With the novel Coronavirus shaking the entire world,“social distancing”,and“work from home” have become the wordsdu jour. The impact that this pandemic hashadon business hasbeen widespread, with, hundreds of events, meetings and conferencesshut down. WhileCOVID-19 is atotally newthreatinmanyways,post-pandemic effects are probably quite predictable. Businesseswill takea majorrevenuehitfor awhile,with many forced to makecost-cutting decisions.So while offline events may have been canceled,learning shouldcontinue— businessesneed toupgrade their effectiveness to minimize the impact on customers and clients.
Webinars areone of the most effective channels to keep your audience engaged. With everything happening remotely now,webinars havea more significant roletodaythanever before.So grab this moment and be there for your customers by curating useful webinars.Andwhile you are atit, keep in mind thatwebinarpromotionis just as important ascreating and delivering a great presentation.
While there aremanychannelsto promotewebinars,email marketing remains a tried and true way to bring people in.So let’stalkabout how you can adjust your webinar email marketing program tomeettoday’s needs and stay at the top ofyour customers’ mind.
Pro tip:
Choose topics that your customers need
Before you decideona topic for your webinar,rememberthat your audiencemustfind it helpfulright now. For example, a health care professional could conduct webinars that spread awareness on personal hygiene and healthy dietas a way tohelp their audience cope with the crisis, while apersonal trainercouldoffer tips on home workouts.
Regardless of theindustry, think ofhow yourbusinesscan be usefultoyour audience at the present moment,and frame your webinar topicswith that in mind. Being proactive during such emergenciescan reallybuild your brand’s reputation.
Now, read onfor moretipson tailoring yourpromotional emailstomaximize your webinars’ reach.
Show empathy inthesubject line
The best thing to do in any email promotion during stressful times is to understand people’s emotions and pain points and speak directly to them in your subject line. Use subject lines that create empathy rather than panic. For example, words like COVID-19, Coronavirus, Crisis, etc., might create a negative impression with the readers. Instead include phrases like We’re here to help, Free live webinar, Online training, Work from Home, Remote work, etc.
Keep your email content short andsweet
Don’t make your email recipients read through dozens of paragraphsjust to RSVP to yourwebinar invitation.Make yourcontent simple and easy to digest by including just the essentials such as the title, agenda, host name, date, and time of the webinar. Make sure to always include a link to your webinar, too! Many email marketing platforms integrate with webinar hosting tools and they provide dedicated email templates for your webinar promotions. Thismakes your workeasier, sinceit pullsthewebinar details right into your email template.Take a lookat how ²վ Campaigns tightly integrates with ²վ Meeting and simplifiescreatingwebinar emailinvitations.
Segment your lists
If you have properly researched your webinar topic, your customers are more likely to attend. Schedule your webinar in two sessions so that audiences around the world can join you at their convenience. Segment your target lists based on city or country and send out your email promotions to these segments. Make sure your email includes the time slot that matches the time zone of people in these segments.
Automate your follow-up messages
Pre-webinar promotions andpulling off a successful eventarejust half the battle. What matters even moreare your post-webinar efforts to retain youraudience, i.e., your follow-up messages.And while this might look likea lot ofwork, don’t worry;with email marketing automation, you can get rid ofmanual work by automating your follow-upseries. Once your webinar is over, automate a thank you messages by tailoring your content to your registrants and attendees. Further, send yourfollow-up messagestonurture them down the line, you can preset all of it andletemail marketing automationtake care of the rest.Check out this webinar to know how workflow automation can help you automatewebinar follow-up activities.
Conduct polls and surveys
Include polls and surveys in your follow-up emails to understand exactly what your customers are currently looking for. Some questions could include:
- How often do you want us to conduct webinars?
Once a week | Twice a week | Three times a week - What time of the day works bestfor the next webinar?
Morning | Afternoon | Evening
A good webinar toolshould allow you to run surveys duringthewebinar. You can make use of this opportunity to ask your audience questionssuch as:
- Did you find this webinar useful?
Yes | No - What topic(s) would you like covered in our next webinar?
Immune-boosting diet | Personal hygiene | Social distancing
Pick the most significant and relevant topics that will help your audience.
[Note: Pick the most significant and relevant topics and ask your audience to vote. The options given above are chosen with reference to the previous example of the health care industry]
Use a marketing calendar
Since remote working is now the norm, it is important that you keep your fellow marketers informed of yourupcomingemail promotions. Mark the dateofyour webinar promotional emailin themarketing calendar available in your email marketing software. This will helpkeepyour teamfrom clashing with your schedule—a must right now🙂
If you follow these strategies, you arelikely to see higher openandclick-through rates, and eventually more registrations for your webinar.
Bonus: Here aretheten best practices you can followwhile planning your webinarto make it asuccess.
- Now is the time for empathy. Respect your audience’s time by choosing useful topics.
- Once you decideonthe topic, feedthewebinar details into thetoolyou willbe using to deliver the session. Your webinar title and description shouldinstilla sense of calm and confidence in your audiences’ mind, so make sure to avoid words that could create stress.
- Make sure you collectinformation through your webinar registration forms. This will help youcreatebetterfollow-up and nurturing emails.
- Have a webinar checklist andtrackyourprogress throughthepromotions and follow-ups.
- Make sure you have a high-speed internet connection, good USB microphone (recommended), and webcam in order to provide the best webinar experience.
- Record your webinar for your audience to watch later.You can alsohost the recording in your websiteso that future visitors can see what you have to offer.
- Send arecordingof thewebinar toregistrants and attendees, along with athank you email,within24 hoursof your webinar.
- Get real-time feedback during (or after)your webinar with surveys.. This will help you improve engagementlevels in your next webinar.
- Don’t use your webinarsas a sales pitch.Right now,your content should be aligned towardsreassuring your customers and prospects that you are there for them.
- Pause your other auto-responders and workflows until things get beck to normal. Plan a new nurturing series that is relevant to what is happening right now.
We hope this blog will help youeffectivelyplan your crisis-related webinars andemail promotionsso that you can focus onbeing there for your customers. As the saying goes, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!”Regardless of the situation, we should always beready toprovide our customerseducation and connection.
Let’sall hopethismoment ends soon. You aredefinitelynot alone,and we will get through this all together. 🙂
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