Webinars That Work: Mastercam’s Scalable Event Strategy

[00:00:00] Sarah Jordan Usher: So we kicked off webinars Q4 last year. We had never really done them before.

[00:00:04] Felicia Asiedu: Oh, wow.

[00:00:04] Sarah Jordan Usher: We had this lofty goal of doing one or two per quarter. We are now doing probably three to six a month because they're so popular. So from this, we actually create a really great on-demand library too. So we have this constant touchpoint. As people sign up, even the on-demand webinars, it just kind of creates this constant lead funnel.

[00:00:25] Alyssa Peltier: Great events create great brands, but pulling off an event that engages, excites, and connects audiences? Well, that takes a village, and we're that village. My name is Alyssa.

[00:00:37] Rachel Andrews: I'm Rachel.

[00:00:38] Kelly Cheng: I'm Kelly.

[00:00:39] Felicia Asiedu: And I'm Felicia.

[00:00:40] Alyssa Peltier: And you are listening to Great Events, the podcast for all event enthusiasts, creators, and innovators in the world of events and marketing.

[00:00:49] Felicia Asiedu: Hi everyone, and welcome to the wide, wide world of events. My name is Felicia Asiedu, and I am your podcast host for this week. So what are we going to be talking about? We're going to be talking about webinars and field events and how quite often they're sort of treated as these one-off, one-and-done events, which is completely wrong. They need to be obviously integrated, and they're often one of your biggest sources of pipeline, engagement, and just insights into knowing what people are doing.

And I'm very blessed to be joined here by Sarah Jordan Usher. You are the Global Head... Hold on, wait. Global Events and tell me?

[00:01:24] Sarah Jordan Usher: Manager, Global Events and Field Marketing.

[00:01:26] Felicia Asiedu: There we go. That's why I was never going to get it right.

[00:01:29] Sarah Jordan Usher: It's a very long title, and I have the very longest name.

[00:01:31] Felicia Asiedu: When I saw Usher, I was like, one of my favorite artists.

[00:01:34] Sarah Jordan Usher: I get it all the time. I have somebody that I work with that literally every time they send me a Teams chat, it's Sarah Usher.

[00:01:40] Felicia Asiedu: Usher. Usher. Love it. So, Sarah, thank you so much for joining me. Can you start by telling us what you do?

[00:01:47] Sarah Jordan Usher: So we are a new team to Mastercam. Mastercam is the leading CAD/CAM software. We're a global company. We have offices located worldwide. For anybody that doesn't know manufacturing, our software basically speaks to the machines that then cut the parts. So where 3D printing is additive manufacturing, we're subtractive. That's probably the best way to put it.

[00:02:11] Felicia Asiedu: Okay. So this speaks to the fact that I asked ChatGPT, "Can you explain this to a 12-year-old because I can't quite follow?"

[00:02:19] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yeah.

[00:02:19] Felicia Asiedu: And you've done your best. Imagine I was five.

[00:02:21] Sarah Jordan Usher: We actually just did an event called SkillsUSA, which is this giant trade competition. We meet annually in Atlanta, Georgia, every single year and that was one of the struggles we had. We had to explain to all these teenagers what we did. And people in my company teased me because I started off with, "You know, 3D printing, right?" Because every kid knows 3D printing right now. And I was like, we're the opposite of 3D printing. And then they kind of understood it.

[00:02:46] Felicia Asiedu: Hold on. Give me one little bit more. So the opposite of 3D printing, I get. I get CAD as well, drawings.

[00:02:52] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yeah. So people take their CAD files, they import them into Mastercam, and then Mastercam actually creates the tool paths that then speak to the machines that cut from these giant hunks of metal.

[00:03:04] Felicia Asiedu: Got it. Oh, okay.

[00:03:06] Sarah Jordan Usher: And industry-wise, we are everywhere. Candy makers use us for molds, dental, medical, aerospace, government, everything.

[00:03:15] Felicia Asiedu: I love that.

[00:03:16] Sarah Jordan Usher: Automotive is probably one of our huge ones as well.

[00:03:19] Felicia Asiedu: This is why I love manufacturing so much because it's stuff that we don't understand, can't see, but you use it every single day.

[00:03:24] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yes, absolutely.

[00:03:25] Felicia Asiedu: So cool.

[00:03:26] Sarah Jordan Usher: And it's fun. It's a cool topic to talk about. People are very passionate about manufacturing in general. We see this resurgence of younger teenagers that are just interested in wanting to do trade schools and kind of pick up with all these other jobs.

[00:03:42] Felicia Asiedu: Okay. So that kind of helps set the tone for when I'm thinking about your audience, because that's why it's so important to have this type of conversation, because we need to understand who are you targeting? Who are you trying to reach? Let's give us a little bit of that. Who are you actually talking to? When you come up to say, "I'm going to run a webinar or an event," who's your audience?

