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When it comes to building a list to market to, you have a lot of options, both online and offline. Webinars are quickly gaining ground as an effective way to collect pre-qualified leads, and they can be very effective for agents and brokers who work in all aspects of insurance—from commercial lines to life and health. Here are just a few reasons why webinars should be part of your lead generation efforts.

They pre-qualify your leads. No one signs up for a webinar if they don’t have more than a passing interest in the topic. Not everyone who signs up will attend—those who do should be considered very attractive leads—but even those who sign up and don’t attend have already demonstrated interest. Depending on your goals and audience, you can raise the bar for sign-ups by adding a few forms to your sign-up field; those who take the time to include extra information are likely to be especially interested. This can reduce the number of sign-ups, but the ones you get will be more heavily pre-qualified.

They raise your profile. A great webinar series can change your profile in the eyes of your prospects—from salesperson to consultant. That’s great for any agent’s business, as it presents you as someone who has information of value to your prospects, not just someone with something to sell. Webinars show your prospects the depth of your specialized insurance expertise and the value it brings to their bottom line.

They’re easy to run. You don’t need expensive equipment to film a webinar. You can do it in the comfort of your own office, using your computer camera and microphone. You can put a lot of effort into production or you can start simple. Use a platform like Google Hangouts on Air, and get started for free—you can easily reap the benefits of webinars without investing a lot of money.

They drive traffic to your website. Blog posts and other types of content also do this, but webinars are an event. They give people a reason to show up at a certain time, and they’re easy to promote across a range of social media. Include other subject matter experts in your presentation, and they’ll market to their audience as well—so you can expand your reach.

You can market them even after the date. Webinars keep driving traffic and interest to your website even after the date has passed. It’s always a good idea to record your webinar and leave it up on your website and YouTube channel so people can watch later on. You can use your webinars as sales tools to send to prospects with an interest in the topic, promote them to lists of people with a proven interest in the product, and continue to highlight them online.

Webinars can pay off well in helping insurance agents and brokers build lists of strongly qualified leads. They are a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal—no matter what kind of insurance you sell.