8 Reasons Why Webinar Meetings are More Efficient Than in-Person Meetings

You have probably figured out by now that there are many ways to conduct a meeting. It used to be that meetings required everyone to be physically present in the same room at the same time. However, thanks to technology, webinar meetings have evolved to become a far more efficient than in-person meetings. Here are eight reasons why this is true.

1. Exceptional Value is Delivered

While in-person meetings have long been necessary they are often incredibly expensive.

This is true on a variety of fronts. If you are a business that needs to have all of your regional staff attend regular meetings, the expense of flying everyone in and providing lodging can get out of control rather quickly. This does not even take into account the cost associated with feeding everyone.

If you are hosting paid presentations, the same concept applies. Many participants may feel that they cannot attend because of the personal expense incurred. Even if you offer the meeting at no cost to the participant, there are other expenses incurred by the participants that could limit the perceived value in the end.

Webinar meetings take care of these issues.

It is now possible to host regular meetings with your staff around the world with relatively minimal expense. Even if you want to charge for your webinar, participants will now be more encouraged to sign up because they will incur no other expenses as a result of attending.

The value delivered in this regard is exceptional. It’s also possible to get meaningful feedback from your participants in real time, which enhances the value of the webinar. You will find that the excitement will build from one presentation to the next as the audience begins to leave positive reviews and encourages their acquaintances to attend future webinar meetings that you host. These are all components that make hosting webinar meetings a more efficient use of your time, and your participants, in comparison to in-person meetings.

2. Webinar Meetings Allow You to Become an Expert in Your Field

As a presenter, you become the expert. Webinar meetings are a great way to tout your experience and your professionalism to all of the participants that attend.

The flexibility and ease of webinar meetings allow you to host more sessions, which will provide more options for people to attend. With more attendees in your webinar meetings, you can expect word to spread much quicker than traditional meeting setting.

Even if you offer free webinar meetings, your audience will view you as an expert who is worthy of being listened to. The free component to the webinar does not cheapen the information that you are presenting. If anything, it adds an extra value, and it elevates your stature as a Thought Leader in the eyes of the participants.

Webinar meetings give you a platform to share valuable information with a captive audience. It will be up to you, of course, to deliver the information in a relevant and engaging way. If you can accomplish that, you will begin to gain a following over time that can help your business or organization grow exponentially.

3. More Sales, Less Work

Webinar meetings are a great medium for making sales happen with very little effort. The effect is a soft sell of your products and services to your prospects.

You will not need to conduct a hard sell, which is often difficult to do unless you visit each person individually and look him or her in the eye. Webinar meetings allow you to assemble multiple participants, each taking part in your presentation from a location that is convenient to them, and then issuing a call to action that many will heed.

Webinar meetings effectively allow you to both teach and sell at the same time. No other type of presentation can bring this type of benefit to the table.

In order to make a sale, however, you will need to develop content that is effective. This means that you will illustrate potential problems, be able to shoot down objectives, and deliver exceptional value without having to over teach any particular concept or idea.

Your goal is to show members of your audience what they want without them even realizing it. Once they realize that what they desire is exactly what you are offering, the closing sale will come much more naturally.

4. Webinar Meetings Knock Down Geographical Barriers

In-person meetings can substantially limit your reach.

Not only is it expensive to fly people in for a meeting or presentation, but it also is not always logistically possible. This does not even begin to touch on the time factor and other issues that make in-person meetings impractical in many situations in today’s globally connected world.

Webinar meetings provide an effective way around this by permitting you to communicate with potentially hundreds or thousands of people from anywhere in the world.

Participants will love this feature as well, as they are now able to attend your presentation from the comfort of their own home or office.

While talking to someone one-on-one may be the best way to close one sales lead, talking to hundreds at the same time is the best way to close multiple leads at the same time. Which one has the potential to generate more revenue? The answer will be the webinar almost every time. Webinar meetings are not just effective as sales tools either, as they are turning into a great way to conduct regional staff training, seminars, conferences, and much more.

5. The Audience Becomes More Engaged

If you are looking for a way to better engage the members of your audience, a webinar meeting is the way to do it. This is due to several factors.

For one, a webinar meeting is a single, live event that virtually anyone can attend. Because it is live, however, participants need to arrive on time, or they know that they will miss part of the information that you have to present to them. This will encourage them to be engaged from the very first moment that you start speaking. If they were to miss the webinar all together, participants know that they lose out on the benefit of having attended.

Webinar meetings also allow participants to become engaged in the content that is being delivered.

Presenters can easily open up the presentation to questions from the audience. This also allows people that would not be comfortable asking a question in front of others in a physical meeting to be willing to do so in the more anonymous nature of the webinar room.

Individual participants can chat, make their own opinions known, respond to questions and comments from the presenter, and issue their thoughts about what is being discussed in the main webinar room. These are all components that are simply not possible in an in-person meeting.

6. Generate New Leads

No matter what type of business you are in, it is likely lead-driven. If you do not get enough leads on a regular basis, it will be almost impossible to grow.

As existing customers begin to move away or go to a competitor, your revenue will decline accordingly. You will want to avoid that, of course, so you will need to look for ways that effectively increase the type of quality leads that you need to grow.

This is exactly what webinars can deliver for you, as they are effective at attracting new people to hear what you have to say, allowing you to convert them into new customers then.

By their very nature, webinars require some type of registration. This will include the name and email address, at a minimum, of each participant that attends.

This is a built-in marketing opportunity for you. It is even possible to request even more information that will give you a way to tailor your approach to each member of the audience based on their unique interest levels. Even free webinars can be an effective use of your time given the number of new prospects and quality leads that they will generate.

7. Guest Presenters Are Easier to Come By

Webinar meetings are much less of a commitment (financially and logistically) than in-person meetings. This puts you in a much better position to secure a guest presenter to help you host your webinar meetings.

Why should you invite a guest presenter? For one, guest presenters are an excellent way to add credibility to your presentations. Bringing on an industry expert will build trust with your audience and add value to your presentation.

Another reason to co-host your webinar meetings is the opportunity to expand your reach to larger audiences. Whether you’re able to tap into their social network, email list, or marketing budget, the value a guest presenter can add to your marketing efforts can hugely impact your overall ROI.

Keep in mind that you will still need to promote your own content.

8. Get More Return On Your Investment

When you think of the time and the money that goes into hosting a meeting, it can be mind boggling. Imagine going through the trouble of hosting an in-person meeting only to have attendance fall flat. You will have lost a great deal of money in the process.

Given the relatively low expense associated with online meetings, you will be in a much better position to generate a positive return on your investment.

Revenue drives business growth. If you are in a cash crunch, you must develop ways to increase your leads with as little expense as possible.

As the saying goes, it takes money to make money. That is harder than it seems, however, when you do not have any money to begin with. This is another powerful feature of the webinar meeting, and it is yet another advantage that this venue brings over an in-person meeting.

Start Hosting!

These are just eight of the many reasons that demonstrate why webinar meetings have become so powerful. If you’re ready to start hosting your own webinar meetings, BigMarker can help. To start your 14-day free trial, click here. Or, to get in touch, send us a message!