How Our Marketing Team Runs Webinar Campaigns

Customers usually ask us: “How can I use GetResponse to promote my business?”

We’ll begin by sharing different prospects’ success tales for inspiration, and we’ve additionally determined to point out you ways our Marketing Team makes use of GetResponse to advertise and educate about, effectively, GetResponse.

In this text, I’ll discuss how we run webinar advertising campaigns. And since we set up near 40 webinars yearly, with our prime one to date attracting greater than 4,000 registrants, there’s so much to speak about.

Hopefully, by sharing the very same course of our staff follows, this text will encourage you to look into all of the methods webinars can assist your online business prosper. And who is aware of, possibly you’ll even use GetResponse on your personal success story!?

Here’s how we run our webinar advertising campaigns in 8 steps:

1. Planning the campaign
2. Creating the webinar
3. Preparing the registration page
4. Sending the webinar invitation
5. Creating the website popup
6. Promoting the webinar via social media, partners, and paid ads
7. Running the webinar
8. Sending the follow-up

But first, let’s briefly clarify what we imply by Dogfooding.

Step 1. Planning the marketing campaign

Tools used: MS Word, MS Teams, Jira, Slack

Before diving right into a webinar marketing campaign, our staff meets to debate the small print of the upcoming mission.

Specifically, we attempt to discover solutions to the next questions:

• What’s the aim of this marketing campaign?
• Who are we attempting to achieve?
• What will the webinar be about?
• When will we run it?
• Who’ll host and help the webinar?
• What advertising actions will we be capable of do?
• How will we comply with up after the webinar?

Example: The aim of your webinar may very well be to coach your present and potential prospects on a brand new software. Or it may very well be to coach them a few new advertising subject and to advertise your new e book. In each instances, the objectives will be measured utilizing totally different metrics, like product adoption or demo requests vs. e book downloads.

Going over these questions helps our staff align and resolve on the scope of actions that we wish to pursue.

For instance, when the webinar marketing campaign must be launched inside the subsequent two weeks, we all know that we gained’t have sufficient time to arrange the property – copy, banners, movies – for paid media campaigns (Facebook and Google advertisements) and might want to follow owned media (web site, emails, in-app communication).

Once we’ve agreed on the small print, we create duties for our staff to allow them to all begin engaged on their actions. This often contains designing banners and writing copy for the webinar registration web page, webinar invitation email, and popups.

Pro tip: Even although we’re a remote-first firm and do a number of issues asynchronously, we attempt to kick off tasks like these throughout a reside name. It helps us get everybody onboard and it makes the mission extra “real.” Everything that we agree on on this name is then summed up in a Slack channel and applicable Jira epic.

Step 2. Creating the webinar

Tools used: GetResponse Webinars

As quickly as we’ve selected the title and date for the webinar, we log in to our GetResponse account and head over to the webinars software.

There, we both create a brand new webinar from scratch or duplicate one among our previous webinars. The latter answer saves us a little bit of time because it carries over many of the settings we’d in any other case should fill in by hand.

If it’s the primary time you’re establishing a webinar in GetResponse, you’ll want to supply the next info:

• Title of the webinar
• Webinar URL
• Date and time
• Duration
• Whether or not you wish to robotically begin recording the webinar when it goes reside
• Whether or not you wish to robotically flip the webinar into an on-demand webinar as soon as it ends
• Lobby messages seen to individuals who go to your webinar URL earlier than the occasion goes reside
• Landing web page the place webinar attendees will go after the webinar ends

Here’s what this appears like for one among our webinar campaigns:

In addition, you’ll want to regulate your registration settings, together with:

• The “from” tackle you’ll wish to use to ship the registration affirmation and reminders
• The email checklist your webinar registrants shall be added to
• Whether or not you wish to add the webinar registrants into an autoresponder sequence
• Whether or not you need the registration to be required
• What template you wish to use on your webinar reminders
• How many webinar reminders you wish to ship earlier than the occasion
• Whether or not you wish to password defend and/or add consent fields to your webinar registration

Here’s what these settings seem like for our webinar:

Adjusting the above settings might look like a variety of effort, however as I discussed, once you use the duplicate characteristic, it saves you roughly 90% of the work.

