Types of Webinars and Software Solutions for Hosting in 2022

Digital marketing is in a constant state of evolution. Email marketing and paid advertisements aren’t enough to generate new leads in 2022. If you’re not already leveraging webinars in your marketing strategy, it’s time to make the move. Webinars are online seminars that can bring people in and improve a business by “showing not telling” customers something of value. Of course, email marketing, social posts, and pay-per-click ads are tools that can and should be used to promote a webinar.

Similar to finding the sweet spot for social media posting, webinar hosting has a rhyme and reason to the finer strategic details. Different types of webinars will provide value to different customers and prospects, while different software and hosting platforms may appeal to different businesses or industries.

Webinars open up a whole new world of opportunity, and they can be used to accomplish business goals, bring in leads, speak to different audiences, and above all provide value. This is what puts one business above the rest in terms of thought-leadership and brand impact. 

Use webinars to accomplish business goals

Webinar marketing drives leads to a landing page that can take viewers to a platform demo, home page, product page, or anywhere else a company wants them to go. Interaction with the landing page will add them to your CRM and they can be nurtured further until they become paying customers. Webinars give businesses a new way to engage directly with customers and can be used to facilitate conversations with prospects. There is a certain nuance to developing and hosting webinars. Timing is everything, aim for hosting during the middle of the week. There is in fact a best day of the week to host a webinar, Thursday at 2 p.m. EST is a timeslot proven to bring the best results, with Wednesdays following closely behind. People are busy, and even if the webinar information is valuable to viewers it should only last between 30 and 40 minutes. In order to engage with viewers, it’s also important to make sure that the webinar hosting software has interactive integrations like a live question and answer session.

Types of webinars

There are a number of different webinars that all provide value to different customers and prospects along the customer journey. This list summarizes seven different webinar types to consider using this year. 

Thought leadership webinars

Show off what you know about digital marketing, SEO, business leadership, and more to help others succeed. Another option is to bring in a thought leader from outside the company. If a business doesn’t have the caliber of thought-leaders needed to present a topic, this is a good option to heighten its status. Outsourcing the main speaker will structure your webinar into an interview-style format where an internal host asks smart questions and steers the conversation.

Lead nurturing webinars

Put a smiling face to your brand and share high-level information about your services to prospects. Lead nurturing webinars can include case studies where a current customer is featured to talk about their success with your company. Live workshops to walk through the how-to side of available products and services, can engage prospective clients. A webinar that summarizes a newly released report or white paper, hitting the points and delivering value to prospective customers could be the push some need to make the purchase.

Customer onboarding webinars

Customer onboarding no longer needs to be in person or done one-to-one. Businesses need to save time wherever they can while still providing a top-level experience and webinars are a one-to-many method that saves time and increases productivity because of that. On the other side of the coin, prospects want to be walked through a new platform rather than simply dropped into it. It can be time-consuming and confusing to learn the ins and outs of a new platform. This leads to frustration and avoidant behavior, which means a higher rate of customer churn.

Product or service demonstration webinars

Product and service demos are an excellent way to walk customers through a complicated application or process. Engage customers with a new product or service walkthrough demonstrating exactly how it was intended to be used. This way customers maximize the potential benefit of using the demonstrated product or service. These webinars ensure that the company has resources in place for customers who want to do a deep dive on their own.

New feature tutorial webinars

Create buzz around a new release with the new feature tutorial webinar. Have a feature that’s almost ready to hit the market? This webinar will get your customers and prospects excited about that shiny new release. Likely to be short and sweet, the new feature tutorial webinar will hit the highlights of something that’s being added to an existing product to make it more efficient, user-friendly, or expand upon that product’s abilities.

Educational webinars

Build your e-learning or coaching business with a virtual classroom. Educational webinars can be found in places like LinkedIn Learning and Hubspot. These webinars should offer certificates for completion and contain quizzes throughout to keep engagement high.

On-demand webinar

All of the webinar types listed above can live on as an on-demand webinar. Whether this lives embedded in a content library (like this example) accessible from a business site or on a YouTube channel, evergreen webinar content should be consolidated and available for reference purposes. 

Webinar software

The right webinar software will be different depending on business needs, but it’s important that it has built-in engagement tools. These engagement tools can look like interactive live quizzes, chat functions, and a place for viewers to provide feedback. 

Zoom video webinar

Zoom webinar includes quick setup and publishing of a branded registration page as well as the option to run a practice session to test video and audio. Zoom keeps the presenter front and center with their presentation as the background screen, this adds a more personal feel to the viewer experience. This webinar software allows for up to 50,000 attendees, and can also be integrated with live streaming on YouTube, Facebook, and other streaming services. 

CalendarHero, a Vendasta company, is available on Marketplace and is now integrated with Zoom video webinar, along with 11 other video conferencing platforms. CalendarHero is smart scheduling software for modern business. Win more clients and take the hassle out of scheduling by automating bookings, reminders, payments, and more. Find out how to unlock the power of scheduling automation for your clients today:

Livestorm

This webinar software comes with a limited freemium version for businesses that want to test it out. Livestorm gives businesses the ability to quickly set up interactive webinars and customizable automated emails and registration pages. This platform can be used for one-to-one meetings all the way up to company-wide seminars for more than 1000 people.

Demio 

Create, market, and host live webinars and automated campaigns with Demio. This product includes engagement integration with interactive polls and public and private chats. Turn a recording into an automated lead-generating webinar with an optimized registration page similar to Zoom video webinars.

Last thoughts

Webinars are a great vehicle for driving traffic, pulling in leads, appealing to multiple audiences, and providing value to both customers and prospects. Discover what types of webinars appeal to your audience and find the best software on the market to promote content, host webinars, and engage with customers today.