I have a confession to make: last week I forgot to take out the trash, ordered takeout more times than I’d like to admit, and sent my laundry out to be cleaned because I didn’t have time to do it myself. I was just too busy to do it all. Likewise, your fans — people just like you and me — are busier than ever. We’re constantly being pulled in a dozen different directions, bombarded with industry news and marketing messages, when all we really want is something that will help us get our jobs done faster and smarter. In such a busy and noisy marketing world, how can you make sure people take the time to come to your webinars? The answer is deceptively simple: your webinars need to be relevant, informative, and most of all, convenient. Here are a few easy tips to get you started:
- Make The Title Pop
Think about the last webinar you attended. With all the invites that pour into your inbox, why did you not only register for but also attend that particular one? Chances are, you signed up because the title spoke to you. If the title of a webinar promises to deliver information you need or actionable advice, you are much more likely to register and attend.
Keep that in mind when you’re naming your own webinars. Craft a title that directly addresses a common pain point and lets people know that they’ll walk away with tips they can immediately put into action. Webinar titles like “10 Secrets for Creating Great Webinar Content” or “5 Signs Your Webinars are Falling Short” tell people exactly what they can expect. And that translates into more people attending your event.
- Get More From Your Registration Page
Too often, marketers think of the webinar registration page as nothing more than an abstract and a form fill. But if you don’t take your reg page seriously, why should your fans?
Make sure you have calendar links on your registration page so it’s easy for people to add the webinar to their calendars. This gives them an easy and fast way for them to block out the time in their work calendars so no one books a meeting at the same time as your webinar. You wouldn’t agree to a professional development meeting and not add it to your calendar — treat your webinars the same. Adding buttons that automatically drop the webinar on someone’s Outlook or Google calendar is a quick and easy way to help ensure they attend.
- Don’t Be Antisocial
If you’re not promoting your webinars on social channels, you’re missing out on a huge potential audience. Just remember that social audiences have a different set of expectations, so you might have to nuance your message a little bit. Use different copywriting based on the platform (more light-hearted on Facebook, short-form with a point of view on Twitter, and a more skills-focused approach for LinkedIn).
Be sure to establish a hashtag for your webinar or larger webinar series (and check that hashtag to make sure that no one else is using it or that it’s not currently being used in a different, inappropriate context!). Then get creative about how you promote the event: tease key tips that will show up in the webinar presentation, ask provocative questions about the pain points the webinar will address, create a teaser video, or throw out intriguing stats or quotes that are related to the subject of your event. And, finally, try posting at different times to appeal to your audience. A well-crafted tweet a few days before the webinar may help drive registration, while timely day-of messages counting down to the start of your event will probably encourage more spur of the moment attendance (like how Periscope works by promoting the “I’m doing this now. Tune in now” mentality).
- Send a Reminder Email
This is such a simple one, but it is so shocking how many people forget to send a reminder email! Sometimes I get so busy that I forget to little but important things like buy groceries or take out the trash, so imagine how easy it is for people to forget about your webinar. No matter how excited someone was when they signed up, you need to take the opportunity to remind them.
Segment your database and email sends so that the day of your webinar anyone who has not registered yet receives a “last chance” email. And all the people who have registered should get a friendly reminder with a link to the event a couple of hours before you start delivering your webinar. This keeps your webinar top of mind as they’re starting out their day, helps fans prioritize their work for the day, and makes the event link easily accessible.
- Get Sales Involved
You want more people to come to your webinars. Sales wants a good excuse to reach out to prospects. This is a textbook win-win situation and is key to any good some good sales and marketing alignment strategy.
Draft a simple email template for your sales team and encourage them to reach out and personally invite their most promising prospects to your webinar. Sales will appreciate having a reason to continue the conversation with a strong lead, you will enjoy an engaged addition to your webinar audience, and the prospect gets all your tips and webinar content. If the webinar helps move the prospect down the funnel and encourages them to buy, then your webinar can be directly attributed to revenue generation. How great is that?!
People are busy. Make it fun and easy for them to attend your super relevant and informative online events and they’ll be sure to keep coming back for more!
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