For our webinars, we often solely want to supply the title, date, and alter the URL. We typically additionally use a customized thanks web page for the webinar, but when we’re brief on time, we use a generic web page as an alternative.

Pro tip 1: We at all times run webinars with the registration turned on, as a result of we wish to acquire contact info from all of the folks on this occasion (together with those who register, however don’t flip as much as the occasion). If this setting was switched off, we’d solely be capable of acquire details about the folks that entered the webinar room (reside or on-demand).

Pro tip 2: We discovered that the majority of our webinar attendees stick with us for about 35-45 minutes, so we attempt to maintain them beneath one hour lengthy. Also, we see that we get the best attendance charge after we ship two to 3 reminders (One day earlier than, one hour earlier than, and 5 minutes earlier than the webinar).

Additional content material:

What is a webinar and the way does it work?

How to create a webinar (video information)

Step 3. Preparing the webinar registration web page

Tools used: GetResponse Website Builder

Once we’ve created the webinar, it’s time to create the webinar registration web page.

In concept, we might skip this step and ship our customers to the webinar registration URL we specified within the earlier step. However, as we wish to maximize our webinar signups, we favor to create a customized webinar registration touchdown web page that not solely appears but in addition converts higher. Plus, it helps us keep the identical model id throughout all channels.

To arrange the webinar registration web page, we’re utilizing the GetResponse Website Builder. If you’ve by no means used the software earlier than, you’ll benefit from the intuitive drag-and-drop editor together with the slick prebuilt web site templates that make the design course of quick and straightforward.

Using the Website Builder, we recreated one of many templates ensuring to regulate the next components

• Headline – it must be catchy and point out the webinar title
• Subheading – it ought to strengthen the title
• Main physique – it wants to elucidate all the required particulars, equivalent to when the webinar takes place, what it’s about, what the takeaways shall be, or who’ll be internet hosting it
• Images – they should relate to the webinar subject
• Webinar registration type – it must register folks for the correct webinar

Note: The webinar registration type enables you to select from webinars which have already been created inside GetResponse and have the registration turned on.

Once we’ve edited the web page visually, we check what it appears like on desktop and cellular gadgets. Once we’re pleased with the outcomes, we head over to the web page settings to regulate the ultimate particulars, together with the web page title, web page description, and the URL.

Let’s discuss a bit in regards to the URL.

GetResponse presents free domains to host your touchdown pages, however you possibly can additionally use your individual subdomain.

For the marketing campaign we shared on this article, we used one of many free domains (grweb.web site) and the webinar registration web page URL was – https://interactive-content.grweb.site.

For different campaigns, we use our personal subdomain – webinars.getresponse.com. In this setup, each time we create a brand new webinar marketing campaign, we simply create a brand new web page and host it beneath the identical subdomain (equivalent to: webinars.getresponse.com/webinar-1). Usually, we favor to make use of our personal subdomain as a result of it assist us keep model id all through all of the channels.

Pro tip: You can solely have one web site assigned to a single subdomain. That means for each webinar marketing campaign you’d both must assign a brand new subdomain or take down the beforehand revealed web page. The workaround for that is to have one predominant web site the place every particular person web page shall be devoted to a unique webinar.

After we’ve completed designing the webinar registration web page and filling out the title, description, and the URL, we be sure our web page is built-in accurately with our Google Analytics account. This integration helps us see the efficiency of the web page within the GA dashboard, together with all our different campaigns.

Here’s what this setup appears for our webinar registration web page:

Additional content material:

How to create high-performing webinar touchdown pages + examples

How to construct an internet site from scratch (+ video information)

How to create an internet site utilizing templates (video information)

Step 4. Sending the webinar invitation

Tools used: GetResponse Email Marketing

With the registration web page reside, we are able to begin selling the webinar to our viewers.

Since GetResponse is generally recognized for its email advertising software program, it’s pure that we’ll start the promotional actions with emails.

We go to our email advertising software, select create publication, and begin engaged on the webinar invitation email.

We begin by naming the message, linking the related checklist for this marketing campaign, selecting the suitable “from” tackle, crafting the topic line, and selecting the recipients.

