High-Quality Leads And Other Benefits Webinars Can Bring To Your Business
Establishing trust and rapport with your audience is one of the most important parts of building your credibility as a business, and webinars are one of the most effective ways to do just that.
Webinars give you the chance to tell a story rather than send a sales pitch. People are more comfortable doing business with companies they know and trust, which makes it key to utilize marketing tactics, like webinars, that allow you to genuinely connect.
With webinars, you can teach and network while simultaneously meeting many of your most important marketing goals. These presentations and conversations can help you capture high-quality leads, expand your reach far beyond your geographic location, partner with respected companies and thought leaders in your market, and much more. Best of all, you already know that your audience members are interested in what you have to say because they made the effort to tune in.
But webinars which bring high-quality leads have to be done well and done right to achieve results. Several distinct factors go into creating and executing a successful webinar, from the quality of its content to your willingness to share information at no cost to even the specific way you choose to wrap up the event. In this eBook, we’ll explore some of the ways well-crafted webinars can boost your lead generation and how you can learn to make the most of every lead who attends.
1. Capturing High-Quality Leads From The Start
One of the biggest challenges of connecting with consumers is catching and holding their interest. In fact, appealing to your audience is one of the first and most important steps in any marketing effort. When people register for and attend your webinar, they do so because you’ve already successfully accomplished that goal, and only the highest-quality leads [1] stem from an interest in the event. The people who watch your webinar will be those who are most willing to listen to and engage with your brand.
A webinar audience isn’t just interested in what you have to say on a basic level—it's made up of people who are willing to provide their personal information, such as email addresses [2], to sign up and engage with you. Keep in mind that while this says a lot about how valuable they are, it also means that the time for sales pitches and promotion is over.
Your webinar should educate, spark discussion, and provide value to those who watch and interact with it. Otherwise, attendees will sign off and potentially even break contact with your business or brand entirely.
Webinars don't just attract high-quality leads—they make it possible for you to reach more of them.
2. Speaking Beyond Earshot
In many ways, a webinar is simply a digital-age seminar, and seminars have long been a valuable tool for identifying and capturing high-quality leads. However, traditional seminars are severely limited by their location [3]. Only your local customer base can attend, and you have to shoulder the costs of renting a venue, organizing the event, and more. If your target clientele is national or international, a webinar can make it possible to reach them globally with minimal cost.
If some, most, or all of your customer base is local, turning your next seminar into a webinar can still be highly beneficial, too. They don’t have to travel to a venue, pay for parking, get stuck in traffic, or run the risk of being late or missing out entirely. They can enjoy the lessons and knowledge you have to offer even more while appreciating that you’ve made it as convenient as possible for them to do so.
3. Building Partnerships Through Presentations
Much like a seminar, a webinar offers you an opportunity to do more than just speak with your audience; it opens up opportunities to partner with other companies and thought leaders in similar markets. Knowledge and insight are some of the most valuable things you can give your audience, and there’s no better way to do that than to have multiple experts co-host the event. Further, working in partnership with others in the space gives you and your co-hosts the ability to tap into one another’s leads and email lists.
Keep in mind, though, that a webinar is only effective if those in the audience trust the experts and thought leaders. By having multiple hosts engaging with one another, you create an instant rapport that makes interacting with you more natural for your audience. Co-hosting with others in your industry also helps you build meaningful partnerships [4] with those businesses and people that last long after the webinar ends.
A Few Things To Remember
Remember that all of these outcomes start with a genuine, relevant presentation built on content that delivers true value to your audience. Before you set a time and date and send out invites to the show, take time and work closely with your partners—if you have them—to map out your goals. Include the most important points you need to get across, but also leave plenty of room for the conversation to cover any relevant discussions that come up.
If the webinar achieves its purpose, that conversation [5] will be dynamic and go far beyond a prewritten script. The objective is to have an authentic conversation in which you can tell your story and your audience can react to it in real-time. Nevertheless, ensuring you get your ideas across will take practice, so run at least one dress rehearsal before the webinar goes live so that it attracts high-quality leads.
Finally, there’s significant value in following up with the people in your audience after the webinar to find out why they are or are not attending. Also, work to understand any reasons that could explain why some leads didn't turn into conversions [6]. Any feedback you receive could be vital when planning your future webinars.
Ultimately, when webinars are strategically, thoughtfully, and authentically executed they are some of the most effective, powerful marketing tools that exist. Wondering how to create top-notch lead generation webinars? Download our eBook Creating Webinars That Convert: Complete Webinar Marketing Guide For eLearning Companies and discover how to identify potential partners for your B2B lead generation webinar, among other superb tips on business webinars.
References:
[1] Neil Patel, The Guide to Running Successful Lead Generation Webinars
[2] Matthew Buckley, 13 SaaS Marketing Pros Reveal Their Lead Generation Strategies
[3] Tom DiSpicio, Why You Should use Webinars To Generate Leads (& Who’s Doing It Right)
[4] Amanda Nielsen, Why You Should Run Every Webinar With A Partner
[5] Mike Agron, 5 Expert Tips For Engaging Your Webinar Audience
[6] John Brandt, How to Convert Leads Into Paid Customers With eMail Surveys (And What To Do If You Can’t)
