Not everyone is aware of it, but hosting webinars brings many advantages to the table. It is fun, and effective, and contributes to your brand value and sales results. But how do you get enough and the right audience? Because webinars have been held for as long as the internet has been known to a broad audience, there is a lot of knowledge about this. We know how, when, and where you can best reach your audience to promote your webinar.
These are the 7 best tips to invite people to your webinar.
1. Invite all your contacts and ask them to share your invitation.
If you have a specific subject, you know within your own contacts who might be interested. But don't forget that people who are not interested know people who might be interested. Therefore, communicate with everyone, as well as with the people around you who might not be interested. Always ask them if they want to share the invitation. This way, you also reach people you don't know.
2. Use all your communication channels and those of your friends
A post on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest is easy. But you have many more channels available to invite people to your webinar. Here are the most commonly used channels in order of effectiveness:
1-on-1 communication
The most effective way to invite people to your webinar is if you do it in person and 1-on-1. No medium can convey the story you have to tell with more passion and conviction. Your enthusiasm and by asking if they know people who might also want to be there will ensure the most loyal fans.
1-on-1 communication can be done in the following ways:
1. Spontaneously tell everyone you meet about your webinar
2. Call your direct friends one by one and promote your webinar
3. Go to events and congresses and tell everyone what you're going to do
4. Step into companies and speak to people spontaneously
5. Stand at the entrance of busy places and ask if people have a few minutes
Take advantage of all your social media channels and contacts
Don't leave a single social media channel unused. Use all your accounts, and if you don't have an account yet, create one. Also, ask your best friends in a personal message to share your post on their timelines. A 'like' is nice, but if they share your post, you'll reach even more people.
The 12 most used social media channels are:
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Pinterest
4. LinkedIn
5. YouTube
6. Vimeo
7. Tumblr
8. Instagram
9. Flickr
FourSquare
Vine
SnapChat
Send personal messages
Send personal messages to all your contacts that you think may be of interest. Make sure you tell them something about why you think this webinar might be of value for them to be there. You can also tell them why you think it might be of value to them to invite their contacts.
Tips for inviting via a personal message
1. Always use the name of the person to whom you are sending the message.
2. Add something personal to the message.
3. Tell something about why you are sending this person a message.
4. Explain why you think it's important that this person is present.
Email all your contacts the invitation from your webinar.
E-mail remains an effective communication medium. That's because most people open their emails when it comes from someone they know. Another reason is that an email can contain a lot of information and is easy to keep for later reading.
Tips for e-mail invitations
1. Send the e-mail under your own name.
2. Always start with a personal message from you to the recipient.
3. Don't forget to send a reminder email. E-mails are often opened but then forgotten again.
4. Make sure you answer any questions the recipient may have.
3. Make sure the potential visitor knows exactly what to expect.
Whether you give a free webinar or a paid one, it costs time and/or money for the visitor. To invest that time and/or money, the potential visitor wants to be well-informed. Remember that the success of webinars and online events is all about great content.
The basic questions you always want to answer before hosting a webinar are:
1. What is this webinar about, and what can I learn from it?
2. How long does the webinar take, when is it, and what does it cost?
3. Who hosts the webinar, and which credentials does the host have?
4. What kind of people will be present?
5. In what way will the webinar be interactive?
These are the best methods to promote a webinar
The nice thing about text is that as a reader, you can quietly go through everything at your leisure. But a lot of people don't like to read. A picture says more than a thousand words but gives more of a feeling than an explanation. That's why a short trailer of your webinar is the best method to promote your popular and inspirational webinar topic. Supplemented with text and a suitable picture, you can make your audience sufficiently enthusiastic.
The film industry has been using trailers for decades to promote a new film. In combination with a brief text and a movie poster, this turns out to be the most effective way. And don't forget that you can make money by hosting a webinar, so it's not a cost, but an investment.
4. Advertise your webinar for free and paid
There are many ways to advertise your webinar for free or paid. If you are sure you are going to get an audience and you are going to give a paid webinar, paid advertising is a good option.
Advertise your webinar for free
To advertise your webinar for free, you can use both online and offline channels. In other words, the Internet or physical locations.
Advertise your webinar for free on the Internet
There are several platforms where you can announce your webinar free of charge. For example Tellonline.org. When you create a webinar on TheONE webinar, it will be automatically, free of charge, and actively promoted to all TheONE community members through emails. It can generate thousands of potential visitors.
Advertise your webinar offline for free
Ask if you can display a poster in different places. This can be at your sports club, but also at the bakery or your office. Usually, people will be happy to help you, and printing a few posters doesn't cost much these days.
Paid advertising for your webinar
Depending on how much budget you have, paid advertising allows you to communicate in a very targeted way with your potential target group. For example, thanks to affiliate marketing, you can agree that you only pay if someone has registered. This way, advertising never costs more than you earn from it.
Paid advertising channels to promote your webinar on the Internet
Google AdWords
Social media channels such as Facebook
Hiring influencers
Banner
Affiliate marketing
Paid advertising for your webinar in physical locations
Place posters on the street, on billboards, or in other public places
Use taxi advertising or trains and buses
5. Write blog posts about your webinar
A very effective way to promote your webinar is to write blog posts. There are several free blogs you can write a post for, but not all of them are equally effective. The more visitors a site has, the bigger the audience you can reach with your blog posts.
The advantage of blog posts for your webinar
Writing blog posts for your future webinar has the following advantages:
1. It increases your authority as a webinar host.
People will be able to read that you are an authority on the subject you will be presenting. However, make sure your article is in-depth and refer to your webinar and other articles you have written.
2. It increases the SEO value of your profile or webinar page
By linking your article to your own (profile) page, webinar page, or blog, you increase your SEO value within Google. It will increase the ranking of the pages you link to, which will result in more visitors.
3. It increases the number of visitors to your webinar page.
There will always be people who read your blog and then visit your webinar page. The more visitors, the higher the chance that someone signs up.
6. Send out a press release about your webinar
Sending out a press release is very effective if the subject of your webinar lends itself to it. The media won't write about anything commercial, and the next free webinar on online marketing isn't news either. Your webinar has to have news value to be picked up by the media.
Tips to get the media to write about your webinar
Make sure that a celebrity is present at your webinar.
Hold a webinar on a controversial and relevant topic.
Hold the webinar at an exceptional location, such as on an ice floe in the North Pole.
Ask a journalist friend to write something as a favor.
7. Frequently host webinars
When you give a webinar for the first time, you shouldn't immediately expect the whole world to be waiting for your story. Once you have hosted a webinar, people will start talking about it. Next time you will see that more people are interested.
It is also possible that some people didn't have the time or were hindered when you gave your webinar. It is, therefore, not a problem at all to give the same webinar more than once — this way, you give everyone the chance to be present.
Besides, participants can give your webinar a rating. Once you have several high ratings for your previous webinars, this gives confidence to new participants. Therefore frequently host webinars.
