Online Marketing – Use Webinars to Promote Your Business

One of the toughest marketing challenges is to get in front of qualified leads–people that are ready and willing to buy, and are searching for someone with your talent, your service, or your product.

If you’re stuck in the “I have to meet my prospects face-to-face to win their business,” then it’s time to get in touch with the power of the webinars to market your business on the Internet. Interactive webinars are clearly one of the most powerful ways on the planet to reach prospects locally or globally, and turn them into clients.

“Hold on,” you say! “What about my website, my e-mail marketing campaign, and my blog? Aren’t they enough?” Each of these traditional internet marketing approaches is important. But the answer is no, they’re not enough–not if you want to give yourself a competitive edge! Webinars add a powerful dimension to your Internet Marketing campaign that the others can’t. The webinar advantage is live, interactive communication with you–the passionate expert about your services, your products, and your knowledge in your field. Interactive webinars are the strongest way to get people to know you and trust you enough to buy from you.

It doesn’t matter if your business is a solo-preneur or a global giant. Lively, interactive webinars could be the most powerful element to make your Internet marketing campaign unstoppable. Think about what these webinar ideas can do to grow your business.

Sponsor a free webinar event for prospects. If you speak to promote your business, give a live webinar for the people in your opt-in list. Just think about how powerful it is to get in front of the group that knows you through your blog or e-mail newsletter? Make the event free for prospects. Fill your presentation with high-value information that helps your desktop audience be successful. Interact vigorously with your desktop audience, so they will trust you and connect with you. At the end of the session, make a brief, low-key but well-scripted sales pitch about a follow-on product or service, and watch your sales revenues soar!

Co-sponsor a webinar to increase your leads and reach. If your opt-in list isn’t responsive enough or your budget isn’t big enough, then find a co-sponsor for your webinar event. “Free” web and audio conference technology could ruin your event. Instead, get a budget, and select a proven, stable platform that won’t eject people unwittingly from the web conference or distort your voice with echo. Defray those costs by finding a sponsor, such as a bank or an organization that already does webinars for marketing. Then co-sponsor the event together, and watch your opt-in list and active prospects skyrocket!

Preview webinars with a small group. If you want to do business with Fortune 500 companies, you’ll stand a significantly better chance to preview your offerings to decision-makers with webinars than face to face–with good reason. In the global giant companies, decision-makers rarely work in one location any more, and they rarely travel to be face-to-face. Besides, if a meeting is less than two hours, 83% prefer to meet with you in a web conference and not meet face-to-face. Webinars let them preview you, your business, and your services conveniently from their desktop. Later, if they decide to do business with you, then a face-to-face meeting may make more sense, if needed.

Preview webinars with a single decision-maker. Obviously, when you can meet face to face with a prospect, it’s good to do that. Individual preview webinars let you have the same kind of one-to-one meeting online with a prospect in a different city or country. In fact, if you build in a lot of interaction, the webinar will feel like a handshake, not a sterile presentation. You’ll gain trust and rapport that can move the sale forward to the next level if you do it right.

Training webinars that eliminate the need to travel. One of the best ways to promote our businesses is through referrals and affiliates. If your company is delivering all of your training face-to-face, webinars can expand your ability to create happy clients, with people locally or in distant locations around the world. Although face-to-face training is nice, new research shows that blending it with well-designed interactive online offerings increases its impact by 65%. Online lets students receive training in small segments across time, which is more powerful in driving behavior change than full-day sessions. Just tell me which of your clients will pass up a 65% impact in return on their investment in training. You just can’t beat the power of referrals to market your business.

Will webinars eliminate the need for people to be face-to-face for presentations, training, conferences, conventions, and other meetings? No! As human beings, we are social creatures that thrive in face-to-face environments. To be successful in today’s global business, however, all of us need to be highly skilled in delivering engaging, interactive webinars that build our business through the power of the Internet.

By Jaclyn Kostner