To those of you who give webinars, what costs and benefits do you see?
To those of you who give webinars, what benefits do you see when giving a webinar, other than more exposure? Are you charging virtual attendees? What costs do you incur? Copyright issues? How does it compare with blogging or live seminars?
Good Answers (4)
I'm answering from my experiences doing webinars with product companies as opposed to promoting my own services. In our cases we were looking at the webinars as marketing so there was no incentive to charge for them.
On the cost side there was the costs of promoting the webinar, hosting the webinar, and recording it. The promotion costs vary from "free" (mailing to your own list, blogging, issuing a press release) to expensive (advertising, hosting w/established site, purchasing mailing lists, etc).
Compared to blogging you get three advantages:
1. you can reach a non-blog reading audience
2. you capture contact info for follow up
3. easier to connect w/audience when they can hear you and when you can have some interactivity (polls, QnA sections, etc).
Like blogs you also end up with a durable asset, something that you can have on your site and reuse/reference in the future.
Anthony R
Conferencing Consultant
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By far the most obvious advantage to giving a webinar is the exposure. Most of my clients are trying to "get the word out" on something, from a new product, training, marketing to a change in service structure for a company like a utility provider (did one of those this morning).
The advantage over blogging is there is much more interaction available in a webinar, and a way for your audience to see you or your company "in action". After a webinar, attendees feel like they, at least in some way 'met with the company'. You just can't get that from reading a blog.
The major advantage over live seminars is of course the cost savings are tremendous. For 10% or less than what it would cost for a live seminar, you can have a webinar that is easier and faster, plus can be easily recorded for archiving so anyone who wasn't able to attend live does not have to miss out.
The other advantage over live seminars is the further reach. A lot of people will not travel to attend your live seminar, but logging in to your webinar is much easier. You truly have International potential if that is where your target market is.
If anyone would like further information on Webinars in any form, feel free to contact me directly. My company Great America Networks Conferencing specializes in new presenters just trying out the medium, and holds your hand every step of the way.
Anthony Russo
Conferencing Consultant
Great America Networks Conferencing
arusso@ganconference.com
www.ganconference.com
Phone: 312-432-5377
Skype: anth.russo
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Toby Y
Making Incredible Marketing Credible™
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Good afternoon, Keith…
The following applies to my experience with B2B Marketing.
Webinars are one of the arrows in marketing’s quiver of transforming a prospective customer into a forecast-able lead. Their benefit is increasing your company’s credibility with its prospective market. Alone, without any programmatic effort, they don’t do much. They have to be part of campaign, and that campaign a part of a program. by the way, the webinars I describe herein, are free and for the purposes of generating leads rather than producing revenue.
Here’s how I recommend my clients use it as part of an organic content marketing program:
1. Start with monthly campaigns.
2. Each month:
a. Develop some content, e.g., white papers, case studies, podcasts, screencasts, product demos, online presentations, etc.
b. Develop a one hour webinar based on the above content.
c. Build three landing pages:
i. One to collect the respondent’s name and email address before they’re allowed to download the content
ii. One to collect the respondent’s title, company URL, and phone number when the register for the webinar.
iii. One to collect the respondent’s assessment of the webinar, with:
1. Three evaluation questions.
2. Three qualification questions.
3. Three opt in questions.
d. Create an three auto response emails:
i. One sent after the respondent registers to download your content, with:
1. A Thank you.
2. A Link to downloadable content.
3. A short paragraph promoting the webinar.
4. A Link to the seminar registration landing page.
5. A suggestion to forward the message to a colleague.
ii. One sent after the respondent registers for the webinar, with:
1. A Thank You.
2. Detailed login information for the webinar.
3. A notice to let them know someone will call to confirm their attendance a few days before the webinar.
4. A suggestion to forward the message to a colleague.
iii. One sent after the respondent completes the webinar assessment, with:
1. A Thank You.
2. A notice letting them know your company will follow up based on the responses to the opt-in questions.
e. Load all of the above on your server.
f. Promote the content landing page using SEO, Adwords, and online PR.
g. Follow up.
h. Conduct the webinar.
i. Follow up.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
Regards,
t.
Cece S
Sr. Marcom Manager with ON24, Inc.
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You raise an interesting question about webinars. To answer your questions:
Benefits
1) Reduce Costs: Since a webinar is “virtual”, there is less costs involved for you and your attendees. No venue to book. No car or airfare. No catering. No travel time. This also benefits the environment as well.
2) Unlimited Audience Depending on the solution, you can have unlimited number of people attend for minimal cost.
3) Reporting: You can track the interaction that you audience has with your content. Assuming that your live seminar would be more than 25-50 people, it’s tough to interact with each person. With a webinar, you can determine their interests with polls & surveys and the type of questions they ask you. This provides you with additional information for future business, etc.
Things to Be Aware of:
4) Planning is Different: Planning a webinar is quite different than a live event. You want to make sure that your speakers are familiar with the platform that you use.
5) Promotions: You have to be aware of how to promote the webinar and how often. There can be cost associated if you decide to so a media buy or distribute press releases to get attention for the webinar.
6) Hidden Costs: Some providers may have hidden costs, such as conferencing charges or penalties if your audience exceeds a certain number
Compared to Blogging:
Blogging is Easy to Start and Requires Commitment: Once you’ve signed up for a platform, you just start typing. The difference is your commitment level. You have to be committed to a blog whereas a webinar doesn’t have to be done on a regular basis.
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More Answers (4)
They pretty much need to be short (less than an hour) and free. Give value, but also use it as a lead in to paying mentoring/training engagements. You want to establish yourself as someone with answers to a complex issue.
