Webinars have been around for years. First started in the 1980s as simple video-based communications between companies, webinars have grown in popularity due to more user-friendly platforms, cheaper costs and the ability to take part on any device anywhere, making them even more accessible.
The COVID pandemic only increased the demand for webinars. With employees working from home and most in-person events cancelled, webinars became a primary means of communicating and educating. They also grew as a vital marketing tool for companies of every size to reach and engage with their customers on a more “personal” level.
With this growth in popularity, marketers should consider integrating this demand generation opportunity in their marketing efforts to help position their brand as a thought leader, engage with their target customers and generate leads. More than half (53%) of marketers say webinars are the top-of-the-funnel format that generates the most high-quality leads (Demand Gen Report, 2021).
If you decide to use a webinar in your marketing program, there are several best practices to consider before entering the realm of webinar marketing.
The Right Topic
The subject of the webinar is vitally important to its success. Topics that generate the most interest are those that are not product specific but are educational in nature or provide a solution to a problem. Most people do not want to sit through a 30- to 45-minute commercial of your product’s features and benefits but are open to learning about a subject that interests them. As a webinar sponsor, your brand is associated with the educational opportunity or solutions covered by the webinar.
Make sure the webinar topic aligns with your sales team’s needs so leads generated from the webinar are quality contacts. Even better, sponsor a webinar with an evergreen topic – those subjects that will always be of interest regardless of the month or year. In public safety, topics such as recruitment and retention, staff management, health and mental behavior are great subjects to sponsor as they will always be relevant.
The Right Time
The best time to conduct a webinar is Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, between the hours of 11:00 am and 2:00 pm. If your target audience is national, you should consider the time zone differences. However, considering the nature of public safety and various work schedules of police, corrections, fire and EMS, it is important to make sure your webinar is accessible on demand after the live event so you can reach your audience wherever and whenever most convenient for them. Providing access to a webinar recording broadens your audience and allows those who watched the live version to review it again or share it with colleagues – extending the value of your webinar.
The Right Partner
While marketers can develop their own webinars through various online platforms, the value of working with a partner can greatly expand your reach and simplify the time-consuming development process. Lexipol Media Group offers numerous educational webinar sponsorship opportunities with a simple, turnkey process. Although there are many benefits of sponsoring a Lexipol Media Group webinar, we have narrowed it down to three main points:
- Expertise – Lexipol Media Group has extensive expertise across all public safety with access to some of the most prominent experts and speakers in the industry. All Lexipol Media Group webinars are developed to address industry issues and provide solutions across law enforcement, fire and rescue, corrections and EMS through thoughtful conversation and intriguing insights discussed with well-versed and experienced safety professionals. It’s this expertise coupled with a reputation for quality content that allow webinars produced by Lexipol Media Group to consistently provide high registration and live attendance numbers.
- Experience – Because Lexipol Media Group conducts numerous webinars every year, we are well versed in the best practices for creating, promoting and managing the event process. From determining the right topic that best engages and resonates with public safety audiences to promoting the webinar through a variety of well-established and popular outreach programs that garner quality registrations, Lexipol Media Group is an ideal partner to become a thought leader for your prospective customers. Following the live webinar, we provide metrics showcasing the success of the webinar and a list of registrants and attendees for you to conduct outreach. Our process is to manage all logistics from the beginning to end to ensure success for both the marketer and Lexipol Media Group and provide a quality event for your target audience.
- Extension – Reaching the right audience is critical to success and Lexipol Media Group has the most extensive reach of public safety personnel in the industry. Accounting for a vast majority of the US-based public safety market, we reach the right audience to attend our webinars which generate greater registrations and engagements – keys to the success of any webinar. Self-produced webinars are often limited in reach to only your current customer base.
Sponsorship Versus Branded Webinars
In addition to sponsoring a turnkey Lexipol Media Group webinar, we offer an option to develop a more customized, branded webinar experience for your company. Our branded webinar program allows the sponsor to include product mentions within the webinar as part of the context of solving a problem or educating the audience about a topic. Sponsors can also provide the webinar’s speakers and moderator or can have Lexipol Media to source those for them. The result is a more targeted message and interested attendees resulting in enhanced lead generation for your business.
Ready to integrate webinars into your marketing efforts? Contact Lexipol Media Group to learn more about our webinar sponsorship options and the value they can bring to your omni-channel marketing plan.
