One reason you may want to consider investing in webinars rather than whitepapers is the format of the final product. Unlike whitepapers, which are static pieces of content that can be downloaded, skimmed in a few minutes, then perhaps never opened again, live webinars require the attendees to commit a period of time to take part. By making this commitment, the attendee is demonstrating a stronger interest and indicating that they are more invested in the topic, which often results in a higher quality lead.

Adding to this, because of the ability to interact with the audience during a webinar, you can tailor the experience to suit your prospects and you can start to prepare your leads for follow-up as soon as the webinar starts. By encouraging users to ask questions of your speakers, either through a chat function or through Twitter, you can gain a valuable insight into what your prospect’s key concerns are surrounding your chosen topic. Similarly, through the use of polls, you can ask the audience questions of your own, and the information you can gather not only allows you to better understand your audience’s level of maturity, but also helps you develop your follow-up program. Additionally, as mentioned earlier, the webinar is a dynamic piece of content rather than a fixed whitepaper, which means that the speakers can alter the overall tone and direction your webinar takes based on live feedback.

So what are the downsides? Well, webinars do come with a few disadvantages, chief among which is the large amount of time and work that a webinar campaign requires; usually around 6-8 weeks of preparation. Webinars often need input from several different departments, so you will have to assemble and coordinate a team for each project. As we’ll cover in more detail during the next two parts of this series, planning the concept and creating the presentation for the webinar is a lengthy process. In order to maximise registrations for your webinar, it’s often worth securing a third-party speaker from a well-known brand or with some particularly relevant experience for the target group. Whether a client, an industry commentator or just marketers from within your organisation, it’s always worth collaborating on presentations, conducting rehearsals and testing equipment. Naturally, this will increase the amount of organisation required, but it pays dividends. Last but definitely not least, a major downside of webinars - as with any live event - is that you are at the mercy of forces beyond your control. Whether it is a slip up from your speakers due to nervousness, a sudden bout of illness, a powercut or one of many possible technical issues, webinars can suffer from a number of disruptions that you need to be prepared for.

Hopefully you now have a clearer idea of whether webinars would work for you. Although webinar campaigns require careful organisation and preparation, they can create excellent content and generate high quality leads. When they’re done, they even leave you with a video asset that can be used in future demand gen campaigns.