We’re going to cover the best strategies for how to get webinar registrations!
A lot of people don’t start doing webinars because they don’t feel confident.
They’ll say things like:
Why would anyone sign up for my webinar?
No one’s going to like me.
I don’t have an email list.
My email list is too small.
This stops so many people from putting a registration page out there, but once you use the strategies we’re going to talk about, people will be signing up for your webinar and sharing it with their friends too!
HOW TO INCREASE your webinar REGISTRATIONS:
First Step (Before anything else!): Choose a Compelling Webinar Title
In our last podcast episode, we talked about how to do research for your webinar topic, which you can read here.
You want your webinar topic to be something that people are searching for. It should address a real pain or frustration. Then you can succinctly use that pain or frustration in your title.
Make sure you are using words that connect with your audience, too.
Don’t talk in jargon or use fancy expert words that don’t make sense to anyone, because if you title it something that is super polished and not how people normally talk, it won’t make sense. You want to “enter the conversation your customer is already having in their head”, which means using the language they already use in their day to day life.
A good webinar title format is “How to do X Without Y.”
For example, “How to Build a Website without Code” or “How to do a Webinar Without an E-mail List”.
For us, a webinar title might be “How to Build An E-mail List without using Facebook Ads”.
Include the result in your webinar title.
With the title and hook, talk about the result.
What are they getting?
What is the outcome?
Make sure that the outcome is clear and tell your audience that they’re going to leave with something tangible or meaningful to them.
Your title and hook is the first thing that someone is going to read when they decide to register for your webinar. You want it to be be compelling so they are excited about what they’re going to come away with!
How to Promote a Webinar
Now that you’ve laid the foundation of choosing a winning webinar topic and webinar title and hook, you’re ready to promote your webinar!
We talk more extensively about promotion in Webinar Rockstar®, but we want to get into some specific strategies in this post.
1. Write a Blog Post related to Your Webinar Topic
You want to write and publish a blog post that is specific or relevant to your exact webinar topic. Ideally this post is published a week before the webinar.
To promote your webinar in the blog post, add an opt-in inside the body of the webinar that links to the webinar registration.
For example, if your webinar topic is “Create Your Vegan Meal Plan with 5 Ingredients per Day,” you can write a blog post about a 30 day vegan meal plan.
If you don’t have a blog, you can create relevant content for whichever platform you use. It could be YouTube, podcast, or even your Facebook page.
Wherever your audience is used to seeing content from you!
When the webinar is over, you can swap out the webinar registration in your content for a different opt-in or freebie.
2. Promote your webinar on social media
You want to promote your webinar on all of the social media platforms you use.
When I first started doing webinars, I personally invited every single person that followed me on Twitter or retweeted or favorited one of my tweets to come to my webinars.
Those were the people who were engaging with me, and I would just tweet that person (but not use Direct Messages, that came off as spammy to me).
I would say something like, “Hey Julia, I would love to see you at my webinar on Saturday.” and then include the link in the tweet.
I would also check relevant hashtags on Twitter to find new people outside of my audience to invite. For the Squarespace webinar I did, I checked #Squarespace.
This is how I really expanded beyond my immediate followers.
Now I know inviting every individual Twitter follower you have doesn’t sound scalable as you grow. You won’t do this forever, just for your first few webinars.
It really makes a difference! And the personal touch really sets you apart when you are just starting out online.
When it comes to your email list, don’t worry if it’s small! In our episode with Adrienne Dorrison, we talk about how you can have success even with a small list.
Let’s say you have about 20 people on your email list. Imagine if you personally emailed each person and asked them if they liked the idea of your webinar, or if they have anything they’d like to see you specifically share at the webinar.
You can do this before you go public with promoting your webinar on social media.
You can also ask if they could invite two friends or tell 10 people about it and that could double or triple your list.
Don’t let your small list get you discouraged. Leverage it!
3. Put your website in “webinar mode.”
When we are promoting a webinar, we make a bunch of changes to our website itself.
We call this “webinar mode.”
Your website is where your traffic is.
At the very least, promote your webinar on your website by having:
An announcement bar with a call to action
A sidebar webinar advertisement (if you have a sidebar)
A promotion in your footer or pre-footer
The key is to have something in the top, middle, and bottom.
If someone is listening to your podcast or Instagram story and you mention your webinar, they’re most likely going to look for it on your website first.
You need to make sure it is obvious you are promoting a webinar, and someone shouldn’t have to hunt around your website to see a spot to register for it!
When you’re ready to do your webinar, either by yourself or with a joint venture partner, be sure to grab the Ultimate Webinar Checklist, below!
It’s time for you to get out there and promote your webinar to the world.