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It’s no good planning a ground-breaking webinar if nobody attends. Marketing and promoting your webinar should take just as much time as creating it. It’s essential to make a plan.
Here are some top tips:
Make it interesting, exciting and concise; avoid information overload and stick to the essential facts. Explain what the webinar is about -what will your audience learn from this webinar? Be honest and set expectations, don’t over-promise. Include brief biographies of speakers. Add the webinar date and time with an option to add it to a calendar.
Most importantly, make your registration process quick and easy. Ensure the ‘Register here’ or ‘submit’ button is loud and clear. Place it at the top of the page where it’s easy to find. Keep registration fields to a minimum and make it easier for users by providing drop-downs wherever possible.
Finally, make it easy to share with prominent social sharing icons. And don’t forget the thank-you page. Confirm the registration, then redirect registrants to other pages that up-sell or cross-sell your services, upcoming events or offers.
Don’t wait until you’ve created your content and practised your lines; start promoting as soon as you have a webinar title. At least two weeks before, three if possible, catch people’s attention with a few short and snappy posts on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Highlight what they can expect and make sure you include the date, time, and registration information. Follow this up with a series of unique posts right up to the day of the webinar. Being unique is key here; don’t post the same posts again and again.
Let your contacts know. Send an invite two weeks before with similar content to your landing page – what the webinar is about and when it is. Make it easy for them to register. A week before, send out a reminder to anyone not yet registered. Ask for some feedback on why they haven’t registered yet – does the day or time not work for them, or are they not interested in the topic? Finally, send a second reminder the day before.
Make sure you send promotional emails at the right time – we are at our most receptive on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. And try to deliver value with each reminder by including relevant blog posts, guest posts, tips or teasers. Mix it up – don’t keep sending the same email, change the tone or format. Or grab their attention with a catchy headline that promises something useful or addresses a problem. Perhaps it’s a little controversial. Or add a teaser or promotional video. But don’t forget to be mobile-friendly; you don’t want to lose potential registrants.
Lastly, ask all your teams to add the webinar landing page link to their email signature. This will ensure that anybody not in your database is covered, too.
Creating a short video is a great way to get people on board – we may not have time to read a blog, but we can usually spare a minute to watch a video. Upload to YouTube and promote it via social media. Add it to your website. Or use it in email promotions.
Spread the word and let everyone know by creating a social media schedule, creating unique posts for specific platforms. For example, you could use Twitter to post details of the webinar time and date, and Instagram to post screenshots to give people an idea of what to expect. If you have a good following, uploading posts with a link to your webinar’s landing page may be good enough. If not, it may be a good idea to use paid social ads, see below.
But don’t stop there, it’s important to use social media even during your webinar. By adding social media buttons, you can allow attendees to share information in real time. Also, get tweeting with any insights or snippets during the webinar to drum up interest for the on-demand version.
Paid ads on social media and PPC can be an effective way to promote your webinar. Make sure you do your research, targeting is key, and it’s important to use the right keywords to reach the right audience.
Offer a freebie. Entice your audience by offering white papers, articles, ebooks or discounts on products or services. Or if it’s a paid webinar, offer credit for attending not just the live webinar, but also for on-demand, giving them flexibility and an extra incentive. Another way to get people talking and create a buzz is to add a renowned guest speaker.
A hello bar can help to increase lead generation. It’s a great alternative to using a pop-up because they are less obtrusive, but are constantly on display. This means you can present a specific message to your visitors, without distracting them from your regular content.
Similar to a hello bar, an exit-intent. This usually pops up when someone hovers their mouse outside of the website page. This could be added to a relevant page of your website or to a blog.
Another idea is to add a lead magnet to your homepage. According to Digital Marketer, a lead magnet is “an irresistible bribe offering a specific chunk of value to a prospect in exchange for their contact information.” Make sure the offer is short, specific, and valuable. Ideally, this should be instant, maybe a ‘top tips’ document.
Write a promotional blog article dedicated specifically to promoting your webinar. This will make the most of your internet traffic. Similar to the landing page, make sure you include all the essentials and reasons why people should attend. Be sure to include a CTA or link to your registration page in the blog. Then, publish your blog, promote it on social media and send it to all of your subscribers.
Be flexible and run your webinar multiple times if you have a global audience. Then create an on-demand version and keep promoting for at least a few months afterwards. Publish posts on the highlights of the webinar, use clips as teasers or embed snippets into Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Remember, your webinar can give you success again and again if you promote it well.
Don’t let your hard work go unseen. At Bombora, we help you maximise reach and results with expert support across every stage—from creating compelling webinar landing pages to producing slick teaser videos and distributing polished highlight reels. Whether you’re hosting from our London studio or broadcasting globally with our remote webinar and virtual event solutions, we’ll help you drive registrations, boost engagement, and extend your webinar’s impact long after it ends. Get in touch to start building your audience today.