Live Webinar or Record and Upload for Later Use?

Webinars are fast becoming the trend in marketing due to various reasons. For one, webinars have greater reach than the usual on-site seminars. A company wanting to promote its products and services can use these web-based seminars to spread the news to potential customers anywhere where there is internet. Another reason is that webinars are definitely cheaper than other traditional methods of marketing giving companies huge savings that can utilized for operational costs for example.

Webinars can either be live or prerecorded with each type having its advantages and disadvantages. The choice of which type of webinar does not necessarily have an effect on the results of the marketing campaign. With proper study of the targeted audience, a company would realize that each type would work in certain cases. As such, a combination of both types in the marketing strategy would do well for the campaign.

A live webinar boasts of spontaneity and interactivity. In this type, a speaker can easily capture and maintain the interest of the audience. Its spontaneous nature allows for some necessary adjustments as the need arises. Plus, the speaker can easily insert some humor or an interactive exercise when he notices that he is losing the attention of his audience. Furthermore, this type gives more opportunities for interaction among the participants and the speaker unlike recorded webinars. Questions and concerns can immediately be addressed even during the middle of the webinar.

There are a couple of disadvantages of live webinars one of which is that there is more room for errors and glitches. An important detail might be missed like a set of visuals or a technical problem might occur while the webinar is going on. Furthermore, there are times when people who register for the event are not available at the last minute which could make you miss your targeted number of audience.

A prerecorded webinar’s advantage, on the other hand, lies in the opportunity that it gives to the company to give a perfectly designed and delivered webinar. Unfortunately, this where the waterloo of prerecorded webinars also lie because an audience have high expectations for this type, thus, errors would not be easily forgiven by the audience. One other benefit of this type of webinar is that unlike its live counterpart where the audience has to convene in the virtual conference room in a specific schedule set by the company regardless of their time zone, the audience could view the webinar at a time convenient to them.

How to Pitch Your Product during the Webinar

If you are intending to use webinars as your primary marketing tool, you might have been advised that one of the errors you can make in hosting a webinar is to make it into an infomercial about your product. Covertly selling your product during the webinar might turn your audience off especially when the content of the presentation is entirely focused on the product. On the other hand, not mentioning or emphasizing the product at all would give you the sales results that you want. What you need to do is to create a balance between the informational and promotional aspects of the webinar.

To achieve this balance, there are several considerations that you would have to think about in conceptualizing the webinar. The first one is time. You should remember that your sales pitch must not overshadow your goal of giving something of value to your audience. Thus, in a webinar that lasts for about one hour, 45 minutes should be spent teaching and the remaining 15 minutes should be allotted for the promotional part. If you go beyond this, you might not be able to establish the rapport that you need with your audience.

While this time assignment is ideal, there is no assurance that you would be able to sell your products by following it. This leads us to the second consideration in achieving that balance in your webinar. What would actually sell your product is how you present it. A good sales pitch would include a detailed explanation of what your product is, testimonials from people who actually bought the product and were benefited by the product and, of course, how and where they could buy your product. You must also be able to give credible answers to the questions from the audience about your product.

Another important consideration if you really want to achieve your sales target is for you to be able to establish a need for the product in the informational part of the webinar. You should be able to present the rationale why they have to buy your product. Once you have done this, it will be easier for you to promote it since their minds have already been set to look for their options to answer the need that you created.