The science behind webinar sign-ups

[Updated: May 3rd, 2019]

How Do Webinars Work?

Think of webinars as short films, and as the star of the show, you’re the Thought Leader.

Great short films are able to grab the attention of the audience by delivering something of interest to them.

Terrible short films leave a sour taste in your mouth and you can expect that your leads won’t return.

So with that in mind, how do webinars work? And how do you make it as impactful as possible?

Are You Providing Value Or A Sales Pitch?

No one likes being sold to.

Your leads may want to know more about your business, but what they are truly interested in is how your product or service is going to help solve their problems.

Recall a time when you received an email asking you to sign up for a webinar.

  • What stood out?
  • What didn’t?
  • If you did decide to sign up, what was their unique selling point (USP) that convinced you to dedicate an hour of your time to them?

According to our own benchmarks report, in 2019, we found that the average webinar registrant spent over 58 minutes in an event.

Now, look at your own webinar program.

How long are attendees staying around for? If they are leaving at the 15 or 30-minute mark, that is a clear indication that you are not providing relevant and valuable information.

Let’s go back to the basics for a moment. What is a webinar?

It’s a marketing tool to educate your leads about how you solve their pain points, not a sales call. That comes after. Always ensure that your sales and marketing messaging is aligned so your MQL’s know what to expect when they talk to your sales team. Keep reading to learn how to create that message alignment.

Pre-Webinar Checklist

Sit Down With Sales.

You know that your service is absolutely amazing. The question is, how do you relay that to your prospective leads?

Simple. Have a productive chat with your sales team.

They are the ones who are talking to potential every day. In order to be an effective salesperson, they need to know what obstacles your target audience faces and how your service can solve them. Curate a list of pain points and now you have your webinar topics.

When Is Your Webinar Happening?

What’s the timeline for your entire webinar series?

3 months? 6 months? A whole year?

Now that you have an idea of what you want to discuss and a timeline, build a calendar based on a content strategy for pushing your MQL’s down the marketing funnel.

For instance, you can introduce your company and what problems it solves in month 1’s webinars. Then you can set up online seminars (“deminars”) that showcase how you can use your product to solve some of the pain points your leads experience in the following month. And so on.

Consistent Branding Is Key.

What’s the theme of your webinar series, and does it match with your overall business brand? If you are hosting a webinar in partnership with another company, what does your branding look like? Which leads us to…

Webinar Invites.

If you are planning to send out email invites, keep it on brand. If you are planning to have a guest webinar speaker, see if you can use their logo in your email to establish brand relevance.

Don’t stop at just emails.

Notify prospects through your social media platforms, a pop-up on your website, write a blog about it, leverage LinkedIn Lead Forms, etc.

Get the word out.

Aim for a longer promotional cycle (more than 15 days prior to your event).

The Benchmark Metrics You Need To Know

Let’s get into some facts for a moment.

We measured the statistics across the entire lifecycle of a webinar in 2019. From promoting to audience viewing habits, conversion metrics, and much more.

According to our pre-webinar metrics, we found that

  • 28% of webinar registrants signed up over 2 weeks prior to an event.
  • 35% signed up the week of the event.

That does not mean to start promoting only 5 days before you go live.

An extended promotional strategy will net you a larger audience to drive registration.

Mondays & Fridays are the lowest attendance, this seems obvious.  However, Tuesday through to Thursday 23% of all attendees. To put that into perspective, Saturday webinars net about 5% of webinar attendance. We didn’t even count Sunday, you shouldn’t have a webinar on the weekend.

Interested in learning more metrics across the entire webinar lifecycle? Download our 2019 Benchmarks Report now and see if you are performing up to par.

Read last week’s blog post if you’re interested in learning how to measure your webinar ROI.

Stay tuned for more updates on how to leverage your webinars to convert viewers into buyers.

Matthew Ley

Matthew Ley

Matt Ley is the current President and co-founder of The Streaming Network. Starting his career in virtual events in 2007, Matt is an industry veteran that is passionate about helping customers stand out in their industry with compelling virtual events that people want to attend. The driving ambition for Matt is that virtual events are not a utility for information distribution but an opportunity for firms to create a competitive advantage. Matt is an accomplished speaker, moderator and a sought-after thought leader.

Join Us

Sign up to receive notifications on the latest in B2B Webinar and Podcast marketing, sales and growth. 

Subscribe our Podcast. The Webinar: Lessons from the Frontlines

© 2020 - The Streaming Network Webinar Software and Virtual Training Products. A Wish Collaboration company.