Hosting a Webinar: Why and How?
Webinars have become an efficient way to offer value, share insights, and proliferate content. For some companies, they mean lead generation; for others, higher engagement with the audience. If you are thinking of attracting new customers or improving your reputation, you may want to host a webinar.
Read on to know what this difigtal event is about and how to host a webinar for business improvement.
Why host a webinar?
A webinar is a live event of educational nature that allows real-time presentation and discussion with the attendees. Recently, it has been widely used as a content marketing tool. Why? Businesses would like to host a webinar as they contribute to:
- Image development. Provision of the insights and educational pieces allows adding to your expertise and reputation. If you present yourself as an expert, it projects on your business, supporting your credibility.
- Social Listening. The real-time discussion makes social listening possible as the customers ask questions and share their issues. As a business, you reflect on the pain points and offer solutions to them. Hosting a webinar is about giving value and recommendations, meantime, gathering essential insights.
- Developing lead magnets for getting emails. If customers register for the event with their email, they are interested in the topic, meaning that interest can be developed into conversion. It can be an alternative to using an email finder tool for the creation of B2B email lists (check a similar one here https://getprospect.com/linkedIn-email-finder-chrome-extension).
- Content repurposing. Besides, webinars, containing recommendations, insights, and information are great for repurposing content. The marketers can use the pieces from it to create infographics and guides. Thus, webinars can add to content strategies via material boosting shares and engagement.
As a result, webinars seem to be an excellent instrument for lead generation in spheres where the expertise and authority of the brand are essential.
How to Make a Webinar
For business people, who want to create a webinar, the idea of hosting a webinar can be scary. Yet, it should not be. Small and medium-sized events do not require much effort, as their digital nature makes them accessible for organizing. How to host a webinar, then? Watch these steps:
Choose a relevant topic
The right topic derives from the needs, pain points, and interests of your audience. So, you should know your buying persona to find a good theme for the discussion. In this regard, do research on social media or ask decision-makers. Notably, if you lack data or analysis, you can always make polls. The easiest way is to use one of the best email extractors and contact the specialists on the matter. Also, some tools on keywords or trends can be helpful as well. Yet, make sure that a topic has room for practical advice.
Identify the best format and date
To create a webinar that brings results, you should choose the best format and timing suited to your attendees. In particular, it can be a simple yet insightful presentation. At the same time, you can invite one or several experts to have a panel discussion. If the topic is plain, you get to do it on your own. In case that it is a significant event, while the subject is complex enough, try inviting several experts.
Besides, when organizing an event, consider the time and date. Make sure that your webinar will not be in the middle of a working day or on a bank holiday. Think of other events as well.
Create an exciting content
Quality content is crucial for the success of the webinar. Thus, make sure you have a well-structured presentation with essential data and recommendations. Moreover, focus on the engagement and attention of the attendees. The content should be appealing and valuable.
Collaborate with experts
Webinars are about showing expertise and improving credibility. Importantly, as webinars tend to educate, the best guest would be an expert. How to invite one? You can go to LinkedIn, a network for professionals, and search them by job title. Their page would tell you a lot. Importantly, if you fail to get a response on social media, you can use a LinkedIn email grabber and contact them via corporate email.
Pick the right platform
The best way to host a webinar is by choosing the right platform. A marketer has plenty of options depending on the size of the event, available features, and budget. How to host a webinar for free? Well, you can try Zoom, or a social media live feature. Yet, there may be some distractions and limitations.
Promote your webinar
Before the launch of the webinar, make people aware that you will organize an event. If they don’t know about it, they are unlikely to visit it. Thus, start promoting a webinar a month before the date. Use targeted ads and publish posts about it on social media.
Share content afterward
After you host a webinar, save its recording and keep it. Why? You can post parts of it on different platforms, use it for promos for next events or post the whole video on your Youtube page. It is about maximizing your content efforts and repurposing the webinar for greater lead generation.
