15 ways to become a Webinar Champion

I suspect that one of the reasons that marketers are a little nervous about taking the plunge with webinars is that they appear to take a bit more organising than other forms content marketing.

For sure, a webinar is only as successful as its attendance – and in fact this is quite a hard thing to achieve. However, many people you manage to register for your webinar, the average attendance rate is in fact only 25%. So, if you have a goal of attracting 250 people to take part in your webinar, then you will need to get at least 1,000 people to register. But how does one do that? Well here are 15 ways you can be a webinar champion and increase your webinar attendance.

1.      Topic Relevancy is Important

Yes, this is the most important thing of all. No one is going to want to attend your webinar if the topic sucks, is too obvious, or just plain tired now that we’re in 2018.

You want to strike a balance between gaining as abroad an interest as possible, with something that is targeted enough to generate some real interest and deliver some proper, actionable advice that attendees can take away and utilize immediately. 

2.     Use Data to find the perfect timing for your Webinars

As dedicated as we all are to our professions, 2 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon is probably not a good time to expect people to want to think about their day jobs. Indeed, I’m sure they will all have something better to do than listen to your webinar at that time.

So, weekends are out of the question, and, to be honest, so are Mondays and Fridays – these both tend to be busy ‘catch-up’ days for office workers, and so attendance may not be as great at these times. This leaves Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays to choose between – all pretty good bets.

But what time? Well, if you’ve got an international audience, then you’ve got a problem if you want everyone to be live – which is why it’s usually best to keep your topics targeted to avoid this.

But, generally, first thing in the morning is not often the best time for high attendance rates, nor is right at the end of the day. Go for mid-morning (about 10:30) or just after lunch (say 13:00), as these are usually the best times to catch people. Though you will need to experiment, as with every marketing variable, and work out the best times for your audience.

3.     Landing Pages need to be Created and Optimized

A killer landing page for your webinar will incentivise people as to the true value of what they will learn if they attend. This is the chance to showcase how you will be sharing ‘insider knowledge and education’ that won’t be available elsewhere. On top of this, you need to make your landing page clear, precise and honest.

Give clear answers as to who, what, where, when and why people should attend, always focussing on the value of the content that you will be offering. 

4.  The event is more important than the Product

A Webinar invitation should sell the value of the event, period. No-one cares about how wonderful your product is. Every ounce of copy should be dedicated to convincing the reader why he/she should invest a precious 30-40 minutes in your Webinar.

5. Email invitations Need to be perfectly timed.

Studies show that starting email promotions more than 7 days prior to an event increases the size of the audience by 36%. Following the initial invitation, send a second, reminder email a week later. Try sending last-minute reminders in the form of “forwarded” emails from the assigned sales representative, including the contact’s first name and a personal note (e.g. “Jane, wanted to make sure that you saw the invitation to this great event we’re hosting next week …”)

6. Integrate “Add to Calendar” option.

Most business professionals live and die by their online calendars. (Translation: if it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t exist.) Make sure that you include a prominent (and functioning) “add to calendar” link or button on the thank you/confirmation page, confirmation email, and all reminder emails.

7. Use Lead Scoring to find your best Webinar prospects

Integrate your marketing automation system (e.g. Hubspot, Marketo, Pardot) with your Webinar platform (e.g. GotoMeeting, Citrix, WebEx.) Doing so not only eliminates tiresome manual transfer of registration data, but also gives you greater flexibility in the design and branding of campaign assets like registration pages, leading to increased conversion rates and more registrations. Lead Scoring can help you define which prospects to send out the invitations to.

8. Use Search Engine Advertising (SEO & SEM)

Consider a 4-week paid search (SEM) campaign leading up to the date of the Webinar. Either create a separate campaign focused on specific keywords and search queries related to the Webinar topic, or temporarily replace (or rotate) your current SEM ads with copy that drives Webinar registration.

9. Social Media is your friend

Social media can be an easy and effective way to increase attendance by leveraging existing event creative and assets like registration pages. Start by publishing a blog post a couple of weeks before the event – perhaps a short, Q&A-style interview with the Webinar speaker, or an excerpt of the planned presentation – and include a call to action that links to the registration page. Use LinkedIn Sponsored Updates and LinkedIn Text Ads to target specific demographics in advance of the Webinar. Finally, schedule a series of tweets starting 2 weeks prior to the event. Vary the copy, and include images where possible, such as speaker photos.

10.  Invite guest speakers and give webinar attendees access to the speaker

One of the biggest differences between a live webinar and a recorded one, or other media like white papers, is the ability to interact with the expert. Nearly all webinars have some sort of chat feature which can be used for live Q & A. In your promotions, stress the fact that your audience member can have their question answered. Additionally, consider allowing registrants to send questions to the speaker in advance, e.g. on Twitter or via a central email address. This makes the registrant a stakeholder in the event, and much more likely to attend.

11. Have promotions or a prize draw during the webinar

Prizes can sometimes be all the extra incentive that’s needed to turn to that tentative webinar calendar appointment to a confirmed one. Choose prizes that match your audience’s interest. The prize of choice in 2018 is the iPad. In 2009, it was the Kindle. But to stand out, try something different like a book related to the webinar topic. Even a whole set of books doesn’t cost as much as an iPad, and winning them looks better in front of the attendee’s boss.

12. Give attendees the chance to network

Webinars are traditionally a one-to-many communication medium, instead of many-to-many which is characteristic of social networks. Have a live Twitter chat during the event, or a Twitter after-party. This allows audience members to see who else is attending and make meaningful connections with peers. You should also invite webinar attendees to join your LinkedIn group where they can get access to webinar slides, plus interact with speakers and each other. This strategy should lead to a significant increase in your LinkedIn group membership and user engagement.

13. Have an exclusive Content offer

Scarcity drives demand. Let your registrants know that by attending, they are getting access to important information before others. Consider having an exclusive offer such as an e-book or special report which only they can access after the webinar.

14. Create Pre-webinar Engagement

Most webinar platforms have an audience polling feature. I always recommend that companies use this at the beginning (and sometimes during) presentations to make them more interactive. You can do little polling questions through a chatbot before the webinar to gather feedback that could be helpful to the presenter. You can also ask questions that help you segment perspective customers into specific audience segments! The idea is to engage the audience before the webinar starts by coming up any kind of tactic to engage the attendee!

15. Remind attendees through SMS, Voice Mail, Chat Bot or Social Media

Reminders don’t necessarily have to be through emails. Get creative and use messaging, chatbots or any other mechanism to get the attention of your registrants before a webinar begins.