[00:03:59] Sarah Jordan Usher: Our end users. Our touchpoints are all the people. So whether it's the decision makers that are just looking for a new software solution for their company, or it's the people that are actually in the thick of it, they're working in these machine shops, they're the ones that are creating all of these parts and programs. We kind of run the gamut when it comes to webinar content. So some of it is very instructional, more of a training. We'll do webinars for our new releases. So we actually just released Mastercam 2027 on July 1st. We have one coming up where it's education-based. So we now offer free content and curriculum for our teachers that use Mastercam. So it's a pretty broad platform for us.

[00:04:40] Felicia Asiedu: Yeah. Before we talk about measurement of those webinars, so we know, yes, education, but is it part of a broader program?

[00:04:47] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yes.

[00:04:48] Felicia Asiedu: Okay.

[00:04:49] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yeah. So we kicked off webinars Q4 last year. We had never really done them before. We had this lofty goal of doing one or two per quarter. We are now doing probably three to six a month because they're so popular. We've had to upgrade our Cvent registration limit twice.

[00:05:07] Felicia Asiedu: So are you measuring mostly by attendance, or is there some kind of engagement that you're measuring within that? How are you measuring success?

[00:05:15] Sarah Jordan Usher: At baseline, it's those registration numbers, right? I think industry average attendance usually is about 30 to 40% of the registrants actually attend live. We repeatedly hit 50 plus. So every time we see that, we're just like, "Yes."

So from this, we actually create a really great on-demand library too. So we are actually integrated into HubSpot. So we have this constant touchpoint. As people sign up for even the on-demand webinars, it just kind of creates this constant lead funnel, which is just super important. It's been invaluable for us. It's just been amazing.

[00:05:49] Felicia Asiedu: I love that it's a new channel for you. I see often people are talking about webinars and then they're kind of saying, "Oh no, my webinars are on a decline, so I have to start a new thing." Or, "Actually, I don't want to measure attendance anymore. I want to measure engagement." Whereas, because it's a brand-new channel, everything is a touchpoint and everything is measurable. And I love that it's feeding back into HubSpot. You're doing it right.

[00:06:09] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yes, yes. Eventually we'll get to the Salesforce integration. We're just not there yet.

[00:06:12] Felicia Asiedu: Yeah, no. One step at a time. It's all good.

[00:06:14] Sarah Jordan Usher: And we've actually started to use webinars internally too for our staff. So we now host internal sales enablement webinars that kind of teach our employees the latest and greatest updates in our software. So it's been beneficial on both sides, internally and with our customers.

[00:06:31] Felicia Asiedu: Yeah. Really cool. And so talk to me a little bit about the field events. You run field events as well?

[00:06:36] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yes. I mean, not as much. We do our typical trade shows. We do a biennial sales kickoff conference. That one's usually our bigger kind of flagship event. We've actually changed our business model as a company quite a bit. So we never sold our software direct up until a couple of years ago.

[00:06:54] Felicia Asiedu: Oh, you had resellers?

[00:06:55] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yes. And so about two years ago we started acquiring most of our channel. So we're probably at 90, 95% fully direct in the US, Canada. And then we've just had some major acquisitions in the EMEA.

[00:07:10] Felicia Asiedu: What is your purpose? Let's make it that simple. So when you go to those trade shows, what is your purpose there? What's your objective?

[00:07:16] Sarah Jordan Usher: First and foremost, it's representing the brand.

[00:07:19] Felicia Asiedu: That's what I thought.

[00:07:20] Sarah Jordan Usher: We actually did a huge rebrand, end of last year, Q1 this year.

[00:07:24] Felicia Asiedu: Oh, snap. We just did something similar.

[00:07:26] Sarah Jordan Usher: I know. When I saw that happen, I'm like, "Timely."

And it's an undertaking. It's just, you have people that love it, you have people that hate it, and it's just kind of getting all of those assets. You don't realize how many websites have your logos on them and partners. And every time you hit a website, you're like, "Do they have our new logo?"

And then our biggest trade show this year is actually IMTS. It's the largest manufacturing trade show in pretty much all of North America. So this will be our first time showcasing the new rebrand in this area. But lead capture then, that's our other big one. So we actually use iCapture for our lead capture where we have scoring worked into the way we set it up. So then that way, hopefully within days of the show closing, we'll get marketing-scored leads into all of our salespeople's hands.

And then it's the customers. We have so many customers that attend. They just like to face time with us. So we usually try to do some fun giveaways for them, whether it's shirts or hats. And then we usually try to showcase something that's really cool and innovative.

