As video presentations, seminars, or workshops delivered over the internet, webinars are a great way to inform and interact with members of your target audience no matter where they’re located.
Whether your aim is to increase brand awareness, establish yourself as a thought leader, or boost sales conversions, these three key steps summarize how to use webinars to generate leads for your business.
1. Identify your audience in advance
To generate quality leads, it’s important to first identify and then gear your webinar toward participants who:
- Are most likely to be interested in what you’re promoting
- Will be more easily converted into prospects or buyers as a result
To identify and attract the right attendees, try creating a buyer or marketing persona (if you don’t have one already) representing your ideal customer. By directly addressing the typical pain points and preferred outcomes of your target market, you can dramatically improve your presentation’s impact.
Start by:
- Talking to your sales or marketing staff about the wants and needs of leads who’ve demonstrated interest in what you sell
- Referencing your customer data and/or conducting surveys with existing buyers around common challenges they face
- Doing research online to better understand the demographics and behaviours of people who buy or use products or services similar to yours
You can then use this knowledge to help refine the fit between your webinar content and the audience you intend to share it with.
2. Promote your event with intention
Take full advantage of all your business communication channels to spread the word about your upcoming webinar and encourage attendance. This might include promoting the event on your website, through social media, and by emailing existing contacts.
It’s best to set up and drive promotional traffic to a dedicated landing page where invitees can learn more about your presentation and register to attend.
To increase registration success, make sure you:
- Choose a compelling webinar title
- Use marketing language that speaks to what you’ve learned about your ideal customer
- Briefly outline the value and benefits of attending your presentation
You may be able to spark additional interest by featuring a brief video clip about your event, or by highlighting customer testimonials that support the product or service you’ll be promoting.
Be sure to also use a sign-up form that makes it easy to register for your webinar with just a name, company name (if relevant), and email address. Including an event countdown timer on your landing page—or mentioning that attendance is limited—can also help fuel registration.
3. Follow up for maximum impact
With webinar statistics supporting a 61% registration-to-attendee conversion rate, not everyone who registers for your event will end up attending. Still, you can use their interest and contact information to extend your influence in multiple ways.
- Following up your initial webinar announcement with an escalating series of email reminders can help build excitement and anticipation around your event, increase attendance, and keep your product or service top-of-mind
- Offering registrants both live and on-demand viewing options will ensure your presentation reaches as many people as possible (regardless of attendance, make sure you send everyone who registered for your event a direct replay or on-demand webinar link after the fact)
- Take advantage of your registration email list to remind webinar attendees about product or service benefits described during your presentation—and to extend or follow up on registrant-only sales offers
Once your presentation has aired, you can continue maximizing its potential to win new business by making a condensed version available to all website visitors, and by turning webinar content into an eBook you can use as a brand-new, gated lead magnet.
