Thought leadership has found a new home in the world of digital marketing. The landscape is evolving so quickly that many people rely on search engines to provide them with their expertise, freeing them from having to follow a particular industry, author or domain as closely. Popularity and commercial success are no longer limited to the marketing experts who appear in New Yorker magazine or speak at industry conferences. They are now open for individual contributors and digital marketers to snatch up.
If you are looking to get your message out in front of a wider audience, build credibility and authority and generate awareness for your brand, a webinar is the answer. Webinars aren’t new but have not traditionally been used for content marketing. It’s taking off now, though, thanks to online collaboration and sharing tools like Google Hangouts and Zoom becoming more mainstream. And, it is the best way to demonstrate your expertise and broadcast valuable content that can provide value for your audience.
Today, we will discuss how to build your thought leadership brand with—an incredibly effective digital marketing channel that can get you in front of a wider audience and even land you speaking engagements at events.
Offer a Fresh Perspective
It’s no secret that webinars are one of the most powerful marketing and lead generation tools around. And while they may not be new, they still need to be treated with consideration. Before you begin thinking about what to speak about or how to develop a presentation for your webinar, you will want to do the research and lay the groundwork for a compelling presentation. After you have done your preliminary research, it’s time to create a content calendar. This will provide an outline of the topics you want to cover during the webinar, how much time you’ll spend talking about each one, and when you plan to talk about specific topics.
When it comes to the content of your webinar, put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Are you answering questions that they can’t find answers to anywhere else? That’s the most compelling type of content. So no matter what you are speaking about — from a case study on a new theory to a breakdown of X industry — you should provide the information and insights that only an expert could provide. Your goal and the purpose of your webinar should be crystal clear. You’ll want to practice your presentation to make sure your speakers sound natural, are confident in their knowledge, and answer questions in time.
Promote your Webinar
Why do you need a webinar promotion strategy? Because it’s the most effective way to get an audience that is not only targeted but also high in quality. Your webinars are an amazing opportunity to attract qualified leads to your website. But for that, you need a killer promotion strategy to attract attendees. This means that you will need to attract your target audience, be it an email list or social media followers, and convert them into people who will attend your webinar. Without getting the right people out to your live event, all the hard work put into creating a quality webinar doesn’t amount to anything. It may take some timing to get the right strategy working right but when you do, you can look forward to a slew of results.
But don’t forget the basics either. Thought leadership content is all about the power of producing valuable, readable content with a well-known brand or thought leader attached to it. Producing great audio, video, and infographics can apply very well here. For example, if you have a well-known business writer or an author on your team, you could ask them to share their writing via social media and/or email channels. This is great because it’s a nice way to add some personality to your content and help drive engagement on social channels.
Provide Actionable Insights
In the world of online marketing, there are two kinds of webinars: those that help you connect personally with your audience, and those that focus more on providing specific insights into a topic. When it comes to hosting a webinar, it is important to deliver value to your audience. You don’t want to be the person that’s just talking about a topic. Instead, you would rather be the person who is actively working on solutions for real-world issues. If you are hosting a webinar anytime soon, it’s important that you remember to focus on providing actionable insights. Your participants will be there for a reason. Typically, they want some kind of insight that will help them solve a problem or get ahead.
If your webinar doesn’t offer an actionable nugget to each participant, then it might be time to ask yourself some questions about how you can better organize your presentation. What is an actionable nugget? An actionable nugget of information is what attendees receive from a webinar. It’s any lesson or tip that helps them meet the goals and/or objectives they set for themselves before the webinar. Let’s take an example of a webinar focused on increasing sales. In this webinar you could offer various tips, such as how to overcome objections, keeping the buyer interested in you and your product even after they leave, or some other tactic to help close the deal. But if all that is offered is one nugget of information per session participant, then chances are there’s going to be little actionable value for those listening.
Why? Because the purpose of hosting a webinar is to give people the information they need in order to achieve a specific goal or aim.
It can be hard to build your thought leadership while using webinars. But if you follow these steps, you will get there faster.