Promoting a small business is typically a herculean task. What, with the proliferation of small businesses across the globe, most founders and managers face stiff competition to get a shout for their business.
Here’s the thing, starting a business without promoting said business is like winking in the dark; no one sees it. So, if you want people to be aware of your business and its offerings, you need to actively promote your business. Now, the question that often comes to the mind of business owners and managers is; how exactly do I get to promote my business? In this post, I will share how you can promote your business using webinars as a strategy. Let’s dig in!
What Is A Webinar
A webinar is basically the digital version of a seminar, which means that a webinar is a seminar being held on the web. To hold a webinar, you need to prepare the same way you would prepare if you were holding a seminar. The only difference is that a webinar gives you allowances that a seminar will otherwise not give you; thereby allowing you the leg space to be able to achieve more. For example, with a webinar, you typically need to be able to gather your keynote speakers under the same roof, while with a webinar, you can get speakers to join from different parts of the world. In the same vein, with a seminar, you usually will need to gather attendees under the same roof, while with a webinar, you can expand the net to allow attendees from all over the world.
Now that we have established what a webinar is, let’s examine whether a webinar can be used as a promotion tool or not.
Webinar As A Promotion Tool: Is It Possible?
One of the realities of the digital revolution is that more and more are looking towards embracing digital tools to do what they have been doing for ages. For example, trade is now powered by eCommerce, while communication is now powered by chats, emails and podcasting to mention a few.
The bottom line is that digital is now powering every facet of human endeavour, making it the norm, not the exception to go digital these days. Therefore, there is no question as to whether a webinar is now a promotion tool or not. Today, webinars have even gone beyond that to become a tool for social revolution. So, as a business looking to boost your brand visibility and in essence brand penetration, a webinar is a tool you should be using to scale your business.
So the new question that emerges is, how can you use webinars as a tool for promotion? Here are some ways you can deploy that:
Hold Your Own Webinars
Holding your own webinars allows you the leg space to be able to promote your own business as much as you would like. However, the issue of self-review crops up here: how do you review your own business to tell customers whether your business is great or not?
The answer to this question then is not to overpromote yourself. Offer huge value, and do not tie the value to your brand, then offer your brand as an option among the solutions that you are offering to attendees. By so doing, you will be able to present yourself as a verifiable sponsor, while engendering top of mind awareness (TOMA) through your promotions.
Sponsor Webinars
Another way you can use webinars as a tool for promotion is by sponsoring webinars being promoted by other businesses.
To start, simply send them a message and opt to be a nominal sponsor either by being a keynote speaker for free or by promoting said webinar on your brand collaterals to be mentioned on their promotional materials. You can also consider sponsoring webinars with cash donations.
Consider Partnering With Another Business
Partnering with complementary businesses to run a webinar is another strategy you can deploy in the quest to use webinars to promote your business. For example, if you are a marketing agency, you can decide to partner with a graphics design firm to run a webinar on the “future of businesses and how to market your business in a post-pandemic world” with this partnership, you can promote your marketing business while your partners can promote their own design business.
Become A Resource Person
Finally, you can utilise webinars to promote your business by becoming a resource person that businesses will approach for keynote speaking during their webinars. This way, you can demonstrate authority, enabling prospective customers to have more faith in your business.
IMAGE SOURCE: Pixabay
