If you've been nurturing your webinar attendees via email, there's a good chance you're stuck.
While the statistics around email engagement and conversion rates are impressive, you're wondering whether lead nurturing is even worth the effort because you can't seem to get similar results.
For example, how a subscriber is 6X more likely to click on an email than a tweet. That's higher than the average clickthrough rate of a Google or Facebook ad hovering around 0.90% across all industries.
However, 80% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement rates and view email as the best channel to convert leads into customers.
In fact, email marketing has the highest return on investment compared to other marketing channels.
And to help you get similar results, you need two things in place: know why you're not getting similar results in your post-webinar email sequence and identify different ways of leads nurturing — which you'll have done by the end of this post.
Let's start by dissecting your webinar attendees and then discuss five ways to nurture your qualified leads post-webinar.
Let's get started.
Understanding your webinar attendees
Most of the leads who sign up for your webinars aren't ready to buy from you yet. That's why we bring up the topic of leads nurturing.
A portion of these leads won't even show up for your webinar.
While you're going to convince some of them to buy (i.e., the remaining 50%), not everyone from this group will buy. In addition to those who don't show up for your webinar, here are two reasons why the remaining 50% won't buy…
- Some of the leads who show up don't watch your webinar to the end.
- Some leads show up, watch the whole webinar, but don't take action.
Those who fail to watch the webinar to the end could be doing so either because something urgent came up or the presentation was not captivating enough.
And for those who watched till the end and didn't buy, it could be either because your offer was not compelling enough or they just need to be convinced that they are making the right choice.
Or maybe you hosted the webinar from home and got zoombombed by your kid or cat… It happens and it doesn’t mean all trust is lost just yet.
So, do you take care of lead nurturing? You see, we have four different types of buyers, and if your pitch simply focuses on one type of buyer, then you're going to lock everyone else out and lose potential sales and contracts getting signed in the process.
And that brings up a critical point: Right now, 4 out of 10 business owners are worried about their cash flow due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now that more companies are managing teams virtually, webinars are on the rise. So how do you create a nurturing strategy that boosts your conversions and cashflow?
To help you answer this question, I've prepared a list of four growth marketing tips to help your leads nurture - help with each group after the webinar and convert them to become trial users and customers.
#1 Send an email survey to each group of leads
Since you have an idea of why your leads are behaving the way they do and why you're not getting the results you're looking for, the first step is getting accurate data concerning this behavior.
Look at your webinar stats on your webinar tool dashboard and then conduct a post-webinar survey to help you compare the data and derive meaningful insights from it. Your webinar stats will show you:
- Number of leads who showed up and converted
- Number of leads who showed up but didn't convert
- Number of leads who showed up but left early
Once you have this information, send out an email survey to help you understand exactly what happened so that you can identify areas of improvement. Make sure to check your survey response rate and aim for around 30-40%.
For example, an email survey to qualified leads who showed up but left early would seek to understand why they did that. Alternatively, an email survey to leads who didn't convert will seek to know why they never signed up for the offer you presented.
If the whole process seems daunting, don't worry. Preparing a survey and analyzing the responses you receive can be difficult and time-consuming. Consider working with a freelancer or two to help get more work done in less time.
The responses you get will help you know what you need to adjust to help you improve your conversions.
Without this information, your lead nurturing efforts won't be effective because you do not understand the problems you should be solving in the
If your audience is reluctant about going through another boring survey, you should experiment with quizzes. As they are more interactive and fun, more people participate. You can then segment people based on the answers they provide. For inspiration on getting quizzes right, you should check out DoFasting. It promotes the quiz in its emails and also on the homepage, and at the bottom of every blog post. This helps it learn more about its audience's fitness and diet goals. It then uses the data to improve its messaging, content, and offers and generate more sales.
#2 Add value in your followup emails
More than ever before, it's important to keep engaging your qualified leads with valuable resources and information that helps them solve the problems they're facing.
And you know what? Most of your webinar attendees are leads who are in the consideration stage. They know that you have something valuable to offer, so they're willing to make time in their calendars to hear you out by attending your webinar. If you know that, you can improve your lead nurturing. But how?
According to Pardot, 70% of buyers go back to Google 2-3 times to understand each company's offerings before making up their minds while they're in the consideration stage. If you want to make this process easier for them (and convert leads into customers in the process), all you have to do is send relevant and value-packed emails.
Now, given that you already have sufficient data (webinar stats and survey feedback) from your leads, you know what problems they have and the information they need to solve these problems.
It could be sending them to a webinar, sending them the content they need, or simply hopping on a sales call with them.
But remember, you can make so many mistakes when leads nurturing. When following up with a new lead, it's important that you don’t immediately bombard them with promotional content. Instead, focus on helping and educating them to build trust and loyalty.
Ultimately, your main objective is to add value. For example, if you’re a cybersecurity firm firm that creates some of the best cybersecurity software and have just finished your webinar about “How to Best Protect From Identity Theft”, a good plan of action would be to follow up with your new leads by offering free access or exclusive discounts for software, such as password tools to help them take the first step to strengthen their online security and protect from ransomware. This works well for affiliate offers too.
Providing free access or discounts for tools that aren’t direct competitors of yours but deliver real value for your qualified leads is the trick to building trust and eventually, turning leads into loyal customers.
