June 25, 2020 | By Lindsay Crafford
Webinars are a great lead generation tool. In
fact, according to InsideSales, 77% of sales and marketing
leaders rate webinars as a top lead generation method. But lead generation
isn’t the only way to use webinars! Done right, they can help you keep new and
existing customers happy and engaged.
Let’s take a look at why webinars work so well
and explore some key formats that will enhance your relationships with
customers.
Webinars just work
So, why are webinars so effective? A few
reasons:
For one, they are super engaging with an
average viewing time of 57 minutes, according to the Big Book of Webinar Stats. Nobody’s likely to
spend that long reading your blog post or whitepaper. Jeff Molander of Make
Social Media Sell says 94% of his webinar attendees watch to the
end.
Webinars also offer visual contact, so it’s
like having a face-to-face conversation. This is a huge selling point for
marketers who’ve had to drop out or cancel in-person events due to COVID-19.
With visuals, attendees can see and respond to non-verbal cues like facial expressions. That helps presenters make
a personal, trusted connection with participants.
Nobody likes to watch one person talk for
hours – remember those college lectures you slept through? Webinars work
because they’re interactive. Q&A sessions, polls, visuals, and video help
connect participants and presenters and keep everyone actively engaged.
Finally, because webinars are live, they help
create a sense of urgency and scarcity, both of which are proven
marketing tactics. Webinar participants know the drill. Turn up on time or you
miss information. Stay to the end, or you might miss a special offer.
Finding
customer-centric webinar topics
The only way to use webinars to effectively
build customer relationships is to find a topic that really interests your
audience. The key is to think about your audience first and your webinar goals
second.
If you’re looking for a shortcut to finding
webinar topics that work, try these strategies:
·
Check your website and
blog analytics to find your most popular content
·
Look at blog and
social comments to identify top challenges and concerns
·
Poll your social media
followers to find out what they want to learn more about
·
Ask your sales or
customer support team about common issues and pain points they hear from
customers
·
On your webinar
registration landing page, ask registrants to submit their own questions and
topics for discussion
Webinar formats that
encourage better customer engagement
Now, let’s look at some specific types of
webinars you can use to build better relationships with your customers.
1. Onboarding webinars
Ever signed up for a product or service and
then felt overwhelmed by what you needed to learn in order to start using it
effectively?
That happens to people all the time and
it’s one of the reasons why you could lose customers.
If people don’t understand your product, and can’t get started quickly, they
may leave forever. A well-timed onboarding webinar can help avoid this
issue.
A good onboarding webinar helps people get
familiar with products and services fast and helps set the tone for a healthy
relationship. It showcases some of your company’s key features and how to get
the most from them. If you have several types of customers, consider hosting a
series of onboarding webinars focusing on different features.
2. Training webinars
While onboarding webinars help people get
started, training webinars go one step further.
They show people how to accomplish specific tasks to help their business.
Create training webinars based on the issues
your customers have problems with, and you can’t go wrong. When you help your
customers successfully move beyond the basics, they’re more likely to stick around.
3. “Ask Me Anything”
webinars
Most webinars have interactive components
including a question and answer session. But have you thought about a dedicated
ask me anything (AMA) webinar?
AMAs were a hugely popular Reddit feature, and now they happen in
webinars, too! AMAs give people the chance to ask their questions and get
responses live, something we recently did with the GoToMeeting team!
While presenters have to stay on their toes,
participants love them. They get to get to know the people behind the company,
which builds trust. Plus, the questions they ask can help you decide on new
product features to meet their needs.
Pro tip: To make things easier, get some questions in advance, so you
don’t have dead air while people are getting started.
4. Product updates
Host regular webinars for your existing
customers on what’s new with your product. These kinds of webinars give you the
opportunity to generate excitement around new features and show how customers
are benefitting from them. Make sure to demonstrate how to use new features and
give customers a sneak peek of product updates to come.
If your customers keep learning something new
and know that you have their interests at heart, they’ll feel the love, and
stick around.
5. Online workshops,
virtual conferences and more!
Online workshops or virtual conferences can
help take your customer relationships to the next level. Host advanced training
workshops or a virtual customer conference and invite industry leaders to talk
about trends and provide inspirational wisdom. Your customers will love the access
to quality training and speakers and in turn, that appreciation will drive
customer retention and advocacy.
These five types of webinars help you nurture
and guide customers from the day they start using your product, until they are
old hands. Include some or all of them, and you’ll improve customer
relationships, resulting in a more loyal customer base.
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