Killer content is the first step to holding a successful webinar. The rest hinges on how well you market it. Getting people to not only register for your webinar but actually show up can be like herding cats. You can inspire them to commit, however, if you put as much enthusiasm into it as you want them to have.
Do you want to make sure that your webinar is successful – i.e., do you want to deliver great content to a large audience and have an impact they won’t forget? These seven tips will make all the difference in growing your webinar’s popularity and reach. Bring your best marketing ideas, a keen knowledge of your audience, and some good old-fashioned grit – this is where the work really begins!
Table of Contents
Choose a Relevant, Exciting Topic
A topic that’s been done before or doesn’t resonate with your audience is going to get a lukewarm response. To increase your attendance, select a topic that will attract a large audience but that’s focused enough to be useful. For example, if you sell a healthcare product, you could talk about ways to improve your health in a specific way – for example, better eating or improved sleep quality. Your topic should make people want to be there – they could be doing anything else with their time.
Set Goals for Registration and Attendance
Assigning a concrete figure to registrants and attendees you want at your webinar will make you more driven to get there. Don’t just go for “more than last time” or “enough to get some sales,” but an exact number – like 1,000 registrants. Keep in mind that webinar attendance is typically 30% of its registrants. To figure out how many registrants you’ll need to meet an attendance goal, you’ll want to come up with your attendance goal first (so, 300 attendees in the case of 1,000 registrants). If you’re short on your goal, you’ll know you need to ramp up your marketing effort.
Include Giveaways as Incentive
People will sign up for an event that offers them free stuff – but only if it’s something that’s important to them. Give away items or services that are of interest to your target group. This could be tickets to an event (like a concert or seminar), a free hour of a service, money to spend at your business, or gift certificates to places anyone would want (Starbucks and massages come to mind). You want your audience to feel special and get them talking to others about what a cool experience your webinar was. This is the kind of thing that makes them come back for more.
Choose a Good Day and Time
Did you know that people prefer to attend webinars on certain days of the week and times of day? According to a poll done by WhatCounts, Wednesday and Thursday are the days that people want to attend webinars, and the days you will get your largest audience. The time of day depends on what’s most convenient for your audience, but if your audience is mostly in the same time zone or just an hour ahead or behind, the afternoon tends to be a good bet. If you have a big audience in another country, you’ll want to consider that. Unsure what time works for your attendees? Ask them in a poll to choose the best hour to start.
Send Constant Reminders
Keep in contact with your registrants via e-mail up until the very day of your webinar. Since people tend to sign up for webinars weeks (or even months) in advance, regular reminders will keep it fresh in their minds. The first e-mail they receive should be a registration confirmation with a “thank you” for taking the time to sign up. From there on, send e-mails filled with value-added content – i.e., content that leads up to, prepares them for, or correlates with the information in your webinar – will serve to maintain their interest. These are best delivered two weeks and then one week before your webinar. Two additional e-mails the day before and the day of will improve the chances that your webinar gets placed permanently on their schedule.
Promote Your Webinar Everywhere
Marketing in many different mediums will reach the most potential registrants, so get posting! Utilize your social media accounts, blog, and website with just enough promotion of your webinar to spread the word but not so much that you spam your readers. Don’t be afraid to go after paid advertising opportunities, like PPC ads. If you have featured presenters in your webinar, ask them to go through their social networks and connections to promote it, too. Take advantage of every possible communication channel you can think of to maximize your webinar’s potential (and meet those attendance goals!)
Beef Up Your Webinar Landing Page
The landing page for your webinar should be a one-stop shop for registrants to find out everything they want to know about it. Include who’s speaking about what, when it’s happening, how to register for and access the event, and what attendees can expect to get out of it. The page should be succinct and to the point, but provide adequate information to intrigue visitors who clicked the link through your social media or an ad. Affix a couple of high-quality images (such as presenter headshots) for aesthetic quality, and don’t forget to include your contact information for fielding pre-webinar questions.
Good content and good marketing go hand-in-hand to make a successful webinar. You can’t have one without the other and expect your audience to keep growing and your customer base to expand. Just having high-quality information in an accessible format isn’t going to get people to register for and attend your webinar. It takes determination to build your reputation as a provider of excellent webinar content. Later, once you’ve established one, you might be able to relax a little with your efforts – but not by much. For each webinar you host, make it a priority to keep improving your reach and building your audience. Your efforts won’t be overlooked!
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