If you’ve been following my blog you already know that B2B webinars are one of my 5 favorite marketing strategies for 2017. If you aren’t quite convinced, today I am going to share with you how B2B webinars can help you generate highly qualified leads, enhance your brand and create stronger marketing strategies in 2017.
Over 60% of marketers use B2B webinars as a promotional tool, and with good reason.
According to ReadyTalk, a popular webinar casting software, marketers reported converting 20%- 40% of webinar attendees into leads. That’s double or even triple the results when compared to the average B2B landing page, which only converts 13.28% of the time (according to Design for Founders), or even referral business, which averages out at about 10.98% (according to Marketo).
Webinars have been a critical part of my marketing strategy over the past decade. Not only have they helped me develop deeper connections with prospects, but they’ve given me a chance to grow my reach, my email lists and generate serious revenue along the way.
When I first decided to try webinar marketing for my B2B service company, almost 10 years ago, I had no idea of the magnitude of this marketing strategy. For me, it was just an easy way to attract my target market by offering valuable information in exchange.
I had no idea I’d get almost a 1,000 to register for my first B2B webinar, form lasting relationships with audience members, and increase my revenue by over $5 million from the leads that were generated from that one B2B webinar.
No joke, $5 million.
So if you’re wondering whether webinars are right for your business, read on. I’m about to share exactly why 66% of marketers consider B2B webinars their most effective marketing tactic, and give you some basic tools and tips to help you get started.
Top 5 Reasons Why You Need to Doing B2B Webinars
1. Gain Subscribers
B2B webinars are a perfect way to grow your email lists. Unlike ebooks and other lead magnets, webinars are interactive– giving you higher conversion rates than other marketing channels.
I’ve generated over 10,000 email subscribers through webinar marketing, and they’re not just any subscribers– these are people that are truly interested in the value you have to offer. That means that they’re hungry and willing to listen, which is significantly more valuable than downloading a white paper and never reading it or forgetting it ever existed.
Scarcity is one of the best tools for getting people to take action, and because of the live nature of webinars it’s hard to match when it comes to creating urgency.
2. Position Yourself as a Thought Leader:
A webinar is also one of the best ways to position yourself as an industry expert. The point is, you can share your expertise with anyone interested in your content and thus elevating you from an ambiguous behind-the-scenes figurehead, to a influencer within your niche or industry.
People in your industry will likely notice, and you’ll be all the better for it. Depending on how specific your webinar gets, you’ll likely attract more than just leads. It’s a great way to show industry leaders, event organizers, and potential partners that you have something to bring to the table.
If you’re interested in doing free or paid speaking engagements, being a good webinar presenter who delivers great content while engaging the audience can be just the ticket to help you stand out from the crowd.
3. Increase Engagement
My favorite benefit of webinar marketing is engaging with the audience.
Webinars are a great way to deliver your content and overall message to large groups of people but equally as important is the ability to interact with users individually.
A few ways I like to engage users during my webinars include:
- Asking webinar attendees to respond to questions via chat
- Surveying or polling your audience and then sharing the results
- LIVE question and answer at the end of a webinar is always very popular
- Offer a compelling BONUS for those that stay til the end or perform some sort of call to action
4. Put a Face to The Brand
Having a persona behind your brand is a great way to solidify your branding. 92% of people trust recommendations made by individuals (even if they’re complete strangers), than brands.
David Larker, an accounting professor at University of Pennsylvania, calculated that a 10% improvement in a CEO’s reputation can result in a 24% increase in the value of the company’s shares. This is true for big business, but it can have a positive impact on small businesses as well.
Make sure your professional values and knowledge are a part of the company’s image, and you’ll instantly have a more personable strategy.
Don’t buy it? Check out this post I wrote on personal branding and learn why it’s a must in 2017.
5. Figure Out What’s Next:
It can be difficult to figure out hole’s in your marketing strategy when you’re looking from the inside outward.
Engaging with your webinar audience to understand their most frequently asked questions, biggest challenges and their business goals can be powerful marketing intelligence.
That type of intelligence can be used to…
- create more products or services
- help shorten your sales cycle
- increase your reach
- open up new markets
- create compelling content
- and more…
One of my favorite ways to leverage webinars is to use the comments and concerns that come up as launching pads for future webinars, blogs posts, videos, emails, you name it.
This is great for getting a better grasp of what really matters to your audience, which can help you solidify your audience avatar and improve your overall marketing and product offering.
B2B Webinar Tips to Help Get You Started
We took a look at ON24’s analysis of their 2016 webinars. This is one of the biggest webinar platforms out there, and thousands of businesses use it to publish live events. Here’s what they found after analyzing over 20,000 webinars:
Best Time to Start Promoting: 3 Weeks prior to show-time
Best Days: Wednesday, followed by Thursday, then Tuesday
Best Times: 3 Or 4pm, in the timezone you expect to have the highest number of attendees
Average Viewing Time: 50 Minutes
Attendee Benchmark: 148 Average
As you can tell, webinars are definitely one of my favorite ways to generate highly target B2B leads but my favorite and most effective strategy is LinkedIn marketing. For those of you that know me I am sure your not surprised. 🙂
So if you’re curious about how to leverage LinkedIn to get more leads, more clients and more sales, don’t forget to connect with me on LinkedIn > www.linkedin.com/in/askdennisbrown
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Cheers,
Dennis Brown
“Stop the madness. There’s a better way!”
LinkedIn Marketing & Social Selling Consultant, Trainer, Speaker
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