Use Webinar to Generate Leads

The word webinar is essentially a combination of the words SEMINAR and WEB. Many businesses and marketing professionals are utilising webinars as a space to attract and engage with curious leads. In fact, over 60% of marketers now use webinars as part of their overall content marketing strategies.

 

What is a webinar?

A webinar is a presentation that is delivered online. Indeed, it is an opportunity for businesses to generate more value for their audience by offering useful information, lessons, or tutorials. Webinars are interactive, meaning the audience can engage with the host in real-time, adding to its educational value.

For businesses, webinars are a useful vehicle for reaching your target audience. Consequently, webinars serve to both educate and engage your target audience, whether it comprises of new leads, prospects who require nurturing, or existing customers.

 

Reasons why businesses use webinars

 

• To generate targeted, high quality leads
• Increase brand visibility
• Build credibility
• Establish and nurture relationships
• Increase engagement

 

How do webinars benefit my business?

 

Better, hotter leads

When someone decides to participate in a webinar, it’s a much bigger commitment than simply reading a social post or visiting that company’s site. Hence, the leads who do participate in your webinar will automatically be more qualified and more interested leads due to their initial commitment to your webinar, and assumed interest in your brand/product.

 

Global reach

Webinars allow people to attract, communicate and engage with a target audience based anywhere in the world. People who habitually can’t interact with your brand, due to budget or travel restraints, not only get to engage with your brand but also get to “attend” the events they missed out on before. Also, with webinars, companies can cater to a much wider range of personas, and even run breakout sessions for people with special interests.

 

Expert positioning

Of course, when prospects are selecting a supplier, they’ll go to the most qualified, most credible one. In the same way, webinars enable businesses to establish their credibility on any given subject/topic matter and become thought leaders in that field. Similarly, they demonstrate what your brand knows, what your brand has to offer, how it can be of use to your customers, and what makes your brand special. Indeed, this is particularly important information for leads who are looking to find any given brand in a highly saturated space.

 

It’s your brand’s elevator pitch

Webinars can quickly inform your audience of what it’s like to do business with you. The quality of your webinar will most likely translate to your level of professionalism, your priorities, and how you present your brand and the material. This is a great window of opportunity to impress your audience with thoughtful, precise language and content. Indeed, you should also make sure all of the technical aspects of your webinar (i.e. sound and video) are flawless and not distracting.

 

Interactivity = engagement

As mentioned, the webinar format can be highly interactive. When it comes to interacting with a brand, written copy just isn’t the same. With webinars, your audience will automatically interact with your brand more, increasing audience engagement levels. For example, if a lead has a terrific experience at one of your webinars, they will be much more likely to promote the webinar on their social media accounts, as opposed to a non-targeted social graphic. Accordingly, the more interactive you make your webinars, the more people will naturally gravitate towards engaging with your brand in general.

 

Common webinar formats

The two most common forms of webinars are:

Masterclass – focusing on a single key topic that will be of interest to the target audience

Product training/product launches – to educate customers about new features or developments, and to help new customers get familiar with the product

 

What platform should I use?

Here are some common considerations when selecting a webinar-based platform:

 

• Does it need to be a simple or more complex platform?
• How many attendees does the platform support?
• What analytics does the platform offer?
• Is there an interactive chat function?
• Can it be easily integrated into my CRM?
• How much can be automated with the platform?

 

HubSpot’s webinar integrations

If you’re an active HubSpot user, with a HubSpot-based CRM, then consider using one of the many webinar integrations they have to offer. You can select free software, like Zoom, or paid software like WebinarGeek, to complete your webinar offering. They also have a WorkCast Advanced Webinars integration, for companies who require a highly sophisticated platform.