10 Reasons Why Webinars Are Beneficial to Any Business

As a webinar platform, we obviously understand the value of webinars in the business world. However, it's easy to overlook many of the advantages of hosting webinars in your business. The goal of this post is to highlight ten of the most important reasons why webinars are beneficial to every business.

These may or may not apply to you, and there are many different types of webinars that you can host. This article will focus on the "marketing and sales" aspects of webinars.

Reason 1: You Have the Ability to Provide Outstanding Value

This is one of the primary reasons why companies begin using webinars in the first place. Webinars are truly unique; if done correctly, you can keep your audience engaged for hours on end, which is something that videos, to put it simply, struggle to do. Not only that, but your audience can ask questions and provide feedback on the training in real time.

Even better, you can ask your audience questions in real time and tailor your content to better serve them. You can compel your audience to act and enjoy some small micro-wins of their own. This results in transformations throughout the content, which can occur in a very short period of time. This clarifies why webinars are some of the highest converting forms of marketing.

Reason 2: They elevate you to the status of an expert in your field.

It is a free webinar... What does it matter? Your audience, on the other hand, does. And just because it's "free" doesn't mean nothing is being exchanged for the content. To attend a webinar, your prospect must first register, mark the date on her calendar, make time for the event, arrive on time, and then give you 1-3 hours of her time. She's doing ALL of this just to hear you talk about a topic; this establishes you as an expert before you even begin teaching the material.

Reason 3: You can make sales without selling aggressively.

Your webinars, with the right content, should soft-sell your prospects without ever having to "hard close" anyone. Many businesses make the mistake of first teaching and then selling, when the best webinars teach and sell simultaneously.

Effective webinar content should highlight issues, eliminate objections, and provide value without teaching too much. Your content should teach your audience WHAT they should want. The "what" is your product, and the entire audience wants it by the time you make the offer. This makes the sale much more natural and eliminates the need for hard selling.

Reason 4: You can communicate with people from all over the world.

This is one of the most important reasons why webinars are so effective. The ability to converse with hundreds of people... virtually, via the internet. Did I mention you never have to leave the comfort of your computer chair, beach chair, or whatever chair you prefer?

It goes without saying that having a one-on-one, in-person conversation with a prospect is the most effective way to gain a new customer. But is it really feasible to travel the world for one-on-one prospect meetings? Maybe... if you're doing six, seven, and eight-figure deals. Every other business' logistics simply do not work. However, doing so  allows you to connect with hundreds of people all over the world in a 2-hour timespan? Well, yeah, these logistics make sense.

Reason 5: They keep your audience interested.

Webinars are unique for two reasons. First and foremost, they are one-time events that take place LIVE. If your audience arrives late, they will miss some of it. They will miss everything if they do not attend. This is the scarcity effect, and it is the foundation of any webinar campaign. When watching a video, the viewer knows she can pause it and return at any time; this is not the case with webinars. If your prospect leaves or misses the webinar, she will be disappointed.

Conversational engagement is the second reason. Your audience has a voice with webinars. They can talk, express themselves, ask and answer questions, and do other things. When a person is asking questions and chatting about what they’re being taught, they’re more focused and engaged by default.

Reason 6: you can generate new leads.

Leads are the lifeblood of almost every business. A company that has an abundance of leads will never struggle to expand. Unfortunately, most businesses do not have a high-quality lead-generation strategy, and webinars are an excellent way to attract new eyes, generate new leads, and ultimately convert new customers.

Some form of registration is required for webinars. People are used to submitting their name, email address, and sometimes additional information in order to register for an upcoming webinar event. They've identified themselves as a lead who is interested in whatever you're teaching and have opted in to learn more.

There are numerous ways to promote a webinar and drive registrations, but we won't go into detail in this article. You can, for example, run paid advertising, feature webinars on your home page, get affiliates to promote, and leverage the audience of guests. Of course, you can use emails to promote webinars to your existing audience, but the goal here is to generate new leads rather than qualify existing ones. That will be saved for the next reason...

Reason 7: You can qualify new leads and build relationships.

Giving value first is the best way to build a relationship. In general, the first step in making a sale is education. Webinars allow us to teach our prospects and help them understand why our product is valuable in the first place. Webinars give your audience the opportunity to associate a name with a face and a voice with a name. They enable you to develop personal relationships and engage in real-time conversations.

Webinars are the best way to build personal relationships with your leads short of visiting them in person or making a personal phone call. The best part is that it also works with new leads. You can leave a great first impression on people who are hearing from you for the first time.

Reason 8: You can invite guests and use their audience (and credibility!) to your advantage.

When you invite an industry influencer or a specialised guest to your webinar, they are usually eager to help you leverage their audience to drive attendance.

Please keep in mind that just because they're usually happy to do it doesn't mean it's their responsibility. You can't expect them to promote it; that's your responsibility. This is an excellent way to introduce yourself and your company to a new audience, generate new leads, and make a good first impression. 

You can borrow your guests' credibility in addition to getting exposure! Bringing on an industry expert strengthens your position as an expert because that person is associating their name with your brand. It will boost overall enthusiasm, attendance, and social media sharing.

Reason 9: A Proven-to-Convert Webinar Can Help You Attract Affiliates

I could write an entire post (or ten) about the affiliate world, but that will have to wait for another day. To summarize, affiliates want something that will A) convert well and B) provide value to their customers. They will not promote if they are not going to make money from sending traffic. Conversions would be abysmal if affiliates sent traffic directly to your homepage. Affiliates who send traffic to a proven-to-convert webinar campaign that also provides a lot of value, on the other hand, will generate a lot more commissions overall.

The good news is that after your first webinar, you'll have statistics for your webinar, such as earnings per registrant, earnings per attendee, and earnings per click. These statistics (along with a webinar replay) will assist you in attracting influencers and industry partners to promote your webinar. Because they know the average earnings per registrant, they'll know how much money they can make in commissions before even starting the promotion.

Reason 10: You can accelerate your sales process and achieve a higher ROI faster.

Revenue is what drives your company's expansion. Companies live and die by cash flow, especially if they are bootstrapped like us. As a result, the quicker you can convert a lead into a customer, the better off you will be. Webinars can significantly accelerate this process. Why? Simply because they combine all of the initial funnel steps, they allow you to build trust, deliver value, and eliminate objections in a short period of time.

For example, if you can drive qualified webinar registrations for $10 each and your webinar immediately earns $10 per registrant, you've already broken even. In this case, any revenue generated by these leads following the webinar is pure profit — good ol' cash flow.

I'm sure you understand why webinars can benefit your business...

Webinars are extremely effective, and there are far more than ten reasons to host one. This list should motivate you to use webinars in your business, whether for lead generation, sales, training, or all of the above. The point of this article is that the downside (if it exists at all) pales in comparison to the upside — the potential.

Can you think of any other reasons that I might have overlooked? Please let me know in the comments!

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