Farida Yahya: 5 Ways a Webinar Can Grow Your Business

With the ever-changing dynamics of the marketplace – thanks to free internet – marketing your business and getting your products or services in the faces of customers can be very daunting. As a business owner, you have to constantly think up ways to reach your target audience and seduce them to buy from you.

One way to provide value as well as increase your revenue is via content. While the saying, “content is king!” might sound cliché, its importance cannot be underestimated. What if I told you that serving customers with educative content is a sure-fire marketing strategy that not only attracts potential customers but entices them to do business frequently with you as well?

In this article, I’ll be sharing with you how hosting a webinar offers you an awesome opportunity to build your authority, build trust and good rapport with your target audience, as well as make sales.

But before we go into the nitty-gritty of this topic, let’s take a quick look at the definition of a webinar.

What is a Webinar?

Simply put, a webinar is a seminar that is held online. Most webinars are presented live, although, there’s the option of watching a playback. It involves a live video of the host(s) as well as slides or screenshots.

And since it’s a seminar, topics discussed during webinars are usually comprehensive. The host(s) gives a detailed explanation about the topic(s) taught. Apart from teaching or providing education to the participants or attendees watching, it can also be used to promote a product or service.

I’d recommend that if you’d like to promote your products or services during a webinar, do so at the end of the webinar. The trick is to highlight the benefits of what you’re selling and relate it to how they can enhance or expand what you’ve taught. That way, attendees will believe the efficacy of your products or services and hurry to get them.

Merits of Webinars

• Compared to other forms of marketing, a webinar allows you to carefully give information to your target audience. As a host, you can quickly connect with your customers (potential and existing, courtesy of the personal interaction a webinar offers.
• It’s an easy way to build your email list and generate leads.
• People easily trust you because they get to know you and assess your expertise.
• As a business owner, webinars are a great way to learn about your target audience and identify their needs. Webinars allow you to ask and answer questions, and use the information your audience gives to improve your products, services, and other marketing strategies.
• Compared to other marketing methods, webinars are pretty affordable. Some are even free.
• It allows you to expand your market reach and build your expertise, especially if you invite other experts who’ll bring their audience to do the webinar with you.
• It makes you become the go-to authority in your niche.
• Webinars aren’t restricted to locations. People from any part of the world can join a webinar.
• Webinars can be re-purposed. You can add other products or services or get the transcript of your webinar and sell them, etc.
• Webinars are an excellent source of passive income. After the webinar has been hosted, you can still use the recorded seminar to generate leads and make more sales.

Demerits of Webinars

• Introverts or those who aren’t confident and engaging speakers might find using webinars difficult.
• You must also be technologically savvy to resolve issues such as a glitch when the seminar is running live.
• Sometimes, you might have an unresponsive audience. This might dampen your morale.

How Webinars Can Build Your Business

One of the biggest challenges to making sales is getting people to pay you for your products or service. And with the rowdy and oversaturated marketplace, webinars can help your business stand out, let people know what you’re offering and convince them to buy.

Interested in knowing how webinars can build your business and increase your profits? Check out the 5 tips below:

List Building

The only way a potential customer can join a webinar is for them to give you their name and email. And when you have their details, you can keep in touch with them, send newsletters about your latest products or services, inform them about future offers and share other valuable information with them.

Lead Generation

A webinar is a great way to get the attention of people who are interested in what you are selling. And those leads (people) can be converted into potential customers who may eventually become paying customers because they’ve interacted with you during the webinar, have a better idea of who you are and what you’re offering.

Establishes Your Business as the Go-to Content Library 

Every day, millions of people scout the internet looking for information. If you have the information, you can be sure that the probability of these people taking an interest in your business is extremely high. You become the go-to authority for information. This position eventually convinces them to buy anything you sell.

Product Sales 

Webinars are great for providing free training that solves one problem. Now, after solving that particular problem, you can introduce a product or service to solve all the other problems your customers are facing.  It can also serve as a great avenue to test-run a new product and get on-the-spot feedback about what customers are looking for when they pick up your product.

Sell Access To Attendees 

While free webinars can be used for list building, list generation and as a marketing strategy for advertising your products or services, as your authority grows, you can begin to charge people to attend the webinar. Another method is to offer the webinar free for 24-hours, and then sell unlimited, lifetime access to the webinar.

In all of these, the webinar is an amazing tool for business owners and service providers to build their businesses and expand their customer base.