By Kristine Aitchison
Author & Content Specialist
A webinar is an amalgamation of the word’s ‘web’ and ‘seminar’. It refers to an online presentation over the Internet using webinar software. Participants can generally join from anywhere in the world. Many organisations use webinars to educate, inform, and promote their products and services. They’re often conducted live and can be an effective tool for lead generation. Here are 5 key benefits of hosting a webinar.
#1. Lead generation
When people sign up for a webinar, it shows they are interested in your topic and more likely to be engaged with your product or service. Webinars prove a useful tool for collecting the contact details of your participants and generating leads. Leeanne Bassett from face UP now offered a free webinar masterclass that preluded her LinkedIn training and collected participants’ contact details for targeted marketing. This allowed her to generate content that targeted the different stages of the Buyer’s Journey and helped increase conversion rates.
#2. Showcase your expertise.
Hosting a webinar allows you to demonstrate your expertise and lets people ‘try before they buy’. It removes the risk factor. Hosting a webinar allows you to share valuable insights, establish yourself as an authority on the subject, and help build trust and credibility with your audience. People prefer to do business with people they know, like, and trust. Webinars let participants interact with the presenter in real-time, ask questions, and get to know the business owner.
#3. Promotion and marketing
Hosting regular webinars can give you a promotional objective for your marketing. If you were hosting a webinar in a month’s time, you would need to create promotional content that encourages people to register and attend. Stephanie Love, from LoveHR does this by offering free sign-up to her webinars. She creates social media content that tells people why it’s in their best interest to attend, creates videos leading up to the event, and provides snippets of what people can expect.
Furthermore, maximise the value you get from your webinar by repurposing the content into other marketing resources, such as blog posts, social media content, newsletters, eBooks, and infographics.
#4. Engagement and interaction
Webinars offer the opportunity for real-time engagement and can help build a stronger connection with your audience. They allow for two-way communication, so you can directly address clients’ questions and concerns. The Q&A session provides a useful source of insight into your customers’ pain points and can be repurposed as content for your blog or social media.
Stephanie Love has seen a notable increase in engagement and followers on LinkedIn and Instagram since she started sharing relevant and useful information. She says, that “Talking about something that is topical, something that people are struggling with, can be a useful way to get engagement, likes, comments.”
#5. Overcome fear of public speaking
The focus of a webinar should be to deliver valuable content. Stephanie says that she doesn’t host a webinar just to generate leads for marketing. She hosts a webinar because a topic interests and excites her. She says, “If you’re talking or presenting on something that you’re passionate about, then you come across better.” And Leeann agrees. She often tells her clients to talk about ‘what they know’ to come across more naturally on video.
In closing, webinars can be a great way to generate leads; showcase your expertise; promote your products; engage your audience; and provide a useful source of content ideas. Plus, digital marketing tools are essential for promoting your webinar. If you’re a business or organisation that is trying to grow, hosting a webinar could be a good option for your marketing goals.
Written by Kristine Aitchison: Guest Writer & Content Specialist
Kristine is an experienced content writer, specialising in marketing and communications. Showcase your expertise with regular blog content. Visit morethanmerewords.nz.
