Wouldn’t it be so easy if you only need one thing to drive tons of webinar registration?
How you wish…sadly, in reality, to meet your webinar goals, you’ll need an effective promotion strategy.
Promoting your webinar is no doubt, a challenging task. But there’s no need to be troubled as we’ve done the research. This article will guide you on what works and what doesn’t when doing webinar promotion.
Do you want a full house for your upcoming webinar? Try some of these methods.
1. Find the right timing
Promoting webinars is all about the timing. There are particular days and times wherein registration rates are continuously higher than others. According to gotomeeting.com, these are the best times to schedule your webinar promotion:
- Mornings – This should be between 8 to 10 am as there’s a spike in registrations. Sending emails early in the morning increases your chances of being at the top of inboxes.
- Tuesdays – This particular day attracts most registrations, driving about 24% of the total number. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays also work but make sure to launch your key promotions on a Tuesday.
- 3-4 Weeks in Advance – It’s recommended that you launch your promotions 4 weeks prior to the webinar. This allows you to increase promotion frequency as your webinar date gets closer. You can expect a steady flow of registrations 3-4 before your webinar and a surge the week prior.
2. Use your website
Another way to promote is through free advertising on your website. Since you own it, you can feature upcoming webinars on your site for free, this includes:
- Banner Ads – Highlight your webinar with a banner ad on your homepage. Use an eye-catching rectangular image that stretches and displays either at the top, bottom, or sides of your website.
- Curated Content – Write a blog post with complementary topics that are indirectly promoting the webinar. Then, include a hyperlink to your webinar landing page.
- Page Features – Create a “Resource and Events” page on your website if you don’t have one. This is where you’ll be featuring your upcoming scheduled webinars to make your attendees aware of your other programs.
- Confirmation Pages – It’s important to connect with people who have already shown interest in your webinar. Add a “Thank You” page or any sort of confirmation page that loads after a conversion happened on your website. Most advertisers use this page as nothing more than a means to express gratitude. But, you can take one step further by sharing your upcoming webinars that they might be interested in.
Keep in mind that when putting up ads, it shouldn’t have any significant impact on site speed. If they do, you should probably remove them or lessen them. Slow websites don’t perform well on Google Search and you wouldn’t want that to happen to you.
3. Optimize your landing page
People need a place to go to register for your webinar. Before you get the word out and start promoting, make sure to create an optimized landing page for lead generation.
What’s necessary for your landing page?
- The date and time of your webinar.
- The guests or speakers that will be present at the event.
- An easy-to-use online form where attendees can register.
- A detailed information on the topics that will be discussed.
How to make a great registration page?
- Less form fields – The fewer form fields you have, the better. Just include form fields that are necessary to register to make the process easy for your attendees.
- Add a video – Having a video on your can help increase conversion rates by as much as 80%. Plus, videos make it easier for your audience to understand your content with less effort.
- Emphasize the benefits – Let people know why they should register for your webinar and what they can get from attending. Remember to keep it short, nobody would like to go through a long registration process.
Once you finish creating the perfect landing page, check if the rest of the conversion path makes sense. Also, after they completely go through the registration page, send a Thank You email that confirms they’ve saved their spot for your webinar.
4. Send emails
Email typically drives most registrations which makes it an effective marketing strategy to promote your webinar. When it comes to email marketing, send out your first promotional emails 3 to 4 weeks before your webinar. Then, slowly increase the email frequency a week before your event.
Your webinar invitation emails should be all about making it easy for people to see the value in it and say “yes”. Also, when going through your email list, don’t forget to filter out those who have already signed up. Here are the things that you should be including in your email:
- What: Title of the webinar
- When: Time, date, and duration of the webinar
- Who: Introduction of the people presenting in the event
- How: Call to actions (CTAs) for people to register (buttons, hyperlinks, etc.)
- Why: What value and learning are you offering.
5. Be active on social media
If used correctly, a social media platform can help increase the reach of your webinar promotions. It’s good to be active on various social media platforms as it’s a great way to show your followers that you’re conscious and involved in the conversation of your online community.
For a successful webinar, take the time to create a complete social plan, including a calendar of when you intend to publish each post. Other useful tips:
- Tweet as often as you can about your webinar. Use relevant hashtags and pick unique ones for each of your webinars.
- Use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to schedule promotions. Don’t forget to make use of high-quality images, thought-provoking content, and a strong CTA.
- If you’re an active member of a group or forum, use it to spread the word about your upcoming webinar. However, don’t overdo it as you may appear spammy.
- If you have the budget, try experimenting with paid promotions on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. When your target market aligns with user demographics, social advertising can result in high conversion rates and sales with less cost of acquisition.
To sum up
If you follow these methods to promote your next webinar, you are well on the path to success. However, promotion is only half of the battle, so keep your audience in mind all throughout your preparations.
After the webinar, ask for input from the attendees. This way, you’re letting them know that you care about what they want. What webinar marketing approach has worked best for your products and services? Share it with us!
