More organisations are tapping into webinars due to their reach, convenience and user friendly applications. Once you decide on your presenter and topic it’s simply a matter of marketing your webinar to your target audience. Sounds simple enough, right?
Not always – unfortunately many still fall into the trap of assuming that the webinar marketing process is the same as that of a face to face event. The truth is, with the inbox becoming more and more cluttered there is a greater need to communicate your event through a larger range of online channels.
The best ways to market your webinar and ensure you stand out from the crowd and gain maximum exposure are:
Use Dedicated Emails…
These days’ people don’t really have the time to crawl through your website’s event page.
Send a dedicated email to your database for each webinar you have. If you think you are going to run the risk of saturating your database with emails then setup a separate database for those who want to receive your webinar invites.
Timing is of the essence…
I constantly receive webinar invitations for events which are scheduled anywhere up to a month in advance. To be honest, I have some difficulty remembering what I am doing in the days ahead let a month.
By advertising your event more than two weeks in advance you run the risk of a) people forgetting about it or b) people saying to themselves “it’s a month away, it’s not that urgent.”
The key to gaining registrations is urgency. Send dedicated emails to your audience around two weeks in advance and then consider sending a reminder email to non-responders.
Consistency is the key
Get your audience familiar with your webinars; try and schedule them regularly and on the same day of the week.
People will eventually get to know when they are held and will come to expect, and lookout for your invites. An easy way to do this is to create a webinar series and advertise it at the end of each webinar you hold.
Get Social
For those of you who do it, you know there is no escaping it and for those of you who don’t… why not?
Social media, if executed properly, can work greatly to your advantage. Here are a few examples of the more popular channels:
Twitter: Start building up your network through Twitter and post the links to your online invitations.
On the day of your webinar, send a reminder email to your registrants and include a re tweet button and a hashtag (#). This will get people talking about your webinars and you will soon see your Twitter community grow.
LinkedIn: Create your events on LinkedIn and promote them to groups that you think will be interested. If you are hosting regular events then create your own group and allow people to opt in for regular invites.
YouTube: Record your webinars and upload them to your YouTube channel. Not only will this increase your educational content and give people a little teaser… but Google will love you!
What are you waiting for? Jump in and start marketing your webinars now – after all, there’s no time like the present!
