Webinars are a great tool for a content marketing strategy because you can talk in depth about certain topics and share knowledge while interacting with your audience.
The best thing about a webinar is that it offers value to the attendees, not only with ideas and insights, but also with a live, engaging experience. This is why they usually attract high-quality leads as the people that register and, especially the ones that show up, are really interested in the topic.
As the chart above shows, webinars are the second most effective content marketing tactic, especially when it comes to B2B.
Webinars allow you to nurture, and attract new leads, especially because the context allows for a great relationship building experience.
So, what’s key to make a great webinar? These are the 7 bulletproof techniques that we used multiple times in order to get the best results.
1. Plan a solid promotion plan
Besides planning and crafting your webinar you should think about getting the word out there, making sure that your customers (even potential ones) and followers are aware of the event so they’ll be able to participate.
When drafting the promotion plan put attention to the details, such as aesthetic and copy, this will determine the success of your promotion strategy.
Odds are you have already built an email list, contact database, and social media following; this is an amazing starting point to create a winning promotion plan.
First things first, let’s start with the classics!
Since you probably already have an email list with a bunch of contacts, people that are interested in the content you provide or your product you should put an email sequence in motion.
A great email should be composed with a clear message about the webinar, when is it, what topic are you going to talk about, and it should contain an easy way to register accompanied by a clear CTA.
Establishing a sequence for some days before the webinar is a great way to keep them motivated and keep up the hype. If you’re not sure about how many or how frequent the emails should be, Kaitlyn Petro from IMPACT suggests, as a general rule of thumb, to send at least one two weeks, one week, and 48 hours prior to the event. To his I’ll add that you should send one a couple hours before the event as well.
Another great tip to generate leads, even if they ended up not attending the webinar, is to follow up on them afterward, with either an invite for the next one or sharing something relevant to the webinar topic, depending on the case.
Ads
Complement your efforts by running ads, combining your current following and database with the easiness there’s nowadays to target a desired audience you should be able to use these advantages to attract the best crowd.
Keeping your buyer personas and research in mind you should be able to determine the best platforms to run the ads and attract people interested in the webinar.
Of course, you should create ads that stand out and optimize them according to the platform where they’ll be run. Image quality, layout, copywriting, SEO optimization, and targeting are the main points to watch out for a great performing ad.
SMS
SMS are a great way to keep in touch with registrants and remind them about the webinar, resulting in more attendants to your webinar.
When emails get lost, people get caught up or life gets in the way. SMS provides a simple option to give a little nudge to those really interested in participating.
It’s important to keep personalization and benefit emphasis in mind when using such a personal approach, as you’d like to make a really great impact and surprise the person.
Keeping in mind that SMS work differently so they could be sent upon registration and then some other times closer to the date and time.
SMS are an additional tool that may help you fill some gaps, but remember that it is only a gear in the clockwork.
As a field expert, WebinarJam, gives some suggestions like sending a short and friendly SMS 15 min before the webinar including a link, making sure to introduce yourself, and adding a nice CTA.
Get creative!
You should know your limits and surpass them, know the rules and break them!
The use of some alternative tactics will surely pay off. Instead of limiting yourself with the traditional approach you could reinvent it and dazzle.
Some very simple examples of doing so are to create an event to go around on social media and create buzz, posting on different groups that might be interested in the topic, or even creating a webinar trailer (why not?) to be distributed by different means.
2. Present a hot and relevant topic of interest
The most relevant and interesting the topic is to the audience, the more possibilities you have of getting lots of registrants.
Base your choice on what’s important to your target audience and pair it with a nice, attractive, and self-explanatory title to get their attention quick and easy.
3. Prepare a great presentation
Naturally, your presentation should be inherent to field of expertise so you may share great knowledge that attendees would otherwise not find somewhere else. This not only helps you create great content but allows you to position yourself as an authority in the field which will lead to people trusting you and your product offering.
A well structured and content-rich presentation should be built upon reliable resources, backed up with data, and filled with different perspectives to give your audience a broad understanding of the topic.
This will really help nourish the relationship with the audience and make for an overall great experience for you and the participants.
4. Create a highly engaging atmosphere
As we’ve talked about ad and communication optimization, you should also apply it for the actual webinar. This is the most important part, the main act of your play.
The webinar should be comfortable and engaging, make use of pleasant slides, videos, and share the spotlight with other people that may enrich the whole experience.
A good host will show up prepared but a great one will have contagious energy, making the audience feel great and encouraging participation to get feedback, questions or opinions from the crowd. A great way to do so is using questions; these will allow you to get to know the audience even better and will get the conversation going.
Make sure to leave some space for some Q&A where the attendees may pick your brains and get an even better experience out of it.
Answering questions or discussing comments from your attendees is a great way to increase engagement by naturally creating a conversation.
The benefits of a Q&A range from engagement to clarification, humanization to a message reinforcement.
5. Offer a solution to a problem
Now, if you’ve done your homework correctly, the next step is to be able to offer a solution to a problem that your audience is currently facing. Obviously, the solution is one of your product or services but it should showcase them in terms of benefits and usage, be careful not to make it look like one of those late TV infomercials.
Use your landing page and other means of communication to accurately share which solutions you will be offering during the webinar. Have a look at our latest webinar landing page, f.e.:
This shows that you’ll actually provide valuable information, we did some how-tos on getting the best out of their already in place lead generation efforts.
6. Make an offer they can’t refuse
Not only it is key to offer a solution to a problem. But your offer should be one your audience can’t refuse.
Your offer should look like a really great solution, like you’re really available to help them. How? Establish a workflow that’s great for your objectives as well.
Give all the information on your webinar and then give them the chance to reach out to you in a 1 to 1 call or a live demo where they may dig deeper on what the solution you’re offering may do for them.
Afterward, you may even set up a personalised way to keep them going through your sales funnel by assessing where in the buying process they are in and what their exact needs are.
This coupled with a free trial or a money back guarantee subscription period or try-out will surely feel your attendees more welcome than ever.
And, to put the cherry on top, offer a special discount for everyone that participates on the webinar as a thank you, to make them feel special and that you value the time they granted you.
Creating a great combo like this makes up an unbeatable offer that will surely knock their socks off and they’ll have no choice but to accept.
7. Follow up on the event
The webinar itself shouldn’t be the end of everything, it’s a big step on a well thought and planned workflow to help people solve a problem with your product.
After the webinar has taken place you should follow up on both attendees and registrants.
Creating a follow up sequence to keep the communication flow going to remind your attendees about all of the benefits you still have in place for them and remain available to clear any doubts they may have before proceeding.
You may do the same with attendees to give them a little nudge to participate on a second webinar or sending them the webinar recording, take advantage of this to point out the offers that will be waiting for them when watching the webinar and how this may help them.
If your webinar was a real success you may use this in your favour and set up the recording for a simulated second live webinar to give the non attending registrants the opportunity to join in.
How?
Just connect your webinar platform with your CRM/Email software and turn your cam ON!
Conclusion
In conclusion, webinars are a versatile and powerful tool that you should definitely add to your content marketing plans.
They are a great tool to nurture a generate leads, as well as reinforcing your relationship with customers, but more importantly, they are the best way to educate your audience about why they should buy your product and service as a solution to their problems and get new customers.
If you do this right, thanks to webinars you will be able to drive massive results for your business.
What do you think about our suggestions? Have you tried any of these?
