According to a study by B2B Magazine and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), 54% of B2B marketers find Webinars an effective new media platform (versus 27% of B2C marketers).

Webinars offer great benefits for both you and your customers and prospects, but because they are resource intensive, it's important to evaluate if they're appropriate for your business.

1 - What (are Webinars exactly?)

Webinars are online events that are typically "live," interactive, and hosted by a company for its customers or prospects. Their purpose is to convey information to attendees, whether about a product or service (promotional) or about a general topic of interest (educational).

For example, if you're a vendor looking to develop partnerships with new resellers, you'd invite prospects to a promotional Webinar to learn about your products or services. Alternatively, if your company has knowledge on a topic (for instance, search engine marketing), you could hold an educational Webinar on effective SEM. Educational Webinars should avoid "selling."

2 - Why (are Webinars beneficial to you and your customers/ prospects?)

It's pretty easy to see how a Webinar can benefit your customers and prospects - it provides information that helps them improve their business. But what are the pay offs for the company investing time, talent and money to create the event? First, providing information that helps your customers and prospects improves your relationship and helps them look to you as a resource. Second, holding events on topics that exercise your company's strengths will position you as an expert in that area. Next, your educational Webinars put your company and brand in front of your customers and prospects and give you a reason to contact them.

Unlike some other forms of marketing, Webinars have staying power. After the live event, you can host a recording of it on your website. Webinars also add fresh and relevant content to your site, potentially improving its search engine optimization (SEO).

Additionally, other relevant sites may link to your recorded event, which can also improve your SEO. Finally, if marketed effectively, Webinars can be effective lead generation tools.

3 - When (should you use Webinars?)

Although beneficial, Webinars are not always the most appropriate marketing tool for your company. They require major time and financial investments, and some B2B companies may find it more cost-effective to engage in other marketing programs.

Here are some questions to help evaluate whether Webinars are right for your company:

• Do you have the necessary resources? From Kellysearch's perspective, I can tell you we spend a few thousand dollars per event on just the Webinar hosting service (we use Webex). Also, developing marketing materials, Webinar content, presentations, and covering the logistics is a 40-hour investment. If your Webinar's purpose is promotional, then your goal is to sell. If attendees know this before the event, then they're your best prospects and most likely to buy - so the investment will probably pay off. With educational events, it's more difficult to judge what the return on investment (ROI) will be since you're not selling directly.

• Do you have valuable information to share that is of interest to prospects/ customers? In one sense, it's encouraging that 54 percent of B2B marketers find Webinars effective new media platform; however, this also means there's more competition. As Webinar use continues to rise, content must be increasingly compelling and delivered succinctly to convince prospects that this event is worth an hour of their day. Survey the Webinar landscape. Note the topics already covered and avoid them. And don't be shy; ask your customers and prospects what topics interest them. This often leads to a surprising amount of quality feedback.

• Do you have a good list of customers and prospects to target? You could have brilliant content, but without a good list of potential attendees you won't realize a substantial ROI.

If the answer to all of the above questions is "yes," then a Webinar program could be a valuable marketing tool for your company.

This commentary is insightful. I recommend it to others.