Sponsor guide

InsideHR is a thought leadership platform. Our webinars give HR professionals insight, best practice, new research and practical examples they can use in their day-to-day work.

The best webinars focus on the challenges HR professionals face and use research and case studies to explore them in a real-world context. InsideHR is not set up for product demonstrations or direct sales pitches: steer away from features, benefits and USPs, and let your clients and your expertise make the case. If you want a product-focused session, ask us about our alternative options.

Each webinar is a one-hour hosted discussion, chaired by James Marsh: around 40–45 minutes of presentation and discussion, then 10 minutes of audience Q&A.

To start promotion we need a few basics, ideally eight weeks before the live date. We start generating registrations as soon as the event is built.

• Title: eight words maximum.
• Date and time: agreed with us in advance. Webinars usually go live at 11am.
• Synopsis: a couple of paragraphs on the topic, plus bullet points on what viewers will learn.
• Cover slide: 16:9 PowerPoint with your branding and ours, showing the title, date and time. We can send our logos and an example.
• Speaker details for each panellist: name, job title, company, a short bio, a photo and a LinkedIn profile, so we can tag speakers in social posts. One speaker is enough to start; add more as they confirm.

We do not need the full deck until the run-through, a week before the live date.

• 16:9 PowerPoint format, using our template as the base.
• No animations: they cause problems when the deck is uploaded to BrightTALK.
• No more than 30 slides and under 90MB.
• James drives the slides during the webinar, so notes on each slide to help him introduce your talking points are very welcome.

You can run two or three polls during the webinar. Each is a multiple-choice question with up to five answers, and viewers choose one. Keep questions to about 15 words and answers to about five words each.

Your report shows how each viewer answered, which makes polls a powerful way to qualify leads or gather market research. For example:

• What is your annual budget for HR software? (Under £10k / £10k–£50k / £50k–£100k / Over £100k / Don’t know)
• Which HR platform do you use today?
• When do you plan to review your current system?
• What is the greatest challenge in your recruitment process?

We usually run the first poll near the start to get the audience involved, and another around the halfway point.

Registration questions. Add qualifying questions to the sign-up form so you know more about each registrant before the webinar starts.

Attachments. Through the attachments tab on the webinar player we can link to three or four pages of your choice: demo or trial pages, information requests, whitepapers, research or further reading. For each link we need a title (up to 10 words), a description (up to 30 words) and the URL. Your report shows which viewers clicked each link.

Our most successful webinars include client case studies, ideally with a representative from the client on the panel. A good case study covers:

• the challenge the client faced;
• the solution they chose;
• how it was implemented, including any barriers;
• the results, such as efficiencies, better workflows or return on investment.

Clients can be hard to commit, so start with those you know well. It is also a good opportunity for them to raise their own profile.

1. 8 weeks before
   Agree the topic, date and time. Send us the title, synopsis, speaker details and cover slide.
2. 6 weeks before
   Promotion starts: the event goes live on BrightTALK and the first of six promotional emails goes out, alongside newsletters, HRreview stories and social posts.
3. 3 weeks before
   Final speakers and outline agreed. First draft of the slide deck, polls, attachment links and registration questions.
4. 1 week before
   Briefing and run-through with James Marsh: audio and video checks, a BrightTALK walkthrough and the running order. Final deck uploaded.
5. Live day
   Typically 11am for one hour: around 40–45 minutes of discussion, then 10 minutes of audience Q&A.
6. Within 5 hours
   Your full audience report: contact details, company, sector and size, with poll answers, questions and attachment clicks.
7. After the show
   Updated reports including on-demand viewers after one and two weeks, then periodically as new leads come in.

Within five hours of the live show you receive full details of the webinar audience: name, contact details, company, sector and company size, with every interaction, including poll answers, questions, feedback and attachment clicks.

We send updated reports including on-demand viewers after one week and two weeks, and further leads periodically after that.

We can provide embed code so you can show the webinar on your own website. Viewers still register or sign in, so you receive their details as leads too.

We are happy to share an example slide deck or talk anything through.

• Sharon MacNamara, Account Director (company names A–L): [email protected], 07592 723341
• Martin Horlington, Publisher (company names M–Z): [email protected], 07702 824680