Webinars are some of the most powerful marketing tools for businesses. They can be used when building a brand, teaching audiences, or nurturing leads, among many others. However, they have to be used well for them to be effective.
They allow businesses to show what they can do to solve problems faced by their (businesses’) audiences. Businesses can also interact with their audiences in real-time using webinars, providing them with a way to share authoritative content.
However, it can be challenging for some businesses to run their first marketing webinar. You need to understand a couple of things for your webinar to be successful.
At Growth Hackers, we’ve helped a skincare client run their first webinars, and by following our proven approach, not only did they see high audience engagement, they were also able to generate over 750 leads that converted into over 100 purchases.
Here is everything you should do when running your first webinar.
1. Choose a Platform
The first step is choosing a platform that you can use when sharing your webinar. There are different options available but the one you choose depends on the webinar you are creating. You should involve your team when choosing the best platform for your webinar.
For instance, there is a platform for those who want to nurture leads. Others are specifically designed for pumping up business sales or teaching your customers something. Depending on your goal, choose a platform that is going to help you achieve it.
2. Select a Topic
This is one of the most difficult things, especially for those who do not have an idea of what they want to share with their audience. The first step to ensure that you choose the right topic is to check your website or blog and social media platforms.
Here, look at the social media posts that are more engaging. On your website or blog, look at the articles or blog posts that have been visited and read the most. You can also look at your competitors or trending topics related to what your business does for inspiration.
Doing this is vital in ensuring that you select the right topic that is going to help you meet your goals. We at Growth Hackers treat topic selection like choosing the right bait for a fishing trip: one of our tech clients tapped into trending subjects and audience interests (GenAI and automation) with our help, catching far more engaged prospects than before.
3. Build a Landing Page
Now that you have selected a topic and platform for your webinar, you need a way for your audience to start sign-ups or registrations. Your landing page should be set up a few weeks before the day you are hosting the webinar. A manufacturing client struggled to attract sign-ups for their webinar until Growth Hackers helped them build a clear, mobile-friendly landing page with compelling benefits. The result? Registrations soared by 58% within the first 10 days.
This is because you need to ensure that you have given your audience enough time to sign up. You also need to have a rough idea of the contents of your webinar. Since you have the topic, you can add a few bullet points showing what you will discuss.
You should tell people to sign up and give them reasons for signing up. For instance, how will a person benefit from your webinar? Ensure that you have convinced people to sign up. Do not forget to make your landing page mobile-friendly, which will help you generating leads for your website.
4. Build a Team
Even though you might be responsible for webinar planning, you will need a team for your webinar to be successful. Every webinar needs a host. However, it is recommended to ensure that you create dynamism by having a co-host.
The most successful webinars have three hosts. You can have more than three people, but you should be careful since having many people might make your audience lose focus. With lost focus, your webinar will not achieve its goals.
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5. Write a Script
After the steps discussed above, you need to start creating your content with different departments. This should not be a difficult task, especially because you already have a topic. You can even make it easier by asking your audience any questions that they would like you to answer.
Working together with your co-hosts, create the content and ensure that each one of you tackles what they are good at. Make sure you all complete a particular section and answer all questions that your audience might have. In addition, you need to make sure that the content you create is engaging.
6. Promote the Webinar
This is one of the most important things you need to do when preparing to run your first marketing webinar. There are different ways for you to promote your webinar. Consider social media platforms if you have a presence there. You can also use social media paid promotions.
In addition, ensure that you have sent emails to your email marketing lists. When sending these emails, ensure that you have embedded a signup or registration form. This is vital in increasing registrations. Before Growth Hackers stepped in, a B2B SaaS client relied only on organic posts and saw minimal sign-ups. After we implemented a multi-channel promotion strategy, registrations tripled and engagement skyrocketed.
7. Prepare your Equipment
This is the last step when preparing for your first webinar. You need to prepare your equipment to make sure that the video camera and microphone you are using are of high quality.
If you use poor equipment, your audience is likely going to leave your webinar mid-way. Invest in the right equipment for your webinar to be successful.
