in an email that you can send to someone. And link to the video from your webinar, you can be using this years from now, in some context in your sales process, right?

John Williams:

Exactly.

Paula Williams:

Okay. So it’s also inflation-proof. Okay. I mean, it does cost money to host an aviation marketing webinar, especially if you use someone like us to host it for you as someone to assist you with that process. But you compare the pricing of a trade show… And these were actually 2019 numbers. 3499 for a 10 by 10 indoor booth, $2,000 approximately for booth graphics, assuming that you’re not doing something terribly elaborate or anything. $2,000 in travel costs, $500 in furniture. You could add internet, you could add electricity, you could add someone to vacuum and empty your garbage cans.

John Williams:

You can add a trashcan.

Paula Williams:

You can add a trashcan.

John Williams:

Yeah. I mean, every little thing costs money.

Paula Williams:

Right. And I think it’s the Freeman group-

John Williams:

In Vegas, it is.

Paula Williams:

… in Vegas and someone else, I believe, in Orlando that offers these trade show services and every single thing. One year, John and I exhibited at NBAA. And we drove our stuff, and we wanted to set up our own exhibit. We weren’t able to do that. We had to get the Freeman… We had to pay the Freeman folks to do all the setup, and all the tear down, and everything else. They didn’t want us in there.

John Williams:

And then I said, “So, can we take anything inside?” “Anything you can carry.”

Paula Williams:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

John Williams:

Most of them, we couldn’t carry, of course.

Paula Williams:

Right. And we had a magician that was working with us at the time. And he had a table. And he didn’t want anybody seeing his table because, of course, he is a magician. So there are some things about this table that he doesn’t want anybody to know. So he doesn’t want anybody else handling this table. So he brought it in and said it was his lunch, in this big bag. He disassembled it and put it in a big bag. And they said, “The only thing you can carry in is your own personal stuff.” So rules are crazy, and inflation is crazy, and you end up paying the guys to do stuff like-

John Williams:

I don’t think you can get a trade show booth now, a 10 by 10, for eight grand.

Paula Williams:

Really? Yeah.

John Williams:

Cost keep going up.

Paula Williams:

Right. So we have eight grand as a minimum, basically, of what it would cost to do a 10 by 10 booth in a trade show. You may have different results, you may have some tips and tricks for getting that to a lower number. But in general, I think aviation companies spend that or far more than that for a trade show appearance.

John Williams:

Travel costs are going to be interesting, because my son flew from Denver to Pittsburgh yesterday.

Paula Williams:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

John Williams:

He said every shop in Denver International was closed except for McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A.

Paula Williams:

Yeah, at least he didn’t starve.

John Williams:

And there were 12 people on the airplane that normally holds 150.

Paula Williams:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

John Williams:

And when he arrived at Pittsburgh, there were absolutely no shops open at the airport. And the only people he saw, besides the 12 that get off the airplane, were flight crew.

Paula Williams:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Right, crazy stuff. So travel is getting more difficult, but you don’t have to worry about that if you do a webinar. So if you’re doing a webinar yourself, this is what we call the DIY method. And we’re actually going to do a webinar about webinars, and how to host a webinar, if that isn’t too meta or too weird. But we put together some costs that we think are reasonable to host a webinar. And some of these things, you may already have, so it’s not an additional cost. So let’s say you pay $25 a month for Zoom, $2,400 for 500 postcards, printing and postage, $375 for JETNET, assuming you just get it for the month, and if you can. I think we have a longer contract than that to get that price.

John Williams:

Yes, it’s a year.

Paula Williams:

Okay. $100 digital marketing ad spend. $100 for a landing page, assuming that you just get your web guy to do it for you and it costs you about $100. $279 for Aviation Broadcast email blasts, and $179 for a press release. So those are fairly moderate costs for those kinds of things that adds up to a total of $3,458 to do a good, well-advertised webinar, if you have the skills and the time to put that all together yourself.

John Williams:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Paula Williams:

Okay. A similar situation. If we do it for you, we’re going to charge you ,979 to do an aviation marketing webinar. So 4979, and then we do the whole thing for you. So I think that’s a fantastic deal. I would rather have somebody else do it all for me. And then you know that it’s someone that does these all the time, and has all the tools and everything, and everything is set to go. And then we also do the rehearsals, and the coaching, and other things to help you look your best, and make this as effective as it can possibly be. Because, just hosting a webinar is not going to help you make sales, it’s a means to an end.

John Williams:

Right.

Paula Williams:

And it needs to look good, and it needs to be compelling in order to make that work. So, some statistics. 73% of business-to-business marketers say that webinars are the best way to generate high quality leads. I know you’ve been to a couple of webinars recently?

John Williams:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Paula Williams:

And you’re not the typical digital consumer of stuff, right?

John Williams:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Paula Williams:

You’re actually Mr. Skeptical when it comes to digital stuff. Right?

John Williams:

Right.

Paula Williams:

But you do go to webinars? Why is that?

John Williams:

Sometimes, it’s the best place to get information.

Paula Williams:

Yeah, current-

John Williams:

Current information.

Paula Williams:

Right. Okay. 61% of business-to-business marketers rate webinars as the most effective content marketing tactic, and use them for lead generation, thought leadership, training, internal communications, and more. So having a webinar on the calendar sometimes is enough to really give you some more credibility with potential customers. They know you’re actively educating people about your products and services, and that you care about the community. So you’re not just giving a sales pitch, you’re providing some kind of education in the process. This is a point that goes to the fact that these are lasting or provide a lasting value. 28% of registrations occur after the webinar is over.

Paula Williams:

So either that is mistaken, because the webinar’s already over, and somebody wants to go to it. And, in which case, if you accidentally leave your registration page open, and someone registers, you can always have someone contact that person, or you can have that go to a replay, which is what we do. Make sure that people are able to access that webinar after the fact, and get that information later. So that goes to that point about, it works up to the date of the webinar and then far beyond because you can reuse that material. Not like a trade show, in which case two weeks later, it is a bad memory of sore feet and a pile of tchotchkes that…

Paula Williams:

In fact, I think we’ve got a bag of tchotchkes from probably five years ago in the basement that we’ve been meaning to go through, and maybe contact those companies, and do something with them, but we never got around to it. So, once again, this podcast has been brought to you by our webinar product, where we produce a webinar for you or with you in collaboration. So we manage the tools and tech. We help you with coaching and rehearsals. We do the advertising and invitations, and help you with the follow-up process.

Paula Williams:

So, if you’re interested in doing a webinar, we’ve got a couple more podcast series that are going to be along those lines. And then we’re also going to do a webinar about webinars. So, we can go through that with you, and help you decide whether you want to do it, do-it-yourself, or whether you want to get us to help you. And either way, it is an excellent decision, especially in light of the current situation.

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Wednesday, May 15, 2020

12:00 Pacific
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We’ll show you exactly how to build, promote, host, and leverage your own webinar in your own sales process, and engage with clients safely and effectively online!

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John Williams:

And if she doesn’t seem herself, it’s because she’s standing on a broken leg.

Paula Williams:

Oh, come on. You had to out me. I had a skateboarding accident. We talked about this a couple of episodes ago. It’s much better than it was. I am not leaning on John or leaning on my desk. So things are better, right? Did physical therapy today. It actually wasn’t too bad. I was really impressed. Okay, so thank you for joining us, and we will see you next time.

John Williams:

Stay healthy and have a great day.