Forge First - Boosting Webinar Engagement

Client Background: Forge First Asset Management Inc. is a leading alternative asset manager specializing in investment solutions that balance asset protection and capital enhancement. They produce quarterly webinars featuring interviews with their investment team on topics such as technology and economic trends in the alternative investments space.

Challenge:  Forge First faced a significant engagement challenge—while the content of their webinars was strong, viewership was declining. The primary hurdle was getting busy salespeople to commit to attending live sessions, leading to dwindling audience numbers.

Discovery & Insights: After conducting a deep dive into Forge First’s digital presence, I identified key areas for improvement:

• Forge First was active on two social platforms—X (Twitter), where the CEO had strong engagement, and LinkedIn, with less consistent interaction.

• They were using Salesforce for mass email distribution, but the podcast format was too long, causing audience drop-off.
  

Strategy & Execution: Based on these insights, I recommended the following actions to boost engagement and improve viewership:

• Shorten podcasts to 15 minutes to better cater to the limited attention spans of the target audience.

• Rebrand the webinar series to improve its overall presentation and positioning, with the goal of creating a valuable content library for ongoing engagement.

• Distribute the podcast via an email campaign, followed by a 6-minute version in a second email for better engagement and the opportunity to retarget viewers.

• Leverage social media snippets in both the CEO’s voice and the company’s tone to increase visibility and reach across platforms.

• Redesign the technical slides, ensuring they were branded and visually polished for a more professional and cohesive presentation.

Results:

By implementing this strategy, Forge First saw a 150% increase in webinar viewership, with engagement levels continuing to rise into the following quarter. The improvements not only boosted immediate webinar participation but also set the stage for sustained growth in their digital presence.