2. What’s in the ebook?
17 Steps to Revenue-Generating Webinars
Part I: Before the Event
1. Establish a Compelling and Focused Topic
2. Find and Woo Expert Guests
3. Craft Your Marketing Copy
4. Build the Perfect “Register for the Webinar”
Landing Page
5. Never Miss a Post-Conversion Opportunity
6. Create Your “Offering” Landing Page
7. Tailor Your Social Marketing
8. Secure Your Audience with the “Invite” Email
9. Set up Your Webinar Equipment
10. Prep Your Expert Guest
11. Send the “Last Chance” Email
Part II: The Live Event
12. Host Your Webinar Without a Hitch
Part III: After The Event
13. Establish a Compelling and Focused Topic
14. Create the “Watch the Recording” Landing Page
15. Send the “Follow-up” Email
16. Continue to Generate Leads After the Event
17. Measure the Results
3. What is Unbounce?
Unbounce is the landing page builder for marketers.
When marketing your webinars, Unbounce allows you
to make the critical pages that convert your traffic into
webinar attendees, and eventually, new customers.
Unbounce landing pages can also be used in your
pay-per-click, email and social media campaigns to
convert marketing campaign traffic better than your
homepage ever could. With Unbounce, you can...
• Build and publish landing pages in minutes
without developers
• A/B test your landing pages
• Track and optimize your conversion rates
TRY UNBOUNCE FREE
FOR 30 DAYS
4. REVENUE
REGISTRATION PAGE
Before Webinar
turns into
LEAD GEN PAGE
After Webinar
Social Media
Invitation
Emails
Blog
SlideShare
RECORDING PAGE
Email to
Registrants
Your
Website
OFFER PAGE
Post-webinar
Demo
Your
Product
The Ultimate Webinar Marketing Flowchart
Your webinar marketing campaign will involve sending social, email and web traffic to four different landing
pages. Before the event, that will be your registration page. After the event, you'll transform that landing page
into a lead generation page, which gives leads access to the recording page – where the video of your webinar
lives. Your offer page, which can be promoted during the webinar itself, is where you'll have a chance to turn
those leads into customers.
5. 5Share
Introduction
When we first introduced the idea of adding webinars to our marketing strategy, I’ll admit, I was worried. We
were busy improving our existing channels, webinars were labor-intensive and, in my experience, typically
boring and – even worse – salesy.
I quickly learned that it didn’t have to be that way and that they were easier to manage than I’d thought. And
oh so effective. So effective that our webinar registrations grew from 190 to nearly 3200 in eight months.
More importantly, webinars have become our most powerful marketing channel for acquisition, surpassing
our blog, our ecourse and even our ebooks.
There is something unique and special about live events that podcasts or recordings just can’t offer. Attendees
not only get a sense of taking part in something live (and therefore special), they’re also given the opportunity
to ask their questions, in real time, to experts they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to interact with.
There’s also something about webinars that brings out the decision makers. We’ve found, over the last 20
months of running webinars, that attendees are typically further down the funnel than the audiences on our
other marketing channels.
It’s time to start taking webinars seriously.
This year, 62% of marketers are using webinars in their marketing. That’s up from 59% in 2013. When done
right, webinars can help with lead generation, brand awareness, thought leadership and the holy grail:
customer acquisition and revenue.
6. 6Share
I searched high and low for a comprehensive resource with actionable advice for webinar marketing. As
you might have guessed, my fruitless search resulted in me writing this guide. In this ebook I’m going to
give you our powerful 17-step formula for marketing webinars, using four landing pages and three emails
(no big deal, right?).
Of course, this formula might not be perfect for everyone and it’s important to mention, we’re always
testing new ideas. As should you.
Georgiana Laudi
Director of Marketing
Unbounce
7. 7Share
Setting Goals
Before we get started, and you start drumming up all sorts of webinar topic ideas, you’ll want to get clear
on what your goals are. You may want to generate new leads, start building a community, demo your
product, establish authority on a given topic, or even just engage and provide value for your current
customers. All great goals.
We saw running webinars as an exciting way to give our community an opportunity to learn and ask
questions in real time. We were also looking to distribute our content in new ways. But the true objective
of our webinars from a marketing perspective is likely similar to your own: to increase interest in our
company and, ultimately, revenue.
“This year, 62% of marketers are using webinars in their marketing.
That’s up from 59% in 2013.”
Tweet This
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Step 1
Establish a Compelling and Focused Topic
The best way to choose a webinar topic is by gathering feedback. Find out what your customers and
potential customers want to learn, then deliver beyond their expectations.
This could include:
• listening to your customers directly, by reading customer forums or using surveying tools such as
SurveyMonkey and Qualaroo;
• speaking to people on the front lines, like your customer service team and community manager;
• looking at the subject matter of the top-performing blog posts on your own blog and that of your
competitors;
• paying attention to topics that are trending both on social media and across the web.
