In this digital era, business is emerging with digital trends in marketing whether it is social, viral videos, blogs, Ad campaigns etc. , but webinars need to be kept on the forefront for online marketing strategies. Let’s discuss how Webinar Marketing is being conducted.
Best thing of this tool is that it can be accessed from remote locations and one can conduct video, audio conferencing and chat at the same time.
Webinars are made possible via TCP/IP which allows real time communication between sender and receiver, and multicast communication from one sender to many receivers. Hosting a webinar gives you an opportunity to interact with the real-time audience.
In fact, 66% of B2B marketers said webinars are one of the most effective content strategies as compared to other business strategies.
Popular Webinar platforms are:
- Google Hangout
- GoToMeeting
- GoToWebinar
- Clickmeeting
- Adobeconnect
- AT&T Connect
Conducting virtual classroom training and pouring good knowledge leads to a good number of website visitors who end up buying the product. Nowadays, webinars are considered as a great tool for marketing as it provides real time interaction between the presenter and guest, and among attendees.
If you are thinking to share knowledge with people, then Webinars are a good start for the following reasons:
1. Faster and quicker access
Conducting conferences, classroom trainings would require lot of arrangements in training centre or in a hotel, whereas conducting a webinar will always require a desktop/laptop/smartphone and a good internet connection. It saves your travelling time and one can access webinars comfortably.
Webinars would always save your money because you need a budget to fit in for organizing conferences or classroom trainings, whereas webinars can be conducted by paying a small amount to the company providing you a webinar platform. You can give n number of webinars and increase your brand value.
2. Increase Brand Awareness
Webinars are a good medium for creating brand awareness and reputation in the market. You can host free webinars with quality content on a weekly basis and paid webinars later on. Save these videos and upload them on your YouTube Channel. Share them on social media platforms as videos increase good understanding in comparison to blogs or news articles.
3. Revenue Generating
Webinars are useful in generating revenues. Most of the brands host free webinars and one can charge a fee too from the customers once you establish a brand image.
Guide to Conducting a Webinar
Planning and managing are the most important parts of a webinar. Follow the steps to conduct a successful webinar:
1.) Plan your Webinar
Webinar should be conducted in a planned manner. Spend time in deciding the topic, time, date, speaker, agenda and content for the webinar.
2.) Create a quality landing page
Create a landing page on your website and a registration form. Add a brief summary about your webinar with a registration button. Make a “crisp and clear” quality headline to your webinar landing page.
3.) Webinar promotion
Build a strategy for promoting your campaign. Share it on social media and send a newsletter to target audience.
4.) Craft your content
Sometimes brands spend their maximum time on increasing attendance and forget an important aspect of webinar marketing i.e. content. Organizers should spend more time in shaping content to provide a quality webinar so that attendees also find it valuable and are happy to spend their time and money.
5.) Keep your audience engaged during the webinar
While delivering the presentation, keep your audience engaged by asking related questions and summarize the topic at the end.
6.) Map the presentation
Always map your webinar from introduction slide to Q & A slide. This will make you go with the flow.
7.) Q & A session
Always end your webinar with a Q & A section which makes the audience feel connected and satisfied.
8.) Branding boosts sales
Branding creates consistency across all your marketing strategies. It boosts the marketing power and soon you can gain good ranking on Google and followers on social media.
9.) Conduct online survey and polls
Online survey and polls can also be conducted to get live feedback from your audience and can answer their questions related to your product. It boosts engagement between you and your customer making webinar dynamic. Keeping them engaged.
10.) Use elevator pitch rules for Webinar
Elevator pitch means clear and precise presentation demonstrated to the audience to make them buy your product. Reach large number of audience and engage them effectively.
Elevator pitch rules for a webinar are as follows:
- Credible: Build a trust with your audience and make them believe your expertise by sharing real –life story
- Compelling: Always focus on solving the problem of your product
- Conceptual: Your slides should be logical and avoid adding concepts which are not in your knowledge.
- Concise: Reduce the word count from your slide and avoid adding long paragraphs in your slides. Pictures can be added for better understanding
- Clear: Deliver your webinar in the easiest way possible keeping in mind that audience don’t know anything about that topic
- Concrete: Include facts and figures and give specific examples related to the topic
- Customized: Your audience should be interested in what you are explaining
- Consistent: Keep on delivering quality webinars consistently with a clear goal in mind.
- Conversational: Engage your audience during and after the webinar. Make them ask questions
11.) Archive your Webinar
Archive webinars on your website for future use and publish it on your company’s YouTube channel and spread the word with your target audience on social media, so that non-attendees can also be benefited.
Tips for a successful webinar
- Always look towards the camera so that attendees sitting in front of you feel connected
- Always perform with your team before your presentation to become comfortable with slides, screen sharing, running and sharing videos, chat etc
- Prepare point to point slides and never stick to a slide for a long time and move on quickly to other slides
- Keep graphics clear
- Keep your language clear and straightforward
- You can talk about some prize or discount on your products in the ending pitch
- Promote your webinar three weeks before the run date
- Create a promotional banner for your website related to webinar
Checklist
- Topic chosen
- Promotion
- Registrations
- Speaker
- Time Duration -1 hour including 15 min of Q & A section
- Easy to read slides
- Following up the participants after the webinar
Case study of ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum department)
ASCD is a global community for learning and development of educators which helps them in their journey of educating professionals.
Webinars help them to deliver successful trainings to educators & advocates who take active part and encourage professional development by saving time too.
Image Source: oss.deltares, eniorhomeadvocates.com, ascd.org
Excellent Article..
Thanks Kumar… 🙂