5 reasons why your brand should create webinars for healthcare professionals (HCPs).

Due to the recent coronavirus pandemic, many companies have found the need to provide continuing professional development (CPD) to healthcare professionals (HCPs) using webinars. In this blog post, we will discuss the five reasons why your food, nutrition or medical nutrition business could benefit from providing webinars to HCPs.

1. Engage with your target audience

Attending a webinar requires HCPs to pre-register, set aside precious time, and dedicate their full attention to your brand for a duration of time. In return, your brand provides them with the opportunity to learn and engage with a topic that will enrich their CPD and professional growth.

A report from a webinar hosting platform, GoToWebinar ¹ found that the average attendee dedicates an hour of their time to watching a webinar.

2. Promote your brand while giving something back

HCPs have all been working extremely hard and making sacrifices, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many hospital trusts are only able to provide limited CPD opportunities to their staff due to money and time restraints. Webinars allow your brand to show HCPs how much you appreciate them by providing them with free and useful content.

Providing a webinar for HCPs demonstrates that your company is not just interested in making a hard sell but genuinely wants to give something back. Furthermore, webinars are shown to be an effective learning method for attendees ².

3. Reach a global audience

A main advantage of providing a webinar to HCPs is that they can enjoy enhancing their knowledge without leaving the comfort of their own home. This means that you’re able to attract a wider audience from around the world. The webinar can also be recorded and provided in video format at future dates, which helps expand your message’s reach.

4. Build new relationships

One of the best ways to build a brand relationship is by providing value first. Webinars give you the opportunity to educate HCPs on topics relevant to your service or product, positioning your brand as thought-leaders in a specific area.

Webinars are an excellent way to increase brand awareness amongst HCPs and may encourage with them to further engage with your brand. For example, they might follow you on social media or signup to your email newsletter.

5. Invite expert guests and leverage their audience and credibility

When you invite an expert as a guest on your webinar, they usually are more than happy to promote it with their followers on social media. This can drive traffic to the webinar and increase awareness of your brand.

It’s not only exposure that the expert speaker can offer; their trust and expertise are invaluable. Bringing an industry expert into your webinar further cements your brand as being thought leaders in a specific topic area. An interesting and engaging speaker will also help increase enthusiasm, attendance rates and social media activity.

References:

1. Tiffany A (2019) Introducing the Big Book of Webinar Stats: We Analyzed 250,000 Webinars to Help You Make Yours Better – GoToWebinar [online]. Available at: https://www.goto.com/blog/introducing-the-big-book-of-webinar-stats-we-analyzed-250000-webinars-to-help-you-make-yours-better#:~:text=Webinar%20attendees%20will%20give%20nearly%20an%20hour%20of,viewing%20time%20for%20a%20webinar%20is%2057%20minutes. [Accessed on: 11/08/2022]
2. Gegenfurtner A, Ebner C (2019) Webinars in higher education and professional training: A meta-analysis and systematic review of randomized controlled trials, Educational Research Review, doi: 10.1016/j.edurev.2019.100293 [Accessed on 11/08/2022]