As more people get their services and products online, simply sending emails may not be enough to generate new leads, but providing more value to your customers and subscribers can greatly increase your ROI.
For companies looking to improve conversion rates, webinars are a great strategy to provide value, improve engagement, and increase revenues.
What is webinar marketing?
Webinar marketing is an inexpensive way to engage an interested audience in your product or service online in real time. As people interact with the landing page used to promote the webinar, they then become part of your marketing automation and CRM platforms. From their, you can continue the conversation and nurture them through the sales cycle with the goal of creating a customer.
Since online shopping and research became standard, marketers have looked for new and exciting ways to engage with their customers.
One way a company can generate plenty of leads from a single activity is with webinars. More companies are choosing to use online information sharing as a marketing strategy now than ever before.
It all started with online education. If a software company added new features to a product, they’d use an online seminar (or webinar) to show them to customers.
In these sessions, customers could ask questions, just like a demo or training session. Marketers quickly saw the potential these value-added services could bring, and it’s now common for thought and industry leaders to use webinars to engage with their customers.
Webinar marketing tips for generating leads
Hosting a webinar for your company or product is a great way to engage directly with your customers. And you can save the content and let others view it long after the session ended.
Webinars are mainly learning sessions, but can generate new leads and conversions when done correctly. Following these four tips will help you design your next webinar for improved results from your customers.
1. Focus on the topic.
The easiest way to drive traffic to your webinar is to ensure you have an interesting topic. The better the topic, the more people will tune in. Webinars are assets to customers.
They’ll want to hear about solutions to problems they face regularly. While you’re busy with your topic research, you should also consider keywords in your titles. This could help drive more people to the webinar who aren’t on your subscriber lists, and they’ll usually sign up afterward.
On average, 30% to 40% of people who land on a webinar page will register for the event.
Source: ReadyTalk
2. Use your connections to promote the event.
Once you schedule the webinar, use your connections to spread the word. While you should let your subscribers know first, you can ask them to forward the details to any other people they may think would benefit. You could also use your business connections to ensure you have the biggest audience in attendance.
3. Provide valuable content.
It’s not enough to get customers to tune in; you’ll need to ensure they receive value for the time they invest in the webinar. If your content isn’t up to scratch, you’ll likely do more harm than good.
4. Consolidate content assets for better engagement.
It’s common for customers to ask questions during webinars. If you promised to share a link after the session, ensure you follow through. You can also link to previous webinars if they apply to the topic you discussed. This will allow visitors to go through older content and increase the chances of them signing up for future sessions.
How to measure the success of your webinar marketing
As these are events, it’s easy to track your subscription rates during and after the webinar. If you use email campaigns for your regular marketing, you can track the increase of subscribers in real time. You can also use feedback surveys and other questionnaires to find out what your attendees thought of the event.
Does it really matter?
Webinars usually deal with complex topics that require companies to “show, not tell” their customers something of value. Depending on the company and its products, a webinar will help improve conversion rates and expose them to new potential customers.
What now?
Webinars have become a popular channel for driving traffic to sites and businesses. It’s still important to use regular solutions like email lists to ensure you can reach the most people when hosting a webinar.
If you’re thinking about hosting a webinar, ensure you research your topic, provide great content, and use every marketing channel available to promote the event.
Webinars provide great value to customers, but you’ll need to have an audience. Check out this post about converting first-time buyers into loyal customers.