Webinar Marketing for Business

How to create a successful webinar

Creating a successful webinar requires thorough planning and preparation but will drive significant benefits during the execution:

• Consider if a webinar is the right tool for your needs and audience. The decision to use a webinar should be based on your goals and the needs of your audience.

• Think about visual branding and ensure consistency with your brand's tone. Incorporating your logo in the opening can help with visual recognition.

• Include a short introduction and key learning points to give participants an overview of what to expect.

• Choose the date and time carefully, considering the time required for preparation and the location of your audience.

• Use inviting headlines that speak to the participants' needs and convey the benefits of attending the webinar.

• Have a clear agenda and stick to it to ensure that the webinar stays focused and on track.

• Use interactive features such as polls, Q&A sessions, and chat functions to engage the audience.

• Practice and rehearse beforehand to ensure the webinar runs smoothly without technical glitches.

• Use high-quality audio and video equipment to ensure the webinar is professional and easy to follow.

• Follow up with participants after the webinar to gather feedback and answer any additional questions they may have.

Get our Webinar Checklist for additional tips and tricks.

Tips for promoting your webinar

Its promotion is as crucial as creating and performing the webinar (=the product). Here are some tips to get the right people to attend and make it worth their while: 

• Identify your target audience and create a buyer persona. Tailor your webinar content to their interests and needs. For example, if you're targeting small business owners, create a webinar covering marketing or finance.

• Use email marketing to promote your webinar. Send multiple emails leading up to the event, increasing the frequency as the date approaches. Offer incentives to encourage people to register, such as early bird discounts or free resources.

• Leverage co-marketing with companies that share your target audience. Collaborate with them to create social media posts, blogs, and newsletters that promote the webinar to boost awareness and expand your reach.

• Use social media to promote your webinar. Create social media posts leading to the event, using relevant hashtags and tagging relevant accounts. Utilize paid advertising on platforms like LinkedIn or Facebook to reach a wider audience. Consider creating a LinkedIn event for additional visibility.

• Create a landing page for your webinar that includes all the relevant information, such as date, time, and registration link, and captures critical (buyer person-specific) data to help engage with a participant.

• Use video marketing to promote your webinar. Create a teaser video highlighting your webinar's critical points and share it on social media platforms and your website.

• Partner with influencers who can promote your webinar to their audience. Look for influencers who are relevant to your industry and have a large following on social media platforms.

• Use retargeting ads to reach people who have visited your website or engaged with your content. This can help you reach people who have already shown an interest in your brand and are more likely to convert.

• Offer a referral program to incentivize your existing audience to promote your webinar to their network. Offer rewards such as discounts.

Successful webinars are a core element in an effective Inbound Marketing approach. Deploying all marketing techniques applicable to other products will give your webinars the attention they deserve.

Webinar marketing best practices

Here are best practices for you to consider, along with specific examples to help you implement them effectively:

• Choose the best format for your content & audience: Before you set up your webinar, decide what you want it to be. Consider your audience's preferences and what format will work best for them. For instance, a shorter, more concise format may be more effective if you're targeting executives.

• Create an appealing slide deck: To keep your audience engaged for 30 minutes to an hour, give them something engaging to look at; make your slide deck visually appealing. Use high-quality images, graphs, and charts to make your presentation more interactive and engaging.

• Provide value and insights to prospects: Webinars effectively move prospects along the sales funnel. Load them with product and industry knowledge, and help them become warm leads that can have beneficial conversations with your sales team.

• Promote Your Webinar Effectively: Use a multi-channel approach to promote your webinar, including email marketing, social media, and paid advertising. You can attract the right audience and maximize attendance by leveraging the right channels.

• Practice Your Delivery: Practice makes perfect! Take the time to rehearse your webinar, and try to imagine a good friend of yours on the other side of the screen as if you were conversing with them. This will help you feel more confident and natural during the presentation.

As a specific example, let's say you're in the software industry and want to promote a new product feature through a webinar. You might use a more interactive and demo-driven format with plenty of visuals and step-by-step instructions. Use LinkedIn and email marketing to target your audience, and consider partnering with industry influencers to help promote the webinar. During the presentation, focus on providing value to prospects by showing them how the new feature can solve their pain points and improve their workflow. Finally, practice your delivery to ensure your confidence and knowledge, building trust and authority with your audience.

Do

• Promote the webinar beforehand: Send emails to your email list, create social media posts, and run ads to promote your upcoming webinar. This will help increase attendance and engagement.

• Use interactive features: Incorporate polls, Q&A sessions, and chat features to keep attendees engaged and interested throughout the webinar. This will help create a more dynamic experience for attendees.

• Follow up with attendees: After the webinar, thank attendees for attending and provide additional resources or information related to the topic. This will help establish a relationship with attendees and encourage them to attend future webinars.

Don't

• Be too salesy: Avoid making the webinar a sales pitch for your product or service. This will turn off attendees and make them less likely to attend future webinars. Transition from ABC, "Always be closing," to "Always be helpful."

• Use poor audio or visual quality: Poor audio or visual quality can be distracting and make it difficult for attendees to engage with the content. Make sure to use high-quality equipment and test it before the webinar begins.

• Ignore attendee feedback: Pay attention to attendee feedback and use it to improve future webinars. This will help you provide a better experience for attendees and increase engagement.

Webinar tools

Once you are determined to get started, you need a webinar platform to promote, host, record your webinar, and follow up with participants. The following solutions stand out and deserve to be mentioned:

• CMS and CRM Solutions: You need a platform to promote your webinars, capture visitors, and follow up with them. While many CRM systems exist, and some trailing webinar solutions have CRM elements that help you organize, HubSpot and Salesforce are worthy platforms to consider. HubSpot's "forever free CRM" lets you get started without draining your finances.

• GoToWebinar: GoToWebinar offers robust webinar features, including customizable registration pages, automatic reminder emails, and on-demand recordings. Cons include limited branding options and a steeper learning curve for new users.

• Livestorm: A newer entrant to the webinar market that offers a modern interface and features like custom branding, interactive polls and surveys, and integrations with popular marketing tools. Cons include occasional technical issues and a slightly higher price point than some competitors.

• Microsoft Teams: Teams offers a variety of features for hosting webinars, including screen sharing, breakout rooms, and the ability to schedule and record meetings. Pros include integration with other Microsoft tools, such as Outlook and OneDrive, and easy collaboration with team members. Cons include occasional audio and video quality issues and limited branding options. Microsoft Teams was designed as a video conference solution with limited webinar capabilities.

• Sessions: Still a relatively small player, Sessions has been conceived as a collaborative webinar platform from the ground up. Sessions features webinar and meeting notes and AI-supported summaries. Its strong collaboration and engagement tools are best in class. Sessions is an Aspiration Marketing favorite and powers our webinars.

• Webex: Owned by Cisco, Webex is a reliable option for hosting video conferences. Pros include hosting large audiences (up to 100,000), screen-sharing capabilities, and a user-friendly interface. Cons include occasional technical difficulties and limited customization options. WebEx was designed as a video conference solution with limited webinar capabilities.

• Zoom: With a user base of over 300 million daily participants,  Zoom is a popular choice for video conferences. Pros include recording and saving sessions, screen sharing capabilities, and interactive features like polls and chat. Cons include occasional technical glitches and security concerns. Zoom was designed as a video conference solution with limited webinar capabilities.