Streamlining Webinar Success: Engaging Live Experiences | Jan-Willem Blom from WebinarGeek

Mariah Salazar: Pathmonk is the intelligent tool for website lead generation, with increasing online competition over 98 percent of website visitors don’t. The ability to successfully show your value proposition and support visitors in their buying journey separates you from the competition online. Pathmonk qualifies and converts it on your website by figuring out where they are in the buying journey and influencing them. A key decision models for relevant micro-experiences such as case studies, intro videos, and much more. Stay relevant to your visitors and increase conversion by 50%. Add Pathmonk to your website in a second. Let the artificial intelligence do all the work, get access to 50 percent more qualified leads while you’re teaching marketing and stuff as usual. Check us out on Pathmonk.com. On today’s episode of Pathmonk Presents, I’ve got a very special guest with me here today. Please welcome Jan, who is the creative director for WebinarGeek. Jan, thank you so much for joining us today. It’s an honor to have you on the show. You are our first creative director here on the show, and I’m really looking forward to learning more about Pathmonk and all the great things that WebinarGeek is doing in the industry. So thanks again for joining us today.

Jan-Willem Blom: Well, thanks for having me. I’m very honored and looking forward to our conversation today.

Mariah: Likewise, it’s going to be great. And it’s a huge honor to have you here again. So for all of our listeners out there, give us some insight. Who is WebinarGeek?

Jan-Willem: WebinarGeek is a Dutch software company that was founded in 2015 and what we basically do, we are a webinar platform where people can create, they can stream and they can analyze their webinars straight from the browser. So a webinar is basically live streaming or video streaming. And, we see three different types, either it’s live, either it’s automated. So it’s actually a prerecorded video file that you broadcast at a later time. Or it’s on-demand, which we all know from Netflix and our favorite streaming channels. People really try to do is, simplify the process. So people go onto our website, they create an account, and they start creating their own webinar and, they can set up their landing pages, registration pages, their email templates, and then upload their content. So it can be a slide deck, it can be videos. and when they’re done, they go live. they can be by themselves. It can be up in a team with co-presenters. they can do it from the browser, with a webcam, but they can also create or stream from their movie studio. we see that a lot that people use green screens and a lot of different technology. and these live webinars, they can facilitate up to 4,000 attendees. So it’s really epic actually to share your story from wherever you are with your audience. And, it’s also a beautiful tool for growth because when your webinar’s over, you can analyze the statistics, you see all the viewing behavior. You can, for instance, see, Hey, why was there a massive drop in attendees? Why did everybody leave at 20 minutes? So you can analyze your content. it’s, it’s really like direct feedback. And, yeah, like I said, tools for growth. We integrate with many different marketing platforms such as HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, but also via Zapier with 5,000 others. So webinars can be part of your massive, yeah, workflow actually. So it’s in a nutshell, what we do.

Mariah: Well, that’s incredible. And I love as well how this solution is able to integrate into, you know, so many tool stacks and with what it provides as well, especially because. You know, there’s so many limitations on zoom and Microsoft teams versus what webinar geek has been able to figure that out and expand on, you know, the additional things that people have been looking for when creating a webinar. So it’s really awesome. Yeah. What our geek is doing.

Jan-Willem: Yeah. Thanks. You’re great there. Yeah.

Mariah: Absolutely. So now who are your clients then? Do you tend to cater to other sectors or focus on certain industries or do you serve all types of industries?

Jan-Willem: Actually the, the beauty of webinars is it is for everyone and it is, this is what we see as well. It is being used by everyone. You know, it’s once a week I go onto our chat and I talk to clients in order to, you know, get inspired as well by what their problems are, what their challenges are, how to use webinars. And I see people from many different industries, from healthcare to agriculture, to tech to education. So on a horizontal level, there’s literally everyone. If you look at the company sizes, there’s, there are people that use webinars by themselves. It’s solo entrepreneurs that have, they want to share their knowledge via digital products. And they use webinars to sell them up to big corporations or enterprises with a hundred thousand employees scattered over the entire world. And they go up on a new webinar and they share, you know, their latest updates. So that is great to see that it’s, you know, it’s being used very widely. If you look at the employee level, we see everybody in between students and CEOs using our platform. so there are endless possibilities. And that is for me is very inspiring. As a creative person also to see, because you know, there’s just not like three types, how people use it or three types of personas that we cater to. No, it’s, it’s, there’s, there’s endless combinations. And so it’s, yeah, it’s a game that never ends.

Mariah: Yeah, definitely a game that never, never ends. So now in terms of your client, how do they typically find you? What would you say is your top client acquisition channel? Is it digital marketing, inbound, outbound, or is it a mix of a lot of things currently?

