How to Successfully Generate Leads Using Webinars

It’s highly likely that you’ve registered for a couple of webinars in the past; it’s also a good bet that you didn’t take part in them either.

Even if you did partake, the question is: were you persuaded to purchase any of the products or services on offer? Probably not.

Unfortunately, most webinars simply don’t have high rates of conversion. In fact, you’re only looking at between a 5 and 15% conversion rate, and that’s assuming you have an engaged audience.

Unless you’re deliberately placing vital pieces into the jigsaw to increase conversion, all you’ll be doing is crossing your fingers and hoping you’ve found an audience that’s interested in your products or services.

In this blog, we’ve outlined exactly what these jigsaw pieces are, so you can find the right audience to aim your webinar in order to increase conversions.

How to attract valuable registrations

To generate more leads and increase the ROI of your webinar, you must first refine the messaging you’re putting out to your audience. To do this, undertake the following steps:

#1: Honing your audience

Suppose you’re looking to use your webinar to gather a host of engaged leads that’ll eventually make the decision to purchase your product or utilize your service. In that case, you must first understand who might be attracted to your offer.

To get a clear idea of who this might be, you’ll need to create some key audience personas. For argument’s sake, let’s say that your company helps business with their data using an intuitive CRM system; your first target persona may look like this:

As you can see above with Stacy, we’ve included her basic information, pain points, and the outcome that she needs and desires. These demographic guidelines will help you when you’re looking to refine your audience.

#2: Targeted landing pages

Image from Instapage

Once you’ve created a range of personas that cover different segments of your audience, you can begin to piece together your webinar registration landing page. Now, you’ll get the chance to show your audiences how your webinar will help to alleviate their pain points and frustrations.

The only end goal for this registration page is to inspire potentially interested attendees to sign up for your event.

This is why this step must remain as simple as possible. The only information you’ll need from your audience at this stage is their name, email address, and potentially some other very basic information.

Your copy and imagery should immediately inform your visitor what the event is about and why they should sign up from the moment they land on your website.

Crucial components of a high converting sign up page should include:

• A persuasive title and meta description – this helps ensure that those who do click through to the signup page, there’s a good chance they’re already interested in your offering
• Copy that should both highlight the main advantages of attending the webinar and include a value-driven CTA that’ll attract further signups
• A high-quality explainer video should highlight the main features of the event and build anticipation
• A sense of urgency and scarcity pushes users to act, with the knowledge that there’s only so much time left to sign up and a limited number of places

Most webinars are free to sign up for, so you must highlight this very explicitly. If your audience gets even a slight sense that the webinar might cost money, they’ll probably avoid it.

#3: On-demand content

With streaming services hugely popular, we all know that audiences now prefer to consume content when and where it’s suitable for them, with statistics showing that 30% of people will watch on-demand.

Smartphone access has undoubtedly contributed towards this, too, since a viewer can stream and watch videos on demand, wherever they are.

On-demand content also gives you the chance to continue to promote your webinar long after the live date.

#4: Tell your current audience

Telling your current audience about your webinar is the best way to get the ball rolling by letting people know what you’re up to.

They’re already aware of your brand and what you do, which means they’re far more likely to sign up, but this is an excellent base point as it gives you the chance to continue to build on the relationship that already exists.

To inform your audience about your event, you could:

• Formulate a conversion-led email campaign that focuses on the kind of content you’ll be creating for the webinar
• Start a blog letting your audience know what they can expect from the event
• Update your social media identity, post updates, and create an event on Facebook to let your current followers know about the event
• Create an affiliate scheme that encourages users to share the event among those interested
• Ask your team to reach out to contacts to share the event information personally
• Correctly utilize pop-ups, image sliders, and exit pop-ups to lead your website visitors to your sign up page

#5: Construct a webinar sales funnel

Image from myownconference.com

Despite everything we’ve covered so far, you won’t generate any revenue just by gathering more signups for your webinar. That revenue will only come when that prospect becomes a customer.

Once you’ve put in the hard work to generate interest, you need to ensure that your audience is primed and ready for the event.

There are a couple of things you can do to ensure that your audience is interested and excited:

Post-registration email alert

The post-registration email is a fantastic opportunity to push how important your event is.

To maximize the impact of your email, there a few things you could do:

• Reiterate the benefits of your webinar and how signing up can help ease the problems they’re facing; this also helps keep your audience excited about the event
• Include all the information necessary to join the event – e.g. dates, times, passwords, join links, and so on
• Encourage those that have already entered to let their friends, family, and colleagues know. There’s nothing more potent at generating leads than social endorsement. Include share buttons on the email and some prewritten text to make sharing as easy as possible
• Include an “add to calendar” feature, so registrants can add the event to their calendar to ensure they don’t forget on the day
• Include links to forums and communities that allow your audience to converse and interact with like-minded individuals and organizations
• Share links to your excellent content to help establish your expertise in your industry
• Most importantly, be grateful – let them know you’re pleased that they’ve chosen to join your event

Don’t forget to follow up after the event

Image from Neil Patel

Remember when we said that 30% of people prefer to watch content on-demand?

If you want to take advantage of these changes in behavior, sending out an on-demand link will help capture those that might have missed the live event and those who would prefer to watch it in their own time.

It’s also a good idea to send out a series of follow-ups to let participants know you’re producing new content. In this case, even those that attended the event who weren’t ready to purchase something may be convinced to purchase when they hear from you again.

Conclusion

When it comes to generating leads from your webinars, there are so many things to think about, including, most importantly, creating buzz and maximizing audience participation.

What we’ve covered in this blog is by no means a complete list, but merely a series of jumping-off points. Depending on the industry you’re in, they’ll always need to be some measure of customization depending on the audience.

As with any form of marketing, it’s essential to track and test everything you’re trying. By doing this, you’ll discover what works for the business, products and services, and your audience.

Once you’re able to boost the number of prospects and the quality of these leads, you’ll then be in a great place to enhance your webinar conversion rates and ultimately make more sales.