Do Webinars Work?

With the advent of the newer content offers like interactive e-books, calculators, and so on, it might seem that the effectiveness of the webinars has lessened. The truth, however, is quite different from what it seems.

Webinars offer an inexpensive, engaging, and measurable way of connecting with your targeted audience in real-time, and they have been a popular marketing tactic for a while now.

A webinar can be very effective in generating quality leads if it is done the right way. Webinars possess considerable capability for interaction, allowing you to connect with your targeted audience on a personal level.

The industrial sector should especially take advantage of webinars since studies show that 20% to 40% of webinar registrants turn into marketing qualified leads (MQL), according to ReadyTalk.

This is further backed by various research like the one done by InsideSales, which points out that 73% of marketing and sales leaders say webinars are one of the best ways to generate quality leads.

It isn’t strange that webinars receive such raving reviews since you’re able to easily collect lead data from the moment that the people register for it or if someone wants to download a copy of the recordings afterward.

The problem is that not all webinars achieve the expected results, so it is important to do your research and make sure you follow the best strategies out on the market.

Making a webinar will take a lot of time, effort, and careful planning in most cases, but it will give you a lot better results than organizing it haphazardly and ‘’winging it’’ when the time comes.

For that reason, we will go into more detail about what you need in order to raise your chance of a successful webinar and what benefits you can acquire by running such a webinar.

The requirements for a webinar

There are two different perspectives that we need to consider when producing a webinar – the technical side and the content side of things.

From the technical perspective:

• A webinar hosting platform

A webinar hosting platform is a must to automatically record the sessions since the video (or the replay of the webinar) will still be available afterwards as gated content. It is necessary to find a reliable webinar hosting solution that is tailored to your needs.

• A landing page

When we talk about webinars, we must remember that having an awesome landing page for your potential audience is definitely a priority. The content and images on the landing page must be effective enough to pique the interest of the visitors, so they are willing to register for the webinar.

From the content perspective:

• A great topic

Finding a great topic is the hardest and the most important part when planning a webinar. Your topic needs to cover the problems that your target audience has encountered and the possible solutions to these problems, while also establishing a connection to the products or services that you want to promote.

• A good presenter

Having a good presenter is a must when you want your webinars to succeed. If the presenter simply drones about the topic in a monotone voice and doesn’t interact well with the audience, then, even if the topic itself was very interesting, it will affect the success of your webinar. The presenter will need to be a person that is well-versed in the topic and can keep the attention and interest of your audience on the subject at hand.

• Promotion

Now that you have a great topic and a good presenter for your webinar, we still need to think about how to reach out to as many of our target audience as we can. Promoting the webinar by posting about it on your website, sending email invitations, promoting through social media, or cooperating with others in the same industry to co-host the webinar, all need to be planned and done beforehand. Promoting your webinar only a few days before it starts can, and most likely will, lead to bad results.

Of course, these are just a few things that we consider to be a priority. There are many smaller things that you need to keep in mind. We also need to remember that webinars are only a part of the marketing process, and that leads will still need to be nurtured afterward so that they can become customers.

The benefits of a webinar

Running a webinar can bring you a lot of benefits, and here is a little taste of what it can offer:

• Building your email lists

To attend the webinar, participants will need to give you their general and contact info, which includes their email address. Since you collect email addresses every time you host a webinar, it makes it a fast and effective way to build your email lists.

• Building a relationship with your audience

Webinars are a great way to connect with people on a personal level. Engaging with your targeted audience using webinars can make it easier for them to like and trust you, especially if you can truly impress them with the knowledge of the topic you are talking about.

• Great conversion rates

As we mentioned before, webinars can have 20%-40% conversion rates and even more, which means that you can make a lot of sales if you deliver an effective sales pitch. The most important thing, however, is still content. If the content is great, then the audience won’t mind the sales pitch at the end of a webinar. Unfortunately, many presenters make a mistake of giving an hour-long sales pitch and call it a webinar.

• Establishing yourself as an authority

When you or your chosen presenter can introduce and explain the topic during the webinar, answer the questions with ease, and keep the audience interested, they will notice and remember it. Such actions will only serve to cement your reputation as an authority in your field.

• Valuable feedback from the audience

The data you get from paying attention to webinar questions can mean a lot. If you don’t just talk at your audience and actually listen to them, you can get more ideas for your future marketing efforts such as blog posts and webinar subjects. Listening to the questions can also help you evaluate the products and services you offer.

As we can see, webinars can definitely bring you a lot of benefits if they are carefully planned and professionally executed.

Interested in running webinars?

TraceParts can help you promote your webinars it in order to enhance your results and ensure a more successful outcome for you. We have already managed many successful webinar marketing campaigns for our clients.

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