19 Winning Ways to Market Your Next Webinar

One of the most challenging aspects of webinar marketing is getting people to attend your webinar (not to mention getting people to buy once they're there!).

But there's a reason webinars are one of the most effective content marketing strategies out there - because they work.

The key to successful webinar marketing is creating, promoting, and hosting a webinar that will appeal to your target market and move them closer to the sale.

Here are 19 proven webinar marketing tips that will help you create, promote, and host the most effective webinar possible:

1. Provide Valuable Content

The purpose of your webinar is not just to sell products/services. Instead, it's to give your customers and prospective customers valuable information that will help them in a meaningful way.

When crafting webinar content, think less about conversion and more about the conversation between you and your customers. This simple shift will automatically help you convert more prospects to customers.

2. Narrow Your Target market

Will your webinar be targeting all of your customers, or only a specific portion?

Don't be afraid to create content specifically geared toward one customer segment. Take stock of where that segments falls within your sales funnel when deciding your webinar's topic and Call to Action (CTA).

3. Repurpose Your Webinar Topic

Creating a new webinar presentation doesn't mean reinventing the wheel. Take a look at your Google Analytics and email stats to determine what your target market is most interested in. If a certain blog post or email blast got a lot of attention, create your webinar around that same topic.

4. Test Your Title

Your webinar's title can make or break its success. Split test titles before choosing how you'll market the webinar. For example, "7 Easy Ways to Grow Your Email List" might fare better than "How To Grow Your Email List." After testing you'll be able to choose the title that resonates most with your customer.

5. Repurpose Live Events into Webinars

Not everyone can attend a live event, but nearly everyone can watch a webinar on their own time. If you've recently held a conference or meeting, feel free to organize the various presentations into a live or recorded webinar that everyone can access, no matter their location.

6. Test Webinar Frequency

If you hold webinars too often, attendance might be low because people figure "I can always go to the next one." Hold them too infrequently, however, and you'll run into scheduling conflicts when people can't make the specific date/time.

Solve this issue by sending two email blasts with two sets of webinar schedules, and see which frequency gets the biggest response.

7. Test Webinar Timing

If your customers are self-employed entrepreneurs, 10am on a Tuesday morning might be the ideal time for a webinar. If, however, they are stay-at-home moms with young kids, 10am could fall right during the baby's feeding time.

Think about your target market when scheduling your webinar time, and don't be afraid to offer two time choices on the same day.

8. Cross Promote Your Webinar

Promote your webinar through all available marketing channels, including email, social media, and partners/affiliates. You might want to offer a special affiliate program specifically for your webinar, giving affiliates a percentage of any webinar sales made through their affiliate link.

9. Make Every Slide Matter

Each slide of your webinar presentation should provide value. Ask yourself the following: "If I removed this slide, would my presentation still make sense?" If the answer is yes, consider deleting the slide. You can also ask yourself "If this was the ONLY slide my audience saw, would they benefit from the presentation?" If not... you know what to do.

10. Encourage Conversation

Turn on the comment/chat function on your webinar page. Take polls and surveys throughout the presentation. Acknowledge attendees from different parts of the world. Encourage live tweeting during the webinar using a hashtag you create. All of these techniques will engage your audience and help them connect to you and your brand.

11. Be Honest About The Sale

Is your webinar a sales webinar or a content-based webinar? Different segments of your target market need and want different things at different stages of your sales funnel. Don't try to trick customers by promising great content then spending 30 minutes selling. If you're making a sales presentation, be honest about it - you're much more likely to draw attendees who are ready to buy.

12. Invite Guest Experts

Invite guest experts and/or moderators to host your webinar. Additional personalities lend credibility to your presentation and provide attendees with more value.

13. Staff Your webinar

Assign a team member or partner to run administrative tasks before, during, and after the webinar. If you are making the presentation, the last thing you need to worry about is a technical issue or a log-in problem.

14. Share Slides After The Webinar

Making your slides available after the webinar is a way to keep the conversation going. Your audience will get a value add because they have 'something to take home,' and your sales message will continue delivering long after the webinar is over.Slideshare is a great app for sharing webinar slides.

15. Create An Email Follow-up Campaign

Create email autoresponders based on attendee behavior. Those who make a purchase will receive one email series, while those who ask specific questions will receive another email series. Just because the webinar is over doesn't mean the conversation has to end.

16. Give a Thank-you Gift

Create a whitepaper, PDF download, or free report that is only for webinar attendees. You might also give access to program discounts, coupons, or special resources reserved for VIPs.

17. Make the Webinar Available On YouTube

Making the webinar available as a YouTube video has two benefits: ongoing interaction with attendees, and the opportunity to connect with an entirely new audience. If using LeadPages and Google+ for your webinar, it's easy to stream directly to YouTube with the "Hangouts On Air" option.

18. Repurpose Webinar Content

Creating a valuable webinar presentation takes work. Luckily all of that work can be repurposed into different packaged content like blog posts, podcasts, email blasts, and infographics. Once your webinar is complete, repackage the presentation into other content forms that are popular with your audience.

19. Don't Give Up

It may take you a webinar or two before you understand how best to create, host, and market your presentation. If your first webinar is a flop, don't give up! Revisit this list and look for places to improve your webinar marketing. Once you find the formula that works for your audience, there will be nothing holding you back from webinar success!