8. Do a Test Run
You have spent a lot of time preparing your first webinar and think that you are now ready to get going. Well, do not be tempted to rest at this point and wait for the d-day. Technology fails all the time. You, therefore, need to do a test run.
This is important in helping you to identify any loopholes or pain points that might affect the success of your marketing webinar. You can get all your colleagues together, or even friends, for a test run of your webinar. Let them ask you any questions that your audience might ask.
While doing this test run, check the effectiveness of your equipment. Make sure that everything does exactly what it is supposed to do. This should also be a chance for you to test the platform you chose and get used to it. You can correct anything that does not meet your performance expectations.
9. Understand That Things Can Go Wrong
This is one of the most important things when hosting a marketing webinar. It does not matter whether it is your first webinar or not. You might even be an expert at hosting webinars or maybe the best person when it comes to webinar preparations.
No matter the situation, you need to understand that things can go wrong. While you might experience some problems when preparing for your webinar, you need to be prepared for what might happen when hosting it.
For instance, imagine a situation where you cannot find your presentation slides. What can you do? Instead of embarrassing yourself, you need to have practiced enough to ensure that you can host your webinar even without the slides.
10. Start your Webinar
It is now time to host your webinar. Since you set up a time when preparing for the webinar, you need to ensure that you start it at the right time. However, it is always good practice to start it a little bit earlier. This gives your audience enough time to interact with your webinar platform.
In addition, you need to ensure that you are recording the webinar. It can be a very important resource in the future. This is the most important time for your first marketing webinar, so make sure that everything goes on as planned.
11. Follow Up
Now that you have delivered your first marketing webinar, is there anything else you need to do? Well, you need to follow up. Since you have recorded the webinar as discussed above, you can upload it on social media platforms.
You can even send it to your audience through email marketing campaigns, especially those people who were not able to attend even though they had registered. You can then send a follow-up email to everyone who attended and share any additional information that might have been lacking from your webinar.
When sending these follow-up emails, remind your audience about the products and services that you offered when making your presentation.
After one of our Fintech clients hosted their first webinar, Growth Hackers helped them send personalized follow-ups with the recording and extra resources. Within a couple of weeks, we helped them turn 26% of no-shows into active prospects.
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12. Review your Webinar
This is the last thing you need to do when running your first webinar. Since yours is a marketing webinar, you need to review all marketing figures and facts. This is essential in helping you to understand the things that worked and those that did not.
You can get insights on what you should drop or improve when hosting your next webinar. Depending on the webinar KPIs that you are tracking, you will be able to determine whether your marketing webinar was a success or not.
You can also send surveys to your audience asking them for feedback. All feedback, whether positive or negative, is important. Using this feedback together with your KPIs, you will be able to improve your future webinars.
13. What to Expect from your Lead Report
Now that you have planned and hosted your webinar, what should you expect from your lead report? Following the guidelines discussed above and implementing the right tips to crush your next IT webinar, you should be able to generate leads for your business.
From your leads report, you should see what you have been able to achieve from your webinar. You should use these leads to grow your business and generate more revenue. At Growth Hackers, we’ve helped B2C and B2B clients analyze their webinar lead reports, and on average, 18% of the captured leads converted into qualified opportunities within the first 6 weeks.
Get Started Today and Run your First Marketing Webinar!
Webinars are very important for businesses that want to generate leads. However, to grow your online brand and presence, you have to make sure that you are following the right procedures for your webinar to be successful. Please, follow our tips above and start a webinar soon.
Do not forget: you will learn by doing. Don’t be shy and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. The most important is to take the first step.
Growth Hackers is an experienced video marketing agency helping businesses from all over the world grow. There is no fluff with Growth Hackers. We help entrepreneurs and business owners run their first marketing webinar effectively, generate qualified leads, optimize their conversion rate, gather and analyze data analytics, acquire and retain users and increase sales.
We go further than brand awareness and exposure. We make sure that the strategies we implement move the needle so your business grow, strive and succeed. If you too want your business to reach new heights, contact Growth Hackers today so we can discuss about your brand and create a custom growth plan for you. You’re just one click away to skyrocket your business.
