To shed light on the value of webinars and how to retain repeat attendees, we’ve gathered eight insightful responses from professionals in the field. These experts share their top tips for successful webinars, from delivering extra-special content and encouraging interaction to having a clear purpose and offering valuable information.
- Deliver Extra-Special Content and Encourage Interaction
- Provide Fresh Content and Build a Community
- Offer Free Webinars and Maintain a Consistent Schedule
- Keep the Audience Engaged With Regular Updates
- Ensure Original Insights and Avoid Sales Pitches
- Establish an Alumni Program for Attendees
- Optimize Webinar Duration to Avoid Fatigue
- Have a Clear Purpose and Offer Valuable Information
Deliver Extra-Special Content and Encourage Interaction
Webinars are worth the effort if the participants put in the effort. If the webinars are just another “to-do” on your VP’s daily calendar, then it’s more likely the VP might just “wing it” once on the webinar. And this shows through all too clearly.
Tips? Give extra-special content in the webinar. If the webinar is around a new industry study, then use the webinar to provide more context around the topic, the numbers, the results, etc. Add something extra!
Also, encourage participation through polls, Q&As, chat discussions, etc. This helps build a connection with attendees. And share it all on social media to extend the impact.
Dave Murrow, Chief Content Creator, ThinkFast Media
Provide Fresh Content and Build a Community
Webinars are definitely worth the effort. In fact, for companies in the SaaS industry, they are a necessity because they massively help with lead generation, training, knowledge sharing, and audience engagement.
If you can ensure that your organization will provide value and fresh content through webinars every time, and continuously invest in community-building, you are going to see those attendees coming back for more.
Kyriaki Raouna, Content Partnerships Manager, LearnWorlds
Offer Free Webinars and Maintain a Consistent Schedule
We have seen a lot of benefits from offering webinars. While they seem to take a lot of effort, they are worth it. I tend to recommend offering free webinars. This helps develop knowledge, likability, and trust while also building up your pipeline.
One tip I have for getting repeat webinar attendees is to have a set schedule, whether it be weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Give your attendees a webinar calendar so they know when to expect you.
Bonus tip: Record your webinars. Use them as evergreen content to fuel your marketing engine.
Beau Bawab, Director of Marketing, Beau B Content
Keep the Audience Engaged With Regular Updates
Webinars are worth the effort when done correctly. To sustain repeat webinar attendees, one must keep their audience engaged.
This involves consistently updating them about upcoming webinars and other information through SMS, email, and social media.
Keeping your audience included through active webinar participation and interactive Q&A sessions is essential for fostering continued engagement.
Taylor Caplan, Marketing Manager
Ensure Original Insights and Avoid Sales Pitches
Webinars have been the core of Teamdash’s marketing strategy from the beginning. They are worth the effort, but only if they provide original insights, and focus on topics that are relevant and timely to your client. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, make sure your webinars are not a sales pitch.
We see many companies fail to either get registrations and actual attendees, or they are unable to build their webinars as a series with repeat attendees and new people registering. That is where the ABC comes in—the word spreads fast. When people don’t get actual value out of attending your webinars, they won’t come again, and they will likely share their poor experiences.
Teamdash sees an average of a 50% live attendance rate, and we have loyal fans who don’t miss any of our monthly webinars. That’s why we keep the topics and speakers at the highest level we can.
Merilyn Uudmae, Content Manager, Teamdash
Establish an Alumni Program for Attendees
Webinars are definitely worth the effort! A great way to maintain an engaged and skilled audience is to provide a network of content creators and resources from which webinar attendees can learn. For instance, you can establish an alumni list for people who have attended your webinars in the past.
Establishing an alumni program encourages recurring participation as it provides the opportunity to give this segmented audience exclusive webinar access, which can include special giveaways or unique discounts. This rewards dedicated followers of your webinar series with unique experiences that draw them back in.
Michael Alexis, CEO, Virtual Team Building
Optimize Webinar Duration to Avoid Fatigue
Webinars, when done right, can be a powerful tool in the marketer’s arsenal. The secret to captivating your audience and ensuring they return for more can be found in optimizing the duration.
A sweet spot of around 60 minutes seems to be the magic number. It’s just enough time to delve deep into a topic without risking audience fatigue.
Couple this with engaging content and a sprinkle of interactivity, and you’ve got a winning formula. Remember, it’s about striking a balance between offering insights and valuing the audience’s time and attention.
Marco Genaro Palma, Content Marketing Manager, PRLab
Have a Clear Purpose and Offer Valuable Information
Webinars are a great way to build and maintain relationships with your clients, as well as educate them about new products or services.
I think the most important thing is to have a clear and compelling purpose for your webinar, and then make sure you have something relevant and valuable that will deliver on that purpose. If your webinar is about getting people to download a new app, for example, make sure you have an app ready to show off and explain its features.
The other thing I would recommend is offering something of value in exchange for attendees’ time—whether it’s a free trial of your software or access to a special whitepaper or report. This will help ensure that people come back for more!
Arvin Khamseh, CEO, Sold Out NFTs
