Webinars Give You a Competitive Edge in Marketing by Gihan Perera

Many businesses are using webinars now to promote new products and services. That's good - and worthwhile - but there are other marketing benefits of webinars as well. Here are six more ideas for using webinars to give your business a competitive edge.

1. Value-added loyalty

If you're looking for ways to reward your best and most loyal clients, put on a webinar for them. Webinars are a low-cost high-value way to keep in touch. You provide a valuable service (not just a "just keeping in touch" phone call, which can be an annoying intrusion more than a useful gesture) and demonstrate your on-going value to them.

You don't even have to put on a new webinar for them. If you're already conducting webinars for other reasons, it's easy to invite those loyal clients to attend.

2. Expose value in marketing

In a similar way to the previous point, webinars are an excellent tool for exposing prospective clients to the value you offer. Because they have such a low marginal cost (in other words, it costs nothing to have another attendee on the webinar), why not invite a few key prospective clients to attend every webinar you conduct?

3. Market research

Use webinars not only to deliver material, but also to discover what material is of most interest to your market.

For example, if you're planning to write a book on some area of your expertise, conduct a free webinar beforehand, where you present something of value on this topic, but also take the opportunity to ask your audience to tell you their most pressing questions. In this way, you do your market research before you write the book, which of course means the finished product will be more attractive and compelling to readers.

4. Vertical servicing

One of the keys of successful niche marketing is to stop looking for new clients for your services, and start looking for new services for your clients. For us as experts, this means finding other experts who have valuable information to share with our existing clients, audiences and members.

Put yourself in your client's shoes. Your business is just one small part of their life. What else do they need in their business and their life? When you know this, invite guest experts to present webinars for you. They get exposure to new clients, and you serve your clients better.

5. Joint venture opportunities

Taking this a step further, if you're currently involved in any joint venture partnerships, you can use a webinar to introduce your joint venture partners to your network, and vice versa.

This is an important step in the trust-building process. Unless your partners are hidden in the background and don't need to be known by your network, people will want to know who you're working with. They trust you, so that helps them trust your partners; but introducing the partners to them increases that trust level further.

To introduce your partners, conduct a webinar together with them. You could interview them, they could interview you, or you could make a presentation together. It doesn't have to be as slick and free-flowing as your normal presentations. People want to know they're dealing with real people.

6. Product support

Webinars are ideal for after-sales product support - especially for complex and sophisticated products.

For example, if you have a membership site, run a regular webinar teaching your members how to get the most out of the site. This gives them an overview, helps them focus on the value you've created for them, and allows you to answer their specific questions.


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