Converting Leads Into Paying Customers With Workshops & Webinars

Humans are curious creatures. We always have the drive to learn new things and interact with others, regardless of reasons or goals. Even when the pandemic started, our penchant for learning never ceased, and in a way, it only intensified due to our limited social interactions.

We, therefore, turned to the internet to connect with the outside world and quench our thirst for learning and engagement. We used it to work, study, have fun and participate in remote gatherings — and, luckily for us, we still do.

Webinars have quickly become one of the most popular ways to learn new skills — with the e-learning industry expecting significant growth over the next few years. Virtual workshops and webinars are accessible and efficient — so they’re not likely to go anywhere any time soon.

“Research shows that 58% of marketers use webinars as a promotion tool. Studies show that between 2% and 5% of webinar attendees eventually make a purchase at the end of the webinar.” — Optin Monster

For businesses, it has become an extremely effective means of generating leads and sales online. Workshops and webinars are interactive, informative, and engaging. They’re also a great way to build relationships with your audience. We've written before on how to both generate and also nurture your leads, but now it's time to take a look at some of the ways you can take advantage of webinars and use them to convert leads into paying customers.

Collaborate with your sales team

Not many organisations realise just how important their sales team can be throughout the lifecycle of a webinar. In fact, your sales team should be involved in the webinar from the get-go. Not only will they know where to look for, and who your audience should be — but they’re also well-positioned to determine the topics that will be most relevant and the most effective way to present the information.

Who better to find your leads than the very people responsible for doing so? When 34% of salespeople say prospecting and lead qualification is the biggest challenge to growth (Pipedrive, 2020) — it’s incredibly important to ask the right people for help in the right places.

During the webinar, salespeople can get to know the attendees that are most engaged and make them a priority to follow up with later on. They should be on hand to reach out to those who have shown interest in your product and offer to answer any questions they may have.

Start a poll to see who’s ready to make a purchase

If you’re not sure whose interest you’ve piqued, you can poll your audience to find out. This can be done in a number of ways, but the most efficient is to use the poll function on Tevent during the webinar. You can choose when to make a poll live to keep people from answering prematurely — you don’t want them spilling the beans before your big reveal.

According to Cloud Income, polls are only used in a shocking 22% of webinars — despite their proven track record of boosting engagement and proving valuable data. You can use polls to find out what your audience’s pain points are, identify and capitalise on new directions, and even use them to validate your endeavours in sales decks.

The information collected can also be used to create targeted follow-up communications and offers —  which will be all the more personal coming from a familiar face in the sales team.

Identify which leads are hot, warm, or cold

Using a simple scale to label each lead can be a fantastic way to prioritise follow-up communication. Lay out the groundwork for this during the webinar by baking in a poll to determine potential buyers.

Hot leads are interested in your product and ready to buy — they may have already started the purchasing process.

Warm leads are interested in your product but are not ready to buy yet — they may need more information before they’re ready to make a decision.

Cold leads are not interested in your product, or they’re not a good fit for your product — they may not be ready to buy, or they may not be interested in your product.

Customer journeys should be mapped out so that you can provide the right leads with all the necessary information to make their decision. Hot leads have great upselling potential but might need more encouragement or information. Warm leads should be nurtured appropriately to keep them on track to purchase. Cold leads aren’t always a fruitless endeavour, however, it’s important not to waste time or effort on a bad fit.

You can focus on the hot leads and follow up with them right away. Warm leads can be followed up within a few days or weeks. Cold leads can be followed up within a month or two, however, if there’s still no movement from them, try not to pester — spam is the universal no-no.

Send a post-webinar survey

Another way to gauge interest is to send a post-webinar survey. This survey can be as simple as a one-question poll or as in-depth as a ten-question survey. The important thing is to make sure you’re sending it to the right people.

Categorising your leads as above will help you to identify prospects without unknowingly spamming the wrong people. Persistent communication is only truly spam when the recipient has no interest, or the information provided is irrelevant — so be sure that you are adding value at every point of contact.

“80% of sales require five follow-ups after the initial contact, but 45% of salespeople give up after one.” — Word Stream

Once the webinar is over, send out a survey to get feedback from your audience. Offering an incentive for feedback, like a charitable donation, can be a great way to improve response. Use the feedback to improve future feedback by asking what topics your audience would like you to cover in future webinars.

While generating leads from webinars is essential, it's even more important to convert those leads into sales. By understanding the needs of potential customers and providing them with the right information, businesses can increase their chances of securing revenue and steady growth.

Now that you know just how powerful webinars can be, especially if you use them for conversion, you're gonna need a tool that can help you achieve that. Tevent allows you to create compelling, interactive webinars and gatherings, without the hefty price tag.

With our interactive webinar software, we remove barriers to remote gatherings and make them more fun and engaging. Try Tevent for free and explore its wide array of features.

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