Webinars that Build an Audience

For many businesses thinking about how to supplement or replace conferences and experiential marketing.  Webinars are the best solution with their ability to deliver expertise and interaction. The challenge will be how to gain an audience that will justify the time and expense required to produce webinars.  It is fair to say that there is no one strategy to growing an audience for your webinars but there are a few proven ways to ensure that you will be able to grow an audience of prospects and customers with an interest in your products and services. 

Will the Audience Find Value

The first thing to consider in putting together webinar is your audience. Looking to your customer data is the most efficient way to define who are you most likely customers as well as defining your best customers. These are the audiences that you want to attract to your webinar. The second thing to consider is the content of your webinars. Based on your target audience, what is the most useful information that your organization can provide. What kinds of challenges are your target audiences facing and what do you know about meeting those challenges?  If you can clearly answer the question, ‘’why will our target audience find value in this information” you will avoid the audience killing sales pitch.  

Another content technique to build your audience is serialized content. This has two benefits first in a world awash with content it lets you deliver very specific information. It also turns the dilemma of keeping your webinars brief into a way to keep your audience coming back.

Engage Participants on Their Terms

Once you have delivered your webinar(s) you will be thinking about how to immediately turn attendees into customers.  Webinars are a great source of leads but playing a long game will ultimately result in the best kinds of leads, people who are looking to buy. Rather than having the sales team jump on the phone to every participant, set up a series of trickle emails. Consider starting with a short poll on their experience with the webinar. Of course, include a link for people looking to for more information or a conversation. If possible, generate a series of offers that will inform and create value around the prospect reaching out to get more information.  Using the prospects response that information is the best way to create a marketing qualified lead (MQL). 

Think Strategically and Deliver High Value Content

Webinars have always been a valuable marketing tool and likely many more companies will be utilizing them in the near term.  Thinking strategically about building your audience and delivering high value content will increase the ROI of your webinars. In our next webinar post we explore how to promote your webinar and tips for creating the best webinar experience. So stay tuned!

Want to enjoy the benefits of great webinars without the hassle of managing all the details? You can always contact us to learn more about how we help companies manage their webinars.