10 Reasons Smart Companies Use Webinars For Lead Gen [Infographic]

webinars for lead generation
Leads are good. More leads are better.

You’re smart right? You host regular webinars that collect a boatload of leads. I guess you can stop reading then. But if you don’t, I have 10 reasons why you should.

Okay, I lied. There aren’t 10 reasons. But what I do have is even better…

  • 5 reasons why you should use webinars for lead gen
  • 5 ways to do it really well

Quick, dirty and simple. Here’s the lowdown…

5 reasons why you *should* use webinars for lead gen

  1. Strong Intent: If someone signs up for your webinar they already have a level of respect for either you or your company. This is something you can leverage over time to convert them into customers, as they have an inherent interest in what you do.
  2. More information than most lead gen: Because of the perceived value of listening to a subject matter expert talk about (hopefully) new and relevant theories, people are more willing to part with more of their personal data. But it’s not really personal. Instead, they are giving up corporate information, removing a big barrier while at the same time giving you an *in* with the company.
  3. They are free: Free learning? Sign me up. I’ll use my boss’s email…
  4. Partnerships: A great lead generation strategy is to partner with another company (providing double value to the listener). Before the webinar you will email your own customers to attend, and by virtue of the partnership you’ll benefit from two things:
    1. Access to the other company’s customers: You immediately have a new list of customers to market to.
    2. Accidental word of mouth: Your own customers will often ask questions related to your product during the webinar, which is essentially a word of mouth tactic that provides social proof to the non-customers listening.
  5. No geographical boundaries: People can sign up from anywhere in the world, extending your reach. You can then market to these people who will help spread the word in new geographic locations.

5 ways to do webinar lead gen *better*

  1. Show registrant count: Social proof gets talked about a lot, but this is the ultimate demonstration of herd mentality. 8,000 people have registered for this webinar? Holy Batman, I need to get in on this. See? Sheep.
  2. Urgency: Hurry up is good, but if you’ve ever tried leading 12 people to a company lunch, you know how hard/annoying it is. This is where urgency comes in, and it’s closely related to the last point. If you set a maximum number of ‘virtual’ seats, then people will be more inclined to sign up because they don’t want to miss out. No one likes to be left out of something cool. (If your webinar isn’t cool, then…)
  3. What’s next? Add a calendar of upcoming webinars to your site to show you are consistently edumacating (entertaining and educating). This can get you advance sign ups that you can market to on the lead up to the main event. Suggesting webinars happening in the interim, or just sending them some great content as a reminder of how useful you are.
  4. Share free content: Following along with the last point, you want to share free content such as ebooks with the people who register to make them *better* leads. Tip: Pre populate the email field on a landing page for an ebook download (coming straight from a link from in your email to a registrant). This way you can place them in different buckets or groups in your email list, facilitating smarter segmentation in the future. For example, you can email details of another webinar to people that registered for your first one. Likewise, you can email people that downloaded an ebook with more ebooks.
  5. Follow up: Send an email to your webinar registrants right after the event with a recording. Also include links to free content closely related to the webinar they just watched. They’ll love it.

Oh, and there’s an infographic, full of stats about webinars. #luckyyou

World Wide Webinars
Infographic by clickmeeting.com – Click for full size image.

— Oli Gardner

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About Oli Gardner
Unbounce co-founder Oli Gardner has seen more landing pages than anyone on the planet. He’s obsessed with identifying and reversing bad marketing practices, and his disdain for marketers who send campaign traffic to their homepage is legendary, resulting in landing page rants that can peel paint off an unpainted wall. A prolific international keynote speaker, Oli is on a mission to rid the world of marketing mediocrity by using data-informed copywriting, design, interaction, and psychology to create a more delightful experience for marketers and customers alike. He was recently named the "The 2018 Marketer to Watch," in the under 46 category, by his mother.
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