Jan-Willem: I would say that it is a mix of different things. and, we also have the right people in place to make sure that these different outlets are being managed. So for instance, obviously, we have the paid channels, Google ads. We use LinkedIn, as well to promote our business, organically and also via paid ads and Facebook as well. So these, this is more of the obvious choice. then we use a lot of, we are active on review sites. So we make sure that everybody is having a positive experience because that is reflected on the review sites. Right. The, so for instance, Keptera and TrustPilot that we really, like reading these positive things that we see. And also the, if there’s negative feedback, we take that back and make sure that we improve. third organically, a YouTube channel. So like last year, my colleague started a YouTube channel. And you know, the, the, the secret of YouTube is posting regularly. It is a fixed time and it, it grew and it still grows. And, right now we see that there’s traffic coming from our videos. There’s, you know, there’s, the, the video and actually YouTube has become a lead-generating channel for us. So that’s really awesome to see. And the last category, and that is a category that’s really close to myself and my heart is, events. I have a background in events as well, so I’m really attracted to this. so first the, the corporate, and exhibitions. so next month we will be in Germany and, on a very big, tech, event. So that’s really what we like, because then we can talk to people, you get instant feedback. but also our own online event, because you know, webinars can also serve as an online event. And, this is, one of the projects I’m working on right now. And it’s, called enter the webinar verse. And it is a three-day online webinar event, that we will host. End of September, where we will share a lot of knowledge on how to use webinars, but also how can you interact with your audience via the screen? what is the impact of AI in any marketing campaign? so we’re bringing in, we’re actually, you know, we’re, we’re going full force there to make sure that it’s in, and, yeah, we’re going to blow everybody away. And that is also a moment where we actually hope to, get some traffic, out of obviously, so, many different things.

Mariah: Yeah, I think it’s really great. And my favorite is, you know, having the events element as well, you know, especially after COVID, you know, bringing the one to one with, you know, prospects and clients and adding that human interactive element again, especially now with where our realm is called like the digital realm is mainly going more towards remote. So I think it’s great, you know, being able to still have the one on one to connect in person, it, it goes a longer way. It’s all

Jan-Willem: exactly. And they’re reinforcing each other, right? It’s when COVID was over, people thought, okay, this is the end of online events. And, we are going back a hundred percent to meeting each other in person. But then we had, you know, COVID was too long to actually see and read the benefits of having online meetings. So it will not go away, but we have to adapt. We have to see what are different forms right now. and, yeah, it’s, that’s great.

Mariah: So now I want to switch gears and I want to talk about you as a reader. So with being the creative director, what are the key tasks that you tend to focus on within your role?

Jan-Willem: Oh, yeah, that’s a very good question. you know, as creative director, my main focus is to advertise our business, to anybody out there who needs to hear it. we do that through different channels, like I just mentioned. And, this, this process goes in three different, tasks or moments. The first one I would refer to as the formless and the formless is it’s very personal, phase for me because it’s where ideas are born. it’s formless, they’re big, they’re weird, they’re not working. They’re too, too large. They’re, often disruptive in nature as well. and, but there’s an essence and I, I, sometimes I need to, this more of a moment where I need,yeah, you cannot explain it, really well. But then, that essence that I’m taking along with me, I’m trying to, create a concept out of it that is understandable in, in practice. In a way for people. so for instance, my marketing team or our CEO, when I often pitch are my crazy ideas to him. and this concept I created in Canva. So, I have a standard template and I put the ideas in it. It is some kind of a flow. and, and then I I’m open to feedback. I’m really, really want to hear what is it? Because create creativity is not a solo game. It’s always, I, I always make the comparison. It’s like a tennis game. You know, I throw out an idea, you come back with something and we build on each other like this. and, the third phase is actually the creation phase. We, we make a choice. It forms into a project. we roll up our sleeves, get our hands dirty. And, I like doing that as well. You know, video editing, the creating text, hosting webinars. So, and, and these three layers. They happen in random order, very chaotic at times, but still for me, there’s a, there’s a way to keep overview and what I’m doing, but, yeah, that would be it. Yeah,

Mariah: definitely. Amazing. And I completely understand like my background, I come from the agency realm of things. And I understand that, you know, everyday looks different, you know, depending on what videos we have to make new collaterals, changing the copyright. Do we have to localize, you know, new, campaigns for, you know, our markets. I completely understand where that’s coming from. All of these things are very definite, especially, too, with being open to feedback. I feel that, especially for a lot of designers when they first start within this field, you know, they feel, they get so attached to their work where, you know, It’s important to where, you know, feedback and collaborating is what’s going to make you better as a creative. And that’s the key to like moving up in your, the corporate ladder as well.