So our big one this year is we actually manufactured a guitar, a fully playable guitar out of titanium. It's the most epic thing in the entire world. There's actually a guitar designer in the Chicagoland area, Dean Zelinsky, and he uses our software to make his wooden guitars.

[00:08:51] Felicia Asiedu: Amazing.

[00:08:51] Sarah Jordan Usher: And he makes guitars for everyone.

[00:08:55] Felicia Asiedu: That's so cool. So we've got trade shows, primarily pushing brand, getting that face time with customers. We always talk about getting in-person, looking people in the whites of their eyes. Then you've got these webinars that are taking off super successful, but everything's giving you data. When you're thinking about the connection between being at, say, a trade show and then someone coming to a webinar, what does that say to you about that customer?

[00:09:17] Sarah Jordan Usher: Brand loyalty. I mean, I think that's ultimately our goal, is that our software can be on the complex side. So we want to give them all these different avenues for us to make it so much easier for them.

So on the marketing side, we do our part with instructional webinars, teaching webinars. We're starting to do, at our trade shows, a tech support. So that way existing customers can come right up to our booth, talk to us about their pain points or if they have questions about our software.

We do a lot of customer profiles. So we actually have a team that'll go and visit customers, and they will analyze their current shop floor, their current workflow, and then they'll give them suggestions on what they can implement, whether with Mastercam or with other kind of partner solutions to make it more of a seamless, quicker manufacturing experience for them.

[00:10:06] Felicia Asiedu: Yeah. I have a suggestion for you.

[00:10:08] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yes, please.

[00:10:09] Felicia Asiedu: If you're not doing it already. So at the beginning of the webinar, maybe asking, "How confident do you feel about this?"

[00:10:15] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yeah.

[00:10:15] Felicia Asiedu: Do you do that already?

[00:10:16] Sarah Jordan Usher: We do. So the tools that are in webinar are awesome. We actually utilize all of them. So we actually kick off every webinar with some sort of poll just to kind of temp check everybody and get them familiar with the tools of the webinar. Sometimes they're fun questions about sports teams. And sometimes it's all about, are they currently using the solution that we have the webinar on?

Because then what we do is we will take that data, give it to our salespeople, and then the people that aren't using it, they can then reach out to. People that are using it, they can reach out to them too and just say, "Thanks, do you have questions?" So yeah, we've started to work more of that. It seems like a simple poll, but there's actually quite a bit of data that we can pull from that.

The other thing that's really popular too is, it seems so simple, but there's the call-to-actions within the webinar. So even the simple pop-up with the clickable link, we look at that data and we're like, "Okay, so those people want more information about this solution." So then we give that to our salespeople as well.

Erica, who runs our webinars, does a phenomenal recap after every webinar that she then sends to our revenue team with all the attendee info. What were their Q&A questions? What was the chat like? She breaks it down by segment too. So how many people were owners there versus the actual users of the software? And she does this for every webinar. So the salespeople get pretty informed, almost leads through there, even though it's not technically a lead.

[00:11:45] Felicia Asiedu: And how quickly do you expect them to follow up? If you give them that information, how quickly do you expect them to follow up? How quickly are they following up?

[00:11:53] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yeah. And that's a hard one to track, right? So we can give them all the info we want. Sometimes it's just setting that, "Here's expectations of the turnaround time." Personally, I think they should do it no earlier than three or four days. You kind of want to give people that time to settle in.

[00:12:11] Felicia Asiedu: Interesting.

[00:12:11] Sarah Jordan Usher: Some people too, they might pop in and then have to watch the rest of it. We also utilize HubSpot for that follow-up afterwards too. So within a couple of days they get a thank-you email. It actually gives them the link to the on-demand so that way if they want to re-watch it or if they didn't log in and they missed it. So ultimately we want our salespeople going after them, give them a couple of days to digest and think about things, and then reach out to them.

[00:12:34] Felicia Asiedu: It's so funny. I'd be like, "Get on it now."

[00:12:37] Sarah Jordan Usher: It's hard. The same thing with trade shows. I think when people go to your booth, your first reaction is like, "Let's send them an email thanking them for being in our booth now." But you're traveling.

[00:12:47] Felicia Asiedu: Yeah, so true.

[00:12:47] Sarah Jordan Usher: We'll be here all week. There's so many emails that we're going to miss. So we want to give them that breather. And then when they settle back into normalcy, be like, "Don't forget about us."

[00:12:57] Felicia Asiedu: I quite like that. And then in terms of showing that ROI from webinar, are you able to track a pipeline directly from webinar to close?

[00:13:06] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yeah. So we're actually in the middle of implementing Salesforce. So right now we kind of have this dead zone with ROI when it comes to the sales funnel and tracking the pipeline, but that is 100% our goal.

