Webinar Campaigns: Marketo Automation, On24 Connections
Context
At Bio-Rad Laboratories, webinars are a cornerstone of our global marketing strategy, educating clinical diagnostics professionals on complex topics like quality control and regulatory compliance. Initially, my role focused on execution—setting up On24 events, automating Marketo emails, and deploying basic landing pages. Over time, I evolved into a strategic lead, crafting full-funnel programs that integrated form sign-ups, automated triggers, pre/post-event communications, and social tie-ins. This shift involved deciding email cadences, enforcing processes across teams, and aligning assets for seamless deployment, ultimately driving higher attendance, engagement, and lead conversion in a regulated biotech environment.
Key elements included:
Marketo Automation: Building workflows for personalized emails based on user behavior (e.g., form submissions triggering nurture sequences).
On24 Connections: Integrating webinar platforms with Marketo for real-time data sync, enabling post-event follow-ups like polls and Q&A recaps.
Omnichannel Tie-Ins: Linking webinars to social media for live discussions, sales specialist connections, and user-generated content sharing.
Challenges & Insights
Webinar programs at Bio-Rad involved multiple teams (marketing, sales, content, legal/regulatory), leading to fragmented processes and inconsistent execution. Early challenges included:
Siloed Workflows: Teams delivered content inconsistently, causing delays in email deployment and mismatched assets (e.g., unoptimized images for Marketo templates).
Lack of Strategic Cadence: Pre-event emails were ad-hoc, missing triggers like form sign-ups, while post-event follow-ups often failed to capitalize on engagement (e.g., no social prompts for sharing insights).
Cross-Team Alignment: Explaining why content needed specific formats (e.g., compliant language for regulatory approval) was time-consuming, risking errors and low engagement.
Measurement Gaps: Without integrated tracking, it was hard to tie webinars to metrics like open rates or conversions, limiting optimization.
Insights from analytics (e.g., PowerBI, Marketo reports) revealed opportunities: Attendees engaged 15% more with personalized cadences, and social tie-ins boosted shares by 10-20%. These highlighted the need for a standardized process to scale programs globally.
Approach & Execution
To elevate webinar campaigns, I transitioned from executor to strategist, establishing and enforcing processes while collaborating cross-functionally. This involved:
Defining Triggers & Cadence: Designed automated workflows in Marketo triggered by On24 form sign-ups (e.g., immediate confirmation email, then a 3-email pre-event sequence: Day -7 reminder, Day -3 teaser, Day -1 agenda). Post-event, a 2-email cadence (Day +1 recap with poll results, Day +7 nurture with sales connect CTA) ensured sustained engagement.
Social Media Tie-Ins: Integrated X (Twitter) and LinkedIn prompts, e.g., "Share your thoughts on the webinar using #BioRadInsights" or "Connect with a sales specialist for follow-up." This created user-generated content loops, amplifying reach by 15-20%.
Process Establishment & Enforcement: Created a reusable toolkit (templates, checklists) adopted across teams, including guidelines for content delivery (e.g., "Provide assets 10 days pre-event in compliant formats"). Conducted workshops to explain rationale (e.g., why regulatory language affects open rates), building buy-in and reducing revisions by 25%.
Cross-Team Alignment: Partnered with marketing, sales, and legal to streamline handoffs—e.g., using Miro for collaborative planning and Figma for rapid prototyping of landing pages and emails. Enforced alignment through weekly check-ins, ensuring assets were optimized for mobile/responsive design.
Web Components Integration: Added webinar tie-ins on landing pages, blending event strategy with web execution to drive traffic.
This agile approach leveraged tools like Marketo for automation, On24 for event hosting, and Adobe Analytics for real-time tweaks, ensuring compliance in multilingual campaigns.
Deep Dive: Enforcing Processes for Scalability Recognizing deployment bottlenecks, I developed a standardized workflow:
Asset Requirements: Mandated templates with placeholders for compliant content, reducing errors.
Team Education: Held sessions explaining "why" (e.g., "Personalized subject lines boost opens by 23.3%"), fostering ownership.
Tracking System: Built a shared dashboard in PowerBI to monitor cadence performance, flagging issues early.
This framework was replicated across 20+ webinars, transforming ad-hoc efforts into efficient, scalable programs.
Outcomes & Impact
The strategic overhaul amplified webinar impact, with key results including:
Engagement Boost: Email open rates increased to 23.3% (above industry average) through personalized cadences and triggers, driving 15% higher attendance.
Conversion Growth: Post-event nurture sequences and social tie-ins generated 10-20% more leads, with users connecting to sales specialists via integrated CTAs.
Process Efficiency: Enforced workflows reduced deployment time by 25%, enabling teams to handle 2x more webinars without added resources.
Broader Business Value: Aligned programs with Bio-Rad's global goals, enhancing lead quality in regulated markets and supporting revenue growth through optimized funnels.
This evolution not only elevated individual campaigns but created a replicable model adopted enterprise-wide, demonstrating my ability to drive strategic change in complex environments.
After the customer signs up for the webinar, they are sent several reminder emails about the upcoming event.
After the live event has passed, customers receive an email based on if they attended or not, and if they are opting in to marketing emails or not (this is a law that is heavily enforced in other countries and we must be very careful when sending to customers)