Josh Slone — October 31, 2017 — October 31, 2017
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Creating and Marketing a Webinar Can Be Successful with These Strategies
Creating a webinar can be challenging, but marketing a webinar is a whole other beast.
If you’ve been looking into sales tactics and tips, you’ve likely been pitched for a webinar (or 10).
There’s a reason… it works!
These events can be massively valuable. Most hosts put out their very best content in hopes to get you to listen to a pitch toward the end.
Have you thought about using cold email for marketing a webinar?
These are things that we’ve been pondering recently and have created our own regular webinar (that you can check out here if you’d like).
So, if you’ve kicked around the idea of having your own online presentation—here are a few things we’ll cover:
- What to include in your webinar.
- Marketing a webinar to get people to show up.
- Our 4-email sequence to send to cold leads to get them interested.
Let’s get into it.
The DNA of a Good Webinar
This isn’t a pragmatic subject. You won’t find any good advice that says, “Follow this X Step Formula”. Sure, there are a lot of awesome webinar resources out there, but you don’t necessary need to pay for them. If you’re a business owner, you understand your leads (at least a little bit).
There’s really only ONE thing you’ll need to come up with a webinar that people want to attend.
VALUE. It’s all about the value.
Figure out what your ideal buyers want to know. A subject that relates to your products/services. Doing so will allow you to easily segue to your pitch.
The value has to be shown and given in three stages.
- Pre-Webinar
- During-Webinar
- Post-Webinar
Pre-Webinar Value
Remember, it’s value to THEM… not to you.
Getting people interested in showing up is the first step in a good webinar. To do this, you’ll have to follow the old Carnegie quote and “tell them what you’re going to tell them”.
Display the value you’ll be giving away to everyone who signs up (those who’ll attend and those who won’t).
There should be some sort of downloadable resource, access to a paid product, a free trial. Something that entices anyone your ad or email reaches to join the mailing list. If your main goal is sales, the secondary goal should be new leads on your list.
Key to Pre-Webby Value: Lay it Out Quick (and in various ways).
Look how HubSpot does it on one of their registration pages. First, you’ll see a video. It’s like 45 seconds long and gives a brief, yet effective overview of what you’ll learn from watching.
Right below the fold is a bit more information. Notice that the page has “something for everyone”. There’s a video description. I few paragraphs for those who want it all, and bullet points for the just-the-facts types.
During Webinar Value
Make sure what you’re going to tell attendees is actually worth their time. If you want them to become customers at the end—the webinar itself should be worth money.
Since this will vary wildly depending on your industry and target market. All we can give are general tips. For instance:
- Make Sure Your Tips Work: Better yet, show they work. Case studies. Nothing says you know what you’re talking about better than a graph line that is moving up and to the right.
- Get “Little-Known” Stuff: If Forbes has a few dozen 500 word articles about your “secret” strategies, people are going to abandon your presentation. Get something that makes them say, “Oh, that’s good. Glad I’m on this call.”
- 80/20 (at least) Your Pitch: Everyone knows they are there to be pitched. Like a time share, everyone wants dinner for free, so they sit through the presentation. But, for webinars, it only works if you give them enough good content first.
Post Webinar Value
Ok. Post webinar value ranges from the tail-end of your pitch all the way to the people who actually become customers. Ask yourself one question.
Obviously, these things should be involved in your pitch. Just as important, promises should be carried out. For instance, a SaaS product has a webinar and offers:
- A 30 minute personalized coaching/kickoff call
- Onboarding assistance for the first 30 days
- Assistance handling the transfer from their current solution.
It’s VERY important to get these things done ASAP. Likewise, it’s vital to NOT give these freebies to anyone but new clients that came in via a webinar pitch.
- Step One: Offer some insane bonuses and extras exclusively for new clients that attended a webinar.
- Step Two: Work your tail off to make them happen.
Another friendly reminder. We have a webinar. In it we’ll give you 22 different offers to send cold leads in order to increase the number of responses you see in your outreach campaign. To see all of the value we offer, you can click here.
Marketing a Webinar to Targeted Audiences
Marketing a Webinar Method One: FaceBook Ads
If you’ve attended a webinar, or have done your own—Facebook ads have probably been involved. Yes, B2Bs can and do use FB ads to fill them up with cold traffic (We use them to do it).
