According to Inside Sales, approximately three in four marketers identify webinars as an effective way to generate brand awareness.
Webinars work by drawing in highly qualified leads – leads interested enough in your topic to spend 45 minutes to an hour watching your webinar. But the topic you choose can make a big difference in how successful you are in drawing in those leads.
Here are a few ideas for choosing topics that draw in quality leads.
Ask Your Audience
Send out a questionnaire to your existing customers about what topic they’d find most interesting in a webinar. Or include a questionnaire at the end of each webinar you present, asking attendees’ preferences on your next webinar topic.
Pay Attention at Conferences
The next time you go to an industry conference, notice which topics draw the most attendees. The highest level of interest there will probably translate to higher levels of interest online as well.
Join the Conversation Online
Check out the niche industry groups on various social media platforms. LinkedIn has virtual discussion groups; Twitter has hashtags and Facebook has pages relevant to professionals in almost every industry. Monitor the conversations that get the most traction, pay attention to perspectives on all sides and pick a topic (or several) that goes in-depth on your perspective.
Repurpose Old Content
Check out your back catalog and see if you have any old content – webinars, white papers, blog posts, etc. – that performed well and could use an update. Share the update in webinar form. Emphasize the new information your attendees will learn in your promotional messaging.
Offer a How-To
Develop a webinar with a focus on training and best practices in your industry. Give your attendees a crash course in some aspect of what you do. This is less about giving away valuable expertise and more about attracting an engaged, motivated audience; a percentage of that audience will go on to hire you.
It’s not always easy choosing webinar topics that draw a large, motivated audience. If you’re stuck for topics, listen first – across social media and in questionnaires to your existing customers. Check out the conversations going on in various industry-related forums and groups, on social media and elsewhere. And pay attention to the topics that get the most interest when you attend in-person conferences. If you’re alert to them, ideas are everywhere.
