Online Lead Generation with Webinars

Online Lead Generation with Webinars

Webinars are a great way to generate leads and position yourself as an expert in your field. Attendees who fall within your target market and are not job seekers or consultants are potentially valuable leads because they have an interest in your product or service.

Before embarking on a webinar, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you know exactly how many leads must be generated to achieve your revenue goal for the campaign?
• What topics are of interest or value to my target market, especially those topics that I can position myself as an expert?
• What is the invitation and promotion strategy?
• What is the plan to track and follow up with responders?
• What date and time is optimal? Consider this question carefully if you plan to invite people from different time zones.

Let’s tackle the first question. Start from the end and work backwards. First calculate the number of deals you need to close to make your company’s revenue goal. From there, determine the number of qualified leads you need to generate and then establish the number of suspects/responders who will likely convert into qualified leads. Finally, calculate the size of the list you need to produce the desirable number of responders.

For example, assuming you need to close 10 deals from the webinar to meet your revenue goal, the following calculations apply:

• If your close rate is 25%, you’ll need four qualified leads for every closed deal. In this case you’ll need 40 qualified leads.
• If 25% of people who respond to your campaign typically convert into a qualified lead, then you’ll need to generate four times as many responders. In this case you’ll need 160 responders.
• If your response rate is 2%, you’ll need a list of 8,000 to get to 160 responders.

The success or failure of your webinar depends upon the value of the content. The content must supply a compelling answer to the question your target market will ask: “What’s in it for me?” and “Why should I give up an hour of my time?”

An educational, soft sales approach is ideal for delivering content. Talking about the problem or pain felt by your target market is an excellent beginning. This approach shows the audience that you understand their business and the threats and opportunities it faces. Follow up with a discussion of the solution your product or service provides. Using a specific case study, in which an actual customer talks about how your product and service drove successful results, followed by a question-and-answer session, is the best format.