If you’re a professional who knows your way around social media and online spaces, chances are you’ve stumbled upon a webinar promotion or even been invited to one.
Suppose you’ve ever asked “Why are there so many webinars?”, consider Thinkific.
The brand wanted to break free from Black Friday noise but still make an impact, educate its audiences, and drive sign-ups. What did it do?
Using Demio (a webinar tool), it clocked paid conversions and proved ROI with a single webinar boasting 3821 registrations for the event, 866 attendees, over 384 conversations during the webinar, and over 50 immediate paid conversions.
It’s no wonder why marketers love webinars.
More than 95 percent of marketers consider webinars as an effective marketing strategy (to attract, educate, and even have audiences convert during webinars).
Some marketers (at least 57 percent of surveyed marketers) host up to 50 webinars annually.
According to Outgrow.co,
- The average attendee score of a marketing webinar is 44 percent.
- 73 percent of B2B marketers and sales leaders consider webinars as the most effective method for generating high-quality leads
- 92 percent of professionals are convinced that webinars are an effective way to engage sizable remote audiences.
How do you promote webinars in the first place?
How do you bring in the first line of visitors to even sign up for the webinars? (Attendee statistics, engagement, and conversions will come in later).
A combination of advertising, social media, and email marketing is the fastest, most effective, and largely controlled way to promote webinars.
Learn how to harness these platforms and you have a potent weapon in your hands. In this article, we'll give you ideas on how to promote your webinar for maximum attendance and conversions. Then, we’ll take you through the steps to setting up your webinar funnel. Let's dive in!
How early should you promote a webinar?
You should promote your webinar four weeks ahead of the date, minimum. Studies show that 30 percent of registrations happen two to four weeks before the webinar. What about the rest of the registrations? They occur last minute, especially on the day of the webinar. So you should prepare in advance, but also pay attention to the end of the promotion period.
How long is the ideal webinar duration?
Your webinar should be no more than an hour in duration, with the sweet spot being 45 minutes. Going over an hour is not ideal because it can drive away potential attendees. If your topic cannot fit into an hour, split your webinar into smaller sessions instead.
Webinar Promotion Ideas
Invite guests through email
The most effective webinar promotion method is also the cheapest–email. Have your sales team reach out to prospects through a personalized invitation or create an email automation series of at least 3 emails.
We recommend sending more than one email to maximize registrations.
However, don’t send a one-size-fits-all email. Personalization is still necessary; only send to people who might be interested in your webinar.
Include the following information in your email invitation and you’ll have all the basics covered.
- Webinar topic or title
- Date and time
- A call-to-action such as “Register now” to direct the recipient
Make sure your email list has opted in to receive your emails (a.k.a. they want to hear from you) or else, this method will probably not work.
Use social media
Social media is another owned channel you should leverage when promoting a webinar. People spend a lot of time on social media and you would be remiss not to use this channel.
Social media such as LinkedIn and Instagram, is great for building awareness and increasing attendance–all for free.
Make sure you include the details of the webinar (date, time, topic, and link) and use engaging visuals such as videos. You can also use your speaker’s photos in your promotional materials to add interest.
Promote the webinar on your website
Your website is free real estate where you can promote your webinar heavily to visitors. Don’t be limited by your webinar landing page.
You can add your webinar information to your:
- Homepage
- Events section
- Banner ads on multiple pages
- Confirmation pages after someone purchases from your website
- Blog (post dedicated to the webinar or article related to the webinar topic)
- Product section
Additionally, you can embed your webinar registration form on multiple website pages, such as your blog or in certain articles. A direct embed ensures you capture interested prospects right away, as opposed to sending them to another page, which can reduce the number of signups.
Create a strategic funnel for your webinar
Conceptualize your ad strategy
The first step is to create ads for your webinar. To do it well, you have to think of:
Objective: Drive webinar sign-ups
Traffic source: Google? Meta? LinkedIn? Reddit ads? This depends on your audience and where they spend time.
Angles for ads: The copy for ads can take various angles. You could write copy with prominent testimonials by previous customers or take the “myth-busting” route, as Thinkific did. Alternatively, you can simply promise to “teach something”.
The ads: Create ads in pairs so that you can split-test these campaigns.
Some marketers (at least 57 percent of surveyed marketers) host up to 50 webinars annually.
Let’s take Thinkific as an example again (source: Demio). Thinkific took the myth-busting angle and ran an ad on LinkedIn promoting their webinar.
The subject was why online courses are still much needed. It was targeted to aspiring online course creators, influencers, and businesses who wanted to add an academic angle to their marketing efforts.
Create a simple landing page with clear instructions
Unbounce, a leading landing page builder software company, always suggests a “message-matching” approach to building landing pages.
The angle you use for your ad and the message on the ad is the start of the story. This story should continue on your landing page with the sole intent to drive conversions.
For Thinkific's example, this masterclass webinar by Aaron Morin reveals the truth about course-selling for creators and busts some myths along the way.
Landing pages are custom-built for each webinar and tied to the ads. Notice that there’s also a promise to send a recording of the webinar (even if someone can’t attend). We’ll come back to this later.
How to make sure registrants attend your webinar
The work doesn't stop after you've collected registrations. You should ensure you stay top of mind in your prospect's inboxes. Remember, registrants can lose interest or forget to attend the webinar. Find ways to combat these.
Create a thank you page to engage them further
As soon as a potential attendee signs up for the webinar (providing details such as their name and email address), the landing page redirects to what is often called a “thank you” page -- an interstitial page that acknowledges your action and can also be used for:
- next steps
- Instructions
- upsells and cross-sells
The below image is an example of a webinar sign-up thank you page (with thanks from Leadpages).
The thank you page acknowledges the webinar registration, shows a countdown timer to show you when the webinar starts, and instructions for you to follow to ensure attendance.
Send reminders before the beginning of the webinar
It’s a great idea to send email messages as reminders before your webinar starts.
One of two emails before the webinar would ensure a higher attendance rate.
Reminder emails are simple email messages that provide clear instructions on how to join the webinar, and the necessary steps to take (Download software? Connect audio and video? Take notes? Join a community?).
Here’s an example of a reminder email from Drip for a live coaching webinar. Notice a link to have people join a Facebook community as well.
Don't forget to follow up with registrants post-webinar
After the webinar ends, sending out the recording of the webinar is a terrific way to not only engage with all of your participants but also re-engage with those attendees who couldn’t make it to the live session.
Here’s an example of how Wistia, a popular video hosting service, sends out emails to automatically send webinar recordings after the event ends.
Notice how they keep the email simple, with a thumbnail for the video event right inside the email and links to additional resources.
Webinars, when you do them right and consistently enough, can be a powerful source of engaged audiences, high-quality leads, and sales (instantly during the webinar, and later during lead nurturing emails).
Do you conduct webinars? Does your marketing team swear by it? What are your thoughts?
FAQs
1. How can I promote my webinar through email?
To promote your webinar through email, send a series of well-timed emails, starting with an invitation, followed by reminders as the event approaches. Make sure to highlight the benefits of attending and include a clear call-to-action to register.
2. What’s the best way to promote a webinar using ads?
You can promote your webinar through targeted ads on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google. Focus on the value of the webinar, use engaging visuals, and make the registration process easy with a direct link.
3. How far in advance should I start promoting my webinar?
It’s best to start promoting your webinar about 2-4 weeks in advance. This gives you enough time to build interest, send reminders, and ensure maximum attendance.
