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73% of business to business marketers consider webinars to be the best way to generate leads.
Whether your company is business to business or business to consumer-focused, get this through your head… Webinars are insanely valuable to your success. For some companies, webinars may even be the most important success factor for product launches in 2019.
We get that those are some pretty bold claims but as anyone who has started including webinars in their marketing strategy will tell you, those claims are founded.
If you’re thinking about upping your marketing game by creating a webinar but aren’t sure where to start, you’re in the right place.
Below, our team will walk you through key steps you’ll want to take to get the most out of your online presentations!
1. Understand Your Goals
As with any marketing mediums, when creating webinars, you’re going to want to understand what your goals are from the get-go.
Are you looking to drum up new leads? Are you wanting to your strengthen brand’s identity?
Having a specific primary and secondary goal in mind during all stages of planning your webinar will help keep your ideas focused and your outcomes in line with expectations.
2. Find the Right Topic
Just about every creating a webinar guide will harp on picking the right topic and rightfully so. Topics will have a heavy impact on the number of people that attend your webinar.
A lot of first time webinar architects run into snags during this stage because of the balancing act it forces them into with trying to be interesting while sticking to their goals.
A highly interesting topic may drive a ton of webinar attendance but may not drive businesses towards their intended end. A less popular topic that’s well aligned with products and services, on the other hand, may tie into business goals but could suffer from a poor turnout.
Try to strike a balance between being relevant and exciting during your topic selection process to ensure the best outcome on both fronts.
Read more about topic section and other webinar considerations.
3. Consider Guest Speakers and Partnerships
One of the best ways to immediately expand your webinars reach is by getting guest speakers to help with your presentation. Bringing on the right guest speaker could mean that everyone following him or her will be attracted to your presentation who may have otherwise been disinterested.
If you can’t find a guest speaker, reach out to other businesses in your niche to see if they’d like to sponsor your presentation.
A sponsorship could mean another company promoting your webinar to their audience in exchange for a shout out during your presentation. It could even mean them paying your webinar-related business expenses.
4. Pick Dates/Times
Now that you know what you want your webinar to be about and what 3rd parties you’ll be bringing on board to help, it’s time to pick a date!
Webinars are best run outside of standard business hours since many attendees won’t have the time to attend at 10 am on a Monday. Work hour webinars could be suitable, however, for business to business focused brands.
The better you understand your audience, the better you’ll understand when they’re most likely to hop online to attend your presentation. Keep that in mind and pick a date/time that will give you the best chance of attracting a large audience.
5. Market Your Webinar
People can’t come to your webinar if they don’t know about it. To spread the word, start getting social!
Post your webinars dates on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other relevant social media accounts. Find niche areas to advertise as well like within industry-specific “groups” on LinkedIn or on niche forum sites like Stack Exchange.
The more places you market your webinar the more opportunities you’ll have to bring in an audience and convert them to customers.
6. Give Participants Rewards
If people make the time to attend your webinar presentation, it’s important that you make them feel validated in their decision. One of the best ways to do that is to give them free stuff for attending.
The most common free item we see given out at webinars are eBooks that offer insight on topics your audience is interested in. We also see discount codes or trials handed out for products companies are selling.
7. Keep Your Webinar Tight and Value Packed
It can be tempting to include a ton of information in your presentation when creating a webinar. Fight the urge.
People have a limited amount of time and once your webinar starts running too long, you’ll find that your audience starts to dwindle.
Keep your presentation concise and don’t harp too much on segments where you’re trying to blatantly sell your products to attendees.
8. Always End With a Call to Action
A great webinar always gives people a way to engage further once the presentation ends.
This “way to engage” is called a “call to action”.
A call to action can be something like, “Click the link below to get your free trial for attending!” or “Subscribe to our mailing list for more exciting information!”
Whatever your call to action is, ensure that it’s relevant to whatever your end goals are.
Wrapping Up A Guide to Creating a Webinar in 2019
2019 is going to be a big year for marketers given the ever-growing digital population. One of their most effective marketing tools is going to be webinars.
We hope we’ve convinced you of the value creating a webinar can bring to your brand and have helped you feel more confident in creating one of your own.
For more information on webinars and other marketing/design topics, check out additional content on Designs Rock today!
