So you want to start a webinar series that positions your business as an industry thought leader and drives leads your way?
Yeah, every business wants that. There's a lot of competition out there.
However, generating leads and brand equity through webinars is achievable with some thoughtful planning and an integrated promotional approach. How, you ask?
Well, take just a few minutes and read our webinar promotion tips for beginners and you'll be on your way to generating high quality leads and a loyal following.
Set Goals
If it seems like many of our blogs start with "set goals", you're right. But you'd be amazed at how many companies jump in headfirst without determining what success looks like. Even if you've never done a webinar before, research industry benchmarks and use that as a barometer for success. The more webinars you deploy, the more data you will collect and the more accurate you can measure performance. Goal setting is imperative to reducing wasted spending, measuring ROI and continually improving your webinar product.
Plan Ahead
Sending your webinar email invite a few days in advance of your event just won't work. Your audience is extremely busy, and even if your webinar topic is unique and promoted beautifully, your audience will not attend without some advanced notice. A solid strategy is to announce the webinar 2-3 weeks in advance and then methodically and incrementally reveal more details as you get closer to the date. With a few weeks advance notice, busy customers can clear out some time on their calendars. However, planning too far ahead can also cause issues, as people might lose interest and it will require added promotional investment to keep sign ups engaged.
Remind! Remind! Remind!
Longer webinar sign-up lead times means more diligent follow up to maintain engagement. It's important to remember that not every person that signs up for your webinar will actually attend. To mitigate against a large no-show number, be sure to ping those that have signed up periodically with event reminders. The more you stay top of mind, the more likely a sign-up will convert into an actual webinar attendee.
Partner with Other Presenters
Bring other folks into the fold to be part of a panel. Perhaps you're a real estate broker--you can bring in an attorney and home inspector to serve on your panel. Or you're a restaurant owner and you have connections to a locally well-known chef. Have them join the panel.
The benefits of bringing other folks into the webinar typically outweighs having to share the attention.
- The mere fact that other respected panelists have joined you positions you as a thought leader
- More experts equal more value for the attendees
- You all can benefit from promoting the webinar to respective constituencies
- If panelists are very well-known, nationally or locally, this can be an attendance draw for your webinar
Take an Integrated Approach
By the time you're ready to leverage webinars, you should already have a strong grasp on your audience. Once you know your audience, promote your webinar via an integrated approach. This means using every promotional vehicle at your disposal (budget allowing), including social media, paid media, blogging, email marketing and even print, if that's appropriate for your audience. An integrated approach will "touch" your customers across multiple channels, increasing the likelihood of contact and engagement.
Use Images
Replace your usual cover image for Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and others with an image promoting your webinar. You can also add an image to your email signature to keep the webinar top-of-mind.
Record the Webinar
This will clearly not help promote attendance, but it is important nonetheless. For those that drop off the attendance list, you can follow up with a link to the recording or develop a CTA on your home page driving people to the webinar recording. Follow up is critical to the entire webinar process as it not only nurtures leads, but also paves the way for interest in your next webinar offering.
These are just some very basic webinar promotion tips for beginners. Keep these fundamentals in mind as you plan your first webinar series.
Good luck! And if you need any help or advice, reach out--we'd love to work with you to create a killer webinar campaign.