December 02, 2014 Jonathan Dew
For many marketers, online events are an important component of the marketing mix. Interactive webinar products, such as ON24, allow you to connect to customers and prospects all over the globe, without ever leaving your office.
Since you’re investing precious time and resources, you want to make the most of the event, and that means optimizing your webinar-related communications to help drive attendance and continue building the relationship post-event. Here are a few of our favorite tips for doing so:
Personalize your invite email subject line by recipient type.
Have they attended one of your webinars previously, and are they currently a client or prospect? In your emails, try different subject lines by segment. For example, if they previously attended a webinar and are a current client, use a subject line like “We’d Love to Have You Join Us for Another Webinar.” If they’re a prospect, try “Please Join Us for Another Webinar Session” and consider alerting your sales team to personally follow up.
For a client who hasn’t attended an event of yours before, you could use a welcoming “We’d Love to Show You How to *generalized but valuable takeaway* in Our Next Webinar.” If they haven’t attended and aren’t a client, try an engaging but non-pushy subject line like “We’d Love to Show You How Our Company Can Solve ‘xyz’ in Our Next Webinar.”
Be as descriptive as possible in your invitation.
Let them know exactly what they are going to get out of attending your webinar! Of course, you should include the main details, such as date, time, title and speakers, but also consider including details about the duration, what kind of Q&A will be taking place, what job function or level is appropriate for the content, and what materials they will be receiving after the session.
Use automation in the invite process to target based on behavior.
Creating an automated program around your webinar invitations and registration process allows you to send invitations, reminders and confirmations based on each invited guest’s behavior. Using different email tracks for registered and non-registered invitees, as well as date opted in, can yield a higher attendee rate and will allow you to see a detailed analysis of how your invitees respond to your messages. This becomes easy to do when you integrate your marketing automation system (such as Silverpop) with a webinar tool like ON24. As an added bonus, webinar activities can easily become scorable behaviors.
Work backward from your webinar date when scheduling invitations.
Try scheduling the initial send at least two to four weeks beforehand to all invitees in your selected contact list. Send a second three to five days before, and be sure to exclude those already registered!
Consider sending two reminders to registrants — one a few days before and one the day of the event. Be sure to change the subject line accordingly to catch your registrant’s attention.
Treat attendees and non-attendees with prompt attention post-webinar.
In most cases, you’ll want to send the deck and replay, as well as any other relevant resources you can share, to both audiences. Use the opportunity to invite them to your next webinar event or share resources you think they might be interested in. Consider personally contacting attendees who have demonstrated difficulties, such as trouble connecting or leaving unexpectedly.
Webinars are a powerful way to educate prospects and customers and build your relationship with them. By following the tips above, you’ll be well-positioned to drive more leads, position your company as a helpful resource and enhance the customer experience.
Guest blogger Jonathan Dew is Director of Creative Services, Silverpop, an IBM company.
Silverpop, an IBM Company, is a cloud-based digital marketing provider that offers email marketing and lead management solutions. Silverpop Engage uses customer data and individual behaviors, collected from a variety of sources, to inform and drive personalized interactions in real time. For more info, visit us at www.silverpop.com.