Have you thought about hosting a free webinar for your business? These resources are an excellent way to market yourself because they…

• Grow your email list and generate leads
• Position you as an expert
• Increase brand awareness

When you have a service that you want to fill or a product that you want to sell, webinars are a great way to provide value to your audience and then pitch your product or service to them. If done correctly, webinars help you to gain more business. And who wouldn’t want that?

Follow the steps below to learn how to use webinars to generate leads.

Determine How You Can Benefit Your Audience

The first thing you need to do when planning a webinar is picking your topic, which must help your audience in some way. Refer to your handy list of problems, struggles, or needs your ideal clients or customers have, and select a webinar topic that solves one of those issues.

You’ll also want to figure out what you’re going to pitch at the end of the webinar because that product or service will relate directly to the topic. For example, if we were to host a webinar on how to plan and grow your social media accounts, we’d most likely pitch our social media management services at the end because this service is perfect for individuals who want an optimized online presence but don’t have the time to handle it on their own.

You can’t attract the right people if you aren’t providing value, so delivering a webinar on a highly sought-after topic is crucial for gaining some interest.

Plan the Logistics

Now that you know your topic and pitch, here comes the technical stuff. You need to figure out the following:

1. The day and time. When are you going to host your webinar? It should be at least a few weeks in advance so that you have plenty of time to promote it.
2. The software. What software are you going to use for not only presenting the webinar but also helping people sign up for it? You want to make it easy and convenient for people to register and attend.
3. The content. What exactly are you going to deliver during the webinar? Having your thoughts outlined in advance ensures you cover all of the main points and don’t leave anything out.

Once you determine how this is all going to work, you can move onto the marketing portion of it–AKA getting people to sign up.

Create A Landing Page and Autoresponder

To allow individuals to easily register for your webinar, you’ll need a landing page plus an autoresponder that instantly sends them the dial-in details for joining. Your landing page should contain the following:

• The title of your webinar
• The day and time
• Who the webinar is for
• What you’ll cover

The landing page is what you’ll be sharing online, so you want to make sure that it’s aesthetically appealing and also discusses the pain points that you’ll be solving for your audience. Your autoresponder should do the following:

• Thank the participant for registering
• Share the details for joining the webinar on the designated day and time

Make sure to test the landing page and autoresponder before promoting it so that you can ensure everything works smoothly before people start to sign up. You’ll also want to schedule a few emails leading up to the event–perhaps a week before and the day of–to remind people and share the dial-in details again.

Develop A Marketing Plan

Your ducks are now all in a row–you’ve picked the topic and your pitch, covered the technical aspects, and created the signup method. Time to move onto the most important part–getting people to register. Marketing will help you with that!

You’ll want to focus on the following avenues:

1. Create an event listing on various sites (Facebook, Eventbrite, etc.)
2. Promote it on social media (SEE MORE: Why You Should Use A Social Media Content Calendar)
3. Send newsletters to your email list
4. Reach out to leads
5. Run paid ads
6. Ask your colleagues to share it with their audiences
7. Post about it in Facebook groups (SEE MORE: 5 Ways to Use Facebook Groups to Grow Your Business)

When planning your marketing content, there are two things to keep in mind: consistency and value. You want to be consistent with promoting the webinar so that way people have plenty of opportunities to register, and you also want to demonstrate the value of why they should sign up for it.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Social Media Content Calendar

Deliver the Webinar

The day has come and it’s time for you to deliver your webinar–woo! With the list of notes you wrote for what you wanted to discuss, you’ll be golden with presenting something that people truly enjoy. Although it’s expected that you’ll be pitching something at the end–and you have every right to do so–focus on delivering as much value as possible before the pitch comes in. Doing so will absolutely draw your audience in and then make them realize just how much they need whatever product or service you’re offering.

When you pitch your offer, focus on the problems and solutions. You want to show your audience that you resonate with them by understanding the struggles that they have, but then you want to show them how this product or service provides the right solution. Once they realize how you’ll be able to support them, it’ll be a no brainer for them to take that next step in obtaining that offer–whether it’s setting up a call or purchasing it directly.

Follow Up

The time has come and you’ve now delivered your webinar–woo! However, the work doesn’t end when you present your webinar–you need to follow up. Put these actions into place:

1. Send an email to attendees thanking them for coming and repeating the pitch you gave at the end of the webinar
2. Get in touch with the individuals who expressed interest in the product or service you pitched
3. Nurture your attendees / new email subscribers by sending consistent newsletters

The most important step to focus on with the follow up is #3. You’ve spent so much time planning the webinar, promoting it, and delivering it to generate leads that you want to be able to actually do something for those leads and continue to prove to them why they should invest in your products or services.

Interested in planning your own webinar? Our marketing strategy services can support you with that.