Webinar topics should always tie back to your specific niche. Spreading webinar topics too broadly or trying to
please everyone with every webinar will only confuse your audience and dilute your authority on the topic.
PRO TIP
For the best conversion results, choose “bottom of the funnel” topics that are tied to your
product or offering. When inspired attendees leave your webinar to carry out the advice they were
given, your solution is the first one they’ll think of.
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Finding the Right Expert Guest
Who does your community look up to? Who do they
aspire to be like? To identify qualified presenters for
your audience, look into conference speakers, blog
and book authors (who can speak as well as they
write!), experienced webinar presenters and thought
leaders in your field.
If you need to start on a little smaller scale, consider
experts who have made their name writing thoughtful
content and are looking for ways to practice their
speaking in a professional, but more intimate
setting. But always err on the side of caution when
“Convincing a seasoned
speaker to invest their time in
your webinar means proving
that you can bring them
business in return.”
considering partners or clients; you never want to
come off as too promotional. Focus on providing
quality, actionable content for the audience.
Oh, and remember that not every webinar needs
a guest or speaker from outside of your company.
In fact, an in-house expert can be a great place to
start.
Wooing Your Dream Guest
Preparing presentations of any sort takes a long
time and webinars are no exception. Be sensitive to
the fact that experts are busy and asking them to
present for 30 minutes or more is a big request.
Once you’ve found a qualified presenter, you need
to first consider what’s in it for them. Convincing
a seasoned speaker to invest their time into your
webinar means proving that you can bring them
business in return.
Describe the reach of the marketing you’ll be
carrying out to drive a qualified (for them!)
audience to the webinar.
Step 2
Find and Woo Industry Expert Guests
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Give past webinar registration and attendance numbers. Lure them in with the promise of your qualified (for them!)
audience. Always lead with what’s in it for them.
But what if you don’t have a huge audience or track record? If you’re really generous (read: strategic), giving them
the opportunity to make an offer to your super-qualified (for them!) and captive audience could be enough to sway
them. Keep a wish list of webinar guests and swing back to those who say no the first time only if you really do
have something more to offer.
PRO TIP
Do not expect that your expert guest will email their list about your webinar.
Here’s why:
1. You can’t assume that your webinar fits into their marketing department’s plan. There is no way for
you to know what emails they have scheduled or the expectations of the people on their list. Your list
is precious to you; respect the preciousness of their list to them.
2. Asking someone who is very busy to prepare a professional, well thought-out presentation for your
audience is bold. Asking them (or their team) to also take the time to promote your event for you is
audacious. Insisting they email their list in order to be your guest is greedy.
3. If they’re a well-known expert in your industry and you’re a smaller player, having their name
associated with your company is a win for you, not them. Don’t push it.
4. If you prepare all the copy and assets they’d need to promote your event, they might mention it to
their social networks or add it to a newsletter. You could get lucky, just don’t count on it.
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Step 3
Craft Your Marketing Copy
After you’ve settled on a webinar topic that both
you and your guest are excited about, it’s time to
take the time to carefully craft the marketing copy
for your webinar. You (and maybe your guest) will
use this copy on landing pages, email invites
and social marketing throughout your webinar
campaign. Getting this messaging just right is
pivotal to the success of your webinar.
Some people like to have their guest take
a first stab at the description. This ensures
that you’re both on the same page and gives
you an opportunity to clear up any potential
misunderstanding before any embarrassing public
announcements. No matter who writes the copy,
always send it to them, confirming it’s in line
with the content of their presentation before
announcing your webinar.
Title
The webinar title should answer the question,
“What will I get by giving you an hour of my time
and attention?” The more actionable the title, the
better. The best performing title we’ve used for
an Unwebinar (based on email open rates) was “10
Landing Page Mistakes You’re Probably Making and
How To Fix Them.”
Description
A short description of a few sentences, followed
by three to four bullet points outlining exactly
what the attendee will learn from attending, will
set the tone for the event to come. You don’t
need a ton of copy, you’re not selling an expensive
or complicated product. Focus on the benefits
attendees will walk away with.
“The webinar title should
answer the question, ‘What will I
get by giving you an hour of my
time and attention?’”
Tweet This
13. 13Share
Guest Biography
Most often, your guest will provide their own
bio; be sure that it introduces them in a way that
qualifies them as the best in their industry and an
expert on the topic at hand. Including a photo
helps to personalize them, putting a face to the
name, and making them more relatable. It also
helps visitors familiar with the expert guest to
recall that they know and trust them, so if they
use a particular profile photo consistently, be
sure to use that one as it’ll be recognized first.
PRO TIP
Clarity trumps all other copy decisions. We split-
tested the following two webinar invite subject
lines for an upcoming webinar with our comedic
Scottish co-founder Oli Gardner. Can you guess
which one won?
