Look at any of today’s top bloggers and online marketers who have products or services to sell, and you will likely find that they are using webinars to increase their reach, improve branding, and also bring in more sales and revenue in the process.
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The concept of webinars is nothing new, but there is a huge difference in how they are being used today, versus how they were in previous years. It’s not just about the live engagement, it’s also about the email collection, pre-sell, time leading up to the event, and the eventual pitch. It’s all quite beautiful and magical when laid out in its most perfect form.
Just like how sales pages and funnels are used to sell products and services, the same funnel formula is being used by some of the best webinar marketers as well. It’s not just about letting your audience know about an upcoming webinar, it’s also about preparing them and gaining their trust throughout the process.
With all of that being said, one of the best ways to back up such statements is to look at some of the latest industry numbers from ClickMeeting, an online webinar solution that has hosted over 600,000 events with over 17.5 million attendees in 2018 alone.
Webinars are no longer just for selling high-end products or services, but are often used for product demos and employee training, online courses, business meetings and collaborations, and a wide range of other useful methods.
With so much focus on webinars and how they often lead to a much higher ROI, it’s strange how there are still some brands and businesses on the fence about using them.
What’s even more exciting is the huge technological advancements in webinar integrations and how live social video, CRM-based lead scoring, in-webinar interactivity and post-webinar remarketing with ads come into play.
As we continue to learn more about how different businesses and organizations are using webinars to grow their reach and bottom line, it’s also important to take a look at the latest advancements and features of live webinars today.
To make this process easier and more efficient, we recommend that you take a look at ClickMeeting and sign up for their free 30 day trial. There is no credit card required, and you will have access to try out each of the latest features and advancements below.
Let’s now take a look at some of their most recent and advanced webinar features.
We are Now in the Age of Paid Webinars
Traditionally, webinars are used to nurture leads with educational content, which gets your audience ready for you to hit them with a sales pitch towards the end of the presentation.
Webinars are key for this model, because they allow you to take a relatively un-nurtured prospect and then demonstrate the value of your product to them – which often takes anywhere from 30-90 minutes, depending on how long your event is.
However, what if there was a a way to just have a webinar and already be profitable before going live?
That’s exactly what you will find with ClickMeeting’s new “Paid Webinars” feature, which allows you to do precisely what it sounds like – setting up webinars that you can charge people to attend.
This could work extremely well for a wide range of opportunities, but some quick ideas include closed community open Q&A sessions, quick lessons and teaching, or even pre-selling a low webinar fee to make sure that your attendants are pre-qualified for high intent. This is what’s known as the “value ladder” sales model, because by making it easy for people to say yes when you start offering them products, you’re making it even easier for them to say yes to your higher-priced subsequent asks.
We’ve already seen a bunch of marketing gurus play around with these types of paid webinars, and they work very well. If you haven’t tested your offer or business model through this new pathway yet, it’s definitely worth a shot.
Webinars Are All About Engagement – Not Getting Lost
If you’ve ever run a webinar by yourself, then you know how overwhelming it can sometimes get. You need to make sure you are talking at the right speed, covering all of your bases and answering any questions that come up in real time – all while you’re a bit distracted by the number of people entering and leaving the event. All of this is normal.
The one thing that gets hurt by all of this, is the lack and attention and engagement with the audience watching your webinar.
ClickMeeting has created the necessary tools and features to make sure the conversion in your next webinar isn’t completely one-sided. Instead, it’s all about the conversation with your audience, and making sure they don’t fall behind if they show up late or have a question.
No one likes a one-sided conversation, and besides, if audience members don’t have a platform to ask questions or get feedback, how are they supposed to have trust in purchasing a higher end product for your webinar? Some of the benefits associated with ClickMeeting Q&A and private chat in your next webinar include:
- Make your webinars extra interactive and engaging.
- Allow late attendees to catch up and get clarifications.
- Manage real-time feedback and reactions.
- Avoid chaos by deciding whether to accept, reject or edit the comments.
- Enable private discussions to ensure confidentiality.
- Store your chat history for future reference when following up with leads.
If you were to run two webinars side by side with the same audience, it would almost be a given that the one with these chat and Q&A features in place would outperform the other one in all ways. This is something every webinar host should try and split test with their audience.
Webinar Integration With Everything
Digital adoption is something every business on the internet strives for. It’s the process of running your business seamlessly while using all of the necessary technology, tools and automation around you.
When it comes to webinars, there are many different ways you can track stats and improve performance. The problem is, most of these needs to be done manually or coded into the system – which is something most business and brand marketers would never want to deal with.
ClickMeeting hasn’t just been adding more features and tools to their platform, they’ve also been working on their integrations with other solutions as well.
With lead tracking and ROI always at the forefront of focuses for businesses, it’s important to be able to track where webinar attendees are signing up for your event, if they are converting and how you can advertise and remarket to such audiences through media buying and social media.
Some of the latest integrations include Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Facebook Pixel – which, among other advantages, all unlock your ability to remarket to your webinar attendees through search, social media and on various third-party websites.
With each of these now in place, anyone using ClickMeeting webinars to generate business now has another level of deeper stats and marketing tools at their disposal.
How to Scale Your Business with Efficient Webinars
As you can see, there have been plenty of improvements to the way marketers and brands can use webinars to grow their businesses and generate additional revenue – outside of the traditional methods that many of us know and have used over the years.
Gone are the days of just going live with a webinar and having it be a one-sided, one-to-many conversation. Now it’s all about engagement, all while not being required to pay hefty programming or customization fees to get what you are looking for. Throw a lead generation and sales funnel into the mix, and there is no reason why you couldn’t see a drastic increase in conversions and revenue on a weekly or monthly basis.
If you already have an existing webinar marketing plan in place, now is a great time to start implementing these additional engagement, targeting and performance features as well.
The world of online marketing and authority branding is changing all the time – make sure your content creation and marketing efforts are changing with it.
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