Webinars and online events are increasing at an exponential rate, thanks to the new normal. According to this Forbes article, virtual events are up 1,000% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. But not all of them are getting the visibility they deserve. Even after spending so much time and money preparing for the event, most webinars don’t get enough attendees or the right audience.

No need to worry anymore! Here is a simple and effective nine-step guide to make your event or webinar promotion a success!

1. Start with a Catchy Title

The title plays a major role for your webinar promotion. You need a memorable and catchy title that grabs attention and gets people to sign up. Make sure it connects with your target audience and relates to current issues in the sector. Don’t get too technical; keep it simple!

2. Plan the Promotion Interval

• Send an email to your target email list from your database three weeks before the webinar, and send reminder emails one week, two days, and one hour before the event.
• Start yourLinkedIn Inmail (now called Message Ads) three weeks prior to the event.
• Linkedin sends Inmail only once a month, so you can’t reach your entire audience use this service every week.
• Make sure that the sender of the Inmail is an influential person in the company (e.g., C-level and directors).

3. Take Advantage of a Known Audience

• If you have target-audience details, you can custom match campaigns on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google to boost registration.
• If you have conducted a similar webinar or event earlier, promote the new one to your existing users. If they registered earlier, there is a good chance they will do so again.
• Retarget all of your website visitors. They know your brand and are more likely to register.

4. Target Your New Relevant Audience

• Get intent data for your industry from intent providers like Bombora, DiscoverOrg, etc, and target them through LinkedIn and Facebook.
• Third-party content syndication platforms like Netline can help get leads within a given budget. Such platforms also have a ‘pay-per-registration model.’
• Target using ‘Job Titles,’ ‘Industry,’ and ‘Skills’ on LinkedIn for better results.

5. Build Urgency and Leverage Scarcity

• How many registrations are you planning for the webinar? Mention the seats that are still available.
• One week before the webinar, start to rotate ads on all platforms with messaging that is clear and creates urgency. For example: ‘Hurry! Only two days left to register.’ ‘Five days to register’

6. Let the Creatives Speak for You

Creatives play a huge role in promoting your webinar. Based on our extensive experience, here are some of the best practices:

• State the date and time of the event clearly on all the banners.
• Use professional photographs of the speakers and avoid promoting your webinar without photographs. It’s a waste of time, money, and effort!
• What’s the credibility of the speakers? State the company, designation, and achievements clearly.
• Mention the partnering company if they are big in the industry.
• Keep separate creatives for each speaker and promote them separately to appeal to different members of the audience.
• Rotate the ads for a while and, if required, allocate more budget to the speakers that get more registrations.

7. Landing Page

Once you have awesome creatives, a catchy title, and a clear target audience, what’s next?

You create your landing page highlighting all the details of your webinar and creating some excitement around registration. Follow these guidelines to help ensure better registrations:

• Make sure the LP is clean and simple. Don’t overdo it.
• No more big forms! Make sure the registration is a simple process. Don’t ask for too many details. If your webinar is good, they’ll get to know about you and will reach out to you if they need you. If you ask for more details, fewer people will sign up.
• Call out the speakers with their proper professional picture, their role and experience.
• Make sure the agenda is clearly laid out.
• Clearly label the content of the webinar and let the users know what will be the key takeaways.
• Call out the duration and topic that each speaker will cover.
• If you already did a webinar on a similar topic, have a one-minute highlight video of it below the registration to give a glimpse of how impactful the topic is..

8. Extend your Reach with Employee Advocacy

People!

Don’t take this for granted. When a trusted friend shares an event or blog that is even slightly related to you, it’s likely that you will register and attend the event.

Ask all your employees, friends, and trusted connections to share the information on their social media platforms. But get them excited about it, so they don’t just share it but they add their own views and expectations while making their post. This makes the sharing more authentic.

Social Media Channels

Share the webinar details on all your social media handles, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. Your followers are your loyal fans, and they won’t disappoint you!

Signatures

Update the signature of all your company’s outgoing messages with the webinar details and a link to the blog or registration page. By doing this, more people will learn about the webinar.

Tools like Signature Satori can help you customize your signature. They offer many templates, allowing you to personalize based on your style.

9. There Is Always Room for Improvement!

Even if your webinar was great, it can always be better. Here are some tips to help you for your next webinar:

• Keep a feedback session or poll at the end of the webinar. Be open to feedback and respond to the feedback providers.
• Remember one thing: anyone who gives feedback is more likely to attend your next webinar. So, acknowledge their query on the webinar openly and take their feedback positively. After a good experience, they are likely to become your ambassador in the future.
• Make sure to address all the feedback in your next webinar.

10. Webinars don’t end; they evolve!

Don’t forget to record the webinar! The best part of webinars is that they aren’t just one-time content. Recorded webinars can be consumed by more audiences after the live event.

Add the webinar to your asset list and use it for the following promotions:

• Add the link to your nurture leads, designed to move people down the funnel.
• Send the recorded version to all the registrants without fail and add a thank-you note.
• Promote the recorded version through paid channels for higher audience engagement.
• As you’re getting ready for your next webinar, promote this one ungated to your audience one month earlier to give them a glimpse of what they can expect. This will encourage the users to join your new webinar.

The above checklist will help you take your webinar promotion to the next level. Remember that any business is successful with repeat customers. Having a strong webinar series will result in repeat participants, which is likely to result in repeat customers. Remember that content Is King. You need to have the best content ever. Once you do, you need to intelligently promote your event.

All the best for your next webinar promotions! Please do leave your thoughts and experiences on implementing the above ideas in the comments and share any tested and verified methods that worked for you!