[00:13:18] Felicia Asiedu: What would be your ideal situation with that? In fact, because you must have a lead time anyway, a natural lead time.

Do you expect that having more touch points, more webinars, would close that down and make it a shorter lead time? Or you're like, actually, it's just part of that journey?

[00:13:31] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yeah, I think it's always going to be part of that journey. The hard part too is you don't want to over-inundate these folks. So if they're going to our two to four webinars every month, you want to understand that they don't want you contacting them every single time.

So you have to do it in a tactical manner. So that's why our recap follow-up emails that we send a few days after the webinar seem to work well because it doesn't seem spammy. It's leaving them with some info as far as what they just witnessed, what are some upcoming events that we have to maybe sell.

[00:14:03] Felicia Asiedu: What's the one thing that you would say to people that are either trying to do this as a new channel or maybe it is their channel when they need a refresh? What kind of advice would you give?

[00:14:14] Sarah Jordan Usher: Create repeatable webinars. We actually have a brainstorming session probably about once a month. We kick around some ideas and we actually book our webinars probably about a quarter out. So that way it's not a last-minute thing. We really take the time to create our content and our presentation, but we're probably two to three months out with our calendar. So it just gives you that flexibility to get the right people in, get them comfortable with the software.

But I think once you kind of create that repeatable process, it becomes so much easier. You really have the same people that are either presenting or hosting. They become familiar with the software and it's just rinse and repeat after a while.

Not saying that's not a lot of work. Not saying that. But for us, I don't think we ever could have imagined that we would be pumping out three to six webinars every single month. But here we are.

[00:15:08] Felicia Asiedu: Yeah. I do webinars and podcasts, as you can tell. And we find it a challenge because getting that rhythm going and keeping it sustained can be difficult. So at times we've had to go up and come back. So I love that it sounds like you've got a great process in place.

[00:15:21] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yes.

[00:15:23] Felicia Asiedu: My last tip for you, and to everyone else. Someone told me the other day, so you remember we were talking about taking that survey at the beginning? If it's an education thing, what they said is they take the survey right at the beginning, the poll, right at the beginning, and at the end of the exact same webinar. They'll do exact same poll of a knowledge thing of, "How confident do you feel about this?" And at the end of the thing, they'll say, "How confident do you feel?" And exactly the same question.

[00:15:45] Sarah Jordan Usher: Oh, that's a fantastic idea. I love that. I love that.

[00:15:48] Felicia Asiedu: Right? I stole it from them, so I'm giving it to you.

[00:15:49] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yeah. We're going to start doing that. I like it.

[00:15:52] Felicia Asiedu: Awesome. All right. So to recap, I think what I've learned from you is, get your house in order.

[00:15:58] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yes. Have a plan. Don't jump in blind. Have the right people leading your program and have the right people hosting your webinars.

[00:16:06] Felicia Asiedu: Absolutely. Start something new because I love the fact that you kind of just went into this and you're like, "This is a good channel. We're just going to start something." And measure.

[00:16:15] Sarah Jordan Usher: Measure.

[00:16:15] Felicia Asiedu: Integrate.

[00:16:16] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yes. A 100% yes.

[00:16:19] Felicia Asiedu: Give your sales team the stuff they need.

[00:16:21] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yes.

[00:16:22] Felicia Asiedu: So brilliant. Thank you so much for joining.

[00:16:24] Sarah Jordan Usher: Pleasure. It was great to meet you.

[00:16:25] Felicia Asiedu: Where can people find you? 

[00:16:26] Sarah Jordan Usher: I'm more of a LinkedIn person. I don't really do a lot of the younger kids' social, just Sarah Jordan Usher.

[00:16:32] Felicia Asiedu: Usher, Usher. Thank you. Thanks for joining.

[00:16:37] Sarah Jordan Usher: Yeah, thank you so much.

[00:16:41] Alyssa Peltier: Thanks for hanging out with us on Great Events, a podcast by Cvent. If you've been enjoying our podcast, make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode.

[00:16:51] Rachel Andrews: And you can help fellow event professionals and marketers just like you discover Great Events by leaving us a rating on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.

[00:17:00] Felicia Asiedu: Stay connected with us on social media for behind the scenes content, updates, and some extra doses of inspiration.

[00:17:07] Rachel Andrews: Got a great story or an event to share? We want to hear from you. Find us on LinkedIn, send us a DM, or drop us a note at greatevents@cvent.com.

[00:17:18] Felicia Asiedu: Big thanks to our amazing listeners, our guest speakers, and the incredible team behind the scenes. Remember, every great event begins with great people.

[00:17:27] Alyssa Peltier: And that's a wrap. Keep creating, keep innovating, and keep joining us as we redefine how to make events great.