Services Webinar Marketing Plan for More Registrants and Leads
Generally, the more members of your target audience that attend your Webinar, the more successful your Webinar will be.
For some complex or relatively-expensive services, which have long sales cycles or large buying teams, the number of actual decision makers who register for the Webinar may be just as important as the pure registrant total.
Here are 5 core elements of a basic Webinar marketing plan.
1. List and Media Selection
The Webinar marketing plan foundation starts with identifying the list or media that effectively reaches your target market. This can include your own in-house list, direct mail or emaillists, partner/speaker/affiliate lists, and external media, websites, or lists. Most importantly, the list should contain a high percentage of individuals who are potential buyers or influencers for your products or services. Resist the temptation to use easily-available media or lists when they don’t match-up with the target market for your specific Webinar. A little extra investment in list development will payoff in response and attendance.
A typical services Webinar will see 90% or more of its registrants come from an opt-in email list, so the most important part of your marketing plan will be to use, or rent, a responsive, email list of your target audience.
2. Communications Plan
Select communication vehicles and the timing of the delivery of your messages to maximize the reach and impact with your chosen target list or media. Seek to get your Webinar invitation in front of as many members of your target audience as possible working within the budget available. Consider multiple forms of contact outside of ernolls such as online advertising, telemarketing, or direct mail postcards. Multiple media and contacts can increase your rate of success and awareness of your event.
The general rule is the majority of registrants will occur within 10 days of your Webinar. The heart of a communications plan could include an email to your in-house list 7 days and 2 days before the Webinar.
If you have outside speakers or co-sponsors for the event, they could follow this timing as well to their own lists. And, don ‘t forget to promote links to the live event and recording in newsletters and on your own, speaker, and partner websites as well. Don’t be surprised if you get a 20% fift in registrations with this simple tactic. When considering the best way to expand your Webinar audience, it is by expanding your email invitation list and those that see your invitation.
Here are 7 easy ways to extend your reach and potentially multiply Webinar registration:
1. Consider Using an Outside Speaker with an Email List
2. Consider Bringing In a Co-Sponsor with an Email List
3. Test and Tweak Subject Lines to Improve Open Rates
Remember to email your core lists multiple times for your Webinar.
4. Time the Email to Get Opened – Usually in the Morning Tuesday through Thursday
5. Consider Renting Email Lists or Placements in Third-Party Newsletters
6. Email Your Target Lists Multiple Times
7. Ideally the “From” Name of the Email will be Familiar to Your Target Audience
3. The Invitation Email (and Postcard) Copy Itself
Getting your message out through your Webinar invitation email requires writing promotional copy that highlights the title, timing, speaker, and primary benefits of attending your presentation. For marketing and selling intangible services though Webinars, it is especially important to paint a vivid picture with words of the benefits of attending. For online marketing copy, call your prospects to action (urgently) by having them click on a direct link to the registration page, also known as the web registration form.
Remember a strong registration form will target 50%+ conversion to registrants. A weak form or cumbersome registration process will net conversion rates as low as 10% or less.
Caution: Stay away from registration processes or Webinar platforms that require more than one step or click to get to your Webinar landing page. This will significantly lower your Webinar registrant and attendance numbers. (Note: The GotoWebinar technology platform used by QLM for its Cutting Edge Marketing Webinar Series offers both high conversion rates and also automated and effective Webinar reminders.)
4. Timing and Delivery
The timing of the delivery of your Webinar is vital to maximize registrations. So much so, that it should be considered in the strategy phase of planning your Webinars.
When should you hold your event?
Simply, when your target market is most likely available. For business audiences this is usually mid-week, mid-day. For an audience such as individuals buying financial services this may be early evening, at 7:00 pm.
How long should your marketing event be?
Generally, free marketing Webinars will last between 30 and 60 minutes. Since the average Webinar attendee will tend to join the Webinar about 5 minutes after the start time, plan your content for either 25 or 55 minutes.
Should you always record the live Webinar?
Yes. And, make sure your Webinar recording is available to all registrants 12 to 24 hours after the event. Also, consider promoting the availability of the recording to your entire invitation list the week after the live Webinar to take advantage of awareness built-up before the live event.
5. Your Reminder Sequence
The most common way to take registrations for marketing Webinars is through an online registration form. In short (as discussed above) make it easy for your busy, target audience to register for the event.
You are not done marketing the event just because your prospects register. After all, your Webinar will have a much bigger impact if 60%+ of registrants attend versus 25% or below. (Put a reminder sequence in your registrant-to-attendee marketing plan.) Be sure you get the maximum attendance possible from your registration pool by sending reminder emails with the Webinar details.
Consider use of an auto-responder which sends a confirmation to the registrant immediately, along with one email 24 hours ahead of the event and another email 3 hours before the event. This sequence can significantly increase your attendance rate.
Optionally, you might want to deploy a reminder phone call or fax within 24 hours of the event. It is a given that your marketing plan will be more successful if your content is a big draw to your audience. So how do you create content that helps to attract your target audience?
Winning Services Webinar Marketing — Creating a Topic That Sells the Event For You
Most of all, consider that the number one rule taught in speech class is: “Know your audience.”
Your Webinar will have the most impact and create the best results for you if your topic of the Webinar is interesting, informative, timely, and provides value to the audience.
A financial services company, for example, may create a Webinar with the goal of educating individual investors on how they can experience the “Ideal Retirement.” A marketing services firm may highlight how businesses can get “More Leads with Less Effort.” An ITservices firm may create a Webinar topic around “Delivering Better Functionality at Lower cost. Ultimately, your audience will decide if your topic is compelling and worthwhile. One way to “stack the deck in your favor” is to survey your target audience before the event to find out what problems or topics are most likely to get their attention and attendance. These surveys can also be an excellent source of content, to be included in your presentation.
Winning Services Webinar Marketing — Getting the Tactics Right While Avoiding the Common Pitfalls
About once a week, I get a call or email from one of my newsletter subscribers which says, “We followed your basic Webinar marketing strategies, and the event went well, but the attendance was below what we expected it to be.” Inevitably, they missed a key step or two. When you do a “postop” analysis on a Webinar marketing plan which didn’t “fill-the room,” here are the most likely causes for the poor showing. Better yet, use these pitfalls as a checklist to review your Webinar strategy and plans BEFOREt he event.
1. Your Webinar Topic Did Not Draw the Target Market Like a Magnet
2. The Content of the Webinar Did Not Offer Fodder to “Sell the Sizzle” of the Event
3. Your invitation ListWas Small, or There Were Few Potential Buyers on the List
4. Your Registration Form/Process Made it Hard to Register
5. The Timing of the Webinar, or a Weak Reminder Sequence, Lowered Attendance
Avoid these common mistakes and see your Webinar attendance rise!
Continued tomorrow in Part 4: Driving More Services Fees with Webinars – The Easy Way
A Quantum Leap Marketing White Paper; A Companion to the Cutting Edge Marketing Webinar Series About the Author Bob Hanson is the President of lead generation and conversion consultancy Quantum Leap Marketing and creator of the Must-See Webinars TMsuccess system. He has also published a recent guide to online lead generation, the “What’s Working Now in B-to-BLead Generation Guide: Success with New Media: Webinars and Goog/e Ads.”