Webinars: the ideal solution for effective internal communication
It’s a very topical challenge: your organisation has multiple locations, but you can’t hold meetings in real life and it’s absolutely essential to keep all your employees informed about and engaged with the key decisions and developments within your company. You may well be currently using Teams, Meet or Zoom for that purpose. However, there’s a growing demand for a more professional solution, and we have just the answer: webinars.
Online meetings are no longer simply one of the options – they are pretty much the only option we have right now in a world where everything is being done online. But you do have a choice in how you hold your online meetings. It can be tempting to opt for the standard solutions such as Microsoft Teams, Google Meet or Zoom. After all, you’ve been using them for a while now and they feel familiar and comfortable. But there’s a ‘but’. Are they truly effective in reaching your employees, and are your meetings having the desired impact? Or do you want more?
The 7 advantages of professional webinars
Now that in-person annual company meetings or other internal gatherings aimed at sharing information with employees and strengthening their engagement are no longer possible, a webinar is the best substitute – providing it’s a professionally organised webinar, that is. Here are the top seven benefits.
- Webinars offer a better audio-visual experience. You’re assured of good sound and image quality thanks to high-tech equipment and HD broadcasts.
- There are no technology issues with webinars, so you don’t have to worry about viewers struggling to log in, plus you are ensured a reliable and secure connection.
- Webinars reinforce your corporate identity. Rather than seeing a speaker on a laptop in their own living room, viewers see a presenter in a professional studio setting with the look and feel of your own organisation.
- Good webinars are taken care of from start to finish. You don’t have to do a thing, everything is done for you – right down to the speakers’ make-up, if desired – even if you decide to broadcast the webinar from your own location.
- Webinars are inspiring. Using Q&As and polls makes your webinar interactive and more enjoyable and keeps viewers attentive and engaged. That’s how you transform a meeting into a memorable experience.
- Webinars have extensive reach. And if employees can’t attend the live event, they can watch the on-demand version when it suits them, in HD and on any device. This enables you to reach around 80% of your intended audience.
- Webinars are valuable. The interactive elements can give you lots of useful feedback and information – and you can use those insights to make informed decisions for your organisation.
A professional webinar as alternative to real-life meetings and events
Everyone is in agreement that online meetings are the best substitute for real-life meetings, so it’s just a matter of choosing between a standard solution and a custom-developed webinar. Whatever you choose, an added bonus is that online meetings are more sustainable than getting together in person, because attendees don’t have to travel and that means fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
From a substitute to a new way of working
There’s no denying that a webinar is more costly than organising a meeting using one of the standard platforms. However, it’s still cheaper than hiring a venue with catering. Looking ahead, we can safely assume that the number of large-scale gatherings will never completely return to previous levels. Fewer people will want to attend such meetings, plus companies have now seen that things can – and must – be done more intelligently, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.
Solutions such as Teams, Meet and Zoom all work fine for regular meetings, which is the reason so many of us are using them so extensively. But for bigger meetings that need to have more impact, there is a lot to be said for the strength of professionally organised webinars. They can help you to make an important difference with your next internal communication event.
Ultimately, it all comes down to which webinar partner you choose, so make sure you opt for certainty, experience and a proven track record. For extra inspiration, read the success stories of DSM and Heineken, two companies that are already using webinars for their internal communication.
If you are interested in using webinars as part of your own internal communication strategy and you need more help or inspiration, please don’t hesitate to contact us or to download some of our free tools.