Or, based on your survey feedback, for instance, you might have a lead who signed up for the webinar but later didn't see the need to show up. Here's a followup template from Reply.io that comes packed with value:
Now, since you don't want to assume they never attended the webinar, include a sentence that acknowledges this fact before proceeding to ask for their time.
Ideally, this is how you'll do your perfect lead nurturing:
Thank you for registering to attend our recent webinar on "How to Create 3x More Opportunities".
The webinar went great. Unfortunately, your seat was empty (we missed you :))
(from here, refer to the template above and use it as it is)
Make your work easier by using this as a simple Gmail template so all you need to do is create a reminder and send your followup emails immediately after the webinar.
Closely tied to sending valuable followup emails is email personalization. No, I'm not talking about using their first names strategically in your email copy. That works, but everyone seems to be doing it.
What I'm talking about here is personalizing emails based on behavior. You track how your webinar leads interact with your website. You determine what they need to do that warrants an email conversation based on these interactions. Such emails help you get hold of qualified leads and convince them to convert when their intent to buy is still high.
Take the lead who watched your webinar but never bought your product, for instance.
If you've been tracking their behavior and saw that they have visited your FAQ page and read a couple of case studies on your blog, then a relevant email conversation would be encouraging them to buy your product.
Make sure that you learn how to start a blog with webinar funnels in mind. You can read my full step-by-step guide on how to start a successful blog here.
#3 Add value across different touchpoints
An obvious benefit of adopting a multichannel approach when leads nurturing is that it helps boost the value you're adding to leads through your email follow ups.
Having several touchpoints increases brand familiarity and brand intimacy, making it easier for your leads to take action. Besides, a buyer's journey isn't linear, so you need to meet them where they are and help them proceed to the next step of the buyer's journey.
In addition to having your content show up in their search engine results, running retargeting ads and podcasting will help you drive qualified leads back to your webinar registration page so that they can get into your webinar funnel. All of these actions will lead to further organic growth.
According to the PPC experts at Loganix: “Retargeting costs next to nothing and is one of the most effective ways to bring traffic back to your landing page. For webinars on a budget, retargeting is a must.”
As they connect with friends and family, 78% of Facebook users use the platform to look for products and services. This suggests why the average Facebook user will spend 58 minutes on the platform every day.
Leads nurturing is not so easy. And if you run retargeting ads on the platform, focus on getting hold of two types of leads:
- Those who signed up but didn't show up.
- Those who showed up but didn't convert.
Let's focus on the first group and its leads nurturing. You may want to keep reminding them that they have a webinar they missed and they can sign up then watch it while it's still available. Personally, I use a two-pronged “attack” of email and a calendar scheduling link to ensure it’s on their radar.
Use some of the positive feedback you get from your webinar attendees to make it compelling, too!
Better yet, look into setting up a Facebook live chat integration in your funnel so that users can receive your messages and updates in the platform directly, where they’re spending the most time:
When we talk about leads nurturing in the second group, try sharing testimonials regarding the impact your product has had on your customers' businesses with a link to your product page.
Starting your own podcast or appearing on popular podcasts in your niche as a guest helps you increase the number of touchpoints a buyer has with you and your brand.
Podcasts are a growing platform, given that 22% of Americans have tuned in to listen to their favorite podcast in the past seven days. In addition to this, 5 out of 10 podcast listeners are likely to consider a brand being advertised on podcasts.
Since listeners can tune in to a podcast as they go about their day, host a podcast and prepare content that targets qualified leads who showed up but left early. You may want to repurpose your webinar content and present major ideas to help a listener decide if your product is right for them.
This works well for C-Suite executives because they might not have time to sit back and watch a webinar, so a podcast show as they drive to and from work makes it convenient for them.
As you do this, you'll be building your credibility as a thought leader in your niche and gaining a passive audience in the process. And once you start your podcast, you won't struggle to grow it because you'll have laid the groundwork.
#4 Measure and optimize your efforts
Testing shows you what's working and what's not working in your lead nurturing process.
For example, your email subject lines, email copy, and ad copy will play a critical role in determining your conversion rates. Make sure you keep testing to see which tone and style works for a particular group of leads and then your conversions will suffer.
Start testing different lead magnets and content upgrades too. Organize them in a digital asset suite, send them to segmented groups, and see which perform the best!
Also, be sure to have analytics tracking setup prior to your webinar.
Conclusion
The process of leads nurturing is complex. Taking care of your qualified leads after a webinar is an effective way to convert leads at scale. Done right, even a 20% increase in your conversion rates might turn things around for your business.
So start by looking at your webinar stats and sending an email survey to gather feedback from your leads. This feedback should help you know what kind of emails to send and how to nurture your leads effectively.
Once you do this, make sure to send personalized emails that deliver value to your qualified leads.
This keeps them looking forward to your emails, and once they're ready, they will buy from you.
Remember to show up in different places where they hang out online, especially on podcasts and in their inbox. Then use retargeting ads to increase the number of interactions you have with them over time.
Finally, make sure that you track and optimize the data you get to help you improve. If you follow what we've discussed here, you're going to move a step closer to converting more ROI from your post-webinar, leads nurturing efforts.