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Webinars can deliver high returns on relatively low investments and offer some of the best tools for reaching and engaging customers. Recent research shows that 73% of B2B marketers believe webinars are the most effective method for generating high-quality leads. Webinars can help you build awareness, reach a new audience and share your knowledge. In simple terms, webinars can humanise your brand by giving it a face and a voice. People invest in people, and webinars can help to build up those all-important relationships between a brand and its audience.
84% of marketers who attend webinars say the single most important thing they want is relevant and actionable content. So the key is to grab their attention by choosing a topic that matters to them — not to you. Answer their questions, solve their problems. By sharing your knowledge and expertise, you could position yourself as an industry expert or thought leader. This way, you’ll earn credibility by proving what you know and build trust by providing valuable information for free.
Webinars are great educational tools; they should provide us with valuable information, not sales pitches. Don’t boast about your brand’s technology, service or product; focus on your audience and address the challenges they face. If not, your audience will feel cheated and will never trust you again. Remember, webinars are a chance to prove to your audience that you are useful and really know what you’re talking about.
It’s unlikely everyone in your target audience is in a single industry or the same job or location. It’s important to segment your audience and tailor content to suit. Your audience will thank you for this and feel you truly understand them, helping to build trust.
Webinars are the perfect tools to educate, but don’t bore them with facts and figures. It’s important to make your content interesting and compelling. Create visuals or animations that are appropriate for your target audience. Include slides and data to support your speaker. And use real-life examples or personal experiences to give viewers a real insight and show you are an authentic brand.
Webinars, like social media and trade shows, offer opportunities for brands to connect with people. Choosing the right people to represent your brand is critical. Moderators set the tone throughout, so they need both industry knowledge and knowledge of the topic. Panellists should be experts on the topic but should also represent a range of perspectives or opinions. For presentations, it’s not always necessary to hire professional speakers; just ask a charismatic member of your team.
93% of marketers see interactive content as effective. Using a Q&A session will allow you to engage with your audience and hear what they have to say. Giving your viewers the chance to ask experts questions in real-time adds real value to any webinar. Another way to keep viewers engaged is to run polls, quizzes and surveys. People love to be involved, and interaction makes them feel more connected to brands.
Use webinars to build relationships and build trust. If you provide valuable information and earn trust, your audience will come back again and again. The key is to create a long-term schedule for consistency and stay in touch in between webinars. Keep the communication alive through email, social media and bite-sized webinars.
A live webinar can be released as an on-demand version and watched over and over again. So it’s important to make sure the production and audio quality are high. And don’t forget to check slides and graphics too, particularly the opening shots, as viewers will switch off if the standard set is low.
Spending time promoting your webinars is essential. Let your audience know: send emails and newsletters, post on social media and add teaser videos to your website. Post-broadcast, it’s important to keep the momentum going to drum up as many views of your on-demand webinar as possible. Read our blog: 10 ways to boost your success post-webinar