A client is just starting a webinar series and asked me for a few ideas to make sure they were on the right track.
While I had some ideas I wanted to get input from good friends Astute Graphics who have run numerous online and physical events in the pursuit of educating their customers.
Here’s Nick from Astute’s top tips
Invest in time to build up a loyal attendee base.
It’s not going to happen overnight; the first webinar may only have 10 or less attendees, but then in a year a regular group of 50 attendees or more should be within range. Depending on your goals for hosting webinars, this should be worthwhile as these attendees are likely to be your most loyal customers or advocates.
What’s in it for the attendees?
Even free webinars need to offer good content to ensure that potential attendees are attracted to the current and future events. Any sales message should be kept to an absolute minimum – people won’t make time to attend only to be advertised to. Remember that planning and preparing to present great material is not an overnight task and that each webinar could take up to a week to hone. To check that you’re aligned with your attendees’ expectations, simply ask them directly in the webinar using a polling mechanism of personal follow-up.
Build an active emailing list to inform previous registrants of future events.
Typically for free events, only 30-50% of registrants actually attend for a regular session – don’t dismiss those who couldn’t make it as life happens to everybody. Pulling those missing sheep into the flock in future events is key to building up a solid group.
Check out their recent webinars on AG’s eye-poppingly colourful website.
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Image credit: Astute Graphics