How Webinars Add Value to Generating Quality Leads
Brought to you by WBR Insights
Content marketing is still top of the pile when it comes to bringing new customers to your brand. The strategy also helps you keep the ones you've already engaged until they're ready to make that all-important follow-up purchase.
However, while high-quality written articles are still the backbone of any content marketing strategy—you're reading this after all—they are by far not the only string to this particular bow. Recent years have seen other formats rise in popularity, with one of the most notable being webinars. In fact, webinars have become such a powerful tool for business that a massive 73 percent of B2B markers have stated that they are vital for generating high-quality leads.
How, then, can you create amazing webinars, use them to boost your lead generation, and move those prospects quickly and smoothly through your sales funnel?
#1 Plan and Script
Hosting a webinar is different from other forms of video marketing. While video often benefits from a slightly off-the-cuff style, a webinar should be a far more polished and professional piece of content.
At one time or another, we've all had to stand up and a presentation that we didn't adequately prepare for. However, when it comes to promoting your products and services, the last thing you want to be doing is winging it. You don't need to script every single word you're going to say—this is actually a bad idea, as reading word for word from a written text can sound robotic—but you should have notes on cue cards which outline what you want to comment on for each slide in your webinar.
Having this material written down will also help you summarize the content of past webinars if you plan to produce a series on the same topic.
#2 Entertain
This may be the world of business, but it is a world that is still made up of regular people. And these people will still turn off if they get bored, just like they would if they were watching YouTube during their leisure time.
Cast your mind back to your school years and think about which types of lectures you remember most fondly. No doubt, you remember the ones which were delivered by the most engaging and entertaining professors. These are the lectures that had the biggest impact on you, so much so that you may remember your favorite parts of them.
Not everyone is built to entertain. Public speaking is a skill like any other. But even if you don't consider yourself a particularly sophisticated and entertaining orator, you can still do a webinar. Just find someone within your organization who has public speaking skills and put them in front of the microphone. By having someone entertaining and engaging deliver your webinar content, you will increase your audience and help generate those leads.
Your presentation slide deck should also be engaging, but without being distracting. Images, transitions, video clips, and more should all be used to make your presentation as interesting to view as possible.
#3 Sell
Remember that the purpose of your webinar is to lead your audience towards making a purchase. While written content tends to avoid the hard sell and focus more on general industry information, webinars can often be more focused on the specific products and services your brand deals in.
You might be delivering a webinar which shows potential customers how to use all the features of your product—such as with a piece of software—and, while some of your viewers will undoubtedly be existing customers, a portion will be made up of those in the consideration stage.
Use this fact to get them to hand over some contact details or even make a purchase following the webinar. You can offer an exclusive discount or an extended trial period to people who buy or register their email address. Webinars should be constructed to show off all the amazing things your product can do. By the time your webinar is concluded, your prospects should be in the absolute best position to be converted.
Final Thoughts
Webinars are an amazing method for adding value to your lead generation efforts. The best thing about this format is that it has the power to create leads and convert them into sales no matter where people are in your sales funnel.
Webinars bridge the gap between marketing and sales and serve as an effective tool for both. By deploying them with this in mind, and by making them entertaining, informative, and lead generation focused, they can easily mean the difference between closing a deal and watching it slip through your fingers.
WBR Insights is the custom research division of Worldwide Business Research (WBR), the world leader in B2B-focused conferences. Contact us to learn more about our research-based whitepapers, webinars, digital summits, and other thought-leadership opportunities for your brand.