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Friday, February 05, 2010
Using Webinars for Sales and Marketing
Webinars are online seminars or presentations used to provide information about any subject your company feels your potential customers might be interested in. They can be interactive or not. One big advantage of webinars is they presented live and then placed in archives for others to view later.
I personally have used webinars extensively for training, usually when we launch product upgrade we take the opportunity to conduct a webinar on how to the new features. We also conduct periodic webinars just to stay connected with our user base. The response to our webinars varies depending on the topic, ranging from only a few participants to fifty or more. Based on the number of registrants and attendees we have had at our webinars demonstrates that most of our users are comfortable with the technology.
During the course of the webinar, we get the opportunity to ask questions of our audience. We also record all our webinars (minus the audience interaction) and made it available on our website for people to view at their convenience. Given the positive response to the webinar and the positive feedback we have received, we believe that our webinars will increase our subscriber “stickiness.”
In addition, offering instructional content on your website can significantly increase the likelihood of visitors “returning another time to learn something more, and ultimately make a purchase.” According to Ken Zwerdling (CEO of Foreign Translations) “Some visitors just want to learn more about the service and the industry before they make the decision to [make a purchase].” Stephanie Chandler, author of From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur, agrees, saying that by adding informational content to your company’s website you have greater power to attract traffic from search engines. Chandler has built her business around the power of marketing with web content. webinars can be an important part of the instructional content you offer on your site.
While training is the most common use for webinars, they can also be used to reach your target audience and help you increase sales of services or products. Some Internet marketers use them to help teach potential customers about the products they are selling. Most webinar tools have a registration feature which allows you to identify prospects who register and then see if they actually attend the event and for how long. This can give you a pretty good feeling as to how interested a prospect is in the products you are selling.
Many Internet users are more willing to view a webinar about a subject than to just read about it. This allows Internet marketers can to use them as teasers or bait to help convert prospects. Webinars gives you a portal to provide information in a way that helps you build branding, image, and customer loyalty.
There are a wide variety of webinar tools available online and I have tried several of them. When choosing a webinar tool things to look for include the number of concurrent visitors the tool allows, polling capabilities, ability to invinte participants, require registration, track attendance and record the webinar. If you are interested in exploring how a webinar tool might be used for your organization, you might want to look at DimDim. They offer a webinar tool that is free for up to 20 participants. While the tool lacks some of the features of some of the full feature commercial tools, it is more than adequate for webinars for a small number of attendees.
I have found webinars to be a great way to connect with customers and potential customers and to build a library of content that contributes to the credibility of my company.
---------------------------------------------------------------
References:
Free Coaching on How to Market Using Webinars http://www.squidoo.com/marketingwithwebinars
A Case for using Webinars: http://www.ctinnovations.com/blog/?p=355
Drive Sales with Tutorials http://bestwebtutor.com/wordpress/?p=383
I personally have used webinars extensively for training, usually when we launch product upgrade we take the opportunity to conduct a webinar on how to the new features. We also conduct periodic webinars just to stay connected with our user base. The response to our webinars varies depending on the topic, ranging from only a few participants to fifty or more. Based on the number of registrants and attendees we have had at our webinars demonstrates that most of our users are comfortable with the technology.
During the course of the webinar, we get the opportunity to ask questions of our audience. We also record all our webinars (minus the audience interaction) and made it available on our website for people to view at their convenience. Given the positive response to the webinar and the positive feedback we have received, we believe that our webinars will increase our subscriber “stickiness.”
In addition, offering instructional content on your website can significantly increase the likelihood of visitors “returning another time to learn something more, and ultimately make a purchase.” According to Ken Zwerdling (CEO of Foreign Translations) “Some visitors just want to learn more about the service and the industry before they make the decision to [make a purchase].” Stephanie Chandler, author of From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur, agrees, saying that by adding informational content to your company’s website you have greater power to attract traffic from search engines. Chandler has built her business around the power of marketing with web content. webinars can be an important part of the instructional content you offer on your site.
While training is the most common use for webinars, they can also be used to reach your target audience and help you increase sales of services or products. Some Internet marketers use them to help teach potential customers about the products they are selling. Most webinar tools have a registration feature which allows you to identify prospects who register and then see if they actually attend the event and for how long. This can give you a pretty good feeling as to how interested a prospect is in the products you are selling.
Many Internet users are more willing to view a webinar about a subject than to just read about it. This allows Internet marketers can to use them as teasers or bait to help convert prospects. Webinars gives you a portal to provide information in a way that helps you build branding, image, and customer loyalty.
There are a wide variety of webinar tools available online and I have tried several of them. When choosing a webinar tool things to look for include the number of concurrent visitors the tool allows, polling capabilities, ability to invinte participants, require registration, track attendance and record the webinar. If you are interested in exploring how a webinar tool might be used for your organization, you might want to look at DimDim. They offer a webinar tool that is free for up to 20 participants. While the tool lacks some of the features of some of the full feature commercial tools, it is more than adequate for webinars for a small number of attendees.
I have found webinars to be a great way to connect with customers and potential customers and to build a library of content that contributes to the credibility of my company.
---------------------------------------------------------------
References:
Free Coaching on How to Market Using Webinars http://www.squidoo.com/marketingwithwebinars
A Case for using Webinars: http://www.ctinnovations.com/blog/?p=355
Drive Sales with Tutorials http://bestwebtutor.com/wordpress/?p=383
Labels: online marketing, social media, website tips
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1 Comments:
I just got an email from DimDim which indicates they are cutting back on the features of their free plan. One thing they are eliminating is the ability to record webinars under the free plan. While DimDim is still an inexpensive option for entrepreneurs, it is no longer the great option it was a couple of weeks ago.
By 
Dawn Gregg, at
5:25 PM