Posted on May 20, 2022
Description: Read to find out how to use webinars as a key tool for business growth, wider brand recognition, and increased credibility.
How SaaS Business Can Use Webinars as an Online Marketing Tool in 2022
Nowadays, webinars are a great way to connect with customers, promote your SaaS business, and share your message. They offer a level of intimacy that other marketing formats can’t match!
Webinars also can help build trust and credibility with potential customers and increase leads and sales. A considerable 73% of B2B webinar attendees become qualified leads and are more likely to buy a product or service after attending a webinar.
Webinars offer a unique opportunity to educate people about your product, train them on using it, and answer their questions. You can get in front of a large group of people and demonstrate your product’s new features and benefits by using webinar best practices. Let’s see how to make a valuable webinar by SE Ranking, which regularly uses webinars as part of its marketing strategy.
Why Should You Consider Webinar Marketing?
There are some obvious reasons why you should consider webinar marketing for your SaaS business:
- Expand your audience. Webinars are among the most effective lead generation tools and a great way to build relationships with potential and current customers.
- Establish authority and trust. Webinars demonstrate your expertise, establish authority, and build relationships with people who may be interested in doing business with you in the future.
- Increase conversions. By hosting a webinar, you can not only introduce potential customers to your product or service but also give them a taste of what it’s like to work with you.
- Generate more content. Webinars are engaging, offer value, and are versatile enough to be used as a standalone piece of content or as part of a content series. You can record a webinar and then use the footage to create a video, an article, or even a series of blog posts.
How to Create a Webinar for Your Online Marketing Strategy?
Webinars are a powerful marketing tool that can help you generate leads and grow your business. Still, you should follow some important tips on creating a webinar correctly to make them successful.
SE Ranking has carried out dozens of successful webinars on its YouTube channel since they followed these basic rules:
- They knew their audience and users’ needs well;
- They understood what value the webinars should produce to be worth users’ time;
- They had the script prepared before the webinars began.
The company has a strong tradition of inviting international SEO experts to webinars to allow users to obtain new insights and knowledge. So, let’s take a closer look at these tips:
1. Identify the audience you want to reach
When it comes to webinars, one of the most important things you can do is identify your buyer persona. You need to put in the time to determine who your target market is, what their needs and interests are, and how your content can address those needs.
Once you know where your target audience is from, what job positions they have, what knowledge and skills they possess, etc., you can specifically tailor your content and message to them. This will ensure that people walk away from your webinar learning something valuable.
2. Create a strong value proposition and unique solution
If you want to produce a webinar that stands out and draws in an audience, you need to start with a strong value proposition. Before creating your webinar, outline the value you will provide to the webinar attendees. This should include what they will learn from the webinar and what they will get from it. Your value proposition promises that you will get something in exchange for your time.
There are two ways to create a compelling value proposition for attendees:
- Start with the problem you are solving. Show the problem they have and the pain they are experiencing with the current situation.
- Suggest a solution to this problem. Show how your solution solves the issues that attendees are experiencing and meets their needs.
3. Choose a webinar format according to your goals
Whether you’re looking to generate leads, build brand awareness, or close sales, four common webinar formats can help you achieve your objectives:
- Product Demonstration. When you try to sell a product or service through a webinar, you need to incorporate as much helpful information about your offer as possible.
- Educational Sessions. Some webinars are designed to educate about how to resolve any possible problems with products. These webinars are more like a virtual conference rather than being built like a live sales presentation.
- Panel Discussions are perfect for bringing in experts that can address attendees’ questions live. Featuring a panel of industry experts, leaders, and influencers is a great way to keep your webinar exciting and valuable.
- Networking webinars are quickly becoming one of the most popular ways to network and connect with other professionals in your field by discussing new inventions and developments and significant changes in the industry.
4. Write a webinar script
Webinars are growing in popularity to reach large audiences with educational content. But all too often, the key ingredient that makes a webinar successful – the script – is not given enough attention in the planning process. Your webinar script can make or break your event, so it’s worth getting it right.
If you want your webinar to succeed, you need to focus on your audience. Ask yourself who is coming to your webinar, what they want to know, and what problems they want to find solutions for. Webinar scriptwriting is primarily about giving your audience valuable and useful content, as it is a way to convert them into leads.
Moreover, it would be a great idea to start with your objective. If you can’t keep your objective in mind, you’re likely to ramble in your webinar without saying anything meaningful.