Variation A: [Webinar] Some Call Him the
Scottish Chuck Norris of LPO…
Variation B: [Webinar] The 3 Landing Page
Mistakes 98% of Marketers Are Making
Answer: B. The clear and descriptive headline
won all around with a 3% higher open rate and a
34% higher click-through rate. Lesson learned?
Don’t sacrifice clarity for cleverness in your
webinar title or description.
14. 14Share
Step 4
Build the Perfect “Register for
the Webinar” Landing Page
With your webinar marketing copy in hand,
it’s time to create the most important landing
page of your campaign, the “Register for the
Webinar” landing page (catchy, I know).
This landing page will make or break your
webinar – because if this page fails to do its
job, you and your guest will be talking to no
one (cue the crickets).
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The 5 Elements of a High-Converting
Webinar Landing Page
Every landing page needs the following five
elements to be successful:
Unique Selling Proposition (USP) - Your actionable
webinar title
Hero Shot - Your expert guest’s photo and bio
Benefits - The description of what attendees will
learn from the webinar
Social Proof - Testimonials about the guest or your
pervious webinars
Call to Action - Your registration form and button
It’s worth pausing here to stress the fifth element
(great movie). Every landing page should have one
and only one purpose, so as you’d expect, only one
call to action. That is, only one link (or leak) off the
page and toward your one desired conversion goal.
The image to the right demonstrates where and
how you might like to use each element on your
“Register for the Webinar” landing page. If you’re
interested in reading more, check out the five
elements of a high-converting landing page.
Here are the five elements of a high-converting landing
page in action on a “Register for the Webinar” landing page.
USP
Benefits
Hero Shot
Social Proof
Call-to-Action
16. Get Unbounce’s Webinar
Registration Landing Page
Template Free
FREE
TEM
PLATE
We’ve A/B tested this landing page for over a year
and saw our conversion rates increase 150%.
For your webinar registration page to be as
conversion-oriented as possible, you must
include these five elements. They provide just
the right amount of information for a visitor to
make their decision.
Right around now, you might be thinking that
your webinar tool offers its own generic webinar
registration page template. That should do the
trick, right?
Nope.
You should never use your webinar tool’s
landing page.
Here’s why:
• It doesn’t represent your company or
brand;
• It’s missing important elements that will
hurt your conversion rates;
• It’s generic and not professional-looking;
• You can’t optimize it through split-testing;
• You’re missing out on a post-conversion
opportunity (more on this later). DOWNLOAD THE ULTIMATE
WEBINAR TEMPLATE
17. 17Share
Here’s a typical default landing page template from your
webinar software.
And here is a custom-built experience you could be
providing visitors, incorporating the five elements of a
high-converting landing page. This switch yielded us a
150% increase in conversions.
“You should never use your
webinar tool’s landing page.”
Tweet This
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Connecting Your Landing Page to Your Webinar Software
Collect registrant information on a landing page built with a page builder like, say, Unbounce and connect
it via Zapier to your webinar hosting software of choice (like GoToWebinar). It’s really that simple and the
increase in conversions you’ll see is worth any extra hassle.
Using the default webinar software registration page, we saw a conversion rate of approximately 23%. But
since we started using our own custom pages and A/B testing, conversion rates are typically 60-70%. That’s
a 150% increase in conversions. Case closed.
Zapier allows you to connect your Unbounce webinar registration page to GoToWebinar via a “Zap.”
19. 19Share
A/B Testing Your Landing Page
When you’re first starting out, you should be
focusing on getting your five landing page
elements solidly in place. But you might find that
after some time, you have ideas about how your
page might perform better. Awesome.
Take a read through The Ultimate Guide to A/B
Testing, it’s a great resource to get you started
optimizing your landing pages like a pro.
Here are a couple examples of what we’ve tested in
the past:
• Outlining the description of the webinar
in paragraph form versus bullet points.
The bullet points resulted in 39% more
registrations.
• Adding a counter as an element of social
proof to see if knowing how many people
had already registered would motivate
others to sign up. The page with the
counter had 21% fewer registrations than the
page without it.
Although we did achieve statistical significance
on these tests, there are no hard and fast rules for
what will convert for you and your visitors. Always
run tests for yourself to be sure you’re not
missing out on opportunities to increase your
conversion rate.
20. 20Share
PRO TIP
Asking people to participate in advance (by
submitting questions, for example) is a great
way to help build out the webinar content
and get extra “buy-in” from registrants.
For our Science of Landing Pages webinar,
we asked registrants to submit a landing
page for a live critique, received 500 landing
page submissions and saw a 20% increase in
attendance.
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Step 5
Never Miss a Post-Conversion
Opportunity
You’ve successfully convinced your visitor to register
for your webinar. Well done!
Don’t neglect your confirmation page (also referred
to as a “Thank you” page), they are a seriously
undervalued marketing opportunity. Because
they’ve already put their trust in you (by filling out
your form, for example), the people who reach your
confirmation pages are warm, qualified and willing
to engage with your content.
