Webinars are one of the best marketing tools available to entrepreneurs. They are powerful instructing and communication devices and are easy to use, yet can have a powerful impact on your connection with your audience.
Let People Meet the Real You
It is one thing for people to read your writing in text form, yet quite another to see your face on video or to hear your voice on audio. One advantage of webinars is that they are unedited. Unlike a video product, where you can spend as much time as you want preparing it perfectly, the webinar will never look as smooth, but believe it or not, that is actually good. People get to know the real you, with no editing, through your voice and possibly visually, depending on how you set up the webinar.
The Benefit of Multimedia Presentations
Webinars take advantage of various media simultaneously. You have audio coming in from your microphone, and you may have video coming in from your webcam, but you also probably have a slide presentation or mind map presentation to lead your audience through. This helps add structure and flow to the lesson. In addition, you may have websites or live demos to show. You may have pre-recorded clips that are all a part of your presentation. Unlike text or podcasts, webinars gives you a whole range of different kinds of media to take advantage of.
Build Trust with Two-Way Conversations
Instead of just “teaching at” your audience, with a webinar you can also see in real time what kind of reactions your audience is having to your materials. In some set-ups, this takes the form of questions that participants can send in. You pick and choose the best questions and answer them right then and there.
In other set-ups, there will be a chat room visible to both participants and the organizer. You can pick topics and questions right out of the chat room and address them live. A lot of connection is built when the audience can see you addressing their concerns in real time. They know you are really listening. Adding a two-way conversation to your toolbox can help improve your connection to your audience.
High Sales Potential
Finally, webinars are powerful sales tools. At the end of an informative, exciting and connected webinar, your listeners are going to be exceptionally receptive to a sales offer. Make them a great offer and you will see a rush of sales come in instantly.
As you can tell, webinars are great for building trust and credibility, which benefits your brand in the long run. In addition, they can also help you bring in more sales immediately. They take a little bit of time to set up the first time around, but once you have done your first webinar, it is very easy to repeat the process.
FURTHER READING
How to Plan, Prepare and Present Profitable Webinars