Example: If the webinar is supposed for our English-speaking viewers, we usually select recipients solely from our English-speaking lists, the place you’d discover all types of customers – free account customers, paid customers, content material subscribers, and so forth. At the identical time, we be sure to exclude anybody who already registered for this occasion or is probably not considering it.

After that, we scroll down and head over to regulate the design and content material of our message.

If you’re doing this for the primary time, there are many prebuilt email templates you possibly can select from. Just decide the one that you just like essentially the most, alter the colour scheme and fonts to match your branding, and begin including your content material.

Since we’ve carried out this course of a number of instances, we go to the prevailing messages tab and reuse one of many webinar invites we’ve despatched prior to now.

Inside the email creator, we be sure so as to add all the required particulars relating to our new webinar.

After we’ve edited the email, we click on subsequent, and head over to the monitoring settings. There, we allow “Click tracking” and “Track link clicks with Google Analytics.”

Thanks to those settings, we’ll be capable of higher analyze the efficiency of our email marketing campaign each inside GetResponse and Google Analytics.

Pro tip: In the Integrations tab inside your GetResponse account, you possibly can customise what Google Analytics UTM parameters (supply, medium, time period, and so forth.) shall be robotically added to your hyperlinks. For our campaigns we use the next setup:

After all this work, the one factor left is to schedule the invitation email to the correct viewers on the proper second.

Pro tip: If you don’t know precisely when to ship your email marketing campaign, decide a time that you just assume is finest on your viewers and activate the “Perfect timing” characteristic. This is what we use for many of our campaigns.

What this characteristic does is it appears at your particular person subscribers’ historic conduct and robotically adjusts timing of the ship out to maximise the probabilities of your emails getting opened.

Additional content material:

How to design a webinar invitation email

How to create a publication (video information)

Tools used: GetResponse Forms and Popups

The subsequent step is to create a popup that’ll announce the webinar to our web site viewers.

Our web site is visited by hundreds of tourists day by day. By publishing a popup on our pages, we are able to attain that viewers with out spending any more money.

We head over to the varieties and popups software, the place we create a brand new popup or duplicate an current one.

If you’re doing this for the primary time, you can begin by selecting one among many prebuilt templates and customise its design to match your branding.

Here’s what our popup appears like:

Once we’ve designed the popup, we flip to the settings, the place we are able to resolve how and the place our immediate shall be proven.

If you need most attain, you possibly can present it to everybody who visits your web site and stays on it for, say, 10 seconds.

If you wish to be extra exact, you possibly can present it solely on specific pages or to individuals who’ve engaged along with your web site in a extra significant manner (for instance, they scrolled by means of 50% of your web page).

Once you’re glad along with your focusing on, all it’s essential to do is set up a line of JavaScript code in your web site (don’t fear, you don’t have to put in writing this your self). This is a one-time course of, and when you do it, you’ll be capable of publish as many popups in your pages as you need. You can see what this course of appears like within the following video:

Additional content material:

What are popups? Definition, sorts, and examples

How to create a popup in 5 straightforward steps

Tools used: Social media platforms, Paid advertisements

Depending on how a lot time we’ve received at our disposal, we flip to different promotional channels – social media, companions, and paid advertisements.

For social media, we ask our webinar hosts and colleagues to ask their very own social media followers to affix the upcoming reside webinar. Typically, they publish a publish a few times on LinkedIn or Twitter. Depending on the place they’re most lively.

Here’s an instance of such a publish:

In addition, our Social Media Team additionally pronounces the webinar utilizing our firm profiles. They do it usually by way of natural posts and reels on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Here’s one instance:

If we’re working the webinar with a accomplice or have secured another partnership settlement, we additionally ask different manufacturers to advertise the upcoming webinar. They do that both by way of social media publish, a publication point out, or a banner advert on their web site.

Here’s an instance of an email our accomplice, Outgrow, despatched to their viewers.

So far, devoted newsletters to our companions’ viewers have labored finest, however this often requires extra syncing with the opposite manufacturers’ staff. In such conditions, we have to present them with the entire email template or a minimum of the copy, banners, and hyperlinks.

