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Why Should You Offer Webinars In Your Business?

Guest post by: Gihan Perera

Article Overview: The two most obvious benefits of webinars are the savings in time and expenses - for both you and your participants. Everything is done from the comfort of your home or office; and the same applies for your audience. But webinars offer more - much more.

Why Should You Offer Webinars In Your Business?

A "webinar" is a presentation delivered over the Web rather than face to face (i.e. Web + seminar). Webinars are the hot new way to deliver information, especially in this time of climate change awareness, corporate cost-cutting, emphasis on lifestyle and global access.

The two most obvious benefits of webinars are the savings in time and expenses - for both you and your participants. Everything is done from the comfort of your home or office; and the same applies for your audience.

But webinars offer more - much more. In fact, here are twenty-one other benefits of webinars.

1. No geographical boundaries: You can reach the world, not just your own town, city or country.
2. Build loyalty with existing clients: It's an easy, low-cost leveraged way to add value and maintain your relationship.
3. Invite prospects to attend: It's a low-cost way to give them an experience of you before they "buy" you.
4. Run it with small numbers: You don't have to worry about getting minimum numbers to manage venues, handouts, catering and the like.
5. Run it with large numbers: Again, you don't have to worry about finding and booking a suitable venue, managing catering, allowing for parking, arranging the room, printing (or carrying!) enough handouts, and the like.
6. Record it to create instant products: Many webinar services have a recording feature built in, so recording your webinar is a breeze. You can then turn that recording into a product - typically a DVD, video podcast or on-line video.
7. Give people more access to you: A webinar is a low-cost way to interact with many people at the same time, while still offering great value.
8. Point of difference: Few infopreneurs are using them; and even fewer are using them well. You can stand out by adding them to your service mix.
9. Make a difference: Because of the global possibilities, you can reach people beyond your borders. And because of the low cost, you can reach people who wouldn't be able to afford your other services.
10. Do market research: Before each webinar, survey the attendees to discover their biggest questions, concerns, challenges and aspirations about your topic. This becomes invaluable market research for you, not just for the webinar itself but for your business in general.
11. Test out new material: Because there's less visual focus on you than in other presentation modes, you don't have to spend as much time on stage presence. Instead, you can focus on the content, structure and flow. You can test new material and ask for feedback. You can even use copious notes, mind maps and other speaker aids, because you're presenting from the privacy of your office.
12. Live access for members-only site: If you run a membership site, it's easy to lose the personal connection, which might have been the reason they signed up in the first place. One way to get back that personal connection, and still do it in a leveraged way, is through webinars.
13. Provide product support: Use webinars to answer customer questions, explain how they can use the product more effectively, and get feedback for future enhancements.
14. Supplement live events: Some webinars will replace live events, while others supplement them. For example, if you run a training program, it's easy to offer a follow-up webinar for participants, say, 90 days later.
15. Expose your database to guest experts: You don't have to be the star of all your webinars. It's the ideal format for you to bring in a guest presenter - somebody who serves the same market, but with a different area of expertise.
16. Expose joint venture partners to your database: If you have a strong database and you know somebody else with a product ideally suited for that database, bring them in as a guest on a webinar. Because of the personal interaction, this is more effective than, say, just promoting their product in your newsletter or on your Web site.
17. Easy to offer as a bonus / incentive: Offer webinar "seats" to anybody for any reason - for example, as a bonus for somebody who buys a product by a certain date; or an incentive for clients to make a booking before the end of the financial year.
18. Short lead time: Because the logistics of webinars are so simple, you don't have to plan them months in advance.
19. Develop an on-line arm to your business: You become less committed to face-to-face presentations, giving you more opportunities for travel, leisure time and flexibility in your work flow.
20. Replace high-cost face-to-face presentations in a tough economy: You can retain clients who would have otherwise cancelled bookings.
21. Remain competitive: You manage the threat of other experts delivering your message to your clients over the Internet, which means you remain competitive in this "flat" world.

With all these benefits, why aren't you adding webinars to your service offerings?

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Article Tags: webinars



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