When it comes to hosting webinars, there are even more benefits than meet the eye, like so many PR tactics. Beyond the potential windfall of communicating directly with in-market consumers for an extended period of time (every business owner’s dream), webinars provide a trove of “supplemental” advantages that aid in everything from customer acquisition to credibility enhancement.
Here are six reasons why hosting a regular webinar can help you reach your business goals.
1) Establish Credibility: If you’re like me, you’ve been conditioned to believe that anyone speaking in front of a camera is an expert. Webinars attach a credible face to your business and help you foster a reputation as a thought leader, which according to studies, can lead to more RFPs and business wins.
2) Generate Leads: Webinars can be a uniquely effective device for bringing new customers into your sales funnel. If you play it right you’ll gain enough leads from registrations alone to make the event worth your time. In fact, 73% of marketing and sales leaders say webinars are one of the best ways to generate quality leads, according to InsideSales.com.
3) Drive Sales: Even if you’re not aggressively hawking your product (which you shouldn’t do), your webinar is still tantamount to one long sales pitch. Hosting webinars leads to credibility, which leads to trust, which leads to sales. That said, guests won’t knock or blame you for working a subtle sales push into your course, as long as it springs organically from your topic.
4) Feed Social Calendars: Webinars provide a groundswell of content for you to feed into your social channels. Not only can you post the webinar in its entirety on YouTube and stream live on various other channels, you can also slice up the video into snackable clips and sprinkle them throughout your social media pages over an extended period of time.
5) Get Real-Time Insights: One of the coolest aspects of webinars is the ability to incorporate polls, chats and other interactive elements that help trigger direct customer feedback in real time. The more interactive you make your webinar the more engaged your audience will be and the more likely they’ll be to register for future events.
6) Promote Through Partnerships: When planning new topics, think about guest speakers that can bolster the conversation. Cohosting your webinar with fellow subject matter experts will raise the profile of your event and help you attract new registrants. Better yet, you’ll be able to leverage your guests’ audiences to generate new leads.
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