After the conversion, when they’re still hot for
you, offer more.
Offer a “next step” to leads who have already self-
selected as being highly qualified. Most people like
direction, and this is your opportunity for subtle
follow-up marketing. The key word here is “subtle”
– you don’t want to oversell. Rather, offer them
something of value to exceed their expectations.
By including a form to subscribe to the Unbounce
Blog on our webinar registration confirmation page,
we grew our blog subscriber list by 60% in just
two webinars.
KISSmetrics turned webinars into their #1 acquisition
channel using a similar post-conversion tactic. It’s
true: Post-Conversion Strategy is a beautiful thing.
Here’s an example of what someone who has just filled out
your form might see. This tactic gave us an increase in blog
subscribers of 60% in just two webinar campaigns.
22. 22Share
6 Post-Conversion Marketing Ideas for
Your Thank You Page
You have a blank page to work with and a few
precious seconds to direct your new lead. Here are
six post-conversion ideas that you can use:
1. Ask them to follow you via social media
(Twitter, Facebook) to learn about other
opportunities.
2. Give them a discount code or coupon.
3. Send them to an important “What to Do
Next” page.
4. Ask them to subscribe to your super valuable
(and related) newsletter.
5. Ask them to subscribe to an email drip
campaign like a course on a similar topic.
6. Ask them to subscribe to your blog to
continue learning.
You get the idea...
“After the conversion, when they’re
still hot for you, offer more.”
Tweet This
What’s
Next?
SUBSCRIBE
23. 23Share
Step 6
Build Your “Offering”
Landing Page
Using the five elements of a high-converting
landing page, it’s time to build another page
that will be used strategically throughout
your webinar campaign. This page is all
about promoting your product or service.
New business is after all the goal of these
webinars, right?
Your offering landing page should be tied to
the webinar content in some way so that it’s
immediately obvious why your product or
service is the solution they’re looking for.
Remember, they’ve already expressed
interest in your webinar topic so they’re likely
looking to implement what the webinar will
teach them. Well, there you are – or rather,
your landing page is – with the solution.
This is an example of an Unbounce landing page we use for webinar
registrants and attendees to try our platform. Because it’s dedicated to
a webinar on lead generation, there is a strong message match between
the webinar content and the offer, which helps us to be as relevant as
possible to the visitor who lands here.
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Landing Page Optimization Tip:
Message Match
Make sure there is a strong message match
between your webinar marketing and your
business’s offering landing page.
Message match is a measure of how well
your landing page matches the marketing
experience that took visitors to the page. For
the best visitor experience possible, reinforce
why visitors have landed there, where they
came from and that they’re in the right place.
In the case of the example on the previous
page, the “offering” landing page was tied to
a webinar about lead generation. We used
“lead generation” copy in the headline, sub-
heading and CTA to ensure a strong message
match between traffic source – our lead gen
webinar (pictured to the right) – and our
offering page.
25. 25Share
Step 7
Tailor Your Social Marketing
The time has come in your webinar marketing
campaign to start driving traffic to your registration
landing page. Though you might immediately look
to email, social networks are a big opportunity for
people new to your company to see you shine.
If you just keep talking to the same people over and
over again in their inbox, you’ll never reach as wide
an audience as you could. Besides, if your guest
jumps on board with this part of the campaign, this
might be your only opportunity to appeal to their
community.
Every social network has its own benefits and should
be tackled individually. Blasting every channel with
the same message and format from your fancy social
publishing tool won’t get you great results. Take
each social network as an opportunity to reach new
audiences and make the biggest impact you can.
Here’s what a typical webinar announcement on Google+
might look like.
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Here are some ways to best leverage each social
network:
Twitter
• Attach images to your tweets: It’s a great
way to help them stand out among the
thousands, or even tens of thousands of
other tweets a potential registrant will see in
a day.
• Use a hashtag before, during and after the
webinar (ours is #unwebinar) to engage
with the community and gather some great
testimonials for future webinar marketing.
• Don’t be afraid to tweet a few times leading
up to your event. You may want to cover
the most popular times of day that your
followers are most active (like early morning,
mid-day and late at night).
• Spread out your tweets over the course of
your campaign. Tweeting once or twice per
day in the weeks and days leading up to your
event, and then picking up the pace closer to
“On Air” time should be plenty.
• Use urgency tactics like “Last Chance”
and “Only one hour left, there’s still room
to register!” This can go a long way in
encouraging last-minuters on event day, and
also warn your followers that your stream is
about to be dedicated to your webinar.
Using images in your tweets is a powerful way to draw
attention to your webinar.
27. 27Share
Google+
• Create a Google+ event – the notification
gets pushed to every one of your followers.
Be sure to link to your registration page
at the very start of the event description,
making it clear that people must register on
the landing page in order to be counted.
