The Story:
Reveille Software decides to leverage the use of webinars for lead generation. Reveille had a clear objective, which is to increase new leads interested in the company’s performance management solutions. They employed the strategy to stage monthly webinars, hosted by the company itself as well as in partnership with partners and resellers. The result of this exercise was a whopping 60% increase in new leads, attributed to the Company’s webinars in the past year.

The Verdict:
When carefully crafted and targeted, webinars can be a marketer’s key lead-gen source.

The role of marketing webinars and online events has changed within a fairly short period of time from being a novelty to an effective lead generation platform. Webinars have become a part of a brand’s journey. When combined with dynamic nurturing and lead scoring behaviors, they can yield strong results.

Over the years, webinars have also matured in their technological capabilities. The leading platforms now can link to marketing automation tools for lead qualification. Marketers can gather e-mail stats, registrations, attendance, feedback and other interactions via surveys. Marketing today is all about developing a dialogue between an organization and its market. Educating the market place is key. Buyers are continuously seeking more information about new products and services. Webinars allow the marketers to relate to potential customers with the kind of educational information that generates confidence in a brand. The question and answer segment can also provide a company with a stronger understanding of the buyers’ concerns.

However, the picture is not always rosy. The number of free webinar invitations we receive on a regular basis clearly reflects the plethora of webinars being marketed these days, which can result in declining attendee registrations. This makes it critical to select presenters and topics of interest that will attract your target audience.

The missing link is reaching out and carefully listening to prospects in order to gauge their needs and interests as they relate to your products and services. With that information you can keep your customers and prospects engaged and increase your opportunities to have a significant impact on your company’s growth.

By ConferencePlus
Article Source: http://beta.conferenceplus.com/conferencing-blog/2010/11/take-the-leads-with-webinars.html