Webinars can be a powerful marketing tool for your business, but there are definitely some best practices to keep in mind—and some missteps to avoid. Whether you’re planning your first webinar or your fifty-first, here are a few mistakes to stay away from.
Making too many sales pitches. Webinars should be informational. Sure, the whole point is to generate business or sales. But people don’t want to sign on for a half-hour sales pitch; they want to learn something. Audiences can be very adverse to sales messaging in webinars.
Stay away from specifically mentioning a product you sell. Don’t necessarily hide your brand entirely—but keep the focus on information that your audience needs, with a tasteful call to action or offer at the end.
Giving too little detail in your copy. It’s not easy getting busy people to give you 30-45 minutes of their time. Make sure you explain what they’re going to be doing with that time. What will they learn? Who is the speaker and what are their credentials? What else will they get out of attending—are you making a special offer to webinar attendees? What’s the agenda?
Giving attendees plenty of information about what to expect in the webinar can go a long way toward boosting your sign-ups.
Leaving out the benefits. What are the benefits of watching this webinar? What does the audience member stand to gain? What will they leave the webinar knowing? Know what your audience wants to learn and highlight a bulleted list of three or four of those things in all your copy when promoting the webinar.
Overselling. This should be obvious to many, but it does happen. Make sure the audience will actually learn about the things promised in your copy.
Failing to plan an email campaign. According to GoToWebinar, approximately 57% of webinar signups are driven by email.
Leading up to the event, it’s crucial to email your audience multiple times to remind them – including on the day of the webinar. If you don’t, you could see a major drop-off rate between the number of sign-ups and the number of people who show up on the day.
Failing to watch your metrics. Many webinar platforms give you analytic tools to track performance. Make sure you use those to identify trends, fine-tune your audience expertise, and refine your offering. This could ensure your next webinar is even more successful.
Webinars can do a lot to boost your profile—and your bottom line. Avoid these marketing mistakes and you should get great results from your next webinar.
