Webinars can be a fantastic marketing tool. But even producers with stellar content can sometimes struggle to get people to sign up and attend. And with all the distractions these days for your audience’s time and attention, that’s not surprising.
Here are four no-fail ways to keep webinar attendance high.
1. Know who your audience is and where to find them. Marketing your webinar in the lead-up to the date is crucial, but are your marketing messages reaching the people most likely to be interested?
It may be worth it to conduct some research into where your audience congregates, the social media sites where you’re most likely to find them, who they follow and what their biggest concerns are. This will help you choose topics, craft your messaging, and target your promotions.
2. Time your emails right. The specifics are different for different audiences, so you may need to experiment a bit. But most people start emailing to remind their audiences over a three-week period.
Increase your outreach as you get closer to the event. According to GoToWebinar, (https://blog.gotomeeting.com/7-webinar-benchmarks-every-marketer-should-know/) about 59% of registrations happen a week or less before the webinar date.
3. Make big promises. What will people learn from attending your webinar, and how will that be of value to them?
This is where it’s really important to know your audience. With so many demands on our time and attention, it’s crucial for your audience to know how their lives will improve after learning what you have to teach them in this webinar.
4. Build scarcity into your marketing messages. Building scarcity into your messages can help drive registration as well as attendance. When people believe there’s a limited number of seats—or you make a limited-time offer for those who sign up within a certain timeframe—they’re more likely to want what you’re offering.
Webinars can be a powerful tool to build a highly qualified list of prospects—and even directly sell products and services. But it’s not always easy to attract registrations and drive attendance, even if your webinar itself is outstanding.
Know where to find your audience and make sure your marketing messages are reaching them. Craft an irresistible marketing message that makes it very clear what your audience will gain by attending. Email strategically in the weeks leading up to the event to build excitement. And give the impression of scarcity to further drive attendance.
If you do all these things, it’s likely your registrations and attendance will take a jump.
