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Have you ever considered holding a unique and fun business event for your target audience and customers? An event with engaging content, interactive exercises, and networking — all with the potential of improving your brand awareness, converting more leads into paying customers, and boosting revenue?

While the idea for and potential results of this event are great, you also may have thought, "... it’s impossible to host this event — our base of customers, colleagues, and members of our professional networks are spread out all over the world.”

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What if I told you that youcanhost this event and do so live withallof these people who are critical to your business’s success included?

You just need to host your event viawebinar.

What is a webinar?

Awebinaris an online video presentation, seminar, lecture, or workshop delivered via the internet. Typically, webinars are shared live, or in real-time, but they can also be recorded before being shared with audience members.

Whether or not a webinar is live, it must include an interactive element that allows viewers to participate, ask questions, make comments, or collaborate with the presenters and/ or hosts.

Let's review the typical anatomy of a webinar.

Elements of a Webinar

  • Main event
  • Host and presenter(s)
  • 与会者
  • 带相机和麦克风的台式计算机或笔记本电脑
  • Presentation (usually in the form of slides)
  • 互动元素供与会者参加(例如,调查,民意调查或讨论)
  • Webinar software (we’ll reviewsome of these options shortly)

What is the purpose of a webinar?

Webinars provide businesses with a way to host a digital, interactive event for members of their target audience and customers, no matter their location.

网络研讨会可用于提高转化,提高品牌知名度,increase revenue, and establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Webinar Benefits

网络研讨会是通过引人入胜的活动立即吸引许多目标受众的有效方法没有要求任何人在同一位置。

让我们更详细地研究其中一些好处。

1. Personalize your content and event.

Webinars are an easy way to create unique and personalized content for your brand. You can include a variety of presentation features in your webinar to enhance the experience for viewers and audience members. These include drawing tools, interactive activities, slides, surveys, chat, and more.

2. Stick to your budget.

Webinars are budget-friendly. Think about it this way: If you’re hosting an in-person event for your target audience and customers, you’ll likely have to rent out space, order food and drinks, purchase presentation equipment, and more.

If you have this event catered, you might need to organize wait staff and pay for clean up, too. Meanwhile, webinars are low cost and can even behosted for free.

3. Educate prospects and customers on your product of service.

网络研讨会是一种教育观众的简单方法。您可以选择解释产品或服务的好处,查看其功能和功能,甚至磨练它如何解决买方角色和现有客户的挑战。

4. Demonstrate your product or service.

In addition to educating your webinar attendees about your product or service, you can also provide an instructional demonstration on how your attendees can use or implement your product or service.

5. Establish yourself as a thought-leader in the industry.

By hosting webinars, you can establish yourself as a thought-leader in your industry. If you're regularly hosting educational webinars through which attendees are gaining actionable tips and learning from you and your guests, you'll be more likely to gain more authority in your industry.

6. Improve your brand awareness.

And speaking of establishing yourself in your industry, webinars are just another way of improving your brand awareness.

您可以通过此渠道将目标受众和角色瞄准目标受众,并鼓励观众与同行和同事分享您的网络研讨会或网络研讨会的邀请。

7. Boost conversions and revenue.

您可以将网络研讨会用作转换的来源,revenue. By establishing yourself as a thought-leaders, prospects will be more inclined to trust you and therefore, your product or service. Additionally, as you promote and share your webinar, your increased brand awareness will naturally lead to more conversions, too.

托管网络研讨会的另一个好处是,您可以选择最互补的目标以及您要实现的任何方法的格式。以下是其中一些格式,可以使您更好地了解我的意思。

1. Industry Expert Panel

Invite an industry expert — internal or external — to discuss their niche, or whatever it is they're known for. You'll attract your audience and the experts' audiences, too.

2. Interview

Host an interview with an internal or external thought-leader, a member of your team, a current and loyal customer, or even someone outside of your industry.

Think about the various topics your audience members want to hear about, and then find the right interviewer and interviewee for the discussion.

