Did you know that between 20% to 40% of webinar attendees turn into prospects? And the cost to host a webinar could be as low as free? [i]
In our new virtual marketplace, webinars have replaced seminars for financial advisor prospecting and this is great news! Not only are webinars cheaper, but they yield a higher Return on Investment (ROI) and viewership isn’t limited by physical location.
When leveraged properly, webinars can help propel your business into a whole new world of lead generation, client relationship nurturing, and ultimately more client relationships. All you need is a strong internet connection, a great topic, and the following marketing tips to take advantage of this great prospecting tool!
1. DO NOT Host a Webinar Without Requiring Registration
DO NOT host a webinar without a registration requirement. If you don’t enable this feature, you have no way to collect lead information or connect with them at a later date. Without it, you are essentially just crossing your fingers and hoping your audience (1) actually attends, (2) likes it, and (3) reaches out. Just FYI, most people are too busy and distracted to do all this on their own. They need reminders, instructions, and guidance.
The better approach is to collect all registrant’s information and use it to nurture registrants (attendees and non-attendees alike) through email communication thereafter. Keep in mind, the registration form is a “top of the funnel” activity. Top of the funnel activities are meant to generate leads that then feed into a brand’s lead nurture program, with the ultimate goal of converting these leads into customers. Your follow-up will determine how far the lead makes it through the sales funnel to potentially become a client.
Note: Don’t go crazy with the questions on your registration form, but make sure you at least get a first and last name and email address. The more questions, the more hesitant a potential registrant will be. The key is to remain non-threatening and unobtrusive.
2. Always Use Tracking links
In addition to capturing who is registering for your webinar, you should also track where they are coming from. This is done using source tracking links. Basically, your webinar host will create unique URLs (to the same webinar registration page) for you to use on different platforms. You will use one link for emails, one for Facebook, one for LinkedIn, and yet another for Twitter, for example. This way, you can “track” from where you get the most clicks to the pages as well as the most registrants. All of these insights will help you understand how best to market to your target audience.
9/10 my advisors have the best luck with email—even over paid ads! This is all the more reason we want leads to register for our events—so they can be added to our email list or any nurturing campaigns we have set up for their segment.
3. Start with Email Invitations
Craft emails to existing clients and prospects already in your system to invite them to attend your webinar. You should even consider crafting personal invitation emails to your warmest leads in addition to the general email invitations.
Also, don’t forget to include professional contacts who will help spread the word, such as CPAs, fellow members of local civic groups like the chamber of commerce, and business journals or trade magazine reporters with whom you are in contact.
4. Create and Send Out Promotional Packets
You will want to share a promotional packet with any other panelists or guest hosts you’ll have on the show. This makes it easy for them to promote the webinar to their audiences. This package should include shareable images, links to the registration form and your website, your social media handles to tag, bios for the webinar presenters, and instructions on how to best promote the webinar.
The goal is to reach as many individuals as possible, so you may even consider sending these promo packages to COIs who would post or email on your behalf to help spread the word.
5. Share on Social Media
Your virtual rolodex is a great place to start with invitations, but social media can really boost your webinar exponentially. Create an event on Facebook, push out information on Twitter and LinkedIn, and consider running ads in the weeks and even days leading up to your webinar. Expanding your reach beyond your own contacts is the key to finding new prospects.
6. Schedule Reminders
Everyone gets busy and can easily forget about an upcoming event. Don’t let that be your webinar. Set up automated reminder emails for registrants that include links that make it easy for them to add the webinar to their calendar. Include teasers to the content you will cover to help increase your attendance rate. Recycling the same message over and over may actually cause registrants not to attend if they think you don’t have much to say.
7. Follow-up emails
Whether a registrant actually attends or doesn’t show up, you need to have follow-up emails and resources ready to send out after your webinar. Attendees may like a recording of the webinar to reference later as well as any resources offered during the presentation. Keeping leads engaged after the webinar is the key to converting them from prospects to clients. For the folks who miss the webinar, provide a short recap that will entice them to watch the recording as well as resources to encourage them to sign up for future events.
8. Celebrate success
Don’t be afraid to let everyone know how well your webinar went. Sharing the success will entice others to join you for upcoming webinars and keep others coming back for more. You could even write a blog recapping the topic you covered that allows you to repurpose all of the great information you spent so much time putting together for the webinar. Other great uses of your webinar content can include brochures, video clips, and infographics that can easily be shared on social media. Creating multiple ways for people to engage with your webinar content will reinforce the information as well as maximize your effort.
Need help creating a prospect webinar and marketing campaign?
We recognize that your day-to-day advisor tasks can put a bit of a strain on your ability to put all of this together. Not to mention that teaching yourself best practices also takes time and experience to get right.
That’s why our team of professional marketers can do it for you.
Whether you’ve been hosting webinars or are just toying around with the idea, Lexicon Content Development can help. Set up a time to chat with us here and start taking advantage of this great prospecting tool ASAP.
No idea what you’re doing? No problem. We’ll walk you through it.
Related:
[i] https://shanebarker.com/blog/webinar-hosting-websites/#4_GoToWebinar 20 May 2021