You don’t need me to tell you that the high price of gasoline is really putting a crunch on companies’ budgets. Large corporations and start-up companies alike need to find ways to keep costs under control. In preparing to write the promised article about the most popular mediums for lead generation, communicating messages and building brand awareness, I noticed that webinars kept surfacing as one of the top mediums.
Webinars are a way of conducting live meetings or presentations over the Internet. Marketing Profs Research Insights’ 2007 article, B-to-B Marketing in 2008: Trends in Strategies and Spending, indicated that among 400 marketing and management executives, webinars was the third-ranked tactic for generating leads. When it came to tactics that were ranked as effective for communicating brand messages, webinars again came in third. And, finally, as a tactic deemed effective in impacting brand awareness, webinars ranked seventh out of 17 tactics.
Maybe you’ve attended a webinar or seen them mentioned on the web. And, chances are, you figured that only large companies that could attract hundreds of participants and who have IT people on staff could run a webinar. Just this week, I found an invitation to attend a webinar hosted by Virgin Megastores in my email. If Virgin Megastores is doing this, then how could a small business possibly have that kind of expertise and financial resources?
The good news is that it’s not hard and it’s not expensive. If you can put together a PowerPoint presentation, log on to a website and make a phone call, you can host a webinar! There are scores of companies out there that make webinars as easy as 1-2-3. All you need to do is look on the web to find one. There are even websites you can go to, put in the specifics of the webinar you’d like to offer (how long, how many people, etc.) and they’ll find several companies that have the lowest rates for what you want to do. And by low, I really do mean low. I found companies who facilitate webinars for as little as $20 a month. And you don’t have to make a monthly commitment; most of the companies also have pay-per-use options.
So now that you know it’s not hard to run a webinar and it doesn’t cost much, are you wondering how you could use this great technology to help drive sales and reduce your costs? Think about it—do you have numerous potential customers you want to talk to but the time and expense of going out to each one just isn’t making sense anymore? How about leading a webinar in which all these prospects can learn about your product or service? They can see the presentation that you’ve created right on their screens in their own offices. They can hear you and they can ask you questions. You can make the equivalent of 10 or 20 initial sales calls all at once without spending a dime to get to the prospects’ locations. Then you can follow up later to close the sale, even use an online meeting to do so.
Need to let your current customers know about an enhancement to the product they already own or about a new one you’re about to launch? Inform them or train them via a webinar. It’s more personal than sending out an announcement or product update; you can even draw on your presentation to illustrate your points further and you can answer their questions all at one time. Not only that, it’s a great way of keeping your name in front of your customers.
As a small business owner, you may work with a team of people who don’t actually work for you—freelancers and independent contractors. They might be all over a metropolitan area or even in another state. When it’s time to do planning or present a new project to them, a webinar or an online meeting is a cost-efficient way to go. Everybody hears about AND sees it at the same time and you only have to tell the story once.
So, what’s stopping you? The technology is easy, the price is low and the returns can be great. Many of the webinar providers will even offer a free trial. Time to play like the big boys!
