One-to-many marketing webinars
can be designed to accomplish different marketing objectives.
Four Different Types Of Marketing Webinars
Distinct types of marketing webinars can be used to match
the broad objectives of the company while capturing prospects
at different stages of the product or service buying cycle
and moving them along on the path to purchase.
1. Positioning or Awareness Webinars
These webinars are often used by new companies to announce
their intial offering or by existing companies looking
to launch a new technology or enter a new market. This
type of marketing webinar can generate new leads or help
qualify current leads by identifying a level of interest.
They set the stage for later marketing to move their audience
into the 'serious evaluation' stage.
2. Educational Webinars
This type of marketing webinar provides prospects with
new information or helps them better understand a specific
set of problems and/or solutions. For example, many firms
educate purchase influencers about a problem or issue
accompanied by a short introduction to their technology
as a way of starting the sales conversation with target
organizations.
3. Demonstration or Solution Webinars
These marketing webinars are designed to get the host
company into serious consideration for more complex or
higher cost sales. In addition, they can drive prospects
to decisions to simplify the sales process. In a technology
sale, this often means demonstrating a web interface or
a software application or showing screenshots of the product.
4. Webinars Designed To Convert To Sales
These marketing events are characterized by a call to
action at the end of the webinar. They can ask for the
order, for example, or move the prospect to engage in
a 30-day trial.
Converting Leads To Opportunities And Sales Through
Marketing Webinars
Early in the buying process, webinars may require multiple
marketing steps (including subsequent webinars or seminars)
in order to reach your objective. That's why it is important
to define and prepare for the next step in your marketing
process before the webinar.
If you have taken action during the webinar to prioritize
your leads or segment your attendee list, you may have multiple
follow-up programs. This includes your immediate webinar
follow-up actions from a 'thank you for attending' email,
a link to a trial of the software, a follow-up phone call,
or a face-to-face visit.
Almost all marketing webinars are intended to move the
prospective buyer or influencer through the buying process
towards the sale - whether the sale is an actual purchase,
a conversion to a supportive point of view, or some other
positive action defined as a marketing objective.
Marketing webinars offer marketers professionals
the opportunity to cost-effectively create and nurture
leads towards a sale.
Depending on your marketing objectives for your
webinar program, the benefits can go beyond marketing
cost savings and shorter sales cycles to include better
market positioning and improved perceptions of your company.