Jan-Willem: It’s, it’s true, you know, and, it’s a lesson that I had to learn as well, because, you know, it’s, it’s very personal creativity, super personal, you know, it’s, it’s, and, feedback is not criticism, you know, feedback is, is, is learning loop. And, there’s, there’s an abundance of possibilities. even after receiving a hundred page feedback documents, there’s still so many ways to go. And, once I saw that, you know, I started to see feedback as a super valuable mechanism that I would not be able to work without actually, you know, it’s pretty weird, but, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s how it’s, yeah, it’s how I see it. Yeah.

Mariah: I like that. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. So, so now we’re coming to the end of our interview and I’m going to ask you some rapid fire questions. Are you ready?

Jan-Willem: I’m ready.

Mariah: All right. Here we go. So what is the last book that you read?

Jan-Willem: The last book that I read was The Langoliers from Stephen King.

Mariah: Are you a huge Stephen King fan?

Jan-Willem: I’m a huge Stephen King fan. I had the pleasure of meeting him once or seeing him once live in Paris. and a quick, explanation why the, the book, you know, Stephen King, as you know, he has so many, characters, so many world building, and he can create stories from a cat, from a car, from a clown, from, an, an airport in this case. And that is so inspiring that you can turn anything into a story. So, you know, my mind is blown every time I, I read a story. So, yeah, huge fan.

Mariah: And that’s amazing. When did you meet him, by the way? That’s incredible.

Jan-Willem: Yeah, it was his book tour in, Dr. Sleep in, 2014. And I won a prize, online. I got a mail and it was a prize. They asked something about, who was the, the actress in The Shining. So it was, there was an obvious answer. And then, I, I won. And I remember that was in a meeting. And I saw that email and I just shouted, you know, and everybody was looking at me. I was like, I don’t know, continue, continue. And then, months later I was in the train to Paris and, yeah, it was a crazy experience.

Mariah: It’s a great story. That’s a wonderful story. I love that. So now my next question is, let’s say you had no boundaries in technology and you could do anything that you wanted, what would be the one thing that you would want to have fixed within your current role today?

Jan-Willem: well, when you’re talking about boundaries in marketing, I really have to think about AI because this is, you know, we’re in a digital revolution. And if we are 20 years from now and look back, we will see that this is a pivotal moment, a lot to learn, a lot to see. There, there are little boundaries right now. luckily, you know, it’s just, there’s no limit, regulations yet. And, and if you look at this, this creative part, you know, there’s, there’s hundreds of apps being generated every single week. So it’s, it’s a pure moment for creativity. and what I would want, what I see is that, for instance, a lot of creators on LinkedIn, they’re poster posting their, their experiments. So ar combined with, AI and vr, what does it take? So what, what would I, would like to see is maybe that in a year from now, all these things are possible, but I need them today. So, yeah, that is something that I would want to have fixed as the experiments into workable assets.

Mariah: Now, what is the one piece of advice that you would give yourself if you were to go back and restart your journey as a creative today, is there anything that you would do differently?

Jan-Willem: first I would say, what’s your blood pressure? no, but if I, if I would, restart my marketing journey, you know, I, I started out, a bachelor in business administration. I had a, you know, went into corporate events, but I was always creative, but it was, it was, how do you say that? Like, it was not out there. You know, I’ve been drawing since I was a kid on my school papers. They were full of drawings and graffiti and those kinds of things. So, at a certain moment, I, in 2016, I embarked on an entrepreneurial journey in video creation. it was, it was upcoming back then, and I should have allowed myself to lean on that creative entity, a hundred percent. And, that is sometimes difficult if you’re in that moment and you’re, you know, but, if I restart my, my marketing journey today, I would say, or to anyone who’s starting marketing journey today. find, find your passion subject and, double down on that. And, I forget all the rest, you know, there’s so much content out there. It’s easier than, than, than ever before to, to, to have knowledge. So you actually don’t have to have all the knowledge, you know, and, and that’s gives room to create an expertise around something and doesn’t matter what it is, but needs to be close to you. And so I will, I’m going to write this down for myself. That’s

Mariah: self-affirmation. I’m here for it. I’m going to put it to you. Yes. All right. So now we’re at the end of our interview today, and I want to thank you so much for joining us on the podcast, but I also want to give you the last word. If anyone were to forget about everything we’ve talked about today in this interview, what do you want them to remember about Webinar Geek overall?

Jan-Willem: well, I would want them to remember that, WebinarGeek is your friend when it comes down to, live streaming. So if you have a story to share and you, you know, you have a story to share, come check us out and see if, if you want to do it live or want to do it prerecorded. And if you need inspiration, you’re most welcome to join the enter the webinar first event, 26th to 28th of September. And, I hope to see, see you there.

Mariah: I will definitely be signing up for that event because I’m

Jan-Willem: interested. That’s fine.

Mariah: Thanks so much, Jan. And for all of our listeners out there, check us out next week on Pathmonk Presents.