Businesses who want to promote their work have to dig deep to come up with ideas that help them promote their work without coming across as “salesy.” With today’s customer-focused marketing trends, a marketing tactic that comes across as hard-sell will fall flat on its face.
Conferences Should Focus on Customers’ Needs
Marketing experts today tell businesses to take a more consumer-focused approach. That means sharing valuable, actionable information with potential customers to position the business as an authority in its field.
No better way to position a business as an authority than with a web conference. Though a brick-and-mortar conference is beyond the budget of most small businesses, almost everyone has a videocam, microphone, and access to the Internet. With these tools, a business can conduct an informative web conference that can help its customers meet their daily challenges.
Web Conferences Continue to Grow in Popularity
In fact, according to Top Advisor, a company that provides business software solutions, video marketing stands to catapult in popularity over the next few years. A video conference or webinar is easy to digest, since information comes not only from reading, but through hearing and seeing images as well.
Select Topics to Position the Business as an Authority in Its Field
What topics should a business discuss during their video conferences? If a business has done its homework, it will know the general demographic makeup of its target customers, as well as the challenges that face them. To promote itself as an authority in its field, then, the business needs to identify one of those challenges and provide an easy-to-understand, easy-to-implement solution for that problem.
For example, a veterinarian whose clients are mostly horse owners could do a video conference on preventing founder, a major cause of lameness in horses. A property and casualty insurance agent could invite a firefighter to talk about fire prevention. A ballet studio could conduct a webinar on the benefits of strengthening and flexibility for ballet students.
Combine Forces with Complementary Businesses to Reach More Customers
A business needn’t limit its outreach efforts to only its own customers. If it combines forces with another business whose work is complementary but not competitive with its own, it can reach a whole new audience of potential customers.
Take the above examples. How could these professionals combine forces with other businesses to offer their customers valuable tips? The ballet studio, for instance, could hold a joint teleconference with a gym. The gym could offer tips on strength for dancers, and the ballet studio could offer athletes ballet basics to improve flexibility and grace. The veterinarian could team up with the insurance agent to discuss accident prevention around the barnyard—or even pet insurance for her clients’ four-legged family members. With a little creativity and professional expertise, a business can market itself with little cost and plenty of return on its investment.
Reward Web Conference Referrals with Useful Perks
Many businesses reward their existing customers who get others to sign up for the teleconference with a coupon, a gift card, or a useful promotional item—that does double duty as both a promotional tool and a reward. Those low-cost perks go a long way toward building good will in their customer base.
When a business uses its collective imagination to create useful information for its customers, it comes out on top of its field. In the eyes of its customers, it’s a problem-solver. A hero. Holding informative webinars and teleconferences is the way small businesses can save the day for their customers. In turn, the customers will show their thanks by their loyalty and by referrals.