3. Product/ Service Pitch or Demo

为您的听众提供产品或服务的音调或演示,以清楚地向人们展示您出售的任何东西的好处和应用。

4. Q&A

Host a question and answer webinar between your brand and the audience. You might invite a member of your leadership board to host the Q&A and have employees (sales reps, service reps, marketers, product managers, etc.) sit in to answer questions that audience members have.

5. How To

Offer audience members an instructional how-to webinar — teach them how they can achieve a goal that many of your current customers have. Or, look to your buyer personas and review their challenges — choose one of those roadblocks and offer a how to that describes effective resolution.

6. Casual Chat

Whether it's with a member of your team or an external thought-leader, have a casual chat during your webinar. This way, audience members can tune in, sit back, and enjoy wherever the conversation naturally goes — and they can ask questions to spark new directions for that discussion.

7. Case Study

查看您过去的案例研究 - 哪一个最引人注目,或者在您的网站或社交平台上的看法最多?

Invite that client to come onto your webinar to talk about how your product or service resolved their challenges and why they're advocates for your brand. You may also allow time for Q&A at the end if you and your client choose to — this way, audience members can ask your loyal client any questions they may have.

Now that you have an idea about possible webinar formats, let's dive into how a webinar actually works.

The webinar should educate, demonstrate, instruct, or explain something to your attendees. Results of the webinar may include: your business being recognized as an industry expert, improving brand awareness, or boosting conversions and sales.

Whether or not your webinar is live, it shouldalwaysbe recorded. This way, you’ll have the recording for your files, future reference, and your website since webinars are often an excellent source ofevergreen content.

当您主持更多活动时,请通过资源库共享常绿的网络研讨会内容 - 类似于HubSpot’s Free Webinars library— on your website. Your site visitors, loyal customers, and team members will be able to easily reference your webinars in a central location.

A major part of understanding how a webinar works is also understanding associated best practices.

Webinar Best Practices

Let’s cover some webinartips and best practicesso your event is sure to be a success.

  • 选择一个有趣,风度翩翩且合格的主持人,以使您的听众对参加并在整个活动中引起注意力感到兴奋。
  • 确定网络研讨会将是生活or pre-recorded based on factors such as topic, presenters, industry, and audience.
  • Invite members of your target audience and your buyer personas to register (this will ensure your webinar content is shared with people it’ll be relevant and valuable to).
  • Clearly set and share the event’s date, time, and other logistics so attendees can log on, view, and participate without experiencing any roadblocks.
  • Stick to one major topic per webinar to avoid confusion and keep attendees engaged.
  • Establish a format for the webinar (e.g. panel, FAQ, single or multi-presenter, demonstration, interview, or discussion).
  • Complete a dry run (or several) before going live or recording the webinar.
  • Find the right webinar software for your specific business needs.
  • 给与会者参加大量时间。
  • Record and save your webinar —whether or not it’s shared live — to your webinar library.

Now,您如何实际录制网络研讨会? Let’s review the answer to that question next.

No matter how you decide to format your webinar, simply click Record when your event begins and Stop Recording when your event ends (or similar commands).

Speaking of webinar software, let’s look at some of your options. Your software is how you’llhost the webinar,与与会者分享,分析其绩效等等。

Webinar Software

网络研讨会软件提雷竞技苹果下载官方版供的功能可以简化托管活动的所有方面。有许多网络研讨会软件选雷竞技苹果下载官方版项available with a range of features and pricing options. Here are four options to get you started.

1. GoToWebinar

Gotowebinarsimplifies your event planning, promotion, engagement, and reporting. The software provides several webinar templates, custom registration, different presenter webcams, interactive surveys and polls, source tracking, and webinar analytics.

Note:Gotowebinarintegrates with your HubSpot CRM.

Cost:Gotowebinaroffers three plansstarting at $89 per month.

2. ClickMeeting Webinars

点击无论您的网络研讨会格式如何,都可以使托管和分享您的实时或预录事件(例如,会议,小组讨论,问答或产品演示)。该软件包雷竞技苹果下载官方版含一个功能,可以通过Facebook或YouTube直播您的活动以扩展受众。

Note:点击Webinars integrates with your HubSpot CRM.