But since this post is more about using email, we’ll just give you a couple of resources if you’d like to read up on using paid ads to draw people in to your webinars.
- I’m Promoting My Webinar Series with Facebook Ads (via JonLoomer.com)
- How Facebook Ads Increased First-Time Webinar Registration by 450% (via Wishpond.com)
Marketing a Webinar Method Two: Joint Ventures
Using the audience of another company is a great way to get people to register for your webinar. There are literally dozens of ways to cross-promote, but the only way to get started is to strike up a conversation.
Wanna know how businesses still communicate? Email.
Send an email to other companies that could benefit from your audience (and vice versa). Start talking with them, but don’t just jump to, “Hey, you want to do a webinar with us?” They don’t know you, but they may offer some value to give to your audience.
How about something like this;
Hi, Jane!
I love what you’re doing over at [site name/company name/etc]. We’re putting together a webinar, [insert title here], and would love one or two of your best tips/ideas/research about the topic.
It’s [insert short explanation about what it is you’re doing].
Your contribution would be credited. Look forward to hearing from you!
Best,
Josh
It’s way more likely that you’ll get a response with value for your audience. Then, you can gauge interest in the company being a part of the webinar itself.
Make sense?
Oh, and HubSpot uses JV webinars all the time. The one we referenced above included. Take a look at the screenshot and there are actually three companies represented in this one webby.
Marketing a Webinar Method Three: Email People You Want There
This method for marketing a webinar hasn’t likely been listed in most sales tips or in many webinar guides you’ve seen. Our main focus for giving out these different types of offers is to increase the number of positive responses you get from your cold email efforts.
If you just send an email telling people what you do, it’s likely you’ll end up in the trash. People delete self-promotional material without a second thought.
You have to give them something they want. Broadcasting in their head most of the time is “What’s in it for me?” If you can’t give them an answer in your cold email—you will never have an opportunity to make the sale.
So, what’s the answer?
Let’s recap before we give you the email sequence to send your list of leads.
- Put together an incredibly valuable webinar and a landing page that tells people the value.
- Use JVs, FB ads, and Cold Email to get people to register for the webinar.
- Make sure you put on a presentation that is worth showing up for and pitch an offer that is better than you normally offer.
- Follow through and deliver on your promises in the webinar.
Now, put together a list of awesome leads and send them the following emails. Make sure to send them a couple days apart for maximum efficiency.
Happy Hunting.
4 Email Webinar Invite Sequence
Email 1 – See What Your Competitors Are Doing
Hi {{.FirstName}},
I’d love to have you attend one of our upcoming webinars where we show what some of your competitors like {{.CustomData.competitor}} are doing to grow.
I thought you’d be a great fit since you’re in the industry we’ll be reviewing.
It’s free, but we only have so many slots. You can register for it here.
(((Email Signature)))
P.S. Not the person to talk to? Let me know! Don’t want me to follow-up with you? You can let me know that too!
Email 2 – Re: See What Your Competitors Are Doing
Hi {{.FirstName}},
Want to see what other companies lIke {{.CompanyName}} are doing to grow their business?
We’ll be sharing insights into how some of your competitors do their marketing, uncover the ads they use, where they advertise, and more.
{{.FirstName}}, even if you can’t attend, I’d recommend registering anyway to get a copy of the recording. You can register here for free.
(((Email Signature)))
P.S. Let me know if you think it’s best I talk with someone else on your team to see what your competitors are doing!
Email 3 – Re: See What Your Competitors Are Doing
Hi {{.FirstName}},
Will you be attending the webinar?
Do you think I should I speak with {{.CustomData.reference}} about this instead?
(((Email Signature)))
P.S. For quick reference, here is a link to register (it’s free!).
Email 4 – Re: See What Your Competitors Are Doing
Hi {{.FirstName}},
Haven’t seen you sign up to attend this free webinar, so assuming you are good with your own situation and don’t feel seeing your competitors marketing efforts will be of value.
(((Email Signature)))
P.S. If you’d ever like some personalized recommendations on your marketing efforts, you can grab a time with me here.
Conclusion
What strategies do you use for marketing a webinar?
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