A webinar has become obvious in today’s marketing strategy for any business, especially in the publishing domain. Over the years, it has also become one of the most cost-effective tools to augment your brand and establish your brand’s authority in your domain. And those organizations that are yet to adopt the webinar as a tactical tool or those who are yet to embrace the latest webinar software are already behind their competition.

Webinar Software: How it all began?

The very first webinar software was introduced in the 90s, and it would hardly stand a chance against today’s platforms. Soon there was a slew of webinar platforms starting popping up.   

These webinar software had minimalistic features and were challenging to handle. All those organizations that could only host a handful of online webinars could now do many webinars in a single year. The modern webinar software has more features and is very user-friendly.

What features to look for?

The contemporary webinar software comes with a bundle of features that make hosting a webinar a simple task. These features include – polling, automated reminders, and much more. Some of the webinar software services even offer interactive features that can deliver an awesome user experience. 

There are also a few key features that are crucial from the business perspective like:

1. Monetizing your webinar or webinar series,
2. One-click registrations, and
3. Live audience engagement from the participants. 

These features allow you to take your business to the next level and realize the ROI from all the money that was invested in creating the webinar content. Some webinar software has become such a powerful tool that they are now capable enough to charge their attendees and can support Google’s Hangout.

Now, not all these features are part of a webinar software package. There are only a handful of top-notch players out there that can deliver such a high performance.

Is it worth the investment?

Every organization today has the potential to host a webinar, but not every webinar software has got what it takes to meet the expectation. As mentioned earlier, by hosting a webinar, you send out a strong communication about your market dominance and position yourself firmly. Not only this, the purpose of hosting a webinar can be for varied reasons. Many organizations use it to deliver a demo for their products and to educate their audience. Sometimes, they release teasers, which might attract leaving customers back to the brand to get some more value while some companies repurpose their content and post it on YouTube to target a different set of audience.

On the other hand, there are DIY platforms like GoToMeeting and Webex that prove to be good options for small scale events and don’t need an elaborate system as a continuing education webinar series would need. Many organizations prefer the DIY route initially, as they believe it saves them money. It is only a matter of time do they realize that it takes a robust webinar software to deliver and scale up as per the business requirement.

Most of the organizations today are outgrowing their webinar software at a quicker pace than before. And this is very common to observe across the industries. Organizations that don’t have an additional budget for a webinar or those who have a small team strength end up getting a webinar software that seems comparatively cost-effective and very easy to implement. This is due to the fact that they don’t have the time or resources to check the entire process of the service provider thoroughly. 

This may come across as quick and easy fix for their webinar approach, which allows them to set up their virtual event in a couple of hours and sometimes in just minutes. But in reality, it delivers benefits only in the short-term. Not only this, but they are also hurting their team in the long term by not being able to leverage the full potential of their webinar content through well-equipped software. This is only possible if the organization joins hand with an experienced webinar software team.

Why do you need to step up your webinar game?

• Your webinar is no longer a one-person show. You have a professional webinar speaker and an experienced staff on board. You deserve a webinar software that can work as efficiently as your team can. 
• Your webinar needs constant support during major live events to ensure the audience doesn’t face any issues. The live support is also required to tackle any real-time problems that may crop up. 
• You need to deploy more than just a logo. It’s time you reinforce your audience’s faith by allowing more room for your brand to get recognition during the webinar.
• You need your webinar event to abide by all continuing education jurisdictions.
• You need your webinar to offer additional features like registrations, eCommerce, analytics, and more.

There are many more signs that can prove that it is about time you leave your old software for an upgraded one. The best way to dispel any confusion and further hurt your business is by getting in touch with a technology partner who can help you decide which webinar software ideally matches your business goals.

Often, a software or service provider can accommodate a lot more requests than what is posted on their website -that’s why it is in your best interest to establish a relationship with the company and have your needs met before you’re locked into a contract. 

Conclusion

Webinar technology and software have evolved considerably since long, and today they offer many intuitive & smart options for content delivery and audience engagement. For example, when a customer adds your webinar to the shopping cart, their details are shared with BeaconLive, a webinar software, as well as with your marketing automation tool. This, in turn, allows you to add the customer in your automated email marketing campaign for them to start receiving marketing emails.

Don’t be surprised if a technology partner can get a better contract from a webinar software vendor as they have been working in the domain for quite a long time and can leverage their domain expertise to sweeten your deal. We have been offering BeaconLive to many of our clients and our experience tells us that it is by far the best webinar software available today in the market. If you need help with deciding an ideal webinar software that can cater to your growing marketing demand, book a free consultation with us today.