• Post to relevant Google+ communities
who focus on topics which will be covered
in your webinar. No spamming! You will only
hurt your chances of being taken seriously
and you could risk being banned or reported.
• Your giant cover photo is real estate
you could take advantage of. Upload a
promotional banner and put a link in the
description to the registration landing page.
An example of a Google+ event we’ve used to
encourage registration for our webinars.
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LinkedIn
• Encourage your LinkedIn connections to
spread the love about the webinar one to
two weeks prior to the event.
• Find a non-spammy way to promote your
event in LinkedIn groups. As with Google+
communities, make sure the content of the
webinar is super relevant to members.
• Don’t forget to post your webinar to your
company page. Here again, using images in
your posts will help them stand out.
Here’s an example of our webinar promotion on LinkedIn.
29. 29Share
Facebook
• Upload a new cover photo to promote your
webinar (seen in example to the right). Use
the image description and be sure to link out
to the registration page.
• Post a thought-provoking quote from the
expert guest – linked to the registration
page, of course.
• Don’t spam! Facebook users tend to be
particularly sensitive to oversharing and
fans will unlike your page without a second
thought.
This is a great example of a Facebook cover photo being used to
promote a webinar. Notice the description, and also not one but
two links to the registration page.
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Step 8
Secure Your Webinar with the
“Invite” Email
Email is the single most effective way to drive
interest in your webinar and traffic to the
registration page.
In fact, we’ve found that 70% of all our webinar
registrations come via our invitation emails. This
is partially due to a list of people who are already
familiar with us, but also because email is still one
of the most powerful marketing communication
tools.
Double-, triple- and even quadruple-check that
your email has no typos or broken links and that
it clearly communicates your offer. One broken
link and your webinar is at a serious disadvantage.
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Your webinar invite email will have three points
at which a conversion is made. This is where you
should focus your attention:
1. The subject line needs to be clear and concise
enough to describe what the webinar is about,
and attention-grabbing enough to persuade
someone to open it. We A/B test our email
subject lines on almost every email we send.
2. The body copy should be concise and deliver the
benefits of attending the webinar without being
too long. We find that using humor is a great way
to hold someone’s attention, but the tone you
use will depend on your brand.
3. The call to action (CTA) linking to your
registration landing page should be front and
center. The text should describe what the person
will get when they click the button – we often
use “save my seat.”
PRO TIPS
• In every webinar email we include the
following text: “Can’t attend the webinar?
Register anyway and we’ll send you the
recording.” We include this in some of
our social sharing as well. Sure, it could
hurt attendance since people won’t worry
about missing it when the day comes,
but registration (lead gen) improves
dramatically, and no one feels like they’re
missing out just because of their busy
schedule.
• Use a “PS” in your email. Links included
here are often the most clicked of
any link. We use the “PS” to link to our
“offering” landing page, which gives
visitors more information about our
product.
“Your webinar invite email will have three points at which a conversion is made.”
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Step 9
Set up Your Webinar Equipment
This ebook is about webinar marketing, but here are
some logistical tips to get you started:
1. You’ll need equipment like a mic and
headphones
Audio quality can make or break your webinar.
Although the initial cost of purchasing a mic and
webinar software might feel high to some, it’s an
investment you can’t afford to skimp on.
If the audio on your webinar is bad – or worse,
interrupted during the broadcast – it will kill the
credibility of the webinar you’ve worked so hard on.
If there is only one person in each room on your
webinars, a USB mic will do just fine. But if you plan
on having multiple people (like an in-person guest),
anticipate a more sophisticated setup.
Some webinar software can be funny about
accepting multiple audio inputs, which is a great
example of the type of thing you want to test well
ahead of time.
2. You’ll need software to professionally
record, edit and upload your webinar
content
GoToWebinar is largely considered the standard for
online presentations. That’s what we use and so
some of the features we mention in this ebook are
specific to GoToWebinar. If you’re worried about
keeping things simple for attendees, you might want
to consider using the most popular software you
can afford.
3. You’ll want a dedicated space for
holding your webinars
This is where your equipment and software setup
will stay permanently. Ideally, you’ll also mount
studio foam on the walls to dampen any echo. Run
through dress rehearsals of your webinar in this
room, mimicking the exact setup you intend to
use so you can avoid any embarrassing technical
hiccups in front of a live crowd.
Read more about the specific webinar equipment
we use at Unbounce.
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Step 10
Prepare Your Guest
Set Expectations
Your guest might be accustomed to being on
webinars, but everyone runs theirs a little differently.
Have a defined webinar schedule and send it to your
guest in advance.
