The President and CEO of Outcome Media, Founder of Subjectline.com, Founder of GURU Media Hub, I mean what DOESN’T today’s guest do?!?!
Actually I can answer that, he doesn’t beat me in tennis LOL (he’s going to be mad I said that).
Meet Jay Schwedelson, the person we ALL need to listen to when it comes to driving registrations for virtual events.
In my new pod series with Jay, Bathroom Break, we did a rapid fire of his best tips to level up your webinars ASAP.
Here’s what he had to say in his own liiiiiightly edited words.
1. Webinar Duration:
“One of the coolest trends that we’re seeing have an impact on performance of registration for webinars is the idea of being upfront about how long your webinar is.
When you say the word “webinar”, that generally equals boring. Nobody really wants to register for a webinar anymore.
So if you promote your webinar and say this is a 30 minute webinar, you put it in the subject line, the headline, the landing page, people will be like I know this is going to be epically boring, but it’s only 30 minutes. I can give it 30 minutes on my calendar.
A lot of people don’t want to give an hour.
In the data it shows that registration rates are surging when you’re actually being super upfront and promoting your webinar as 30 minutes or even less.
2. Distribution:
To build buzz about your event, lean on your speakers as the distribution network.
When companies are having a webinar, they’ll look towards different Marketing channels to promote their webinar, like email and paid social.
But they’re overlooking one of the best sources which is finding speakers that already have a built -in distribution that you can tap into to get eyes on your event.
It’s not just enough to ask them to post about the event though, you need to be giving them the assets to promote so that there is no heavy lifting on their end, it’s frictionless.
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And on top of that, Marketers can be too nice. If your company’s going to have a webinar, and you invite a certain guest, don’t just give them assets to post and say “Please share this on social if you get a chance.” You have to be like, listen if you’re going to be a part of this webinar, it’s good for you, it’s good for us, you need to post about this, we need you to put it in your newsletter and on social.
It’s a little bit more of an aggressive posture and I understand that may be a little off putting, but you’re providing a value to the person who’s speaking at your webinar.
You should get some of that value back, which is tapping into their network.
3. Naming your webinar:
I see way too many webinar titles being very ChatGPT and boring. If that’s your webinar, nobody is going to want to come to it.
Treat your Webinar title like a subject line, you have to make it appealing. Your title has to make someone crave the information that you’re going to give.
Give them a tease to what they might be getting in this webinar, but obviously don’t give away all of your goods upfront.
On top of that, I saw some really interesting data that came out that showed if you actually started the title of your webinar with a number, it increased registration rates by over 20%.
Instead of naming your conference “Webinar for Marketing Execs”, name it “7 Pitfalls to Avoid as a Marketer.”
That number at the start of your webinar title tells the person, here’s exactly what you’re going to get, it’s authoritative, they know it’s going to be worth their time and they’re going to learn something specific.
A lot of times people will complain that their webinars are doing terrible, they can’t drive registrations, but a lot of times it’s because you’re not focused on the littlest tactics that can change the outcome.
And one last thing, use the title of your webinar to clearly segment who it’s for.
4. Driving registrations:
Another unique tactic to drive registrations is to have something secret or something you will give away during the webinar.
Tease this in your top of funnel that if they attend, they will get X, Y, and Z.
That’s so underrated because there’s infinite webinars out there, people are taking time out of their day to do something, they want a reason to attend your webinar.
Sure you can lean on having notable speakers but not everyone has that luxury, so something as simple as emailing an exclusive offer to the first 50 people who register is a great way to get butts in (virtual) seats.
It’s basically the B2B version of the gift with purchase that works so well in retail. When you go to the mall and buy cologne, they’ll say if you buy it now they will throw in the hand cream too. It’s a limited offer and no-brainer.
Same thing goes with webinars, promote your exclusive gift they’ll receive. It can be the first 100 people to register get a tip sheet, anything that will incentivize them to participate in the webinar;
It’s all about driving that interest.
5. Using Socials:
When you’re promoting the webinar on social, don’t just use a simple graphic that says “Come to our webinar.”
Consumers will see that and think to themselves that if your Marketing is anything like the webinar they’re in for a long, boring session.
You need to be using something fun and interesting to promote like a meme or a video.
This is all about getting attention in the feed and then adding ctas to those posts that drive to the webinar.
And don’t forget the low-hanging fruit, take the time to DM a registration link to anyone who comments or likes on your posts about the webinar.
Every single person that likes or comments on the post announcing the webinar is raising their hand, they are showing intent that they are pretty interested, but they may not go that final step and register.
That’s where we have to take the time to get them over the finish line.”
