Have you ever listened to a webinar? For a long time, I was so busy watching YouTube videos (about my niche) and listening to podcasts that I never paid attention to webinars. With more people hosting their own webinars and getting listeners, it is hard to ignore hosting your own webinars as a powerful way to grow your business.
You may want to know what a webinar is before you dive in. A webinar is a conversation between you and another person about something relevant in your niche, and callers can come in and ask questions. Webinars are kind of like radio interviews with callers asking questions in the middle of an interview that anyone on the panel can answer. If you host your own webinar, you would let your guest answer the questions so that guest can share her expertise to your audience. If you are on a webinar, you would answer the questions so you could share your expertise to a new audience.
Webinars are highly beneficial for your business’ growth and making more connections. If you aren’t convinced to run your own webinar yet, here are five reasons to start.
#1: More Subscribers
The best marketers make it a requirement for listeners to enter their email addresses. Most people won’t mind entering an email address to see a webinar because at this point, entering your email address comes naturally. If you are like most people, then you have entered your email address in hundreds of different forms.
Getting your listeners to subscribe to your email list gives you a way to nurture relationships after the webinar ends and get long-term sales. When I was on my first webinar, it got over 100 listeners who entered their email addresses to get access to the webinar. I don’t know how many subscribers the host gets every day, but getting 100 subscribers in one day from one webinar is a job well done.
Imagine if you were the person getting hundreds of subscribers by hosting one webinar. Imagine if you hosted one webinar every month, so you would get the same results every month. For some people, getting 1,200 subscribers every year from webinars alone is more than the number of subscribers they get with all of their other methods put together. You want subscribers; the money is in the list.
#2: You Get To Personally Know Other Experts In Your Niche
Did you know that highly successful people are very open to getting interviewed? I almost never say no to an interview, and most experts share the same opinion about getting interviewed. Experts are inclined to say yes because getting interviewed means more exposure, and who nowadays doesn’t want more exposure which leads into traffic and sales? Whether an interview gets under 10 extra visitors or hundreds of extra visitor to the expert’s blog, that expert is getting more traffic and being seen in different places on the big web.
When an expert says yes and goes on your webinar, you will build a stronger relationship with that expert in your niche. If this expert repeatedly comes back on webinars, blog post interviews, and podcasts, the relationship between you and that expert will be strong, and if your listeners enjoyed the first webinar with you and that expert, they’ll enjoy the other one as well.
Knowing the successful experts and building strong relationships may lead to joint ventures later down the road. At the very least, the experts you interview on your webinar will take the time to promote that webinar to their audience. Some of your listeners will be people who knew about the expert but didn’t know who you were until they listened to the webinar. These people may have not known you before, but they’ll know you now.
#3: You Get To Learn From Other Experts In Your Niche
When you host a webinar with an expert in your niche, you get to ask the questions at the beginning of the interview and choose the topic of discussion. In some of the interviews I have with other people, I ask them to talk about things I already know very well. However, in several of the interviews I have had, I ask people to talk about topics that I didn’t know as much about at the time. That way, I learn more about a topic while providing an expert with more exposure.
If you are ever interviewed on a webinar, podcast, or Google+ Hangout (or if you have been in the past), don’t think that the interviewer is listening to what you say without a pen and paper in hand. The interviewer may have control over the conversation and which callers get through, but the interviewer wants to learn new things too. In my opinion, these are the best types of interviews. Interviewers ask questions that they want the answers to, and in many cases, this creates a higher value webinar in which listeners who have the same questions get to hear the answers.
[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1wgUHPQ”]Hosting your own webinar allows you to empower your audience and learn from others at the same time.[/tweetthis]
#4: More Product Sales
At the end of many webinars, a product gets special attention. On my first webinar, my Twitter products received attention. At the end of a webinar you host, you can promote a guest’s product with your affiliate link. If you can squeeze it in, promote one of your products, but don’t take the spotlight away from your guest. Some guests may return and do another webinar with you, but only if they were happy with the experience the first time. The same guests doing webinars with you multiple times leads to more exposure, and as both of your audiences grow, both of you can promote the webinar so it reaches more people. For you and the guest, this leads to more email subscribers.
#5: Credibility
There is something special about being able to say that you interview experts in your niche. Although he doesn’t host webinars as often, Pat Flynn hosts one of the most successful podcasts to date, and he has had the honor of interviewing several high names in various niches. The people who get on Pat Flynn’s podcast also feel the honor of being selected to be guests on the podcast. You get credibility and the guest gets credibility. It’s a win-win.
In Conclusion
Webinars have emerged from an unknown way to promote yourself to highly beneficial and effective ways to reach a new audience while engaging with the audience you have already built. Many experts are more than willing to be on webinars regardless of whether you get a few dozen visitors every month or a few thousand visitors every month. It never hurts to ask an expert if he would like to be on your webinar. The worst thing an expert can do is say no.
What are your thoughts on webinars? Have you been a guest on a webinar or hosted one recently? Please share your thoughts and advice about webinars below.
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