5 simple tips to increase your webinar registrations

Webinars are a fantastic way to reach potential clients. Increase registration and attendance with five simple tips that can be applied to any webinar.

Webinars can be a fantastic way to reach potential clients. But many marketers make the mistake of advertising them like any other marketing collateral. Sending out a few emails won't be enough to attract attendees — and no matter how great your content, the success of any webinar hinges on attendance. After all, what good is a webinar if nobody tunes in?

In a 2016 Content Marketing Institute survey, 66% of marketers rated the webinar as an effective B2B marketing tactic, second only to in-person events. And as with in-person events, you likely spend a lot of time and effort planning your webinars to ensure their success.

So, how can you ensure that people will tune in? Use these five simple tips to boost webinar attendance.

1. Increase your promotion cycle

To boost registration, start by increasing the length of the promotional email cycle beyond 14 days. A 2017 report from ON24 found that 23% of registrations take place 15 or more days before a webinar. That's a compelling reason to extend the promotional cycle — including email, paid and organic social media campaigns, search engine marketing (SEM), and internal promotion — to one month before the event. The goal is to make your audience aware of your webinar early and often, so that they can plan to attend.

2. Send a day-of reminder

On the day of your webinar, send out an email to remind registered attendees of the event and to offer one last chance for those who have yet to RSVP. Although 31% of registrations occur between one and seven days before a webinar, a full 25% occur the day of. Emails sent in the last few hours before your scheduled start time have a higher conversion rate than other promotional emails, and those who register on the day of the webinar are more likely to attend.

3. Use interactive tools to increase engagement

Interactive tools such as surveys, quizzes, and Q&As keep your audience engaged and can provide valuable insights about their preferences. This data can be used to tailor the content of your next webinar, or to create a new piece of content. While 82% of webinar hosts are employing Q&As as an audience engagement tactic, only 24% are using polling: To maximize engagement, try incorporating surveys, Q&As, a resources list, and polls into your webinars.

4. Having an on-demand strategy is key

We all know what it's like to be barraged with last-minute work assignments, so it's no surprise that many registrants won't end up attending your webinar. And people who enrolled weeks earlier may have forgotten about it (this is where a day-of reminder email comes in). A whopping 33% — a full third — of registrants will only view a webinar on-demand. To maximize the return on all that time and effort spent planning your webinar, you'll want to develop a strategy for promoting your on-demand webinar via email and SEM to those who couldn't attend.

5. Promote your webinar on social media

Social media is a great channel for promoting your webinar, especially if you already use social media to engage with your customers. Sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are widely used among Fortune 500 companies: about 86% have active Twitter accounts, and 84% have active Facebook pages. Build awareness early by advertising your webinar on the social channels where your audiences are most active. Because you'll be employing a longer promotion cycle (see tip number one), you'll have time to create multiple organic posts and adjust your paid posts based on performance.

Getting the most out of your paid social campaign is important, because 59% of marketers find that paid social is more effective than organic. Include your social media handles on your Contact Us slide, and in the social media widget on your webinar. The goal is to give your audience every opportunity to connect with you on social media.

Bottom line: Webinars offer a great opportunity to engage your target audience and showcase your product or service. The tips outlined above will help you get the most out of your webinars by boosting registration and increasing the number of people who view your webinar live or on-demand.