Like many of you reading this, I would much rather read an email or visit a website to learn about a product or service than talk directly to a salesperson. And forget about meeting a sales representative in person.
Nothing against salespeople—I was one myself at one time. We will truly never be able to replace salespeople in the sales process, but we need to adapt to the reality that most buyers aren't ready to talk with salespeople early in the buying journey. Yet we need to be present at the early stages of the buying journey. We need to give our marketing a real voice in order to build trust and deepen relationships that will lead to an in-person sales discussion.
It's often been said that people do business with people they know, like and trust, and I wholeheartedly agree. The challenge we have as marketers is how best to get people to know and like us and our company's products and services—and more importantly, how to trust us.
Some of the most popular methods of communication that marketers use to help us get to know, like and trust a a company are videos, podcasts and webinars.
Let's look at a few distinctions between videos, podcasts and webinars to see why webinars are becoming so popular.
Lead Generation
What sets most webinars apart from videos or podcasts is that prospects typically sign up to attend a webinar, whereas they can watch videos or listen to podcasts with no signups. And you have no way of following up with video viewers or podcast listeners.
Audio and Video
While podcasts only offer audio, videos and webinars offer both a visual and auditory experience which can be more effective for certain types of learners. Similar to videos, webinars offer a nice blend of video (most webinars are recorded for viewing after the webinar) and audio, as the presenters discuss and provide information to the attendees.
The Best Mix for Your Company
In a perfect world, with unlimited marketing budgets and time, marketers would do it all. However, with down-to-earth budgets and time constraints, its best to choose a mix of videos, podcasts, and webinars that your team can handle in-house or make a decision to outsource to a marketing firm. In choosing the right mix for your company, it's important to take into consideration the fact that creating and editing videos and podcasts can take a lot of time. Webinars allow for a less technical solution while offering the potential to generate more leads.
If generating sales leads and creating a voice for your company is important to your team's success, webinars should certainly be in the conversation when setting budgets and determining your marketing strategy. How better to get your best people in front of dozens or hundreds of prospects at a time and helping people learn to know and trust your brand?