Cost: ClickMeeting is free for your first 30 days, and then you can choose to upgrade to one of theirthree paid options, which start at $25 per month.

3.变焦

Depending on theZoomplan you choose, you can share your webinar with over 10,000 people at once. The software offers HD video and audio, live broadcasting features, reporting, and analytics. There are also various participant engagement tools such as chat, attendee-raise-hand, and polling to ensure your webinar is interactive.

Note:Zoom integrates with your HubSpot CRM.

Cost: Zoom has a freemium option in which you can host a discussion-based webinar event where everyone can see and interact with each other. If you choose one of theirpaid options, which start at $14.99 per month, you can host your webinar in any format (e.g. lecture-based, single presenter, or multi-presenter).

4. Easywebinar

EasyWebinar对于网络研讨会启动的任何人来说,这是一个不错的选择,因为该软件使用户通过五步广告系列过程来确保事件成功。雷竞技苹果下载官方版它包括客户跟踪工具,以了解更多有关您的与会者以及您的内容与他们相关的信息。EasyWebinar与WordPress和YouTube集成,因此您可以在目标受众和现有客户之间扩展覆盖范围。

Cost: There are三层of EasyWebinar which start at $78 per month.

How to Host a Webinar for Free

To host a webinar — and do sofor free— you’ll need to combine all of the elements we’ve reviewed above. You might think about the following five steps to hosting a webinar for free as your网络研讨会策略.

1. Choose free webinar software.

The first step in hosting your webinar requires you to choose software that suits your specific needs. We reviewed somepopular examples above, but for more options that are easier on your budget, take a look at这些免费的网络研讨会工具.

2. Invite your target audience to register for and attend your event.

邀请的人的时候了register for and attendyour webinar. When you invite these members of your contact list and network to register, likely via email, clearly indicate the date and time of your event. This way they’ll know if they’re available or if they need to make time on their calendars to attend.

3. Send a confirmation email to anyone who’s registered to attend.

接下来,确认已注册的每个参与者的网络研讨会注册已完成。您可以通过将注册人发送到新的着陆页及其确认详细信息来做到这一点。另一种选择是在完成注册后不久将后续电子邮件发送给与会者。

无论哪种方式,都可以在您的确认消息中包含有关参与网络研讨会所需的设备的详细信息,例如带有稳定Wi-Fi,扬声器,麦克风和相机的笔记本电脑。您还可以提供有关主持人或网络研讨会的交互元素的信息,以使与会者感到兴奋。

4.如果预先录制的网络研讨会是现场直播或“观看”,请提供与会者“加入”的链接。

您在Webinar之前做的最重要的事情之一是提供有关与会者将如何参加或观看活动的明确指示。例如,您可能包括一个链接JoinorWatchyour webinar on the confirmation landing page or in the follow-up email we mentioned above.

5. Set expectations for webinar participation.

Again, webinars must be interactive in some way. Set these expectations early on, and have your presenters reiterate them at the beginning of the event, so everyone is on the same page. If your event is live, facilitate participation and discussion throughout the event or set aside time for discussion and Q&A at the end.

If your event is pre-recorded, set a window of time after the webinar has been shared for attendees to send in questions. Then, presenters can either record or type their responses and send them back to the corresponding attendee.

6.主持网络研讨会,然后与与会者进行跟进。

It’s time to host your event! Explain the agenda to attendees at the beginning of the webinar so they know what to expect. (This is also a great time to reiterate those expectations for participation we mentioned above.)

Don’t forget to review all other details, like follow-up communication, any further inquiries, future webinars you’re hosting, and how attendees can learn more about your business. Feel free to email this information to your attendee contact list post-webinar so they can review it in greater detail later on.

Reach Your Target Audience With Webinars

Webinars have the power to propel you towards becoming a thought-leader and expert in your industry. They can also help you improve brand awareness, reach your target audience and buyer personas, and boost conversions. Determine which webinar software is right for your business, keep the best practices we reviewed in mind, and begin hosting your online events.

编者按:这篇文章最初发表in October, 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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最初发布于9月2日,2020年7:30:00 AM,更新于9月2日2020年

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