Why should my business use webinars instead of in-person seminars or trade shows?

How can a business reach a broad audience when travel budgets are in the red? Marketing budgets are tight, if not tightened, and travel budgets are at a standstill. Even so, it remains essential for many companies to reach a wide audience to achieve their sales and marketing goals. The most cost effective way to speak to large groups of people is to make use of webinars.

Here are five good reasons why webinars are becoming a more sensible alternative.

Costs for Different Kinds of Meetings

Although critics often talk about the value of face-to-face meetings, when the alternatives are high travel costs and struggling to coordinate diaries, a virtual meeting becomes much more appealing. Shaving costs leads some companies to dispense with face time; webinars can pull together folks who would never be able to make a meeting in person. They let a company reach a wide audience directly from the CEO’s desk, which keeps travel and venue expenses out of the picture. There is no need to print handouts in advance.

A 2009 study by Quantum Leap Marketing and Osterman Research analyzed costs for different kinds of meetings. The study included webinars, in-person seminars and trade shows, counting out-of-pocket expenses, staffing and staff time. The median out-of-pocket cost for a webinar was $100; in-person seminars and trade shows cost $2,500 and $11,000 respectively. The same study compared total costs, labor and out-of-pocket. It found that the total labor costs for webinars came in about 40 percent below seminars and up to 75 percent below trade shows. A webinar still needs to be promoted, and advertising is not free. When dollars and staff hours are scarce, it makes sense to get the most out of every expense.

Cost is not the only issue. Live seminars and trade shows are great for a local audience, but a company can’t expect to draw from far away. A half-day event in Cincinnati, for example, probably won’t draw people who don’t live in the area. What would happen if you put that seminar online instead? Just think how many more people you could reach. Clients from California, Texas, New York and even overseas could attend. How many customers would commit a full day to come to an event? Where you live that might be a long drive or a short flight. But you only have to block an hour or two to have your own computer screen as a venue. That translates into happier clients, even when the offices are just down the street.

Technology is also changing faster, and clients are keeping pace. The business world runs faster on smartphones and tablets. Busy professionals are looking for what they need, and they expect their professional advisers to understand the new tools. As simple as this might sound, your clients need to believe you know about new things that can make their businesses more efficient and productive. When a company holds a webinar, the subtext is a real message to clients: we are open to technology and efficiency.

Just because you hand a brochure to an attendee at your event, does not mean that they actually read it once they leave. The cards you give out can be left behind or tossed, while brochures can end up in recycling instead of a customer’s hands. And how can a company get an accurate count of how many people actually attended? With webinars the online registration form can be used to get an email address, phone number and other details the first time the contact registers.

Every venue comes with its own set of rules, its own equipment, and its own headaches. With a webinar, on the other hand, a company does not have to change the program, adapt the presentation to the space or worry about the speaker’s flight. When attendees join just by clicking onto a website, the experience is focused and personal. Conference center distractions give way to an on-screen presentation that attendees can follow along with. There is no background noise, no side conversations or shuffling papers. On-screen presentations simply go through point after point, with the same slides on everyone’s monitor.