How to Drum Up Excitement for Your Webinars

A few simple hacks will help you “fill seats” during your company’s webinars and live, online Q&A sessions.

Question: What is one way I can get more customers to attend a webinar or a live Q&A?

Send Text Reminders

"Collect cell phone information during registration and send a 10 minute "We're starting soon" text to all who opted in. You'll increate attendance, especially if your event is accessible by phone, as most people are never without their phone and text messages are shorter than emails and easier to consume."


Team Up

"Rather than hosting your own webinar, I recommend teaming up with other people/companies within your industry. Not only will you have greater variety content, allowing you to capture a wider audience, but you also benefit from cross marketing."


Give Them Clear Takeaways

"I often see people offer webinars and Q&A sessions that have no clear takeaways. People are busy, and they want to know that they will be walking away with XYZ if they are taking time to attend your webinar. Make your outline clear, and of course, make sure you deliver on what you're promising."


Give a Preview of the Webinar on LinkedIn

"LinkedIn opened it's publishing platform to over 20,000 users to begin publishing longform articles. Use this opportunity to give a preview of your webinar to your LinkedIn connections, and encourage them to share it with their connections. I've seen this done really well by Dave Kerpen on LinkedIn."


Emphasize the Benefits

"Make sure customers know it won’t be a waste of their time. Emphasize what they’ll get out of a webinar or Q&A, and how their attendance will positively affect their relationship with your company."


Change Up the Theme

"Don't give the same themed webinar every time, as you won't attract different subsets of your customer base. Different customers have different questions that need to be answered about your products and services, so change it up to appeal to all of your customers. This should also give your webinars or Q&As consistent attendance."


Use Retargeting Ads

"Use pixels to target them on other sites and remind them how important the webinar is for them. Keep it top of mind."


Use Multi-Channel Marketing

"Let's face it, people are busy, bombarded and distracted. By combining email reminders, voice broadcasts and SMS text messages to remind people about your webinar, it's virtually impossible to not increase your attendance. And with text messages getting a 97 percent open rate, it's impossible to ignore. A 30 percent boost in attendance is not uncommon."


Focus on Trending Topics

"When planning your webinar content, include topics that are trending in the world and in your industry. Hot topics can be a great hook for customers to join your webinar because it shows that your brand can offer valuable insights in real time."


Incentivize

"Persuading customers to engage in a live, voluntary event is like coaxing college seniors to attend an 8 a.m. stats class on a Saturday. Instead of drawing in crowds with free pizza, consider offering other material rewards like coupons or chances to win a major sweepstakes. Alternatively, try selling the idea that your event will be a rare chance to obtain insiders’ knowledge and education."


Leverage Social

"Use your social media channels to publicize the webinar. You'll attract more than just your current customers. Publicize the event on Twitter and LinkedIn, and set up a Facebook event so you can message all your attendees. Encourage them to tweet and post questions about the webinar or suggestions for subtopics to cover and you'll also increase their engagement before the event."


Leverage Your Team’s Connections

"We’ve had success running a sales program with agents who have relationships with their clients. If you are struggling to get folks into a webinar or live Q&A, try to leverage relationships your team may have to fill these spots."


Make Your Webinar Invitation Stand Out

"Most people will simply archive or ignore the email. The biggest step is to get them to open the email in the first place. Therefore the best way of doing this is to conversion test your webinar invitations and maximize for results. You should also consider who it comes from. An effective method is to use a person's name and a brand name in the email (for example: "Dan from Kissmetrics")."


Show the Value

"The best way is to talk about the value they will get. The key is to always remember that it’s about your target market and not about you. Another tactic is to use urgency so it conveys the importance of the particular webinar or Q&A session. Obviously, you should also creatively promote your webinar through different platforms and channels to spread the word."


Resources

How to Drum Up Excitement for Your Webinars

A few simple hacks will help you “fill seats” during your company’s webinars and live, online Q&A sessions.

Question: What is one way I can get more customers to attend a webinar or a live Q&A?

Send Text Reminders

"Collect cell phone information during registration and send a 10 minute "We're starting soon" text to all who opted in. You'll increate attendance, especially if your event is accessible by phone, as most people are never without their phone and text messages are shorter than emails and easier to consume."


Team Up

"Rather than hosting your own webinar, I recommend teaming up with other people/companies within your industry. Not only will you have greater variety content, allowing you to capture a wider audience, but you also benefit from cross marketing."


Give Them Clear Takeaways

"I often see people offer webinars and Q&A sessions that have no clear takeaways. People are busy, and they want to know that they will be walking away with XYZ if they are taking time to attend your webinar. Make your outline clear, and of course, make sure you deliver on what you're promising."


Give a Preview of the Webinar on LinkedIn

"LinkedIn opened it's publishing platform to over 20,000 users to begin publishing longform articles. Use this opportunity to give a preview of your webinar to your LinkedIn connections, and encourage them to share it with their connections. I've seen this done really well by Dave Kerpen on LinkedIn."


Emphasize the Benefits

"Make sure customers know it won’t be a waste of their time. Emphasize what they’ll get out of a webinar or Q&A, and how their attendance will positively affect their relationship with your company."


Change Up the Theme

"Don't give the same themed webinar every time, as you won't attract different subsets of your customer base. Different customers have different questions that need to be answered about your products and services, so change it up to appeal to all of your customers. This should also give your webinars or Q&As consistent attendance."


Use Retargeting Ads

"Use pixels to target them on other sites and remind them how important the webinar is for them. Keep it top of mind."


Use Multi-Channel Marketing

"Let's face it, people are busy, bombarded and distracted. By combining email reminders, voice broadcasts and SMS text messages to remind people about your webinar, it's virtually impossible to not increase your attendance. And with text messages getting a 97 percent open rate, it's impossible to ignore. A 30 percent boost in attendance is not uncommon."


Focus on Trending Topics

"When planning your webinar content, include topics that are trending in the world and in your industry. Hot topics can be a great hook for customers to join your webinar because it shows that your brand can offer valuable insights in real time."


Incentivize

"Persuading customers to engage in a live, voluntary event is like coaxing college seniors to attend an 8 a.m. stats class on a Saturday. Instead of drawing in crowds with free pizza, consider offering other material rewards like coupons or chances to win a major sweepstakes. Alternatively, try selling the idea that your event will be a rare chance to obtain insiders’ knowledge and education."


Leverage Social

"Use your social media channels to publicize the webinar. You'll attract more than just your current customers. Publicize the event on Twitter and LinkedIn, and set up a Facebook event so you can message all your attendees. Encourage them to tweet and post questions about the webinar or suggestions for subtopics to cover and you'll also increase their engagement before the event."


Leverage Your Team’s Connections

"We’ve had success running a sales program with agents who have relationships with their clients. If you are struggling to get folks into a webinar or live Q&A, try to leverage relationships your team may have to fill these spots."


Make Your Webinar Invitation Stand Out

"Most people will simply archive or ignore the email. The biggest step is to get them to open the email in the first place. Therefore the best way of doing this is to conversion test your webinar invitations and maximize for results. You should also consider who it comes from. An effective method is to use a person's name and a brand name in the email (for example: "Dan from Kissmetrics")."


Show the Value

"The best way is to talk about the value they will get. The key is to always remember that it’s about your target market and not about you. Another tactic is to use urgency so it conveys the importance of the particular webinar or Q&A session. Obviously, you should also creatively promote your webinar through different platforms and channels to spread the word."


See Also: What You Should Know About Artificial Intelligence and Business

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