How to Use Webinars to Drive Sales

By Wayne Elsey

In the digital age, a great tool you can do to help drive sales is to use webinars. Almost any product or service can benefit from providing value-add to prospective customers. I've personally attended webinars, and some have been, candidly, awful because the speaker was not prepared or it felt like every word was a sales pitch. However, I've also attended others that have been excellent where I've received valuable information, and the sales pitch came toward the latter portion of the event, and in a more low-key manner.

Knovel Sales

Knovel, an analytics company that is web-based, decided to use webinars to offer the public their thought leadership, and also help drive sales. One of the webinars produced 774 views on-demand. They were clear that they were looking to demonstrate thought leadership, wanted 500 registrants to their webinar and wanted to introduce viewers to their webinar to Knovel's online reference tools. To achieve these metrics, they ensured they had respected authors speaking on a topic related to their work for their audience. They also talked about how failure to comply with the OSHA regulations could affect business for the participants. The fact that they discussed changes to business was done so that audience members had a compelling and valuable reason to attend.

Webinar Strategies

If you haven't thought about webinars, but you know that your company has insight and knowledge it can share with the public because you're the experts or are associated with other experts in a strategic alliance, then consider promoting and doing a webinar. To help you get started, think some of these essential tactics so you can have an event that will be a success and help drive sales.

Decide Your Objectives: When you consider creating and promoting a webinar, develop a clear plan with goals and objectives, as Knovel did. As an example, Knovel was clear that they wanted to demonstrate thought leadership, had a number of attendees in mind that would make their efforts a success, and they created a compelling reason for people to view and listen to what they had to say.

Consider Your Platform: There are great platforms on the web that will help you create a professional webinar. These tools include GoToWebinar, ClickMeeting, or Zoom. My team uses Zoom for all of our video meetings because of its reliability, ease of use and the fact that it integrates well with our Owl Labs video conferencing camera. Whatever you decide to use, just make sure that it's reliable and easy to use.

Create Your Presentation: Developing a presentation has two components: 1) What is the content that you can provide that your attendees want to know?; and, 2) How can your presentation be delivered in a way that looks professional and engaging? Concerning the first topic, think carefully about what you can offer to your audience about thought leadership. Think of 2 to 3 valuable insights they can take with them at the conclusion of your presentation. As for the second topic, there are plenty of great tools available, including Keynote, Slidebean, and PowerPoint.

Butts in Seats: So you can have a successful webinar, you'll want to get as many people attending it. As I mentioned earlier, it's a good idea to determine the number of attendees you want to have for your webinar. Then, begin to market your webinar. Remember to use multiple marketing channels, including social media (including paid advertisements), emails, and using other strategies that will get people into your webinar.

Offering a free webinar where your target audience can learn valuable information about something that is of interest to them is a fantastic way to create leads for your sales team. You can consider having a series of webinars, perhaps every quarter, so you can regularly get new people into your sales funnel.

Knovel    Source: "How 3 Brands Use Webinars to Drive New Business."

Author of "Not Your Father's Charity: Grip & Rip Leadership for Social Impact" (Free Digital Download available at http://notyourfatherscharity.com/free-resources/ )

� 2018 Wayne Elsey and Not Your Father's Charity. All Rights Reserved.