3 Reasons to Host a Webinar

Let’s get your first objection to this “But Channing, people are tired of looking at their screens all the time. No one will come so this is a waste of time!” out of the way real fast.

While Zoom fatigue is real, people are still signing up for webinars consistently. We all still need to learn new things either to benefit our personal or professional lives, and webinars are the perfect way to do that in sweatpants. No conference pass, travel expenses or talking with strangers you don’t really want to talk to is required!

Now that we’ve established why people attend webinars, let’s talk about why you as a solopreneur or small business owner should consider hosting one:

REASON 1: Lead Generation

Everyone who signs up for the webinar is a lead.

Everyone who sticks around until the end is a warm lead.

Everyone who follows up with you after or replies to your post-webinar follow up email is a hot lead.

These numbers will gradually get smaller from one stage to the next, but guess what: that is your sales funnel!

Whether this is three people, 10 people, or 500, every person matters. Every lead is potential revenue or a potential brand ambassador. (i.e. those people who talk about and promote you and your brand without being asked and/or without you even knowing about it and thereby send leads your way.)

Do you know another way to get that many leads in less than one hour?

REASON 2: Lead Qualification

If people sign up for your webinar they are showing an interest in either you or the topic that you have decided to talk about. If they stick around until the end, they’ve been engaged with both. So if you are a service provider that requires a close relationship with your client in order to get the work done, this is a really great sign that they like the way you speak and find you knowledgeable in your field. That bodes well for the actual “working together” process.

If they don’t stick around until the end, or even beyond halfway, they either didn’t find the topic interesting enough, which is reason to address things if this is a large quantity of your attendees, or they are not your biggest fan. That also is a win!

By dropping off your webinar early they have indicated to you that they are not worth the extra time for you to pursue them. Keep their email address in your nurture funnel, send them educational emails as part of your content strategy, and wait for them to either come back to you and realize just how awesome and smart you are, or, unsubscribe and truly put themselves in the “we don’t fit together“ bucket.

Boom! In less than 60 minutes, you have identified people who understand the value and expertise you bring to your service and like the way you present it, a key aspect of working with you, as well as those people who are not your ideal client.

REASON 3: Establish Yourself as a Thought Leader

In order to be a “thought leader,“ a moniker that brings credibility and therefore easier sales to your business, you need to:

a) have thoughts (aka expertise in your field that you want to demonstrate to others), and
b) you need to convey them effectively.

Not everyone is a writer, so blogging or writing guest articles for other publications can seem daunting. However, a webinar is a wonderful way to be able to simply talk to people. And by “people,” I mean more than the one-on-one meeting you do regularly, but rather an entire group.

PLUS, this way doesn’t require you to get approval by a team or board or the Wizard of Oz to share your wisdom the way public speaking engagements do because it is YOUR platform. You get to utilize it to share what makes YOU an expert. Because let’s be real: anyone can slap the word “expert” on their website and marketing materials. The word has become diluted. To stand out from the masses, you need to demonstrate your expertise and a webinar is a wonderful way to do that.

All that being said, this is not an opportunity to simply boast about how smart and wonderful you are or stand on your soapbox about why they should work with you or buy from you. This is a chance for you to be of service to others. No one is going to sign up for a sales pitch. They’re going to sign up to become educated.

No one is going to sign up for a sales pitch. They’re going to sign up to become educated.

Rather than doing a series of free consultations and individual meetings where you demonstrate 1-1 how well versed you are in your subject matter to the point that they choose to hire you, a webinar lets you do that to many people at the same time. Hello effective time management!

Now that you’ve seen the value of webinars, stick around next week for more info on how to actually create one.