It might look something like this:
• 30 min before start time: Host and guest start
testing audio levels and software
• Start time to 5 min: Welcomes, housekeeping
and intros
• 5 min to 45 min: Guest takes over for
presentation
• 45 min to 60 min: Questions from attendees
and wrap-up
Help with the Slides
Prepare slide templates for your guest in their
preferred format (Keynote or PowerPoint, for
example). Once they’re done adding their content,
offer – or better yet, request – to go over them to
ensure that the presentation is consistent with
your audience’s expectations (explain that you
want to make sure the webinar is a success). This
gives you a chance to provide feedback and clean up
any little errors you spot.
Ideally, you want to make sure they’re keeping the
promises you made in the webinar description. You
also want to make sure that the presentation is on
point and maintains momentum so that it keeps your
audience’s attention. This isn’t usually an issue for
a seasoned speaker, but remember that you know
your audience better than anyone. It’s up to you to
relay that knowledge to your guest.
Keep in mind that making sure your marketing
goals are being met with their content is your
responsibility, not theirs. It’s your job to ensure
that your audience will see the link between the
presentation and your product or service. At
Unbounce, we make sure that our presenter ties
their topic back to landing pages and conversion
so we know it will resonate with our audience of
conversion-focused marketers.
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Step 11
Send the “Last Chance” Email
Never underestimate the power of urgency.
Sending a last minute email on the day before
your event to email recipients who didn’t open the
invitation email is a great way to generate additional
registrations.
In fact, we typically get about a third of our
webinar registrants from this email. It’s important
to segment your list carefully so you aren’t
spamming anyone (kittens die, after all). Make it
clear that this really is their last chance to learn
about all the amazing stuff you’ll be teaching them.
This second email doesn’t need new copy. It’s
perfectly fine to use very similar messaging to your
“Invite Email” (remember, they didn’t see it). This is
a great opportunity to improve your email based on
how the first email performed in terms of open rates
and click rates. This is as much your last chance as
it is the recipients’.
Notice that twice in this email we mention that the webinar
is tomorrow. We also change the email subject to include the
words “Last Chance!”
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Have a Dress Rehearsal
How many times have you had a video chat go
wrong? Now imagine adding screen sharing
software, broadcasting capabilities, and a slide
presentation. Add a second presenter with their own
assumptions, script, knowledge of software (or lack
thereof) and agenda.
Mitigate the inevitable technical hiccups by doing
a dry run a week before the webinar date. Use the
same software and hardware you plan to use for
the live broadcast. It’s also a good idea to get a third
person to join the dry run as an attendee to confirm
they have no audio or video troubles.
Having a dress rehearsal also allows you or whoever
is hosting the webinar to build a rapport with your
guest and get a feel for the presentation flow.
For example, you may want to ask how they feel
about interjections or if they prefer to only accept
questions at the very end.
Ultimately, this serves to put the guest at ease,
knowing that they’ll be taken good care of during
the live event.
“Making sure your marketing
goals are being met is your
responsibility, not theirs. It’s
your job to ensure that your
audience will see the link
between the presentation
and your product or service.”
Tweet This
37. 37Share
Step 12
Host Your Webinar
Gather Your Event Team
Your setup will be partially determined by the
webinar software you’re using, but having anywhere
from 3-5 people on deck for your broadcast is ideal.
If you thought running an amazing webinar was a
one-man show, you were sadly mistaken.
Oli and Ryan in our “studio” for one of our first Unwebinars.
Never doubt the importance of having someone on
the webinar who isn’t speaking/presenting. True story:
I attended a webinar that had 10 full minutes of chirps
of audio like a skipping record but the host and guest
had no idea no one could hear them because they were
(duh) busy hosting and guesting!
Despite how hard you might try, you cannot talk and
read (questions, comments, tweets) at the same time.
“If you thought running an
amazing webinar was a one-man
show, you were sadly mistaken.”
Tweet This
38. 38Share
Here’s what your webinar dream team might look like:
If you’re short on resources in your early webinar days, you can absolutely merge the last three roles
like we did (ahem, moi), but be ready to break them out when the number of attendees picks up, since
each role will need a lot more attention.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The Host is focused on engaging the audience and guest, interjecting at opportune moments
to ask thoughtful questions and keep up momentum from start to finish.
The Industry Expert Guest is presenting their heart out.
The Sidekick furiously answers attendee questions that come in via the chat box and gathers
good questions for the presenter to ask. Some webinars wait until the end to field questions,
forcing the host to skim through them on the fly. That’s awkward. Having a sidekick allows
your host and guest to focus on hosting and guesting.
The Community Manager monitors the webinar hashtag on Twitter and fields questions from
attendees. They are also a great person to gather up any URLs mentioned during the webinar
for sharing immediately and in the follow-up email.
The Manager keeps a bird’s-eye view, keeping an eye on audience attentiveness (a real-time
meter in GoToWebinar which can give tons of insight into what’s working and what’s not), an
eye on Twitter and the GTW question box in case any red flags are raised, and an ear on the
audio quality and pace. If anything looks amiss, they find a way to fix it or pass info along to
the presenters or sidekick.
