5 Small Business Benefits of Hosting a Webinar

In order to reach potential and existing customers and generate revenue, it is critical for your small business to have an effective content marketing strategy in place. In this digital age, creating and hosting webinars is an important method to include in your content marketing process. Webinars make it possible for your small business to engage with your current and potential prospects and offer a variety of benefits. Keep reading to discover five small business benefits of hosting a webinar.

1. Cost-Effective Communication

Hosting a webinar is one of the most cost-effective marketing tactics for small businesses. Expenses for one-on-one meetings, in-person seminars, networking events, and other travel to grow your network and boost sales can quickly add up. Hosting webinars on a regular basis allows you to maintain and grow your network without spending an excess amount of money on unnecessary travel, booking a facility, etc.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the popularity of webinars increased drastically as they replaced more traditional in-person meetings. But even more so, it opened people up more than ever to the concept of virtual meetings, virtual networking events, and webinars.

2. Build Strong Business Relationships

For small businesses, building strong, lasting business relationships is essential. By hosting webinars, you can take the time to properly introduce your small business, products, and/or services to your target audience, current customers, suppliers, and potential partners. Webinars allow you to make a lasting impression, encouraging stronger business relationships to be made.

Additionally, hosting regular webinars on important and timely topics for which your expertise is coveted is an excellent way to stay relevant and provide value for your current clientele. It’s easy to neglect your current clients for the sake of winning over “new” customers. However, hosting regular webinars can serve as a touch point to stay in contact with your current clients which improves the relationship and can increase future sales.

3. Obtain and Address Customer Feedback

In order to make the best decisions and innovations for your small business, customer feedback is crucial. Webinars give your small business a unique opportunity to obtain and address customer feedback regarding your products and services, enabling you to better serve your customers and generate sales.

For example, if your company is launching a new product line and building out your web page and marketing materials to advertise the product, you do not always know exactly what will resonate best with your audience. However, if you conduct a webinar introducing your new product, questions and feedback will likely arise that can be used to flesh out what content or even FAQ’s should be added to your marketing materials.

4. Create Partnerships

Note that you do not have to host a webinar alone. In fact, hosting a webinar with a partnering (complementary) company can be a perfect opportunity to increase both your exposure and that of the webinar co-host. You essentially double your potential audience, as well as benefit from cross-promotion and increased credibility of more than one expert.

Additionally, there are a lot of third-party associations that typically are looking for experts to speak on niche topics that pertain to their audience. Those are a perfect opportunity for a partnership and to get your brand in front of a completely new audience.

5. Establish Authority

To improve your search engine rankings and increase traffic, it is important for your small business to establish authority. Creating and hosting webinars filled with valuable information and answers to common questions is an excellent way for you to establish yourself as an authority in your industry.

Additionally, when you host a webinar and promote it correctly, you often will find that others may share out your webinar details on social media or even on a website which, in turn, can create powerful social signals and backlinks which can boost your SEO efforts.

Contact Our Marketing Experts

At Igniting Business, our marketing experts are here to help you create a content marketing strategy that works for your small business. For more webinar tips, to learn more about our content marketing services, or to schedule a complimentary consultation, don’t hesitate to contact our team today!

Need Recommendations for Software to Host Your Next Webinar?

There are numerous software platforms that make hosting both virtual meetings and webinars an absolute breeze. Each platform comes with various different features and functionalities. Two of our favorite platforms are Zoho Meeting and Microsoft Teams.

• Zoho Meeting is created by Zoho which offers a plethora of different powerful applications and software packages for running your business. Included in those packages are two software suites called Zoho Meeting (geared for day-to-day virtual meetings and webinars) and Zoho Showtime (geared towards webinars and training sessions). The advantage with Zoho is that you can integrate their webinar and meeting software easily with various other Zoho apps including their world-class CRM.
• Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams is the standard platform from Microsoft for both individual meetings and webinars. Teams directly integrates with Microsoft 365's other products and presents a very smooth platform for both meetings and webinars. Note that you can also purchase Teams separately if you don't use Micsoft 365, and there is even a free version of Teams with some limits on functionality.
  Additionally, if you're already using Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Teams is likely already included in your package at no additional charge. 

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