promoting your webinar
DESCRIPTION
How can you get the word out about your webinar series without spending thousands of dollars in time and effort? In this hour long webinar, Sharon Burton will show you how to write up your webinar description that captures the attention of your target audience. She will then cover specific steps for getting the word out to possible attendees and maximizing your registration. At the end of this webinar, you will know how to: -Write compelling webinar descriptions -Find the markets you want to reach, (and do it effectively) -Increase your attendance by 25%TRANSCRIPT
Promoting your Webinars
How to get people to sign up and attend your webinars
© 2012 Sharon Burton
Thank you for attending!
Sharon Burton
Been in the Communication industry for 20 years
Content strategy consultant
Run hundreds of webinars
Teach communication at various universities
My new book 8 Steps to Amazing Webinars
Available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Our problem
We want
the most response to our webinar
engaged and excited attendees
qualified leads
Really, we’d like everything
Maybe with some chocolate sprinkles, too
Sometimes it feels like we threw a party and no one came
So how can we fix this?
Let’s start way at the beginning
Our write up may be a problem
People are busy, and if they can’t understand the write-up, they won’t sign up.
Making them think and decode language puts a burden on your attendees that’s simply not fair
So let’s start there
A good short description
Clearly state the topic for your audience
Not in product-specific terms
Your audiences’ terms
“Learn about our new localization product”
Not compelling to your attendees
No reason why they might benefit from learning about your product.
“Reduce your translation costs by as much as 80%”
Speaks to a pain point for your audience
Numbers are interesting
Numbers are very good
For example
An 80% reduction in localization costs is huge
It’s an exciting thing for a company to think there may be a better way at half the cost
It’s inherently interesting to your audience
Total words
Resist the urge to say everything you ever thought of on the topic
150 words, tops
Bullet points
Scannable
People can scan the write up and decide
For example
“In this fast and exciting interactive hour, you’ll see the industry’s newest technology leveraged to reduce your localizations costs.”
Rewrite it into something like this:
“During this hour-long webinar, see how you can save up to 80% of your localization costs.”
The reason to attend
List three things they will learn by attending
Even if they already know one of those things
They see the other two and decide those would be good to learn as well
You’re asking for at least an hour out of an already overscheduled day
Let people know up front what they can expect to learn
For example
How to improve your localization workflow overall
How Product XX streamlines the localization process
What standardized content is and the cost benefits it can bring you
Make it easy to see why
Use simple and direct words that communicate clearly to the attendee.
People are busy, and if they can’t understand the write-up, they won’t sign up.
Making them think and decode the language puts a burden on your attendees that’s simply not fair
Your signups will be poor
Make it easy to sign up
If one of your goals for running a webinar series is to get more leads
Your instinct is to ask everything you can think of to qualify the lead when they sign up
Don’t do this
Really
I’m not kidding
Fully qualifying people at signup makes the signup procedure hard and time-consuming
People won’t sign up
Getting the word out
Your website
Direct emails
Social media
Other user groups
Advertisements
Your website
Link from your home page to your Webinars page
Include links to recordings of past webinars
Plan ahead for when you have 30+ recordings
Organized by?
Date may not be good
ALWAYS have 4 weeks of upcoming webinars
Maybe not 1 every week, but at least 4 weeks out
Direct emails
Don’t include the entire write-up in these emails
Makes the email too long to scan
Put the name of the webinar and the date and time
Include the first sentence from the write-up
Don’t forget support emails and other groups
Social media This is what you’ve all
been waiting for!
Great for Business to Consumer (B2C)
Bad for B2B
Good for both
Good for B2C
Google+
No one seems to use it
YouTube
Fab for B2C
Maybe good for B2B
Many places restrict YouTube access
Think hash tags
For example:
Free webinar: Reducing your localization costs – June 30 2012 9am Pac #techcomm [insert link to signup page here]
Set up different tweets (using HootSuite or Dlvr.it)
Schedule for different hours and days of the week
Use the analytics to see what your audience responds to
Do more of that
Visual
You need a really good picture
People scan for stuff visually
I wouldn’t bother with B2B
Not business
Perfect for B2B
Lots of professional groups talking about topics
Post to these groups
Watch the rules
Some groups are touchy about what gets posted by vendors
Don’t just post and never come back
People have questions
Other user groups
Depending on your industry
Other newsgroups
Yahoo
Others
Follow the rules for posting
Don’t just post and never come back
People have questions
Advertisements
Ask for a small mention in advertisements with a link to the webinars page on your website
Maybe a Qcode specifically for the webinar page
Don’t mention any specific webinar by name in the ad
You have a new free webinar program available
How often should I post? Timeframe Social Media Groups and lists
3 weeks before 2 times a week 1 time
2 weeks before 4 times a week 1 time
1 week before every day 1 time
The day before 3 times 1 time
The day of 2 hours before NA
After the webinar is complete
an hour later, mentioning how
exciting/full/etc. the webinar was
NA
The day after the webinar
post with the recording link
1 time
The next 3 months, or until you see on-demand
viewing drop off significantly
Once a week with the link
Once a week with the link
How do I get more signups to attend live?
50% of the total signups usually attend
It’s a global world
People sign up knowing they can’t attend live but they want to link to the recording
You have an engaged audience
If you are getting a lot of signups from another time zone
Consider doing one for them specifically
Even if that means a webinar at 5am or 10pm for you
8 Steps to Amazing Webinars
XML Press
Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Available as a printed book or as an eBook