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Gather Feedback
While we’re able to field attendee questions
via the chat widget on GoToWebinar, we also
encourage people to ask questions via Twitter
using our #unwebinar hashtag so that some of the
conversation takes place in public. Lately we’ve
been asking our guests to stick around on Twitter
for an hour or so after the presentation, which is
a treat for attendees and provides the guest with
instant feedback and satisfaction that the webinar
was worth their while.
Your webinar software might also have a feature
that lets you deliver an exit survey when attendees
leave the webinar. This is a great way to gather
instant feedback. You might ask if they found the
webinar helpful (if so, great – but if not, what can
be improved?) and to see which topics attract the
most qualified leads.
PRO TIP
Offer something more to do after the
webinar is over. This is something we picked
up from our friend Nemo at KISSmetrics.
At the very start of our webinars we let
attendees know that for anyone who is
interested, we’ll be offering a demo of
Unbounce after the webinar is over. On
average about 40% of attendees stick
around and continue to ask questions.
Brilliant. This is a great opportunity to link to
your “offering” landing page. We also allow
our guests to present an offer of their own
on one slide during the presentation.
Record the Webinar
Your webinar registrants and attendees will
definitely want and certainly ask for the webinar
recording. Make sure you press the “record
webinar” button. You won’t make that mistake
twice. In fact, to safeguard we often have more
than one person record the webinar from separate
locations.
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Step 13
Fine-Tune Your Webinar Recording
The recording of your webinar is one of the most important pieces of your webinar marketing. Don’t
forget, you’ve promised the recording to everyone who registered and there’s no doubt that you’ll be
asked a handful of times before, during and after the webinar when you’ll be sending the recording.
If any glaring mistakes were made during the webinar, now’s your chance to edit those blemishes out.
If you want to get fancy, you can also add special effects, splash pages, or CTAs into your video. When
you’re happy with the video, upload it to your video player of choice (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, etc.).
PRO TIP
Video hosting services like YouTube give you the option to add comments and links strategically
throughout your video recordings. Rewatch the webinar looking for opportunities where people
might have liked to dig a little deeper into products or services (ahem, yours) and add them in as
contextually as possible. Whatever you do, don’t overdo it. Depending on the length of the video,
one or two should be enough or you’ll lose a ton of credibility and come across as spammy.
42. 42Share
Step 14
Build the “Watch the
Recording” Landing Page
Even though the recording may be hosted by
YouTube or Vimeo, create a landing page with
the recording on it. On this landing page,
include the title and description of the webinar, a
nice large embed of the video, and a CTA linking
to your “offering” landing page. Similar to the
example to the right.
This page will serve two very important
audiences:
1. Webinar registrants and attendees from
your webinar follow-up email
2. Those who request the recording later
from your content repurposing (which
we’ll get to soon)
43. 43Share
The purpose of this page is also twofold:
1. It gives visitors a nice clean video-watching experience surrounded by the relevant information
they need (like who is speaking, what will be covered, and how long the video might be).
2. There is a clear call-to-action button related exactly to the content of the webinar. The CTA sends
visitors to your targeted “Offering” landing page, which is all about implementing what the webinar
has just taught them (because the webinar topic was tied to your product or service and actionable,
remember?).
Though building this page would be very tempting to skip in the interest of saving time, don’t. Sure, you
could just send people to Vimeo or YouTube, but that’s you directing them “out of your house,” so to
speak.
Your goal is not to send people away but to keep them engaged with your brand, your content and the
pages you own and manage yourself.
Besides, if you don’t create this page, you’ll miss out on the awesome lead gen potential that’s yet to
come...
44. 44Share
Step 15
Send the “Follow-up” Email
I can’t stress this enough. If there’s one thing
we know about webinars, it’s that people want
the recording. Give them what they want.
And unless your inbox can handle an influx of
questions about when the recording will be
available, be quick about it.
First, move your list of registrants and
attendees from your webinar software to your
favorite email marketing tool. This should be as
simple as an export and import.
Next, segment your list so you can send
targeted emails. For instance, “attended” vs.
“did not attend,” “asked a question,” “raised their
hand when you asked if they wanted a product
demo”… you get the idea.
Though we’ve tried many ways to slice and
dice, we segment our list simply by “lead” vs.
“customer.” This allows us to add a call to action
linking to our “offering” landing page in our
follow-up email to leads, but not to customers.
Although these follow-up emails might not be the cleanest
examples of “one page (or in this case, email), one purpose,” the
goal is to deliver on what you’ve promised, and continue to exceed
expectations. Just don’t forget your “Offering” landing page.
45. 45Share
In your follow-up email you’ll include:
• A quick recap - How the webinar went and what was covered.
• The webinar recording - This links to the “webinar recording” landing page you created above.
• The webinar slides - You’d be surprised how many times we’ve been asked for these.
