Ever since working remotely became the norm, an increasing number of people have started relying on technology for social interaction and consuming information.
That means more Zoom meetings instead of in-person meetings, more use of project management tools to brainstorm ideas and strategize campaigns, and certainly, more webinars instead of live events.
LinkedIn reported that 67% of marketers increased their investment in webinars in 2020. In particular, there was a 76% increase in virtual events and webinars between March and June 2020.
Moreover, the global webinar market will reach 800 million by 2023. If there was ever a time to host a webinar, it is now. Webinars have emerged to become one of the most effective ways to engage not just your prospects and customers but also your employees in the digital workplace.
So, what is webinar marketing?
Webinars are online seminars that provide a great way to connect with your audience in real-time. They allow marketers, educators, salespeople, and other professionals the opportunity for an interactive experience.
The concept is helpful in stimulating business leads or building relationships with prospects. Webinar marketing is an exciting way to promote your products or services online. It improves brand awareness and entertains the audience with the help of webinars.
Why should your company use webinar marketing?
Hosting a seminar helps brands showcase their expertise in a particular field while nurturing leads. The good news is there is no shortage of topics to make a webinar on. With the right tools in place, webinars can very much be a part of your marketing strategy. Here is why:
1. Greater content generation
Webinar marketing is an exciting way to create content that your audience will be eager to consume. It helps you get their attention with interesting online video interactions and influential presenters.
Your webinars are an excellent opportunity to grow your audience and create content for future use. The video clips from webinars allow you to create social media posts, transcripts from the video can be used to write blog posts that help your SEO.
You can even share the entire webinar video over YouTube to capture the attention of a wider audience. Plus, by covering different topics with time, you can build a solid library of webinars.
2. Improved SEO performance
Websites that publish high-quality videos tend to rank higher on search engines like Google and Bing. Besides helping your blog, webinars naturally attract backlinks and help build your backlink profile without investing too much in additional marketing. Besides, promoting your webinars on social media can generate a steady stream of traffic for your business.
3. Increased brand awareness
Webinar marketing allows you to get your brand in front of more people and build authority. Hosting webinars regularly will help you build trust with potential customers, as it demonstrates that you have enough domain knowledge.
You can create engaging virtual events that are informative for potential customers. It will make it easier for them to decide on purchasing goods or services from you.
4. Higher audience engagement
Webinar marketing helps you interact with your audience in real-time. It is more beneficial than engagement through blogs or social media as it enables face-to-face interactions with your prospects. You can build trust in your target audience during a webinar and help them decide to purchase products from you.
A simple yet effective webinar marketing strategy
If you have never created or hosted a webinar, the process can seem overwhelming to you. Plus, what do you do when it is over? Fret not — follow the steps mentioned below and create webinars that help you achieve all your marketing goals.
1. Plan thoroughly
Webinars are a great way to provide informative and engaging content to your audience. The key is planning and ensuring that you have all the technology requirements met beforehand, along with well-crafted engaging content
a. Pick the right software
Connecting with your audience in real-time requires efficient software. You can pick free options with limited features or opt for a more capable and affordable solution. Opt for an intuitive solution like LiveWebinar and enjoy live HD video streaming, superior screen sharing, along with recording and other features that impress your attendees.
b. Craft your webinar content
Your webinar is an opportunity to engage your audience, so make sure you create content that impacts them and includes things they care about. You can search for posts with maximum views on social media to understand what generates the most engagement.
You can conduct a short "how-to" series to demonstrate the different features of your SaaS product. Have a panel discussion on a relevant industry topic with influencers, partners, or clients. Host a monthly Q&A session with your users. Webinar content ideas are numerous!
c. Design a webinar schedule
You must also create a webinar schedule and decide the duration of your event. Typically, you can have around 1 hour to 45 minutes-long sessions and a 15-20 minutes question-answer session. However, it is up to you how you want to structure the webinars.
2. Market aggressively
Don’t forget the marketing part of webinar marketing You have to generate initial excitement and encourage engagement throughout the event. Here are the measures you need to take to attract more attendees to your webinar:
a. Work on search engine optimization and build a landing page
An integral part of a webinar marketing strategy is to create optimized communication for the event. You can increase registration rates for your webinar by creating an optimized landing page. It must have the target keywords in its title and include a sign-up form. It can also be used in email marketing campaigns and sales pages.
b. Use email to promote your webinar among contacts and current subscribers
You must create targeted campaigns to attract your first attendees. You can send personalized emails to your existing customers and other business contacts. The following tips will help you maximize the response of your email marketing efforts:
- Send email invites and automated reminders so that your target audience signs up and remembers they have a webinar to attend.
- Create email templates to send in one-on-one communication with prospects.
- Notify company representatives about new registrations for the webinar through an automated email.
c. Promote your webinar via social media channels and LinkedIn
LinkedIn is an effective B2B marketing channel. In fact, it has released a new feature that allows you to create virtual events.
You can engage your registrants by starting discussions on event pages and giving potential topics for presentations or Q&A sessions. You can also promote your webinar by running ads on Google, Instagram, and Facebook.
d. Send reminder emails to registrants
Once you have planned your webinar, you need to time your advertisements too. If you advertise too early, many of your potential attendees will forget about the event or may even ignore it. To ensure a high attendance rate, sending out reminder emails a day before and on the event date is vital.
e. Consider co-marketing the webinar
One of the best ways to get new expertise, generate interest for a piece of content, and expand your reach is co-marketing webinars.
It can be tremendously successful in achieving all three things. Instead of holding a webinar with speakers internally, try working with another company to leverage their expertise. You can benefit significantly if the company caters to the same buyer persona.
It is the best way to get your webinar in front of a wider audience, and you can create engaging content. This is a way to make it more exciting and increase the chances of success.
3. Be active post-webinar
Your job does not end with promoting your webinar and hosting it. You still need to engage with those who attended your virtual event. That will help them keep your business at the centerfold when purchasing a product or service similar to yours. Here is what you can do:
a. Offer a certificate of completion
A great way to make sure you get as many registrations for your webinar is by offering something in return. You can give away certificates of completion, or PDHs and CEUs after the event.
People will want them because they depict the learning from the session, and it also counts towards their education requirements. They can also share the same on LinkedIn. That counts as a brilliant promotion for you!
You can offer certificates of completion to any professional trained in their field. It is helpful for industries such as engineering, marketing, architecture (including landscape design process), and software development.
b. Survey participants after the webinar
Once the webinar is done, you need to know the areas of your event or webinar that need improvement. Sending an after-event survey to the attendees is the perfect way for you to refine your next endeavor.
You can get them to give feedback on everything from content choices to branding efforts and even strategy implementation to ensure that you deliver as per audience expectations.
Moreover, the feedback is helpful for your sales teams to sell with confidence. You can address the previous pain points when promoting upcoming opportunities.
4. Organize your webinar library
Over time, you will create a solid repository of webinars packed with diverse insights. Do not let them go to waste. Instead, dedicate a separate resource page or dashboard on your website, which comprises all the webinars you have organized or co-hosted to date. You can manage this kind of entity with marketing resource management.
You also give your visitors a sneak peek into the upcoming webinars and nudge them to sign up. In addition, add filters to the dashboard for the visitors to browse through the webinars based on topic and relevance.
Over to you
Today, there’s no shortage of ways to present your brand and its products to a defined audience in a compelling way, and webinars are one such tool.
They allow potential customers to have an opportunity to listen to and view information about your company. A well-crafted webinar engages your audience and sparks their interest to check out your offerings and even convert.
So, now it’s time for you to get cracking with your webinar marketing!