You may have heard that offering a free webinar to your audience of prospects is a great way to increase your sales.
Webinars are becoming increasingly popular.
Many businesses use webinars to build a community and reach entirely new markets around the world.
But how exactly does a webinar help increase your profits?
Supercharge Your Content Marketing Efforts
The webinar is an essential part of your marketing strategy.
It is a form of Content Marketing.
The idea behind content marketing is that you offer your audience free content – with no strings attached.
This helps you build a relationship with your audience.
Offering free, informative content also positions you as a friendly, trusted authority on your subject area.
Because the content is free, it attracts a large number of leads into your sales funnel.
When you offer real solutions to a specific problem, you will build a solid relationship with your audience.
Then later, when you pitch products and services to them, they’ll be much more likely to buy.
How to Monetise Your Webinars
There are a few ways you can earn directly through your webinar if you choose to do so.
One is to charge people a fee for signing up.
However, keep in mind that the market is overflowing with free content and educational opportunities.
You’ll have to market your webinar extremely well in order to drive home the unique value you offer.
You also may not get as much exposure as you would with a free event.
Another way to earn through your webinar is to pitch products at some point during the presentation.
While teaching your participants how to do something, you can talk about products you offer, or recommend, that are relevant to the topic.
You can also use your webinar as an extended advertisement for paid educational opportunities.
For example, offer a month-long course that goes deep into a specific topic.
You can then take one part of that topic and offer it as a free webinar to give people a taste of what the full course covers.
How to Earn Money from a Free Webinar
Play the long game.
The best way to get the most out of running a webinar is to offer it free of charge and free of advertisements or other monetisation.
If you think strategically and place this content within your overall marketing mix, you can use it to boost your sales.
Here are some best practices for doing this.
Tie Your Webinar Content in with Your Products.
Create a webinar that tackles a certain problem your audience faces that your products can solve.
You can teach your participants how to resolve the issue themselves, but also offer products and services that will help them solve the problem more easily.
Offer True Value to Your Audience.
Pack as much value into your free webinar as you possibly can.
If attendees feel they’ve received great value from your content, they’ll come to know, like and trust you.
This trust is valuable if you want them to buy products from you whenever they need help.
Like and Subscribe to Keep in Touch.
Always end your webinars with ways people can keep in touch with you.
Use those channels of communication to stay on their radar.
The more you create opportunities to stay in touch, the more likely they’ll buy from you.
Offer Incentives.
Offer incentives that are exclusive to your webinar participants as a way of saying thanks.
This could be a discount, access to exclusive content, or anything else you think they could use.
Pay It Forward
The whole idea behind content marketing is to pay it forward with genuine help and education for your audience.
Lend your expertise and experience to help people solve their problems.
There’s no need to push products and services on them at every turn.
If you build a strong relationship through your webinar and other content, they’ll buy from you when they’re ready.