• Resources mentioned during the webinar - Gathered by your community manager.
• A request for feedback about the webinar - Start a conversation!
• A promotional offer from your guest (if any).
• A CTA linking to your “offering” landing page (only if they’re leads, not already customers).
PRO TIP
Email your expert guest. Share the recording link with them. Ask them how their experience
was. Give them some numbers on how it performed. Share feedback you’ve received. Shower
them with compliments – they deserve it.
46. 46Share
Step 16
Continue to Generate Leads
After the Event
Turn the “Register for the Webinar”
Landing Page into a “Get the
Recording” Landing Page
If you’re a lead gen machine, now’s the time to
repurpose your webinar registration page as a
landing page where people can sign up to watch
the recording.
In your landing page tool, duplicate the “register
for the webinar” page and on the new page
change the copy to reflect the new goal, your
new call to action: “Get the webinar recording.”
Send those who complete the form to the
“webinar recording” landing page you built (in
step 14).
By duplicating the page (rather than building a
new one) you get to use the same URL for your
“get the recording” page as you did for the initial
registration page. This way, all the promotion you did
prior to the webinar will now link to your new lead
gen page. Magic.
47. 47Share
Repurposing Your Webinar Content
The opportunities for getting mileage out of your webinar recording don’t stop after you send the follow-
up email. There are many ways you can repurpose your webinar to keep the content (and lead generation
opportunities) alive:
Create a follow-up blog post about the webinar where you break down key insights, answer attendee
questions that were missed, and include tweetable quotes.
Add a call to action or links within related blog posts which cover a similar topic, linking to the “get
the recording” landing page.
Turn the webinar into a podcast for people who prefer to consume content on the go.
Add a link to the recording to your website’s resources library.
Upload your video to YouTube so that it can be found organically through search.
Share your slide deck on communities such as SlideShare.
The possibilities for repurposing the webinar recording are endless. You just might find that your webinar
recording is a gift that keeps on giving.
“The opportunities for getting mileage out of your webinar recording
don’t stop after you send the follow-up email.”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Tweet This
48. 48Share
Step 17
Measure the Results
Use tweets about your webinars as social proof (one of the five landing page
elements) on your registration and lead gen landing pages.
Should you gauge the success of your webinars by the number of new clients or customers each webinar
drives? Very likely. But to look only at that metric would be shortsighted.
Striving to make each webinar an educational and entertaining experience for your audience is key for
ensuring their long-term success.
49. 49Share
Here are some things you might consider
measuring to know if your webinars are working:
• Registration – This one is easy to track
on both your landing pages and your
webinar software. We receive an average
of 2,500 registrants per monthly webinar. If
registration is ever a little lower, we usually
know our topic or copy might not have been
as good as it could have been.
• Attendance – This number is gathered
during the live event. The standard
attendance for webinars is 30% (70% no-
shows). We typically see around 25%, since
we heavily promote registering in order to
get the recording (even if you can’t make the
event). This keeps registration numbers high,
but relative attendance a bit lower.
• Attendee Satisfaction – Again, many
webinar softwares will give you the option of
running an exit survey. Asking for feedback
on your event at this moment can be
invaluable. For example, of the attendees
surveyed in a recent webinar, 80% said the
event was the highlight of their day. That’s
awesome, but what could we have done for
the other 20%? Bonus tip: It’s also a good
idea to gather quotes from Twitter, which you
can then use as social proof on your landing
pages.
• Polling Your Attendees – Through webinar
surveys, we found that 41% of our webinar
attendees are qualified leads. Knowing
this helps us select relevant topics for our
audience.
• Your Conversion Goals – By using proper
UTM codes throughout your campaigns, you
should be able to tie each webinar campaign
to your goal (whether it’s sign-ups, sales,
consultation requests or whatever else). With
proper tracking we were able to pinpoint
webinars as our single most successful
type of marketing campaign; over the last
20 months, they’ve been our #1 marketing
channel for acquiring new customers.
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Call to Action
If webinars feel stale, outdated or too resource-intensive, it’s probably because you haven’t seen many
marketers do them right. Having a detailed game plan like I’ve laid out in this ebook – from goals to creative
assets to KPIs – will determine whether or not your webinars resonate and ultimately convert.
In the end, webinar marketing is as simple as creating four landing pages, three emails and kick-ass content
that people love so much they’ll thank you for it with their business. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it.
- Georgiana Laudi
Georgiana Laudi is the Director of Marketing at Unbounce. It’s not easy marketing
to marketers, and she likes it that way. A former consultant, agency hired gun, brand
manager and tech community organizer, Georgiana’s been cracking integrated web
marketing across search, ecommerce, copy, email, social, product, analytics and
usability for more than 10 years. Most days you can find her proving it’s possible
to be a doer and a perfectionist. Find her on Twitter selectively tweeting about
marketing at @ggiiaa.
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