Saturday, 27 Apr 2024
Education

Webinars: What Are They and How Do They Work?

With COVID-19 disrupting the normal location-based lifestyle of billions of people worldwide, it is little wonder that webinars are back at the center stage limelight. For the last twelve-thirteen years, webinars have emerged as one of the most potent tools available to us for educational and marketing purposes. With suitable webinar software, you can not only teach students online, but you can also use it to generate leads for your business. It is a better option available to you if you want to engage and captivate audiences.

First things first, and accordingly, we should start by explaining what a webinar exactly happens to be. Suggested – Learn Details about 30 60 90 triangle

What Is A Webinar?

A webinar is a live presentation broadcasted online, which lets users participate in the online seminar, thus created with comments and questions. And for the uninitiated, a seminar is simply a meet where information is exchanged and discussed. That would make a webinar an online meet that is hosted and broadcasted by using specialized software. Experts from ecosecretariat.org/best-webinar-software/ suggested not to settle with any software that meets less than your basic needs for the budget you acquired. Such webinar meets can be of several types, which include the following:

  • Video presentations
  • Events
  • Seminars
  • Workshops
  • Classroom teaching
  • Training sessions etc.

The remarkable thing about webinars that make them stand out from most live-streaming varieties out there is that it is possible to forge a two-way communication platform. In the webinar setting, both presenters and their attending audiences can receive information among themselves live and in real-time. It is vital to distinguish webinars from webcasts. Usually, a webcast is a pre-recorded video that’s broadcasted through video sharing channels. It is in contrast with the unique ability of a webinar to let real-time interactivity take place.

How It Works Wonders

As an effective way to open an interactive video communication channel that involves many people and gathers their feedback, webinars work. Here’s how or rather the things that make webinar a winning choice:

1. Present New Products Or Services

Don’t expect thousands of people to book flight tickets to attend a conference where you will introduce the latest addition to your product lineup. But you can expect them to spare thirty minutes of their time to participate in a webinar from the convenience of the location of their choice. These thirty minutes should usually more than suffice for you to explain the benefits of this new product or service. It is more effective besides being hassle-free and easily manageable.

When you host a webinar to introduce a product, you can expect attendance from a wide variety of people, from leads to your brand’s evangelists. Webinars let you make people aware of your product or service and enable you to answer any probable questions that might spring to their minds. This process is helpful in not only retaining existing customers but also helps to push leads further down the sales pipeline.

2. Establish Yourself As An Authority

As the host of a webinar that focuses on any particular topic, which might be anything from web development to weight loss, it puts you on a pedestal, albeit a virtual one. Like the fact that there will be many people looking for help and support, there will also be people who will tune in to know what you have to say. And to these people, you are already in the position of a thought leader. Also Read – Implicit Differentiation Calculator – Detailed Overview

Even though the webinar itself might be free to attend, these people are investing their precious time in you and your webinar. So, make that count. They are also giving out their contact details, which holds excellent marketing value. Capitalize and deliver on the webinar attendee’s expectations and make sure the webinar content is unique and valuable and presented interestingly.

Establish Yourself As An Authority

3. Engage Your Audiences

Unlike many other popular means to advertise your business online, like banner ads or social media marketing posts, webinars hold a significant advantage. While social media is affordable and effective, ads have been there forever now. Still, webinars bring a value that transcends these forms of marketing. This marketing value is unique. A person who misses a webinar misses out on a significant amount of valuable information. Of course, he can use video recordings or transcripts of the webinar, but they only help so much.

Watching a webinar video is just that- watching yet another video, and we all know YouTube’s got whole lots of them. They might indeed get you to know the message the host wanted to drive home. Still, it will be a far cry from utilizing the potential of a two-channel communication channel enabled by the webinar format. That means you won’t be able to clear doubts and seek answers to questions that crop up in your mind unless someone else asks them, and the presenter chooses to answer. And that’s a lot of ifs which potential customers would rather avoid.

4. Generating New Leads For Sales

Leads are critical for a business to not only flourish but to survive. If your company does not have any leads, there is NO business. Companies can choose to generate leads in various ways, but they need not necessarily be of high quality. Factually, many seasoned marketers find generating high-quality leads to be a tricky business. Better marketers come up with leads to host webinars on topics relevant to the product or service they are selling.

The main reason behind the format’s effectiveness in generating high-quality leads is its value on a topic appropriate for the audience. Your audience will likely come across your webinar information through your promotions and then visit unique landing pages designed for the particular webinar and register for the event. That spells I AM A POTENTIAL CUSTOMER in caps. Isn’t a person shouting I’m interested in your product or service a high-quality lead?

Hosting webinars is way, way different from hosting online events or informational gatherings like seminars. You get substantial cost savings by making things like physical venues you would have had to rent otherwise. Not to mention catering firms you would need to hire for refreshments redundant. While hosting a webinar is far from being effortless, it is not that hard either. Considering the significant advantages that come with webinars, it is the best option open to you. Good luck!

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