Finally, after we’ve received extra time and funds on our arms, we flip to paid advertisements. Usually, we promote our webinars by way of Facebook and Google advertisements. Sometimes, nonetheless, after we’re attempting to achieve a really exact B2B viewers, we additionally put money into LinkedIn advertisements.

Full disclosure: We run most of our paid advert campaigns natively by way of Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn advert administration instruments as a result of we now have a devoted staff that manages the campaigns for us. However, if we had been to do that on our personal, we’d run paid advertisements straight by way of the GetResponse Paid Ads software. While it might not have as many superior choices because the native advert instruments, it’s extra user-friendly and it’s straight built-in with our different advertising instruments.

Paid campaigns have the best attain, however you’ve received to be very exact about your focusing on. In some campaigns we’ve managed to generate webinar signups for as little as $4 per lead whereas in others we’ve spent as a lot as $20 per contact.

Having stated this, we proceed to put money into paid advertisements for our most necessary webinar campaigns, whereas attempting to refine our course of (property, copy, focusing on) to realize essentially the most optimum price per lead.

Here’s an instance of a banner we used to advertise our latest on-demand webinar.

Additional content material:

How to create Facebook advertisements in GetResponse

How to create Google advertisements in GetResponse

Step 7. Running the webinar

Tools used: GetResponse Webinars

With all of the promotional actions accomplished, it’s time to go reside!

We head over to the Webinars tab, hover over the kebab menu on the correct, and click on “Join as presenter.”

After offering our identify, we enter the room the place we are able to check and put together every part earlier than going reside.

The following video reveals you what this course of appears like:

Typically, we reserve half-hour for testing and customizing the webinar room. During that point, we:

• Upload our presentation
• Test the digital camera and microphone setup
• Test the display screen sharing
• Turn on the Q&A mode
• Prepare any surveys and CTAs we wish to present throughout the webinar

Pro tip: If you wish to check the webinar with one other presenter or visitor, ask them to register for the webinar and enter the foyer. From there, you’ll be capable of transfer them to the webinar room and provides them presenter entry.

With every part working and on schedule, we go reside and ensure the webinar recording is turned on.

As I discussed a bit earlier, the principle a part of our webinar takes about 35 to 45 minutes. We additionally be sure to depart about quarter-hour for a reside Q&A session.

After giving the presentation, we shut the webinar for everybody. After this, they need to be redirected to the thanks web page we laid out in Step 2.

Step 8. Sending the follow-up

Tools used: GetResponse Email Marketing or Marketing Automation

The final step in our webinar marketing campaign is the comply with up after the occasion has already aired.

Usually, we ship out one or two emails to everybody who registered for the webinar, the place we embody:

• A thanks message for exhibiting curiosity within the occasion
• Link to the webinar recording
• Additional supplies talked about throughout the webinar
• Future steps or content material they could be considering

Most of the time, we do that by hand. Simply by sending out a publication to the suitable phase of individuals.

Here’s an instance one among such message and the way it carried out:

For extra strong campaigns, we do that course of utilizing our Marketing Automation software.

There, we are able to put together a number of follow-up sequences to particular person buyer segments (individuals who attended the webinar vs. those that solely registered).

Here’s an instance of a easy workflow that’d break up up your viewers based mostly on whether or not they’ve attended the webinar or not. From there, you possibly can broaden it e.g. to see if any of them transformed, visited a specific web page, or watched the recording.

And listed here are the phase settings it’s essential to use to arrange such a phase in your Contacts checklist.

Time to plan your subsequent webinar advertising marketing campaign

Webinars are an necessary a part of how we attain, have interaction, and promote to our B2B viewers.

Our most profitable webinar to date attracted greater than 4,000 registrants and had round 1,000 reside attendees.

How did we obtain this end result? By following the very same course of we simply specified by this text.

Now that you recognize our secret sauce, I’m assured you’ll be capable of succeed utilizing webinars, too.

So why not go forward and begin planning your subsequent webinar advertising marketing campaign?

And in case you ever want any steering, be at liberty to achieve out to our award-winning Customer Support Team, out there to you 24/7.