It may seem crazy, but not only should you love webcasts and do them as often as you can – audiences love them too. Even if they don’t watch live, they love watching them afterwards on sites like YouTube, Facebook Live, Periscope and others. Imagine growing your audience for your store (and your website) just by doing a virtual fashion talk every week. It's a great way to connect with your audience, show off (for free) new items you got in that week or what's happening in fashion that you can help your buyers with.

Here are the main reasons why they are so popular for your fashion forward customers.

1. They Feel Connected with the Host (That's You or Your Channel) – When people become your fan, they want to see you in every way that they can, be it on a webcast or in person. And it doesn't have to be just you – have your staff participate and be part of the fun. Take advantage of that and be where your fans want you to be, so that you can build better relationships and make more sales. Have some “live” audience sessions where you do a fashion show and broadcast it on Facebook live!

2. It’s Easier to Understand Difficult Topics – Many people learn better with visuals, and video can help with that. If you’re teaching a difficult concept, being able to show examples, really talk to your audience, and answer questions on the spot makes the topic a lot easier to understand. Imagine a webcast on how to wear the new “skinny scarf” 20 ways and show off your inventory while you have them captive.

3. They Find It Interesting – Audiences overwhelmingly find webcasts more interesting than blog posts, articles, and other forms of content. They are more likely to interact with a webcast, make comments, and participate than they are a blog post. They love to watch just to be part of the community, especially younger audiences and that makes it a great way to draw them in. Of course, they will want to buy online as well, so having an optimized website will make it easy to add sales to your store.

4. They Feel Included – When you invite people to weekly webcasts, they feel included in your inner circle. Whether your webcasts are public or for members only doesn’t matter. Your audience will feel included and part of your VIP circle. They get to know you and what you are like, and you can even find yourself with “inside jokes” with your audience.

5. It Feels Like a Real Event – It feels real because it is. If you’re hosting live webcasts, they’re real events that people can and will get excited about. Your audience will be happy, and that happiness will rub off on you and make you happy to perform the webcast each week. You can let your staff do them as well – just come up with a script or plan for the week and let them go, that way it becomes about the store and not just you.

6. They Can Build Relationships – When your audience is watching you live, in their mind you’re building a relationship with them. They’re looking into your eyes; they feel as if you’re talking only to them. They like to get to know people before they spend money, and webcasts are the best way to do that. When they walk in the store, it will feel like they already know all the people and that makes them welcome and more likely to buy.

7. It Feels Separate from the Sales Cycle – While webinars and webcasts today are certainly part of the sales cycle, to the audience it feels separate from the sales cycle. As long as your webcasts are informative, they’re not going to feel sold to or talked down to. They’re going to enjoy it. And you are not selling all the time, most of the time these are informational webinars to show what's going on in the world you live in. If you just went to market, tell them all about what you saw – build anticipation for what you are going to bring into the store.

8. They Like to Follow Thought Leaders – If you’re an expert in your niche (and your audience certainly thinks you are), then any time you do a webinar your people are going to want to participate and learn from you. You can also see which shows are watched more and learn what your audience is looking for so you can give them more of that.

9. Audiences Love Demos – When you teach your audience to do something, even things you think are easy and boring, they just love it. Host a webinar teaching your audience to do one small thing that you do on a regular basis, and it’ll be a well-attended webinar – especially if you let them ask questions. Teaching is fun and will draw people to you because you will be more personable and not salesy.

10. They Like a Sure Thing – It’s like an email newsletter or a magazine; people like being able to count on something. If it’s a weekly live event, they’re going to be excited to view it and tell others about it too. If they know for sure that this event will continue happening, they’re going to be even more likely to tell others. Especially if you give your best information – remember you are selling a physical product so give them the information on how to use it and they will flock to you.

Hosting weekly webinars will pay off in a big way if you keep doing it and keep going. Ensure that your subject matter fits with your target audience and you’ll be surprised at how successful they’ll become. It make take a while for them to become high quality because you are not the greatest when you start, but starting is what you need to do. You can't do episode 10 until you have done episodes 1 – 9. Brainstorm some ideas and get started.