Webinars — do you need them?
Have you ever considered holding an online business event for your customers?
Webinars have been a popular way to generate leads for your business for years. However, times have changed, and some new ways of generating leads have come. But, are webinars dead? Well, they’re not dead. Or at least they shouldn’t be.
Hubspot defines webinars as “an online video presentation, seminar, lecture, or workshop delivered via the internet. They provide businesses with a way to host a digital, interactive event for members of their target audience and customers, no matter their location.”.
The great thing about webinars is their usage for accomplishing every goal you want, from improving your brand awareness to increasing your revenue. But, hosting a webinar is not always that simple — it usually takes weeks of detailed preparations.
Before jumping into hosting webinars, think about these things:
First of all, why do you want to host a webinar? What is the purpose of it? Be clear and precise because this is the base of your strategy. When you finish defining objectives, it is time to think about the topic of your webinar. One thing’s for sure — it should be relevant for your audience. Put yourself in their shoes. What would you be interested in if you were them? Think about the ways you can engage them. Remember that those people are taking their time to listen to you. Maybe they even paid to attend it. Your webinar should provide value to your audience, and the last thing you want is to bore them, right?
It could also be helpful to do some research and see what other companies or businesses are putting out there in their webinars.
The next step is selecting the style of your webinar. Think out of the box here to stand out from the competition. Here is the list of creative webinar formats you may want to consider:
- An interview webinar — interview an expert who has authority in your industry. Someone whose reputation alone should be enough to secure good signup to your webinar.
- A Q&A webinar — this is the most engaging format of webinars, as it means your attendees can participate. Also, take note: always ask for questions to be sent in advance. It gives you the chance to identify the top questions and prepare your responses.
- A case study webinar — case studies are a very successful way to demonstrate the value you deliver to clients. Invite them so they can see how your case study subject is making great results with your products.
Ok, now there are a few things left to do.
We have our webinar format and topic ready, but we haven’t decided which Webinar Software Platform we will use.
Some of the best ones to use in 2020 are:
Great!
Now it’s time for you to set the right day and time, based on where your audience lives. Don’t bother to check tools like Google Analytics to get an insight into your audiences’ data.
And lastly, the only thing left is to promote your webinar. Now, this is the hardest part of the story, especially if you don’t have a quality customer base. Either way, you’ll need to do a marketing plan to get people to register, and attend, your webinar. To promote your webinar, you can create a landing page where people can sign up and then distribute and promote that link through other channels. Use Social Media and Google advertising, newsletters, etc.
As I said earlier, planning a webinar takes a lot of time and patience. Don’t let that bother you, but involve webinars into your marketing strategy and see what happens.
