Webinars are an essential part of B2B marketing strategies. Even before the world shifted away from in-person events, webinars were a prominent component of the sales and marketing digital stack. Now in the COVID-era, webinars have become a cornerstone to lead generation.

But a webinar is only effective if people show up. Did you know that on average, only 35%-45% of registrants attend a webinar after registering? So how exactly do you get butts in (virtual) seats? It boils down to your webinar promotion.

Read on to learn the steps you need to follow in order to promote your webinar, from beginning to end.

Still in the design phase of your webinar? There’s a lot to consider before launching, promoting, and hosting a webinar. Check out our 10 Steps to Hosting a Successful Webinar to get answers to these questions and more.

7 ways to promote your webinar

Treat your webinars like you would an exciting product or service launch. Build a fully integrated marketing strategy to drum up enthusiasm, drive enrollment, and convert registrants to engaged attendees.

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1. Write a blog post promoting the webinar and relevant content

Start this step 6-8 weeks in advance of your webinar date

When promoting a new product or service, strengthening your website SEO around the subject is an important first step. Social media posts come and go, but an SEO strategy can draw people to your website for years to come. To build authority around your upcoming webinar topic, craft an engaging blog post that is relevant to your webinar subject.

Within the blog post, include a registration call-to-action and button for your webinar. After your webinar has aired, keep your blog content evergreen by updating the call to action to direct the reader to watch the webinar recording.  

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2. Submit the webinar to third-party event pages

Start this step 4-6 weeks in advance of your webinar date

Make it easy for your target audience to find your webinar. Get in front of the right people weeks in advance of the event by leveraging the power of third-party event pages. Eventbrite, Meetups, Facebook Events, and LinkedIn Events will share your webinar for you and make it easy to find online.

By adding your webinar to your company’s Facebook and LinkedIn Events, you can directly interact with interested participants by sending reminders to registrants, fielding questions,  and sparking conversations to carry into your webinar.

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3. Build an email marketing campaign to promote the webinar

Start this step 4 weeks in advance of your webinar date and continue post-webinar

Email marketing is still the most effective way to convert a lead. Create an email series for your event that includes:

• 1 email with the blog post + a call to action to sign-up for the webinar
• 1  email that introduces the speakers and teases the webinar content
• 1 email reminder 24 hours before the webinar
• 1 email reminder 60 minutes before the webinar
• 1 email right after the event that includes the webinar recording

Once the promotional series is completed, consider adding registered individuals to a nurture campaign to keep them engaged with your content.  

Be sure to incentivize attendance and include that incentive in your promotional strategy. For example, Aimtal’s clients offered giveaways to motivate participants to show up live.

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4. Schedule promotional content on social media

Start this step 4 weeks in advance of your webinar date and continue post-webinar

Develop a series of social media posts related to your blog post and webinar. Be sure to customize the content and graphics for each social media platform.

Will guest speakers be joining your webinar? Promote their appearance in your graphics and tag them or their companies’ social media account in your text. Use hashtags to get your posts in front of non-followers as well. Use a tool to research relevant hashtags or type them in to check their popularity.

By leveraging these simple social media tools, you’ll amplify the reach and engagement of your post and get your webinar in front of new audiences.

Post-event Tip: Don’t forget to expire your social media posts promoting the live event and add posts that promote the recorded webinar.

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5. Launch paid ads

Start this step 2 weeks in advance of your webinar date

YouTube, Google Display, and social media ads are an effective way to target a new audience. The largest benefit of paid ads is the ability to tailor who sees them. Build your ad audience based on key demographics like location, age, industry, gender identity, subject matter, etc.

We recommend Google Display and LinkedIn boosted posts to promote a webinar.

Google Display Benefits:

• Location targeting
• Affinity targeting
• Conversion tracking

LinkedIn Ad Benefits:

• Professional Audience
• Can upload your own lists for account-based advertising.
• Create mirror audiences to reach a larger audience similar to your own list.

Set your budget low and target your ads specifically to increase your registration rates with prospective leads and customers.

6. Cross-promote the webinar with partners and speakers

Start this step 2 weeks in advance of your webinar date

Don’t overlook the power of your network. Cross-promote your event with a business or thought leader who shares a similar audience or is in a relevant industry. This is an excellent little-to-no-cost tactic that will amplify your webinar and provide some social proof for your company and content.

Let’s say you’re offering a webinar to teach managers how to facilitate collaboration sessions that produce meaningful business insights. Work with a partner company that sells an employee engagement and survey tool. You have the same audience – managers in mid-sized or large enterprises – but you aren’t competitors.

Make it easy for your partner to cross-promote your webinar. Offer to promote their product to your audience in exchange for their company promoting your e-course with their audience. Create assets like graphics and suggested copy for social media and email templates to easily tackle any cross-promotion hesitation.

7. Promote your recorded webinar

Start this step 2 weeks in advance of your webinar date and continue post-webinar

After your live webinar has gone off without a hitch, you’ll need to shift your promotional strategy from driving webinar registrations to sharing the recorded webinar.

Here’s how to set yourself up for a smooth transition into post-webinar promotion:

• Set an expiration date on your scheduled social media posts to ensure your live event promotions don’t go out post-event.
• Build a social media queue for post-event promotion of your recorded webinar that you can quickly turn on after the webinar.
• Build an email nurture campaign that you can turn on post-event.
• Adjust your landing page copy to reflect the webinar is now “On Demand.” Keep the same URL, so the links you used to promote pre-event are still valid.
• Change the language on your blog post call to action (CTA) from “Register” to “Access Now.”

Bonus: Brand your webinar

At first glance, it should be clear that your webinar is associated with your company. Use your company branding as a guide for your webinar assets to ensure consistency.

• Graphics: When promoting your webinar, brand your graphics for social media posts, email headers, and profile headers.
• Webinar: Most webinar platforms allow you to customize and brand your webinar. Align your webinar layout, slide deck, and other documents you might share with your brand guidelines for consistency and recognition.
• Landing Page: Create a branded landing page for your webinar where leads can sign up to join live or receive the recording.

Looking for an in-depth guide for launching your webinar?

Download our free guide for everything you need to know!

Aimtal is a full-service marketing agency that builds marketing that engages and converts your audience. Our empathetic approach to content development means we create marketing that your audience cares about, leading to a higher conversion rate. Click here to schedule a discovery call and learn how we can help you build a lead-generating webinar series.

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