Good promotional strategy is extremely important for marketing webinars. Choosing the right marketing channels is what separates successful webinars from the rest.
In order to promote a webinar well, you shouldn’t focus solely on one marketing channel. In fact, omni-channel marketing is what increases the chances of a successful campaign. Not all potential customers use the same channels of communication, so focusing on just one approach means you risk losing a significant chunk of the market.
This does not mean, of course, that you have to use every marketing channel available; instead, focus on a couple of them that can yield good results.
Here are five marketing channels that will bring your upcoming webinar closer to your target audience:
- Email (drip campaign)
- Newsletter (subscriber list)
- Social media (organic & paid)
- Blog (organic promotion)
- Podcasts (link to webinar)
1. Email
Email is still one of the most effective ways to be in direct contact with your audience. Over the years, many other marketing channels started being used, but email remains very popular.
Why is this so? People who subscribe to an email list usually do so because they are really interested in the product/service a business is offering. This increases the email open rate, which means that potential customers are more likely to engage. Another way to enhance the deliverability rate of the email is to check SPF record and make sure the email security is on point.
If you have an email list, you should definitely promote your upcoming webinar through this channel. However, when you decide to run a promo campaign, don’t send too many emails to your subscribers, because that might put them off. If dozens of emails go their way, your potential attendees might feel like you’re spamming them (and no one likes that).
An informative, well planned email (drip) campaign should have 5 to 10 emails:
- an introductory email
- a couple of follow-ups
- additionally, some reminders
- a “last call” email
- and a missed webinar email
In the missed webinar email, you should mention all the key takeaways from the webinar (also, you might include a link to the webinar replay, if you plan to replay your online event). Also, every email should contain the link to the webinar sign-up page.
2. Newsletter
Although similar to email, newsletter is not exactly the same format, and it has benefits of its own. Customers can perceive campaign emails as “spammy”; on the other hand, a newsletter is something you send out regularly to your subscribers. Because of this, many of them will prefer to hear about your upcoming online event via newsletter.
Another reason why newsletter is effective lies in the fact that, unlike promo emails, a newsletter usually contains several pieces of information, not just one. A promo email is there to deliver information about one upcoming event (that’s mostly the case). However, a newsletter can talk about a few things, one of which being an online event, such as a webinar. This way, your message feels less “salesy”, while the event itself is being promoted.
As for the emails, the newsletter with the webinar promo should include the link to the webinar sign-up page. And if several things are mentioned (in a numbered list or bullet points), the webinar information should go last, or under a “P.S.”, because that will help it stand out more. People tend to remember what they read last, in bold, or under a post scriptum. Be sure to highlight the information about the webinar so that potential attendees notice it easily.
3. Social Media
When talking about digital marketing, social media channels cannot be avoided. The vast majority of people in the online world are active on at least one social media platform, while a great chunk of them use two, or more. This practically means that social media is unavoidable when it comes to marketing a webinar.
Social media allows you to expand outside of your subscriber list, and even your circle of online followers. In other words, you are not limited only to those people who know about your company; instead, you can reach a new audience and generate new leads.
With targeted ads, you can narrow down the visibility of your posts only to those groups of people who would be interested in attending the webinar.
You can also A/B test the ads, see which ones work better and run your budget on them, for maximum effect.
Another reason why social media is effective for webinar marketing is the uniqueness of each social media platform. This gives you the opportunity to tailor the promotional message according to each platform. For example, you can use a “carousel” for Instagram, a video for Facebook, a chunk of text for LinkedIn and a short, snappy message for Twitter. Use what works best for each platform and their respective audiences.
4. Blog
Having a blog section on the website might be considered outdated by some people, but blog posts are still a powerful communication channel. A blog allows you to nurture your audience, and expect long-term results in return. When you have a dedicated following of blog readers, it will be easy to promote your webinar in a couple of posts.
A blog post doesn’t have to contain the link to the webinar sign-up page. It can be used only to announce the upcoming webinar, or to inform the readers what the webinar will be about.
Discussing the webinar topic more is a great way to nurture the audience and generate demand for the webinar. When a potential attendee comes across the webinar link, they will be more likely to sign up, because they already know what to expect.
5. Podcast
Podcasts have become all the rage in recent years, and more and more companies are using them to leverage their marketing. How can podcasts help promote a webinar? There are several ways to do this.
First, in a podcast episode, a certain section of the show can be dedicated to talking about an upcoming webinar (like a commercial break in a radio show).
Also, a podcast guest can talk about the topic(s) that will be discussed further in the webinar. And finally, an entire podcast episode can serve as the webinar promo. You can talk in-depth about the upcoming webinar, allowing potential attendees to learn more and know exactly what they sign up for.
