How Hosting Webinars Can Improve Client Retention
Creating proper technical documents and training videos to educate your customers is an important component in your business model. But, your efforts shouldn’t be a one-time deal. Offering ongoing opportunities for customer support and learning could be what sets your company apart from the competition.
Because webinars are an online-based form of learning, individuals can attend from anywhere, making them convenient for customers. If your business product or service requires education or training for customers, consider hosting webinars. While webinars may not be as personal as one-on-one training, they may be able to help your goals by allowing you to educate customers with ease, connect with customers more directly and establish your authority as a local industry expert.
1. Educate with Ease
Hosting a webinar is simple; all you need is a strong internet connection and access to a hosting service, such as Adobe Connect. There are plenty of additional platforms perfect for hosting webinars that you can choose from, making it a simple and efficient method for connecting with and educating your customer base. Tip: If you’re not concerned with publicizing your content, try a Facebook or Youtube Live Stream, encouraging viewers to interact with “likes” and “comments.”
While there are often costs associated with creating an account for various webinar hosting platforms, free options are available to take advantage of as you get started and grow your audience. Depending on which platform you choose to work with, your costs will vary, but it is nothing compared to what you’d spend traveling to various locations around the state – or even nationally and internationally. The only additional cost incurred by your company would be spent in time spent preparing for and hosting the webinar. However, if you incorporate webinars into your workflow regularly, you will be able to more effectively analyze the cost and benefit over time.
2. Connect with Customers
An added bonus of hosting webinars is gaining the opportunity to connect directly with your customers. Generally speaking, attendees of a certain webinar topic all have a common interest, which gives you the perfect opportunity to collect focused feedback. If you’ve got a new product or service you’d like to gather input on, incorporating a questionnaire component into the webinar is a great method for measuring responses.
Another important benefit to connecting directly with customers is that you can address questions and concerns head-on and with transparency. In addition to helping your customers succeed, directly responding to concerns can help boost your reputation and credibility as an organization. Plus, by encouraging participation, you may receive a question or comment you weren’t anticipating, sparking an idea for a follow-up webinar.
3. Establish Your Authority
Humble bragging is the bread and butter of smart business men looking to bring in new customers. In today’s digital culture, widely establishing yourself as an expert is best done online. You have the opportunity to use current and emerging technologies to establish yourself as a thought leader on various topics. For example, a financial adviser might host a webinar titled “Preparing a Budget and Sticking to It!” The idea is to give away some of your competitive secrets to further establish your business as the most knowledgeable on the topic, deepening the trust needed to bring in new clients and retain existing ones.
Give Enterprise Iowa a Call to Plan an Effective Webinar Strategy
Whether you offer a product that requires customer training or want to establish your organization as an industry expert, webinars can be a hugely effective strategy. While making technical documentation and video training available can be beneficial, webinars offer a level of direct connection with clients that can really make your organization stand out. However, there are a lot of business leaders who are camera shy or simply too inexperienced and insecure to take the leap into these live training.
If you work for an organization interested in expanding into the field of webinar-based training but don’t know how to begin, give our team a call. We can provide you with information, guidance and support as you branch out into this new technological venture.
