Using Webinars to Develop Relationships with Customers

Webinars are not only one of the best marketing tools that you can use, they are also amazing tools to develop strong relationships with customers. In fact, webinars can help you get a foothold in the latest trend in marketing and relationship selling.

Marketing has evolved from trying to make a quick one-off sale to building customer loyalty with long-term selling prospects in mind. This means that developing and maintaining long-term customer relationships is key to your marketing success.

Building relationships a natural part of life and relationships is now what defines the success of businesses. For example, when enough people in your industry trust your business and like your products, sales are a natural result.

However, what happens if consumers aren’t familiar with your business? They ask people who they trust, and if those people have a strong relationship with your business, then, most likely they will recommend you.

There are 3 main ways that webinars can help to develop and strengthen relationships with customers:

• You can connect with your customer on a personal basis. This means that you now become a real person to your customer, not just a generic face on a website.
• You can educate your customers. Customers love finding out something new and a webinar gives you the chance to educate using visual aids.
• You can show customers how a product works. This builds trust and gives the customer something of value.

How can you use webinars to develop relationships with customers? This article will look at different ways that you can build strong relationships with customers.

New Customers

How can you use webinars to develop relationships with new customers?

First of all, on the webinar registration page, you should make sure and only ask for their email address to register. Asking for too much unnecessary information at this stage can put people off registering and it can make them suspicious.

The webinar presentation then gives you the basis to establish a stronger relationship with new customers. You can do this by offering more items of value. The webinar presentation should present information that the attendees couldn’t get somewhere else. Of course, you may not be selling a unique product, but you should have a well-defined unique selling proposition.

Your content should use a lot of visuals and be engaging.

To develop relationships with new customers during your webinar you can offer them a chance to have a one-to-one session with you after the presentation. Or you could offer them extra information as a bonus for attending.

You should also think about other items of value that you can give to new customers. To do this, following up with an email after the event is so important. In this email, you can, of course, thank them for attending, but you should also offer extra items of value.

For example, this could be one or more of the following:

• Offer a bonus to first-time attendees.
• Offer free lifetime support for the product.
• Offer a coupon to attend the next webinar for a reduced rate.

Existing Customers

How can you use webinars to develop relationships with already existing customers?

To develop relationships with existing customers you need to continue presenting high-quality webinars that offer attendees value. This means that you continue to engage your audience during your presentation.

You can also use the follow-up email to offer exclusive items of value that are reserved for valued customers.

With the customer’s permission, why not feature them in a testimonial in a webinar or on your website?

For existing customers, it is advantageous to use Customer Relationship Management software so that you can build up a database of useful information which you can use to offer your existing customers exclusively tailored offers.

Customer Group Training Webinar

One valuable way that you can use webinars to develop relationships with customers is to offer customer group training. This can be done in a step-by-step method in regular sessions where you can explain in detail specifics about using the product.

This type of group coaching can be offered as a bonus for new and/or existing customers. One of the great ways that this strengthens your customer relationships is that they see will this as something of value. Because it is a regular training course, you can build up trust and develop more brand awareness.

To develop a customer group training webinar you first of all have to have a detailed plan on what you will teach in each session. This is very important so that you don’t start repeating yourself and you don’t teach steps in the wrong order.

Next, you should prepare specific goals that you want to accomplish in each session. This can be a motivating factor for your customers to return each time.

Very soon you can build up a regular group of customers who look to you as an authority in your industry and you can provide them with personal and valuable assistance.

Of course, this exact type of group training webinar may not work for all products, but it can be adapted and used for almost any product that you sell.

Final Thoughts

Relationship selling has become an important marketing strategy and webinars are one of the best ways that you can develop strong relationships with your customers.