Before COVID was part of our vernacular and impacting our everyday lives, including the move to remote work, learning, conferences, and events, webinars already played a pivotal role in the insurance industry. Now, in a world still struggling to combat coronavirus, they have become even more relevant.
Everyone in the insurance industry – from insurers to software vendors, educational resources, publications, association marketers and others – hosts webinars. Topics range from cyber risk trends to social inflation and the rising costs of litigation, innovation in insurance and risk management, leveraging telematics data for insurance pricing, driving agency growth, agency management system training, and much more.
The Benefits of Webinar Participation
Webinar participation provides you with an avenue to keep up on the latest trends and product innovations to better serve your clients and gain insights into what lies ahead in terms of emerging risks. You can opt to join a webinar live or listen to a recorded version at your leisure. If you have the time to participate in the live version, it’s a perfect opportunity to either submit questions ahead of time (often an option) or send your inquiries via chat to the host(s).
Webinars also eliminate the need to travel, saving you both time and money. You won’t be out of the office or away from your desk. In addition, as the pandemic wears on (and even as it wears out, whenever that may be), depending on where the webinar is held, you don’t need to spend time figuring out what requirements like testing and quarantining you need to fulfill.
The Benefits of Webinar Hosting
Hosting webinars are a great way to disseminate information, educate and train; establish a company as a thought leader in a specific area and add brand value; sell additional products and/or services; and bring a community of people together and get participants involved via Q&As. You are able to reach a wider audience and are not constricted by geographic and venue size limitations that come with in-person presentations and conferences.
Establishing authority in a specific area, such as in an industry niche like hospitality, via the use of webinars, will have insureds and potential customers turning to you for answers. Creating and hosting webinars that are packed with insightful and valuable information for your audience is one way to solidify your industry expertise.
Webinars also enable you to increase the amount of content available online to your clients and interested parties. They help you create a rich collection of relevant information that can be made available later on your website for individuals to access at their convenience.
You can generate leads and ultimately cross-solve with additional products, as you already have an interested audience that respects your expertise and knowledge.
Getting Your Webinar Going Webinars are highly cost-efficient, too. To organize and host a successful webinar, you need a list of invitees, a webcam, and scripted content that you want to share with your audience. To drive website attendance, set up and send promotional emails. There are certain days of the week that perform better than others for open email rates. According to a 2020 Webinar Benchmarks Report, the mid-week — Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday — are the best days to send promotional emails. Also, the best time to run a webinar is 11:00 am PST/2:00 pm EST. Typically, the number of participants is limited, and individuals are required to register.
