Forgetting to follow up after a webinar? Here’s how to fix it
Last week I went to an awesome event with one of my friends and met someone very special. He was the host, ever charismatic and engaging. He talked, I listened. I talked (in the Q&A portion), he listened. There was a genuine conversation. I demonstrated interest by asking questions and even did a little Google search before going. Heck, I even sent a few live tweets with the event hashtag because it was *that* cool. So imagine my surprise when after the event, I heard… nothing. Well, it’s only been a week so I’m still waiting. He’ll follow up, right? I mean, he has my email address and phone number. He knows how to contact me…
Imagine the above situation within the context of a webinar. Your attendees are demonstrating their interest in your company and products, but are you following up with them afterward? In relationship marketing, first dates are good but recurring dates are more important — because your end goal is to convert prospects into customers, developing a long-term relationship with them. Likewise, driving one-off registrations to an event is great, but you want to keep them coming back for more (content, webinars, white papers, demos, and eventually a sales call).
Forgetting to follow up after a webinar is guaranteed to extinguish any chemistry there may have been between you and your leads! Below I’ve outlined three ways to follow up with your attendees after that critical first date/webinar to make sure that you’re not leaving a hot lead, cold.
Tell Them You Liked Spending Time with Them
While you have an engaged, captive audience in a webinar, you should tell them about your next one. Take the opportunity to let them know where and how to engage with you next as part of your webinar follow up — is it on social media, through a white paper download, at a physical event, or other webinars? Make sure they feel invited and special by personalizing it!
Say Thank You
Did you have a great time hosting that awesome webinar? Follow up with your attendees by sending a thank you email with a link to the on-demand replay. They may have missed out on some key moments or want to share it with their colleagues. Another option is to send them a link to something related to what you talked about during the webinar. For example, as a follow-up to How to Build the Perfect Webinar Presentation, we created and sent a related infographic on the same topic entitled How to Build a Killer Webinar. Just like you’d send someone a link to that funny YouTube video you talked about during your date, you should keep your prospect engaged and entertained with relevant content.
Pick Up the Phone
Webinars provide a wealth of analytics for modern marketers, enabling us to know what attendees engaged with the most, how many polls they answered, whether or not they asked any questions in the Q&A portion, etc. The engagement score that they get can be integrated into your marketing automation and CRM systems, enabling your sales team to know when the prospect is ready for a sales call, which makes conducting a solid webinar follow up much easier. Poll responses and questions posed in the Q&A will help your sales team know exactly what to talk about during the call.
Following up on leads after a webinar is essential to your sales and marketing team success. Don’t let your webinar attendees feel the same way as the above (slightly pathetic) situation that I illustrated. Ask them out, make them feel remembered and special and they’ll want to see you again and again!