What’s a Webinar
A webinar or to give it its formal name “Web-based seminar” is a person or people discussing a specific subject or topic with audience participation in real-time, via an online event.
It’s safe to say webinars are well established with them taking place as early as the 90s, yes, we did have the internet in those days!
Are Webinars Dead?
No, webinars aren’t dead, they’re a fantastic opportunity to talk to your audience, without bombarding them with sales talk.
To sit and listen to what you have to say about your area of expertise, building confidence in your knowledge, skills, and services, while raising awareness, through education, which should eventually lead to a sale.
Not only that, but you can also open the floor to them, having them ask questions, fill in polls and in some circumstances even take an active part in the conversation.
So what are the top 3 reasons webinars aren’t dead?
- Webinar content can be repurposed
.
Webinars can easily run over an hour and you’re sharing a lot of insight, so don’t let it go to waste.
Every webinar is an opportunity to turn this long-form piece of content into multiple assets.
- Blogs
- FAQs
- Social posts
- Watch again, full-length video
- Short, key education videos of 3-15 minutes
- Micro videos or short form video. for social 30 – 90 seconds
- Social written and image-based assets
- Webinars are cheap to put together
.
Webinars don’t really have any significant startup costs beyond paying for a microphone and a webinar platform (you might even have one already and not know it… Teams has a webinar system built into it).
In fact, the only real investment is your time in putting it together..
It’s also virtual, so you’re not paying out for a venue, and nobody needs to travel, so they can attend from the comfort of their own home/office.
- You’re the star of your own show, with your captive audience.
If people, attend your webinar, you have an audience who you know want to listen to what you say in an atmosphere where distractions are at a minimum.
You’re also telling this audience “Hey, we know a lot about this industry or sector you’re involved in.” So, they’re also going to view you as an authority and (hopefully) end up wanting to work with you in the future.
How Do I Create My Own Webinar?
You’re best using a specific webinar platform, as everything you will need is included like making and sending polls, sign-up links and email messaging. I’ve included 3 samples below but look for yourself as there are dozens of providers out there:
Zoom Events – Our COVID favourites have grown out some fabulous products over the years and this is no different, packed full of features.
Squadcast – Easy to use, recording built-in, and the ability to edit posts and add in both pre and post-roll to add calls to action and wait rooms. Added bonus is that all presenters can multicast to their own social channels.
Webex Webinars – Webex has been around for a LONG time and can cater comfortably to webinars big and small.
After this, it’s all about getting people to sign up. Typically, you’d do this in a few different ways: social media and email being your primary avenues, invite current customers, potential customers as well as partners with the hook of shared knowledge!
All providers will help you build a landing page and or create an invite link that will allow attendees to sign up with ease.
When is the best day/time to do a webinar?
Webinars are a bit like emails, you need to pick your timing and avoiding Mondays and Fridays is a must.
Try to time it between 12 pm and 2 pm, keeping your audience in mind; for example, if you’re hosting from the UK to an audience in the United States, then 12pm is probably too early for them.
Summary
There you go, webinars aren’t dead and frankly, I don’t see them going anywhere in the future either.
If you want to come across as informative, and thoughtful and stand out from your competition, then you might want to consider a webinar.
Have you read this and want to get some advice? We don’t just manage big campaigns; we also sit down with customers and guide them through something they’re new at.
If you need a little help getting a webinar or even a real-life seminar/event off the ground, then get in touch with me or connect on LinkedIn.
