Many companies have had to find new and innovative ways to drive customer engagement. And with enterprises nowadays increasingly relying on technology, they have turned to digital channels to do so: one highly effective way for driving digital engagement is to host a webinar.
Delivering engaging webinars can help connect customers to both your business and to each other. It can also give you some great, and cost effective, opportunities to expand your marketing. Below are five ways just why webinars are so effective at engaging audiences and building relationships.
1. Harness the Power of Video
One reason webinars are so powerful is that they allow you to open a two-way channel with your audience, with effective webinar engagement being realizsed through video. For example, during a live presentation, a host can use video to ask attendees to respond to a poll, answer questions and more.
As a medium, video helps to engage your audience and make them feel like they’re a part of a conversation, which is a vital component when it comes to developing positive customer relationships. By empowering your audience to actively engage with your message, you can more easily collect valuable data on who your audience is, what they’re interested in and provide your sales team with actionable insights.
2. Create Opportunities for Discussions
Digital marketing today — especially B2B marketing — depends on creating and nurturing relationships with audiences and prospective customers. Webinars help by providing opportunities for discussion and customer engagement.
As part of a customer engagement webinar, you can set up chat spaces and breakout rooms where attendees can chat, swap ideas and discuss the topic at hand. Creating these opportunities can transform the way prospective customers and buyers think about your brand.
3. Foster Peer-to-Peer Networking
Webinars are additionally great mediums for virtual networking. Webinars, in fact, provide organizations with the ability to nurture a professional community and easily expand their network. Attendees are therefore able to take advantage of that community and participate in peer-to-peer networking during an event.
To help foster these connections, use your webinars or virtual conferences to host special networking events. Give attendees the opportunity to do a virtual meet-and-greet, swap contact information and explore professional opportunities through easy-to-use tools such as ON24 Breakouts. Not only will this draw in more attendees, but it will also ensure that your business is a valuable hub of industry connections.
4. Provide Valuable Content
Webinars provide attendees with a wide range of valuable content, which is extremely important. Customers aren’t looking for companies that go for the hard sell; they’re looking for partners who will provide them with real, valuable content.
When you host a webinar, share your knowledge and advice from your industry expertise. Give customers insider tips and tricks, professional advice and industry insights —- in other words, hold nothing back. This kind of valuable content enhances brand reputation, brings in new customers eager to learn and fosters a collaborative community built around your brand.
5. Establish Yourself as an Expert
After you have provided your customers with engaging content, you can now use your webinars to establish yourself as an expert in your field. After all, customers want to know that the companies they’re working with are experienced and knowledgeable.
A webinar gives you an opportunity to show off your industry expertise and help you to move conversations — both in deals and in industry thought leadership — forward. When customers need a product or service you sell, they’ll think back to your webinar and what you had to say. In other words, webinars are an effective tool to create memorable customer experiences.
Use Engagement to Grow and Refine Your Database
Indeed, one of the keys to strong marketing is having a strong contact list. Whether you’re sending out emails, social media posts, or physical mailers, you need a strong audience to send to.
A webinar is a great way to enhance your contact list and start getting them introduced to the amazing benefits your brand has to offer.
More importantly, webinars provide you with the opportunity to add more relevant professionals and industry experts to your database. With the right setup, you can use webinars to measure audience engagement and intent, automate sales outreach or nurture a prospect on their buyer’s journey.
Use Webinars to Drive Customer Engagement
Webinars are a fantastic way to bring in new customers and get your current customers more engaged with your brand. Everything from the video format to the opportunities for social and professional interaction makes delivering engaging webinars a great way to expand your customer pool and keep customers interested in your brand. Your customers will leave feeling confident in the products you have to offer, meaning that you can solidify your enterprise as fierce marketplace competition.
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