Webinars aren’t exactly a secret, and the vast majority of marketers are familiar with them at the very least, even if they haven’t ever hosted one of their own. The fact is that many marketers overlook webinars simply because they need a certain level of technical expertise (we’re hiring) and a decent amount of promotion if you want people to know about them.
But it turns out that webinars have huge advantages to offer to individuals when it comes to personal branding, as well as to the companies that employ them. After all, if you’re the person who’s hosting the webinar and delivering a presentation then you automatically get positioned as an expert in whatever subject matter you happen to be talking about.
These benefits can apply to salespeople as much as to marketers. Let’s say that you provide accountancy software and that one of your salespeople gives a presentation on how your product can be used to complete and submit tax returns. The next time that salesperson is talking to a client who needs help with their tax returns, they can send them the link to the recording of the webinar.
The problem with webinars
The biggest problem that most companies seem to have with webinars is that they think of them only as lead generation tools. It’s true that used correctly, webinars can be a lead magnet and an important part of your lead generation strategy, but at the same time it can be counterproductive to focus on forcing people to provide you with their details if the content itself is good enough.
Another challenge with getting webinars right is that it can take a lot of time to create the actual presentation that you’ll be delivering. On top of putting in the time and effort to create the concept and the conceptual flow of the presentation, you’ll need to create the final thing, practice delivering it, refine it and proofread it before you’re ready to share it with the general public
But webinars are investments in the future, and if you take the time now to create a few, you’ll continue to reap the rewards from them in the months and the years to come. And this holds true whether we’re talking about individuals or as companies as a whole. It’ll help your company to bring in newer, better clients, and it’ll also help your employees to develop their careers and to ultimately position themselves as thought leaders.
Conclusion
Don’t be afraid that by encouraging personal branding you run the risk of employees looking for work elsewhere. Remember that many of them are probably doing that already, but by supporting personal branding and personal development in the workplace, you give them additional motivation to stay.
Webinars are just like any other form of marketing in that they have both advantages and disadvantages. With that said, they’re often underused or not used effectively, and that’s a shame when you think about how much you can achieve with them. Perhaps it’s time for you to rethink your marketing strategy and to make sure that webinars are a part of it. Good luck.
Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.