The global webinar market is worth $1.5 billion and it's projected to grow by 35% in the next four years. How can you get a piece of that? How do you promote your online event so that people will want to register for it and attend? These are just some of the questions we'll answer in this blog post, which includes tips, tricks and examples on how to promote a webinar in 2024.
Promote the webinar on social media
The first step in promoting your webinar is to create a social media plan. This includes creating catchy and eye-catching event posters, writing enticing descriptions of the event and making sure that all the relevant hashtags are included. You'll also need to set up a dedicated event page on Facebook, which can be used to share updates about the webinar as well as provide potential attendees with additional information such as the agenda and who will be speaking. You can use social media management tools for this purpose.
Twitter can also be utilized for promotion by tweeting out links to the event page and using appropriate hashtags. Additionally, you can run paid ads on Twitter targeting people who have shown an interest in similar events in the past. You can use Twitter tools for automation that leads to better engagement.
LinkedIn is another great platform for promoting webinars. You can post about the event on your company's LinkedIn page and also share it with relevant groups on the platform. Just don’t make the amateur mistake of being too aggressive and appearing spammy. It won’t help you and you’ll lose the trust of your LinkedIn circle. You might also want to experiment with using direct messages and InMails as they help you personalize your LinkedIn marketing strategy. LinkedIn limits the number of InMails you can send, but here's a hack for sending unlimited InMails.
Create a landing page
In addition to promoting your webinar on social media, you should also create a dedicated landing page for the event. Make sure you add all your branding elements to it such as your business name, logo, brand colors, and more.This is a great place to include more detailed information about the webinar such as the agenda, who will be speaking and how people can access it. You should also include a registration form to collect potential attendees' contact details so that you can market your webinar more effectively once it's finished.
Having such an email list can help you after the webinar, too – you can use it to send out marketing emails letting people know about your next live event, or even promoting an upcoming webinar on a different topic.
Promote the webinar through email campaigns
Email is still one of the best ways to reach out to potential attendees and keep them informed about what's happening with your webinars. How you promote this depends very much on how many subscribers there are in total as well as their location – for example if they're all based in New York City then you may want to target ads around Times Square, whereas if most of them are located elsewhere than that might not be such an effective choice. However, regardless of where most people are based, sending newsletters directly relating to the subject matter will likely see good results.
Include a CTA in your email signature
Adding a webinar-related call to action (CTA) to your email signature is an easy way to promote the event. This could be as simple as including a link to the registration form or even just a short sentence letting people know about the upcoming webinar. This will help you get more people to sign up.
What is a good CTA for webinars?
A good CTA for webinars is something like "Sign up to learn about the latest trends in e-commerce". Make sure it speaks out loud about the benefits of attending the webinar.
Send reminders before the webinar
As well as promoting through email, it's also a good idea to send out automated advance reminder emails about your upcoming event. You can automate the process by using email marketing automation platforms. These should be sent at least several days in advance and contain links to where registrants can find more information such as an agenda for example.
Including social media buttons on these messages will help them go viral, too – this means that those who receive the message may then share it with their own network of contacts which could result in even more registrations! Send another one just before the webinar itself so that attendees don't forget the power of CTAs and miss out!
Run ads on Google and other search engines
Google AdWords can be an extremely effective way to promote your webinar. You can target people based on their interests, what they've searched for in the past and even where they are located. Additionally, you can use other platforms such as Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Ads, on the last site people usually try to find a job, which again will help to reach potential attendees.
You could also consider placing ads on relevant websites – for example if your webinar is about search engine optimization, then you might want to target people who have visited similar pages in the past. This will help raise awareness of the event and get more people signing up!
Reach out to bloggers and influencers in your field for promotion
Partnering with bloggers and other influencers in your field can be a great way to promote your webinar. This could involve giving them free access to the event in exchange for promoting it on their social media channels or even writing about it on their blog. This way, you can reach a much wider audience than you would be able to on your own.
In addition, try to identify any potential media partners who might be interested in covering the event. This could result in some great exposure for your webinar and help attract even more people! Be sure to make terms for the partnership clear and track expenses incurred in a timely and organized manner to avoid hassles.
Organize a contest or giveaway
Hosting a contest or giveaway is a great way to drum up interest in your upcoming webinar and get more people signing up. You can offer prizes such as tickets to an upcoming conference or even just gift certificates for popular online stores. This will create a sense of excitement around the event and encourage people to register sooner rather than later! For example, if you are in the education niche, you can send your learning kits to all of your participants.
Sponsor other events or conferences that are related to topics discussed in your webinar
If your webinar is related to a popular topic then it might be possible for you to team up with an event that is already taking place. This could be something like Google I/O or any other tech conference that is relevant to what will be discussed at yours!
This way you can leverage their audience and get them excited about your upcoming webinar in exchange for promoting theirs too – this may result in some great exposure and registrations so it's definitely worth exploring if there are any similar events happening around the same time as yours.
Promote your webinar through word of mouth
The best way to promote a webinar is through word of mouth. This means getting your current and potential attendees to spread the word about the event to their contacts. You can do this by providing them with marketing materials such as flyers, email signatures, or even just social media posts that they can use.
Tell speakers to promote the event as well
If you have speakers at your event then make sure that they know how important it is for them to promote the webinar themselves. It's also a good idea to get their help in creating some promotional materials so that there are more people talking about the upcoming event. Their reach can help the event grow exponentially so just one tweet or post can have a huge impact!
Make your webinar interactive to attract more attendees
One way to make your webinar more engaging and attract more attendees is to make it interactive. This can involve things like using polls or quizzes, having live discussions with the audience or even just giving out freebies, in order to exceed attendee’s expectations. Try to surprise them with something special that they wouldn't usually get at a traditional webinar.
This will help keep people engaged throughout the entire event and encourage them to come back for future webinars as well. If you make it memorable, people will be more likely to attend and share it with their friends. In the meantime, make sure to focus on the technical aspects of your webinar such as noise cancellation, good video and audio quality, good internet connection, etc.
Promote your webinar in the days leading up to the event
It's best practice to start promoting your upcoming webinar a few weeks in advance, especially if you want it to reach as many people as possible. This means sending emails out about how exciting the event is and what attendees can expect. You can also share teasers on social media, post about it on your blog or even create an explainer video detailing what the webinar is all about.
In the days leading up to the event, send out one final push to get people registered. This could involve sending out a reminder email with a special offer for people who sign up in the next 24 hours or including a discount code for the first 50 people to register.
Prepare a bundle of online gifts to be sent after the webinar
It's always a nice touch to give people something to share your webinar with their friends. This could be in the form of an email course, access to free videos or even just discount codes that you regularly offer to attendees. You can then promote these online gifts after the event is over so that it feels like they're getting more value from attending.
This will encourage them to promote the webinar to their friends and help get the word out there even more! Just make sure that whatever you're offering is something that people would want to receive.
Over to you
There you have it – a few tips on how to promote your webinar in 2024! By following these practices, you'll be well on your way to a successful event. Do you have any additional tips that you'd like to share? Let us know in the comments below!