Why are Community webinars important to businesses right now?
To create a genuine sense of community – whether online or in the real-world – you need to bring people together. Yet creating a shared space is only part of the process. To transform your online community from a collection of discussions, resources and articles to a genuine shared experience, you need to provide focal points that amplify a sense of belonging. If your online community is spread across different geographies and time zones, community webinars are a great cost-effective alternative to in-person events.
Webinars provide a focused way to bring your community together to collaborate, share ideas and network without the geographical or time constraints of an in-person meeting. They are particularly effective in the early days of building your community, allowing you to explore engagement with your members without committing to expensive venue hire.
What is a community webinar?
Rooted in knowledge-sharing and connection, community webinars go beyond traditional presentations by creating a collaborative, interactive event that brings your members together. They're tailored for communities, centered on fostering deeper ties with your business. Participants aren’t passive observers; they actively contribute, question, and collaborate. Combining learning and networking, they ensure members extract tangible value from your community and inspire further interaction after the event. As they connect and glean insights, they naturally progress through your customer lifecycle, feeling ever more invested in your brand's journey and their role within it.
How can a community webinar benefit your business?
Foster organic advocacy: Community webinars transform attendees into brand champions. As they learn and engage, their enthusiasm turns into genuine advocacy, leading to organic brand promotion.
Deepen customer loyalty: By tailoring webinars to the needs of your members, you add value to their experience, building trust and deepening brand loyalty. Attendees feel valued, heard, and more connected.
Facilitate peer-to-peer learning: These sessions create an environment where members share experiences and insights. This peer-to-peer learning often resonates more than top-down broadcasts with no opportunity to respond.
Accelerate customer lifecycle: Through guidance and valuable content, webinars can expedite a member’s journey through your customer lifecycle, from prospect to engaged customer.
Gather real-time feedback: Hosting interactive webinars allows for immediate feedback on products, services, or initiatives, aiding in agile decision-making and keeping your offerings relevant and impactful.
Bring together global communities: If your community has a global spread, webinars are a more attractive and cost-effective way to bring people together within a shared experience.
Create collaborative content: A 30-minute conversation through a webinar can allow members to collaborate and share valuable insight that could take months to produce as a piece of content. It gives industry leaders a low-friction way to contribute to your community without dedicating too much of their time to the process.
What best practices should you follow to create impactful community webinars?
Listen to your community’s needs: Create webinars that reflect your community’s talking points. Tailor the content and structure of the webinar to align with their aspirations and challenges, ensuring it resonates and addresses their primary concerns.
Timely scheduling: Choose a time and date that works for your community. Think about how your event can conveniently align with the diverse time zones and work schedules of your community members.
Agendas with purpose: Craft event agendas that are not just informative but also actionable. Ensure they reflect members' needs, encourage participation, and provide clear takeaways.
Maximized promotion: Use multi-channel marketing strategies to promote the event well in advance. From email campaigns to social media shout-outs, get the word out to ensure optimal attendance.
Create connections: Bring people together that wouldn’t otherwise connect and facilitate interaction both before and after the event. Pre-event, it could be teaser content or discussion forums. Post-event, share key takeaways, recordings, or even snippets to reinforce learnings and sustain long-term engagement. Repurpose this content to keep the momentum alive and continue the conversation.
How can your community webinar support community-led growth?
Community webinars have emerged as a powerful avenue to bring customers, prospects, and partners together. Beyond mere presentations, they're collaborative spaces where your online community can share knowledge, network, and deepen connections with your brand and with each other.
Community webinar ideas to influence Acquisition
Lead nurture: Host webinars that address pain points and offer solutions. This guides prospects along the buyer's journey, nurturing their interest into trust, and ultimately, conversion.
Showcase success stories and product demonstrations: These webinars engage potential customers, building confidence in your offerings and motivating their decision-making.
Interactive workshops: Organize hands-on workshops to provide value upfront. They position your brand as an expert, drawing prospects and fostering relationships that lead to conversions.
Community webinar ideas to influence Adoption
New customer onboarding: Organize webinars tailored for new customers, offering insights into product features, best practices, and resources. Having a time and a place to join with others in a similar situation creates accountability and increases the chances of a new customer committing to the full onboarding experience.
Product adoption acceleration: Use webinars to showcase advanced product functionalities and share success stories. By demonstrating the value and potential of your products, you encourage customers to explore and adopt them more extensively.
Interactive Q&A sessions: Host live Q&A sessions focused on new customer questions and concerns. This fosters a sense of support and engagement, increasing their confidence in your product and enhancing the onboarding experience.
Community webinar ideas to influence Retention
Retention-boosting workshops: Conduct webinars offering advanced tips, tricks, and product updates. This keeps existing customers engaged, deepening their connection with your brand and reducing churn.
Customer success stories: Showcase real-life success stories through webinars, illustrating how your product or service has delivered value. This instills confidence and reinforces the decision to stay with your brand.
Feedback and listening sessions: Use webinars as a platform for two-way communication. Invite customers to share their thoughts, suggestions, and concerns, demonstrating your commitment to their needs and enhancing overall satisfaction and loyalty.
Community webinar ideas to influence Advocacy
Referral-building seminars: Host webinars that empower your community to become advocates. Educate them on your referral program, inspiring them to refer friends and colleagues, expanding your customer base organically.
Brand advocacy showcases: Feature passionate community members in webinars, allowing them to share their experiences and enthusiasm. Authentic storytelling fosters a sense of belonging and encourages others to become brand advocates.
Advocacy skill-building: Offer webinars on advocacy best practices, equipping community members with the knowledge and tools to effectively promote your brand. This transforms them into informed and influential advocates, amplifying your brand's reach and impact.
How to choose the right platform to really leverage the impact your community webinars can have
There are countless web conferencing tools available, but to maximise the impact of your webinars, it's important to have a community hub. Choosing the right platform for your community webinars is a critical step in driving engagement before, during and after each virtual event. Here are five key considerations to guide your decision:
Features and functionality: Ensure the platform provides essential features like user registration, member profiles, event listings, RSVPs, and notifications. Look for spaces to facilitate pre- and post-event discussions, fostering continuous engagement.
Customization: Assess the level of customization the platform offers. The ability to tailor the community to match your branding is important, but also look for tools that allow you to customize specifically for the duration of events like webinars.
Integration capabilities: Check if the platform can easily integrate with other tools and software used in your organization, particularly to make wraparound features available during your webinars.
Scalability and performance: Ensure your platform can grow with your community and accommodate surges in traffic around events like your webinar without drop out and server connectivity issues.
Security and privacy: Prioritize security features, such as two-factor authentication and SSL, to safeguard sensitive information within your knowledge base. Protecting user data and maintaining privacy is paramount to building trust within your community.
Bring your community together with webinars and online events.
Webinars are an excellent way to bring your brand and your community together regardless of geography or time zone. They are a versatile way to share knowledge and messaging across disparate members, creating a focal point for networking, idea sharing and collaboration. You can use your online community to extend your webinar’s value long past the event itself, encouraging ongoing discussion and networking for members who need more flexibility from the communities they are a part of. Webinars offer you an opportunity to engage with your audience on their terms: delivering value that deepens their trust and connection with your brand.