How to Create a Webinar Email Sequence to Boost Attendance
You are planning to do a webinar. Yes, I know you are excited. You have spent hours and hours creating the best content, setting up the technical background, and designing the catchy slides. But now, let’s face it, less than 30 people joined the webinar even though it is a complete pack of values. But you can pull it off, and I can guarantee you a house full of leads.
Do you mind if I tell you that your strategy was wrong?
To make any webinar successful, you need two main factors:
- A compelling topic
- A strong email sequence
I know you have got the first one. Now let’s talk about the second one. Emails are one of the primary and undead marketing tactics ever. Emails still perform well in content marketing and drive accurate results for your brand. You get a chance to build your trust and directly talk about the value you will offer in the webinar. If crafted well, emails can boost your webinar attendance by 57%, which is more massive than social media, which generally gets 14%sign-ups.
So keeping in view the significance of emails for webinars, we will see the exact email sequence you need to have to boost your webinar attendance by 57%.
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Let’s dive into it.
Why do you need a well-structured email sequence?
Before planning a 1:1 conversation with your target audience, you need to grab a free spot in their calendars. According to the Webinar Benchmark Report, almost 28% of attendees sign up eight days before the webinar, and around 54% of attendees sign up fifteen days earlier. If you don’t have an email sequence that reminds your audience fifteen days before, you are losing a considerable percentage of attendees. A well-structured email sequence allows you to have a step-by-step approach to convince your target audience to attend the webinar. You have got weeks to show the value that you will deliver through your webinar. And this also helps in creating FOMO and converting your audience into sales leads.
It’s one-time planning that will later run on autopilot. And by replying to the questions you get after sending a few emails, you are building a healthy relationship with your cold audience.
And this leads me to the best sequential email order you need to set up before the webinar.
How to make the best email sequence for your webinar?
Invitation Email
Well, I know you would have guessed it already. The invitation and the announcement email is the first step you need to take. Keep the invitation email as simple as you can. Did I mention that invitation email is of foremost importance in the entire process? Because an invitation email is a decider, whether your email list (assuming you have one, if not, then please take some time and learn how to build an email list) will decide whether to go for the webinar or not. You don’t need to use fancy templates. A text-only email can perform better and beat the visual template most of the time.
Following are the key elements you will want to include in your invitation email:
- A catchy headline
- Make the email audience-oriented by replacing WE/US with YOU
- Show the value audience will achieve by attending the webinar
- Share essential logistics such as time, date, speaker, and sign up process
- Share a strong and compelling CTA
You need to show your copywriting skills here. Create the entire email in a way that directly talks about the audience’s pain points.
The second email just to hit more inboxes:
You have sent out your invitation email, but it does not prove as satisfactory as you hoped. Should you send a new email? Is it good sending a reminder? Do you think you will sound needy? Well, email expert, Dave Charest, says that you should send another email. Let me tell you a fascinating three-part email strategy that Dave recommended at ConstantContact.
The three steps sequence he suggested is:
- An invitation or announcement email before 2-3 weeks of the webinar
- A reminder email before 1-2 weeks of the webinar
- And it would help if you knocked on the door for the last time as the “LAST CHANCE” email.
The invitation email is the primary driver of the webinar. 70% of the signups depend on invitation emails, so grab your keyboard and make it compelling. Also, you need to make sure that you are choosing an exciting hook. Average open rates in the industry lie between 20.8% to 12%.9%. It would be best if you aimed to hit both benchmarks. An exciting hook can help you increase your open rates. Once they have opened your email, chances are they would take a glance at the first 2-to to three lines. You got it right. An exciting hook and then engaging the first liner is the key.
Confirmation Email:
Let us assume that you have got enough attention that people are queuing on your landing page. Once they get enrolled, send them the confirmation email immediately. You can use built-in email software for sending quick confirmation messages.
You need to add:
- A confirmation message that they are enrolled
- The date, time, and venue mentioned along with the webcast
- Link to join the session (if virtual)
- A quick CTA for grabbing a spot in their calendar
Two days before the big event
At this point, you should have a clear idea of the people who are attending the session. Also, you should ensure that you know the names in your email list who are not in till the date. This last-minute call may create the FOMO effect, which can help you improve the signup rates.
Different experts have different opinions on this last-minute call. Some suggest sending this email one week before the big day, while others suggest sending this a few days before the event. Well, it all depends on your needs.
You should include some essential factors in this email:
- Recap the values that your webinar is going to cover. This will prove a friendly reminder for those who overlooked the importance at first.
- Some of your audience may not be attending this webinar because of urgent meetings or last-minute plan changes. You need to acknowledge their objections and inform them that recording is available for the entire session.
- To boost the excitement, you can highlight some extra benefits.
- The last and most important tip is to add some gifts. Offer your audience the valuable contributions provided at the live event.
The big day email
So today is the final show day. You need to give a sweet reminder to the registered candidates. Ensure that the email is not so pushy and fancy as the person reading this is already interested in the webinar. But still, if your audience is business owners, busy managers, and working bees, then you can highlight the benefits of attending the live session.
Just add some crispy points such as the announcements the guest speaker would make, live guests, and secret strategies. And boost the attendance by not providing all this content in the live session.
Don’t forget to mention the time and date in this email. In this email, you can also add final logistics, such as installing recommended software. This will help the attendee to be prepared for the event beforehand.
The post-webinar email (thank you email)
Ahhh! It’s over. I hope you rocked it. Now, this is high time your attendees are waiting for the presentation slides and recording. So chances of opening rates are also high.
The few key things you need to cover in this email are:
- Send a thank you message to your attendees for taking their precious time to show up. Appreciate their effort and make them feel good.
- A quick recap is also beneficial as this will help the attendees to reinforce the value they learned from the event.
- Make sure to add quick links for the resources such as books, templates, and videos you mentioned in the event.
At last, if you held this webinar as a strategy to upsell something, then it’s time to do it. You, attendees, have seen your value in the webinar, so they will not hesitate to decide for themselves. Depending on your business, you can offer some discount to those who attended the session, boosting your sales rate.
Wrapping up
Webinars hold significant roles in learning perspectives, but you can pull it off. It can be a game-changer for your sales strategy. And a correct email sequence not only helps you boost your attendance rate but also builds your trust with the audience. Now they know that you are the person who talks about their pain points. You can also ask for feedback at last, which will help you improve the weak points for the next time. And this webinar can help you in the future if you make any new launches. You already have a group of people who trust you.
So you can ensure to take your webinar game to the next level by email sequence.
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