A webinar is an online seminar where your business can build trust by displaying your expertise in the field. It’s also an opportunity for your brand to show off your products or services to potential customers.
But, to get more attendees, you need to know about webinar promotion.
A webinar without promotion is like hosting a fantastic performance in an empty theater. Imagine that you’ve prepared a play starring talented actors, complete with a high-quality set design and a well-written story.
However, you forgot to advertise the play, which resulted in an empty theater. No matter how amazing the performance is, your potential audience misses out on it.
In this article, you will learn about the importance of promoting a webinar, and ideas on improving your promotional efforts!
Why Is Webinar Promotion Important?
As the name suggests, webinar promotion makes sure that your target audience is aware of your webinar content before it goes live. The right promotional strategy can help you generate interest, which increases the likelihood that people will register and show up.
By creating excitement, you also end up encouraging participants to actively engage during the webinar! 🤩
Given that webinars are also often used as a lead-generation tool — promoting it can attract individuals interested in your topic, which could be related to your products or services. In exchange for their attendance, you can require them to provide their contact information, which allows you to nurture and convert them into customers in the future.
Webinar Promotion Ideas and Best Practices
A common question arises: How will you promote your webinar? Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to do this:
Choose the right topic for your webinar.
The right topic can make a difference in attracting your target audience.
To choose a good topic, you need to understand their needs, interests, or pain points. List down the questions they may have or the challenges they might be facing. Your webinar topic should provide valuable solutions or insights related to their concerns.
For example, let’s say you’re a marketing agency targeting digital marketers and social media managers. Your audience’s interests might include topics like content marketing strategies, social media advertising, and SEO best practices.
When hosting a webinar, your topic could be “Content Creation Guide: Strategies for Engaging Your Audience” which discusses different storytelling strategies, how to use visuals, and maintaining consistent messaging across different platforms.
Optimize your webinar landing page.
A webinar landing page is a dedicated web page specifically designed to encourage your target audience to sign up for the upcoming webinar. Its main purpose is to convert visitors into registrants.
When creating a landing page, make sure that it sends the right message, is visually appealing, and is user-friendly.
The webinar landing page should provide the following details about the event:
- Webinar topic
- Date
- Time
- Key presenters
- The benefits of attending it (emphasize exclusive content or offers)
- Social proof (logos from clients you’ve helped, awards, and testimonials)
To make the landing page visually appealing, incorporate high-quality graphics.
Your call to action (CTA) should be clear and prominent. One example is a button with text like “Secure Your Spot - Limited Spots Available,” which encourages visitors to register quickly before spots run out.
Lastly, the registration form should be simple and user-friendly. If possible, only ask for essential information such as the person’s name and email address. Complicated forms may discourage registrations.
🤓Read more: 10 Elements That Your Landing Page Should Have
Share your webinar with your newsletter subscribers.
Your newsletter subscribers have already shown interest in your business by subscribing. This makes them a pre-qualified audience that is more likely to be interested in your webinar.
The same tips apply when you’re crafting an email for your subscribers. Provide context about the upcoming webinar and emphasize the value it offers. Incorporate visually appealing graphics such as images, banners, and GIFs. Don’t forget to include a CTA button or link that directs subscribers to the webinar landing page!
You could also encourage subscribers to share the webinar with their network. This helps extend the reach of your promotion. Don’t forget to send follow-up emails as the webinar date approaches to remind subscribers of the event.
Write a blog post about it.
Creating a blog post with relevant keywords related to your webinar topic can help your webinar get discovered by individuals searching for information about the subject.
Since your blog’s audience may also differ from your email subscribers, writing a blog post helps extend the reach of your webinar promotion to a broader audience.
Moreover, a blog post allows you to provide a more in-depth explanation of the webinar topic and the value it offers. You can also link related blog posts or content to encourage readers to explore more content.
When crafting your blog post, include a CTA that directs readers to the webinar landing page.
Announce it on social media.
Social media provides a direct channel to communicate with your existing followers.
Announcing your webinar on these platforms keeps your current audience informed about the upcoming event. Social media announcements are also easily shareable, which promotes a “viral effect” that can help amplify the reach of your webinar.
When promoting your webinar on social media, use visuals to accompany our announcements. Images and graphics can grab attention and also convey key details at a glance.
You can also use social media to share snippets of webinar content, quotes from speakers, and behind-the-scenes videos to generate interest.
🤓Read more: Social Sharing: Why It Matters and Making It Work
Run a giveaway to boost webinar attendance.
A giveaway can help increase webinar attendance by creating excitement and incentivizing participation. The prospect of winning a valuable prize motivates potential attendees to sign up.
Participants who are excited about the giveaway may also refer their friends, colleagues, or contacts to the webinar. This referral process can contribute to a viral effect, driving additional registrations and attendance. And when we talk about going viral, the best platform for giveaways is UpViral.
One noteworthy UpViral feature is the “Fill Your Event” campaign template, which can help you fill your event by incentivizing participants to refer other people!
Let’s take a look at this registration page created using the template as an example.
Kaitlyn Gabriel, who specializes in applied human nutrition, is hosting a free masterclass on June 3. Her page features a straightforward registration form and a countdown timer to create a sense of urgency.
(You can customize this template by changing the copy, image, and colors so that it fits your needs.)
Next, let’s look at the Thank You page that shows up after a participant registers for the masterclass.
This “Thank You” page is where you encourage your audience to start sharing. Each participant will be given a unique share link that they could use to refer family and friends to the webinar event.
See the rewards listed above. Depending on the number of people participants refer, they can get different incentives. This includes an ebook, Q&A session, and 1-on-1 coaching.
Use paid advertising.
Paid advertising allows you to extend the reach of your promotion beyond your existing audience. You can precisely target your ideal audience based on criteria such as demographics, interests, and behaviors. Even better, you can use different advertising channels, such as social media or search engines.
When doing paid advertisements, make sure to select channels that align with your goals and target audience. Evaluate the features of each platform.
For instance, social media platforms allow you to post visual content, whereas search engine advertising helps you target users who are actively searching for content in Google related to your webinar.
Schedule your campaigns in a timely manner so that you can build anticipation before your event!
Refine your promotional efforts for future webinars.
Analyze the performance of your webinar promotion so you can identify areas for improvement. This allows you to gain better results with each subsequent webinar.
To optimize your promotional strategies, review key metrics such as registration rates, attendance, engagement, and conversion rates.
You can also collect feedback from attendees through surveys and evaluations. Evaluate the performance of different marketing channels to identify which ones drove the most registrations.
Closing Thoughts
When it comes to hosting a webinar, promotion is a must to get more attendees. There are plenty of ways to promote your event, but if you’re looking for an effective and cost-effective way to attract attention, a giveaway is always a good idea! 💡
Give UpViral’s “Fill Your Event” webinar promotion template a try, and apply the tips above to help you boost attendance for your next webinar! If you want to know how businesses use the UpViral platform for their giveaways, read our case studies.