How do you actually get people to show up for a webinar? Please share one off your best webinar marketing tips.
To help you attract an audience for your next webinar, we asked marketing professionals and business leaders for their best advice. From encouraging speakers to promote the webinar to making the most of your “Thank You” page, there are several tips to boost attendance at your next webinar.
Here is what 10 thought-leaders had to say:
- Encourage Speakers to Promote the Webinar
- Send at Least One Reminder
- Focus On a Captivating Title
- Keep It Fun
- Provide a Bonus Solely for Live Listeners
- Offer Prizes and Giveaways
- Promote In Your Email Signature
- Use a Remarketing Strategy
- Provide Referral Incentives
- Make the Most of Your “Thank You” Page
Encourage Speakers to Promote the Webinar
Emails, social media campaigns and landing page optimizations can all generate buzz to increase attendance. But to connect with a wider audience, encourage the featured webinar guests to promote the event on their sites and social channels. The amplified promotion can boost attendance which benefits both you and the speakers.
Claire Routh, Markitors
Send at Least One Reminder
We’re all busy, so it can be easy to skip an optional webinar when bigger priorities loom. Even when a webinar is on someone’s calendar, it’s far from a guarantee that they’ll attend. Stay top of mind and make yourself a priority by sending one (or more) energetic emails that remind your attendees about your event and reinforce the benefits of attending. For example, “See you tomorrow at noon for our insider Q&A!” sounds a lot better than “Reminder: Webinar tomorrow, 12:00pm.”
Elliott Brown, OnPay Payroll Services
Focus On a Captivating Title
In my experience, the title of the webinar plays a huge role in attracting the right crowd. Usually, business webinar titles tend to include a lot of jargon and are unnecessarily long with a few colons or dashes thrown in. Titles that are short, pointed, and ask/answer the right question tend to grab more attention.
For example, instead of saying “Navigating the Post-Covid Workplace: A Guide for Businesses to Ensure Safety While Employees Return to Work” can be compressed to “How to Get Employees Back Safely into the Workplace” or something more intriguing, like “Employees are beginning to come back to the office. Now What?”
Joe Flanagan, VelvetJobs
Keep It Fun
Webinars should be fun. When we do live webinars, we make sure to start with our story, showing old photos when I first began the business and showing blooper reels.
I also start with upbeat music and encourage people to keep their camera on. To get people to sign up for the webinar, make sure you have an email campaign with a giant sign up button.
Trevor Rappleye, CorporateFilming.com
Provide a Bonus Solely for Live Listeners
So many people register for webinars but then forget (make sure you have good email followup) or choose to listen to the recording and then never get around to listening.
I find it works really well to provide a special offer, special price or special additional content, that is only available for those who attend live. Stop the recording and provide some great value content only for those present live. And make sure in your promotional emails and website copy that you point this out, and provide testimonials from people that the bonus live content is the best and worth taking time out for.
Dale.
Dale Reardon, Travel For All
Offer Prizes and Giveaways
A great way to get people to actually show up for a webinar is to give away some prizes throughout the webinar to the attendees. These prizes can be given out at random and are simply there to encourage people to show up and participate in the webinar. People love free giveaways, so if you incorporate one into your webinar, you will drive attendance up and have a more successful webcast.
Darren Litt, MarketerHire
Promote In Your Email Signature
Including your webinar’s landing page in your signature is a great, non-intrusive way to generate leads outside of your normal audience. For example, if you have outbound sales reps who send lots of cold emails, having them include your upcoming webinar in their email signatures can interest more people in your event — people who wouldn’t have been on your normal subscription list.
Another tip, when promoting a webinar through your signature, include an eye-catching graphic and tagline to intrigue more people.
Jason Brandt, Podopolo
Use a Remarketing Strategy
Remarketing is a great strategy because it lets you reach out to an audience that’s already familiar with your brand and, quite likely, interested in what you have to say. The messaging in your ads can also be a lot more direct, exciting, and informal. A key factor is being mindful of where you place these remarketing ads since you don’t want to advertise on a website that doesn’t align with your brand values.
Larissa Pickens, Worksion
Provide Referral Incentives
Don’t be afraid to ask those who join up to invite their friends and family. Please give them a cause to do it (apart from making the world a better place) by offering referral bonuses. You might give out an eBook or some incentive. If you’re feeling generous, try launching an affiliate scheme where people who sign up get rewarded based on the number of others who sign up using their unique links and other factors. It’s also a good method to promote the worth of your webinar subtly.
Steve Scott, Spreadsheet Planet
Make the Most of Your “Thank You” Page
There’s nothing worse than being stood up when it comes to hosting webinars. Among many valuable tips on increasing your attendance, I recommend paying attention to the “thank you” letter. Don’t make it a simple recognition of registration but a cover letter that allows people to get to know you a little better, engage deeper with your product, and build trusted relationships. As we know, people tend to stand their friends up less. Your letter should ideally include a video explaining your expertise and what you’re going to cover with exclusive information. Don’t forget to add in what people need to do (share on social media, leave a comment, download your workbook), the time and date of the webinar, as well as the day of the reminder letter. Don’t forget to add your customers’ reviews and a Google calendar reminder. Make it the most efficient thank you page ever!
Rimma Serheieva, Giggster
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