What can a webinar offer to an academic looking for a strong social media presence?
Statistically speaking, 9 out of 10 marketers consider free webinars crucial for marketing. As compared to other personal branding techniques, webinars offer over 55% conversion rate. More than 57% of digital marketers host up to 50 webinars annually to improve sales, gather leads, and increase personal brand awareness.
I can confirm these claims as my personal experience with free webinars has been exceptionally rewarding. At Power Your Research, I come across several clients who are always wondering if they need to focus on personal branding.
Hosting a free webinar represents a minimum financial investment on your part that brings significant value to prospects. Personal branding is not just about being a super famous Instagram celebrity or self-centered narcissist but it helps professionals to expand their authority and influence in their respective disciplines.
What is Webinar Branding?
Webinar branding is a relatively new term to most professors. For quite some time, the use of Zoom, Skype, and similar video conference platforms has been limited to online classes and remote work only. Amplifying the connection of your audience to your work is harder for researchers and academics.
The idea behind free webinars for academic professionals is to share your work values and vision more intimately on a personal level. Personal branding is not just about the fancy website or publishing a book but it is a more robust and bigger concept. Webinars help you establish a personal brand statement that allows you to stand out from the competitors.
How can Free Webinars help Tenured Professors?
Real-time engagement is possible via different methods including Q&A sessions, polls, chats, and live communication. A webinar is the perfect blend of all of these strategies for an interactive session with the right audience. There are unique ways free webinars can help you increase your influence in the respective field.
Demonstrating Expertise
Presenting you as a thought leader in the industry is a long process where I offer my assistance and expertise to future leaders and professional academics. You are good at specific topics within your discipline and your research work is amazing.
Sharing practical advice, valuable insights, and best practices via webinars will position you as a knowledgeable authority. The audience and participants of the webinar will think of you as a go-to resource for relevant data. Effective hosting of a webinar reinforces personal branding and also adds to trust and credibility among the audience.
Generating Leads
Webinars are powerful lead-generation tools and you just need the right approach to harness the power. Delivery of valuable content and insights without any cost attracts potential clients and collaborators who might be interested in your skillset.
Interested participants of these free webinars can be invited to book further consultation sessions and then mature into paying clients or loyal followers of your work.
Building Relationships
Establishing a connection with your audience on a more personal level helps to boost your personal brand. Participants of these webinars can ask questions and you will be able to offer more personalized answers to everyone and build meaningful connections with attendees. Ongoing engagement is powered by a sense of community and free webinars foster this concept.
Best Practices for Hosting an Academic Webinar
You probably have some branding goals in mind that you wish to achieve. Webinars can boost the influence of your personal brand and here are some practical recommendations that offer to my clients:
- Choose compelling topics that resonate with your target audience
- Promote your webinar through various channels
- Interact with participants via Q&A sessions and polls
- Always use high-quality audio and visual equipment for smooth content delivery
- Connect with attendees and offer them additional exclusive resources
- Continuously evaluate and improve your webinar content
Webinars are here to Stay!
You might be wondering why I am asking you to give away your expert insights for free. For personal branding, your knowledge is the most valuable asset the idea behind free webinars is to showcase your expertise to the right audience, not any audience. Not everyone from the audience is your potential client and free webinars help to filter the interested attendees.
Webinars are just a small piece of a personal branding approach. Let’s talk about what type of personal brand statement you wish to establish.
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