The pandemic has transformed the way B2B businesses conduct sales and marketing activity – forcing sales staff to rely less on face-to-face meetings with clients, site visits and exhibitions.

Instead, they have been encouraged to think proactively about new ways of managing existing client relationships and identifying new prospects.

Having a strong website and digital presence, using social media and an effective e-marketing strategy have all been key to staying ahead of the competition.

In addition, some B2B businesses are adopting webinar technology as a sales tool.

At Genesis, we have had some great success in the past year using webinars as a lead magnet for high-value products, targeting both new and existing customers with a multi-channel approach that combines PR, digital advertising, organic social media and an effective landing page.

As the pandemic lessens in the UK and businesses begin to revisit their sales and marketing strategies, here are a few key reasons why sales webinars should remain at the top of the agenda for the marketing professional.

• Webinars can be cost-effective
  While there are cases where face-to-face meetings are more appropriate, webinars allow you to talk to multiple customers / prospects at any given time and you don’t have to think about travel costs.

• Not all customers will be comfortable with face-to-face meetings
  Your business might be ready to resume face-to-face contact with clients, but they might think differently. Keeping a mix of digital / traditional marketing activity could be key to maintaining and improving client relationships.

• An effective lead magnet
  A webinar adds urgency for customers to engage with you about certain products and can be a great way to gather prospect contact details through effective multi-channel marketing. Think creatively if there is anything you can offer in addition for those signing up (e.g. free product samples)

• Short and engaging
  We encourage clients to keep information webinars under an hour and to use polls and Q&A functionality to keep participants engaged!

• Re-usable
  By recording a practice run of your information webinar you can share it further via your website and social media. You can also use the approach for different products and services.