Remember when podcasts came out of nowhere and became the “next big thing”?
Maybe your company even temporarily went crazy for video content.
Well it’s no surprise that these channels have fully merged into one of the surging marketing trends of the year: webinars.
Sure, they’ve been around for years in various forms, so why are they taking off now?
First of all, they used to be pretty boring (let’s face it). The name itself reminds people of “seminars,” which is enough to put even the most enthusiastic customer or client to sleep.
(And seriously, does anyone even refer to the internet as the “web” anymore? Yikes!)
However, technology has come a long way, and that’s enabled savvy marketers and communicators to embrace the format and make it into something new and exciting. In fact, tech developers are climbing over each other to produce the newest and most efficient software for creating, hosting, and sharing webinars.
Plus, as stated above, it’s a great way to combine two features that modern audiences have really been enjoying in recent years: podcasts and videos. It’s an entertaining way to consume informative content; however, webinars are often interactive, as well. With live webinars, participants can often engage with the knowledgeable hosts. That’s a step up from one-way social media.
Of course, there’s a place for on-demand webinars, as well. Recorded content is especially useful for marketers because it attracts new eyes to their brands and allows them to track what topics are most popular. This content can be shared anytime.
Registrations and subscriptions to webinars are valuable means of lead generation; you can learn a lot about your core audience by seeing who’s signing up to participate. You might be missing out on an important demographic who shows up to consume your content but hasn’t previously interacted with your brand.
Of course, webinars do take a lot of resources—just like podcasts and videos do. So they’re not for everyone, although they can really pay off for some. (Plus, they can be really fun.)
In our next blog, we’ll discuss tips to create popular webinars that actually make sense for your products and services.
If you’ve already made up your mind and want to get started, please ask how we can help!