9 Ways to Ensure Nobody Misses Your Next Webinar

Are webinars a part of your content strategy for 2015? Webinars can be very successful in achieving many different kinds of goals. If you’re putting the time into hosting a webinar, make sure you promote it for maximum exposure. Take a look at these tips and best practices for promoting your webinar.

9 General Tips for Promoting Webinars

Identify your target audience.

Focus your webinar around a topic that is educational and will provide useful information to that audience.

Create a strategic partnership with an affiliate.

They may not be comfortable hosting a webinar themselves, but they may participate in yours. This would be a win-win for both of you, and it would increase your potential audience by pooling prospects from both of you.

Consider timing.

• Analyze Google Analytics to see which days and times have worked well historically.
• Consider the time zone of your audience.
• We don’t suggest holding webinars on Mondays or Fridays if possible, as people are often in weekend mode (catching up from a weekend, or celebrating TGIF!).
• According to the Webinar Benchmark Report for 2013 (via Ready Talk), the best time to host a webinar is around 2:00 p.m. EST.
• Begin promoting your webinar at least a week beforehand. For best results, start promoting three weeks in advance.

Optimize your landing page.

Be sure that the 5 W’s (Who, What, When, Where, Why) are clearly defined in your landing page content:

• Who: introduce presenters, include brief bios about them and their expertise on the webinar topic.
• What: explain what the webinar is about.
• When: provide the date and time of the webinar.
• Where: explain how the webinar will be accessible (typically via a link).
• Why: explain the unique value proposition of your webinar. Describe what people will know or be able to do after attending the webinar that they weren’t able to do prior to attending.

Focus on the registration form.

• Be sure the registration form is visible and working properly.
• Include a clear call to action.
• Keep the required fill-in forms to a minimum.
• Ideally, try to only ask for a name and email address.
• If necessary, add one or two more form fields to gather information about your registrants, but try to limit the number of required fields as much as possible; find ways to learn more about your registrants during the webinar with polls, Q&A, etc.

Send a thank-you email and registration confirmation.

Not only is thanking your registrants polite, but it also lets them know that their submission form went through. Include calendar options, as some registrants will use the details from this email to create an event in their calendar.

Promote your webinar.

• Facebook events
• LinkedIn groups and events
• Promote your webinar through PPC ads
• An email campaign

Ideally, an email campaign to drive webinar registrations should include the following emails:

• The initial email should promote the webinar by introducing the topic, the speaker and the information that will be shared. Be sure the subject line of the email clearly conveys the webinar’s unique value proposition.
• A few days after the initial email, send a follow-up email to any prospects who haven’t signed up yet. Include additional details about the webinar, stressing results-driven takeaways and information attendees will acquire.
• On the day of the event, send two emails. Send an email to the people who have already registered for the webinar; this will help to increase attendance. And send an email to the people who have not registered for the webinar; this will help to increase registration and attendance.

Make your webinar available on-demand after the event and easy to find on your website.

Be sure to include this messaging in your promotions as well. Link to your webinars from other related content on your website.

After the event, analyze your registration rate vs. your attendance rate.

Dig into your data to discover possible reasons for the disparity and opportunities to improve.