Webinar Programs Offer Solutions to Many Business Challenges

As a marketing leader overseeing the growth of businesses, webinars have proven to be among the most effective and versatile program types. Here are some ways I've utilized webinars to achieve various business goals.

Building Trust Through Thought Leadership

In a regulated industry marked by evolving policies and standards, Company seized the opportunity to be a valuable resource for its customers through regular webinars. These sessions were strategically timed with changes in regulations relevant to customers' businesses. Internal teams were mandated to attend, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of policy shifts. Over time, this approach cultivated a high degree of trust in the entire Company team. Customers often turned to their account representatives for policy inquiries, even when faced with lower-priced competitive offerings. The established trust and assurance that Company's product consistently met or exceeded industry standards fostered customer loyalty.

Promoting Product Usage Through Training

During the transition from a transactional data product to a SaaS workflow solution, product training became crucial. Analysis revealed that many valuable features were underutilized by customers. To address this, we conducted a series of webinars aimed at helping customers maximize their workflow efficiency. Marketed as time-saving measures, these events aimed to reduce errors and enhance client satisfaction. The webinars not only increased the usage of new product features but also ingrained the product into customers' workflows, effectively shielding Company from emerging competitive threats.

Recognizing Client Expertise and Success

A well-established webinar channel can transform into a sought-after industry media outlet, enabling marketing and sales teams to showcase key clients and prospects. Internal teams strategically aligned account plans and target account strategies to build programming that attracts key contacts as speakers. Webinar discussions positioned client speakers as thought leaders while emphasizing the mutually beneficial relationship between clients and Company. Events featuring client panelists served not only as relationship builders but also brought together compelling combinations of Company advocates and potential buyers.

Nurturing and Generating Demand

Product launches and updates provided critical opportunities to drive demand, both among new and existing customers. Combining informative content with product news proved effective in attracting target audiences and introducing new product benefits aligned with market needs. Leads generated from informative webinars entered nurture programs with a sense of trust and value from Company. Moreover, product-based webinar attendance and on-demand viewing became strong indicators of buyer intent, guiding Go-To-Market (GTM) teams to focus on accounts most ready to make purchasing decisions.

Feeding the Content Machine

In the constant demand for new, unique, and compelling content, webinars not only serve as high-value content on their own but also generate numerous opportunities for content development. Speaker quotes, attendee questions, event polls, and more offer rich sources for creating additional content to support email campaigns, social media, and inbound marketing programs.

Final Thoughts

Webinars emerge as a virtually (pun intented) limitless tool for a marketing team, allowing collaboration with colleagues in sales, customer success, product development, and leadership to address critical corporate goals. While managing event programs requires skill and experience, web events are often highly cost-effective and, when managed internally, result in a low cost of customer acquisition. Lastly, providing product information to large groups reduces demand on product teams' time in customer meetings while showcasing internal talent.