Webinars are one of the best tactics to generate qualified leads for the top of the marketing funnel. They work especially well in the software and the technology industry.
Other studies show that webinars can accelerate leads at the middle stage of the marketing funnel.
The problem is that many companies started to run webinars. Every day we receive too many invitations to join them. How can your webinar stand out from the crowd?
Follow this checklist to craft an attractive webinar
You need to design your webinar with your target audience in mind. Attendees want to be educated and entertained.
What are your target audience’s pain points? What do they want to learn?
You need to position the event as a learning and entertaining opportunity. Ask your sales team and your product managers about your audience’s needs.
Is this subject related to your business? Are you an expert in this area?
If you don’t have much authority, you can cooperate with some key stakeholders, partners, or customers. It will help to build trust among your audience.
Can you turn this data into attractive visual elements to tell your story?
Think about the data you need and plan how to collect it. Step outside the box and surprise your audience with new formats and technologies.
Will this topic stand out from the crowd in some way?
Provide a new perspective of the problem or tap into new areas of interest. Be specific, and relevant, provide value and surprise them.
How to plan a successful webinar
Successful webinars require great planning. We’ll walk you through the different steps.
Things to do before a webinar
Select a date
Thursdays are the best days for webinars and 2, 3, and 4 p.m. are the prime times for hosting a webinar. Consider holiday periods, weeks with holidays, and sports events.
Create a Landing Page announcing the webinar
Craft an attractive webinar title. Highlight and make attractive the “What will you learn” and the “About your Host” section. Set up a countdown timer to create a sense of urgency.
I recommend reading my article: The Secret Formula to Build High-Converting Landing Pages to create a winning Landing Page.
Use email outreach
Communicate your event via email to your database and craft these emails in advance:
- Save the date to alert them that they are going to be invited to a future webinar
- Webinar invitation email. It includes the information about the event and a call-to-action that links to the landing page
- Confirmation email for the subscribers
- Reminder emails. Reminders increase attendance by 20%
- Thank-you message for the attendees
- Follow up emails after the broadcasts
Select a platform to host the webinar
The webinar platform must work well and provide a good user experience.
Promote your webinar
Create pop-ups on your website announcing the coming webinar.
Use your social media to post news about the webinar, broadcast interviews with the hosts, and provide some teasers to attract people to attend it.
Work on the presentation
Attendees usually prefer a one-hour webinar. I recommend not to prepare much content.
The main goal is to tell enough about a topic and leave the audience yearning for more. By doing so, attendees will ask more questions during the Q&A session.
Your goal is to convert leads into sales.
Things to do during the webinar
Record the webinar, answer the questions of the attendees and keep a good pace during the webinar. Provide some freebies at the end of the session to generate leads:
- Ebooks
- Discounts or Coupons
- Templates
- Reports
- Private session
Things to do after the webinar
Share the recording with the attendees and those who couldn’t join the webinar that day and ask for feedback. Promote the webinar on your social media accounts and your website.
Your marketing team needs to send a follow-up email a week after the session providing additional resources.
Those attendees that opened the previous emails, and downloaded the resources are hot leads. Your sales team should contact them and offer a demo or a private session.
Finally, you can create retargeting campaigns for your webinar leads to keep your brand top of mind.
Conclusion
A sales funnel is directly connected to the customer journey phases, which can be sorted into three parts: top of the funnel (awareness), middle (consideration), and bottom (conversion). You can create specific webinars for each stage of the sales funnel.
Pick a topic that’s relevant to your industry and plan your webinar in advance.
A successful webinar is not only based on great content, you also need to promote it properly.
To convert your webinar leads into sales, poll your audience to see who is ready to buy. Provide freebies and follow-up hot leads.
Well, I hope you like this article. Do you have other ideas? Please share them with us!
P.S. Before you go, you may also be interested in the following articles:
One LinkedIn Profile Tip To Generate Leads and Traffic to your Website
The Secret Formula to Build High-Converting Landing Pages
How to Set Up a Free Lead Qualification Tool on Your Web
5 Tips to Boost Online Sales in the Buyer’s Decision Stage
2 Easy Ways to Create Powerful Lead Magnets
Less Than 1% of Your Leads Will Go to Deals? Improve It Now
POST WRITTEN BY
Jose Maria (Chema) Lopez
A Madrid Polytechnic University International MBA has worked as global marketing director in B2B and B2C international leading companies implementing global marketing and communication strategies to ensure business objectives and to optimize brands reputation and visibility on a global level.
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