Make sure you understand the specific issues your webinar participants are facing and how your webinar can help them. Don’t forget about search engine optimization. Fill your webinar with keywords to rank higher on the SERP, especially when you turn it into an evergreen piece of content such as an article, post, etc. Tracking with a rank tracker is integral in taking control of your actions.
5. Find the right guest speaker to increase your brand’s credibility
You can substantially increase the credibility of your webinar by having the right guest speaker. An industry expert can be a guest speaker who is usually invited to speak or asked to share their expertise at the webinar. They need to be experts in your industry and should be someone who can relate to the audience. To find the right guest speaker, you need to look within your niche. Look at your social media channels, Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections, etc. You want someone that is going to provide real value to your audience.
6. Funnel people into your webinar
You need to get people to sign up for your webinar if you want your webinar marketing strategy to be successful. Luckily, there are a few ways that you can funnel people into your webinar so that they will actually attend:
- Use email marketing for invitations. One of the best ways to get people to show up at your webinar is to use email marketing to send invitations to the webinar. Make sure that you include a clickable link in your email. Otherwise, your audience will not reach the webinar.
- Use social media. Social media is another great way to get people to attend your webinar. You can do a blog post with a link to your webinar or post a video on Facebook that tells people about your new webinar. You can also post a video on YouTube with a link for people to click on.
- Partner with companies to get exposure. Look to form partnerships with other companies to promote your webinar. You can promote their webinars on your site in return for them promoting your live webinar on their blog and social media accounts. Partnering with various companies, such as posting a press release, enables you to get people already interested in the topic of your webinar.
7. Collect leads
If you want to get more leads, one of the best things is to register for a webinar. A webinar is an online seminar that allows you to interact with potential customers in real-time. By registering for a webinar, you will be able to reach out to more people and build relationships with them. Moreover, to collect more leads, it would be nice to use your case studies, workshops, and report summary to educate potential customers, giving them the right information and tools to take the next step.
8. Include engagement features
To create a successful webinar, certain features must be included.
- Public chat allows your webinar viewers to communicate with each other. If the chat is open, they will have the opportunity to ask questions and share opinions. This is a great way to build an even stronger connection with viewers and get them to feel connected. In addition, during your webinar, you will be able to monitor the chat for any questions or comments, making it easy for you to respond to any issues as they arise.
- Q&A. Asking questions at the end of your webinar is a great solution to engage your audience. This is also a good way to see what your audience wants or needs from a webinar. You can use this to get instant feedback on a certain topic and learn what the audience is most interested in and what works.
- Polls are a great way to get a quick reader view on a specific topic you are discussing or see how people feel about your webinar. You can do a ‘Yes or No’ poll, use a scale based on a number (1-5), or put a button on your screen that says “How interested are you in this topic?” and then have four buttons underneath “Not interested” “Somewhat interested” “Very interested” and “Over the top!”. The easiest way is to use professional software like InEvent that includes this feature in its online event solutions.
9. Track results
If you want your webinar to work for you, you should start tracking your results. You can ensure that your marketing efforts are successful and can avoid any potential pitfalls.
- Visits to your registration page. If you notice that very few people visit your registration page, it can be a sign that your webinar is not promoted well.
- Number of registrations. The higher the number of registrations, the more successful your webinar is.
- Number of attendees. Compare the number of registrations to the number of attendees. If there is a huge difference between those numbers, your webinar is not having that much of an effect on people.
- Number of people who watched the full webinar. If the number is low, you need to improve your content or engagement hooks. A good webinar should make people want to watch it until the end.
- Visits to your sales page. If the number is high, you can consider the webinar effective because it brings traffic to your sales page, leading to increased sales.
- Purchases. This is the ultimate goal of your webinar. If you have provided successful information during the webinar and got the visitor’s interest, they will purchase your product.
Conclusion
Webinars are an excellent online marketing tool for SaaS businesses. They provide a great opportunity to engage with potential customers and build relationships. Moreover, since most webinars are recorded, people can review the content after the event, and the business generates more content for its website. Your webinar can also impact your leads, sales, and brand perception.
Some people might think that webinars are too challenging to organize and very expensive. This is far from the truth: webinars are very cost-effective, and they can be organized in just a couple of hours. Moreover, by following the tips mentioned above, you can create an effective webinar to reach your target audience and increase your conversions. Webinars are the future of online marketing for SaaS businesses, so don’t miss a chance to use them