Why You Should Be Holding Webinars On A Regular Basis

You probably already know that holding webinars is a great way to grow your business. But how often do you hold webinars? To truly maximize the benefits, it’s smart to hold webinars continuously, delivering a stream of value into your business. Here’s the kind of value I’m talking about:

1. Generate quality leads: Webinars are a smart tool when it comes to lead generation, but do you realize the quality of leads you are achieving? Your webinar attendees have registered for your event because they are interested in what you have to offer, and in addition, they are providing contact information, demographic information, and are committing their valuable time to listen and learn from YOU!  With proper follow-up, these valuable attendees ultimately become paying customers! 
2. Great content marketing strategy: With content marketing trends shifting to more interactive and visual materials, webinars and webinar recordings are an ingenious way to distribute your valuable content. According to a recent report from Content Marketing Institute, B2B Content Marketing 2016: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America, 66% of B2B marketers said that webinars are one of the most effective tactics for content marketing; 62% said videos (like your webinar recordings!) are most effective in content creation and distribution. 
3. Establishes you as an “expert” and “thought leader”: When your name and brand are attached to a successful and informative webinar, you are the expert. Once word gets out that your webinars are worth attending, and that you are a credible leader in your industry, attendees will flock, leads will spawn, and business will flourish. It’s that simple. 
4. Helps you practice public speaking: Bright lights and live audiences can be exceptionally daunting when you haven’t done it much, but webinars can be a stepping stone towards being a great public speaker.  Getting comfortable speaking to your online audience from the comfort of your office will help build up your confidence — especially when you start seeing all the positive feedback filling the online text chat!  The more you do it, the more of a guru will become, and public speaking engagements will become much less intimidating. 
5. Partnership opportunities: Bringing in partners as “guest hosts” is a strategic way to build stronger business relationships, expand your customer-base, and bring fresh content to your audience. Not only will you keep things fresh, but you will ultimately maximize your brand’s exposure by broadcasting your webinar to a wider audience, and generate new leads. 
6. Helps you hone-in your message: As a business leader, you want to make sure that when you speak to prospects, your message resonates and enforces your value proposition and market position.  When you do this on a regular basis, you will get better and better, figuring out what works and what doesn’t. In addition, be sure to survey attendees after each webinar, and include questions that will help you assess if your presentation was effective in relaying your message. Incorporate this feedback and with each new webinar, you will further refine the message that resonates with your customers.

Ready to plan some killer webinars? AnyMeeting is ready to help!

 

9 Easy Ways To Promote Your AnyMeeting Webinar

So, you’re hosting a webinar using AnyMeeting! Awesome! Your presentation material is polished, you have completed the webinar set-up in the AnyMeeting app, and you are ready to lock-in some valuable attendees by promoting your online event. But where to start? With so many promotional tools out there, how do you maximize your reach in a timely manner, without the added cost?

The following 9 promotional channels are free, almost effortless, and will truly amplify your online presentation’s exposure:

1. Your Email Contacts: This is the easiest place to start your webinar promotion.  When scheduling your webinar, you can copy and paste your email list of your targeted audience…and just like that, your promotional campaign takes off! Your webinar is set-up, your people have been invited via email, and they’ll even receive reminders on the day of the webinar!
2. Your AnyMeeting Public Profile: The second easiest channel to use for AnyMeeting webinar promotion is an informative landing page. Use your AnyMeeting Public Profile as a landing page, by directing potential attendees to this page (located in the Account Manager under the “Public Profile” tab — make sure it’s on the “public” setting).  This is an ideal way to direct traffic to all of your upcoming webinars.  As long as your mark your webinars as public when scheduling them, they will show up on this page with all the info your attendees need!   
3. AnyMeeting Social Integration Tools: While you are still in the AnyMeeting app, click on your AnyMeeting Public Profile tab to share and promote your upcoming webinars quickly and easily through Twitter and Facebook. Once the integration is set up, your scheduled webinars are automatically posted to your stream. How easy is that?
4. LinkedIn: LinkedIn is an ideal place to promote your business webinars, and can be done so quickly and easily. You’re on there every morning anyway — why not drop a note about your upcoming event?
5. Instagram and Pinterest: A picture is worth a thousand words — especially when it becomes viral. Snap a cool photo or create a catchy graphic that represents your webinar topic, load it with hashtags, event info, and your AnyMeeting landing page link, and voilà!
6. Your Blog: Already blogging for your business? Great! Be sure to post about your webinars as they approach. You can do this in a way that is fun and interesting, by creating a consecutive series of blog entries that touch on topics which will be covered in your upcoming webinar. Without giving away too much valuable information (save it for the webinar!), you can spike interest and even collect questions from readers to address at the upcoming event. Always close the series with details about the upcoming webinar, and a call to action: “Secure your spot today!”
7. Another’s Blog: To cast an even wider net, try promoting your online event by joining forces with a popular blogger in your industry. “Guest Blogging” is a great way to reach new potential attendees, and create relationships with other voices in your line of business.
8. Video Channels: Periscope, Vine, and YouTube are fun and out-of-the-box channels for promoting your webinar. Using viral video tools, you can quickly create free promotional materials that are sure to get potential attendees’ attention. Think fad-like social media channels like Periscope and Vine are not marketing tools? Think again! Live and unedited promotional pitches show authenticity and creativity, and break up the monotony of traditionally written promotion that may be ignored.
9. Your Email Signature: While it may seem too simple to be true, adding upcoming webinar information with a link to your email signature is a highly effective, and effortless way to promote your upcoming webinar. Think about all the people you exchange emails with on a daily basis who may click your link, or forward the info to a colleagues.

Okay, we have only touched the tip of the iceberg, my friends! I’m sure we could list dozens of more easy ways to promote webinars, but we know you need to get back to work.  😉

Have any fun ideas to add to this list? Leave us a comment!