Building a national brand with webinars

Dirkzwager has in-house tax specialists and lawyers who primarily consult SMEs and multinationals. With 380 employees, Dirkzwager is among the top 15 largest law firms in the Netherlands.

One of Dirkzwager's pillars is to share knowledge and they’re well recognized for it. In tandem with their innovative approach in doing so, webinars inform audiences of their latest trends and developments on a larger scale.

Dirkzwager marketing specialist Faziel Kadir and online events specialist Brigitte van Sierenberg de Boer gave us an inside look into the impact of their webinars.

Making knowledge accessible

In addition to expanding their reach, Dirkzwager uses webinars to engage clients and leads in an approachable way. It boosts client interaction and keeps them invested in their own success with the service.

The team at Dirkzwager provides several different forms of knowledge based content. While this includes guides, blog articles, and podcasts, their webinars really do stand out as the most accessible and engaging method to inform clients.

"With webinars, we approach target audience engagement in a different way. We get very positive insights through them.'' 

During the pandemic, Dirkzwager quickly adapted to retain communication with their clients. ''We wanted to continue sharing our knowledge while the world was put on hold,'' says Brigitte. Webinars quickly became the means to do so.

This was certainly a smart move as since then, their leadership continues to observe the proven value webinars have generated for Dirkzwager. Brigitte: ''That's why the department has also moved internally, we could have disbanded [after the pandemic], but instead we’re growing with webinars.”

From a local to national reach thanks to webinars

Right out of the gate, with their very first webinar, the Dirkzwager team celebrated a significant increase in their target audience. ''Our reach has really grown. Attendees are watching from all over the country, whereas physical events were mostly limited to locals. Our events now have a national presence thanks to webinars.'' Faziel explains.

"We have viewers from Groningen to Maastricht and from Den Helder to Zeeland, they now know how to find us thanks to the webinars!'' 

Choosing the right platform 

Prior to choosing WebinarGeek, Faziel and Brigitte vetted a number of platforms. Their first webinar with WebinarGeek was so successful that deciding on a platform became an easy choice. The relief of having found a software that exceeded expectations was so great that Faziel considers their very first broadcast to be one of their best. “I’m highly selective in what tool we use so I compared several tools with each other. WebinarGeek came out on top.”

Affordable, reliable, and accessible

While first evaluating webinar platforms,  Brigitte found the responsiveness and accessibility of WebinarGeek’s live support unmatched. “Also the usability, interface, integrations, and interactions are really a plus.’’

"I always look at the ARAs: affordability, reliability, and accessibility. With WebinarGeek, all three were good.''

Data collection and audience interaction

A typical webinar audience doesn’t have access to webcam or mic by default. This is especially important for larger audiences. Instead, many alternative means of interaction are available to engage viewers in a scalable way. Brigitte found the interactions (Polls, Quizzes, CTAs) and live chat to be some of the most powerful webinar features. 

"You do have that interaction with the viewers even though you don't actually see them. The interaction is a lot of fun."

During webinars, Dirkzwager implements several polls, video segments, and conversations via the private chat. Quizzes allow them to measure their viewer’s knowledge and retention. They’ve replicated professional broadcasting in a simple way. WebinarGeek makes this easy because webinars can be entirely custom branded. Simply upload your own logo and say goodbye to software logos forever.

According to Faziel, besides being an enjoyable experience, interacting with the target audience is fascinating. For him, the future of webinars really lies with data. ''I think WebinarGeek is very strong in that. You can find out a lot about the target audience after hosting a webinar.''

The data collected by webinars is essential to their post event segmentation. Additionally the quiz results, for example, give them insights into whether they need to revisit a specific topic. Statistics are a WebinarGeek benefit that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to receive with other platforms such as Zoom for example.

According to Faziel, the post-webinar sales page and evaluation form also stand out as great additions to their webinars. Collecting their audience’s valuable feedback allows them to further improve the content they provide. While the sales page then persuades their audience to take action even though the webinar has ended.

My best tip is to just go and do it. It's really worth it!''

When scaling your webinars, Faziel’s most important tip is to make a clear objective of what you want to achieve with your webinar. Is it lead generation, engagement, conversion, or something else? Remember to also evaluate your setup. While you can of course host webinars with an internal webcam and mic, using an external camera and the right lighting can greatly improve the professional appearance of your webinar!