The SmartMarketer’s Guide toWebinar Marketing

UNBOUNCE www.unbounce.com/resources BY GEORGIANA LAUDI

What’s in the ebook?

17 Steps to Revenue-Generating Webinars

Part I: Before the Event

1. Establish a Compelling and Focused Topic

2. Find and Woo Expert Guests

3. Craft Your Marketing Copy

4. Build the Perfect “Register for the Webinar”

Landing Page

5. Never Miss a Post-Conversion Opportunity

6. Create Your “Offering” Landing Page

7. Tailor Your Social Marketing

8. Secure Your Audience with the “Invite” Email

9. Set up Your Webinar Equipment

10. Prep Your Expert Guest

11. Send the “Last Chance” Email

Part II: The Live Event

12. Host Your Webinar Without a Hitch

Part III: After The Event

13. Establish a Compelling and Focused Topic

14. Create the “Watch the Recording” Landing Page

15. Send the “Follow-up” Email

16. Continue to Generate Leads After the Event

17. Measure the Results

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webinar attendees, and eventually, new customers.

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REVENUE

REGISTRATION PAGE

Before Webinar

turns into

LEAD GEN PAGE

After Webinar

Social Media

InvitationEmails

Blog

SlideShare

RECORDING PAGE

Email to Registrants

Your Website

OFFER PAGE

Post-webinarDemo

Your Product

The Ultimate Webinar Marketing Flowchart

Your webinar marketing campaign will involve sending social, email and web traffic to four different landing

pages. Before the event, that will be your registration page. After the event, you'll transform that landing page

into a lead generation page, which gives leads access to the recording page – where the video of your webinar

lives. Your offer page, which can be promoted during the webinar itself, is where you'll have a chance to turn

those leads into customers.

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Introduction

When we first introduced the idea of adding webinars to our marketing strategy, I’ll admit, I was worried. We

were busy improving our existing channels, webinars were labor-intensive and, in my experience, typically

boring and – even worse – salesy.

I quickly learned that it didn’t have to be that way and that they were easier to manage than I’d thought. And

oh so effective. So effective that our webinar registrations grew from 190 to nearly 3200 in eight months.

More importantly, webinars have become our most powerful marketing channel for acquisition, surpassing

our blog, our ecourse and even our ebooks.

There is something unique and special about live events that podcasts or recordings just can’t offer. Attendees

not only get a sense of taking part in something live (and therefore special), they’re also given the opportunity

to ask their questions, in real time, to experts they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to interact with.

There’s also something about webinars that brings out the decision makers. We’ve found, over the last 20

months of running webinars, that attendees are typically further down the funnel than the audiences on our

other marketing channels.

It’s time to start taking webinars seriously.

This year, 62% of marketers are using webinars in their marketing. That’s up from 59% in 2013. When done

right, webinars can help with lead generation, brand awareness, thought leadership and the holy grail:

customer acquisition and revenue.

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I searched high and low for a comprehensive resource with actionable advice for webinar marketing. As

you might have guessed, my fruitless search resulted in me writing this guide. In this ebook I’m going to

give you our powerful 17-step formula for marketing webinars, using four landing pages and three emails

(no big deal, right?).

Of course, this formula might not be perfect for everyone and it’s important to mention, we’re always

testing new ideas. As should you.

Georgiana Laudi

Director of Marketing

Unbounce

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Setting Goals

Before we get started, and you start drumming up all sorts of webinar topic ideas, you’ll want to get clear

on what your goals are. You may want to generate new leads, start building a community, demo your

product, establish authority on a given topic, or even just engage and provide value for your current

customers. All great goals.

We saw running webinars as an exciting way to give our community an opportunity to learn and ask

questions in real time. We were also looking to distribute our content in new ways. But the true objective

of our webinars from a marketing perspective is likely similar to your own: to increase interest in our

company and, ultimately, revenue.

“This year, 62% of marketers are using webinars in their marketing.

That’s up from 59% in 2013.”

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Part I

Before the Event

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Step 1 Establish a Compelling and Focused Topic

The best way to choose a webinar topic is by gathering feedback. Find out what your customers and

potential customers want to learn, then deliver beyond their expectations.

This could include:

• listening to your customers directly, by reading customer forums or using surveying tools such as

SurveyMonkey and Qualaroo;

• speaking to people on the front lines, like your customer service team and community manager;

• looking at the subject matter of the top-performing blog posts on your own blog and that of your

competitors;

• paying attention to topics that are trending both on social media and across the web.

Webinar topics should always tie back to your specific niche. Spreading webinar topics too broadly or trying to

please everyone with every webinar will only confuse your audience and dilute your authority on the topic.

PRO TIP For the best conversion results, choose “bottom of the funnel” topics that are tied to your

product or offering. When inspired attendees leave your webinar to carry out the advice they were

given, your solution is the first one they’ll think of.

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Finding the Right Expert GuestWho does your community look up to? Who do they

aspire to be like? To identify qualified presenters for

your audience, look into conference speakers, blog

and book authors (who can speak as well as they

write!), experienced webinar presenters and thought

leaders in your field.

If you need to start on a little smaller scale, consider

experts who have made their name writing thoughtful

content and are looking for ways to practice their

speaking in a professional, but more intimate

setting. But always err on the side of caution when

“Convincing a seasoned

speaker to invest their time in

your webinar means proving

that you can bring them

business in return.”

considering partners or clients; you never want to

come off as too promotional. Focus on providing

quality, actionable content for the audience.

Oh, and remember that not every webinar needs

a guest or speaker from outside of your company.

In fact, an in-house expert can be a great place to

start.

Wooing Your Dream GuestPreparing presentations of any sort takes a long

time and webinars are no exception. Be sensitive to

the fact that experts are busy and asking them to

present for 30 minutes or more is a big request.

Once you’ve found a qualified presenter, you need

to first consider what’s in it for them. Convincing

a seasoned speaker to invest their time into your

webinar means proving that you can bring them

business in return.

Describe the reach of the marketing you’ll be

carrying out to drive a qualified (for them!)

audience to the webinar.

Step 2 Find and Woo Industry Expert Guests

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Give past webinar registration and attendance numbers. Lure them in with the promise of your qualified (for them!)

audience. Always lead with what’s in it for them.

But what if you don’t have a huge audience or track record? If you’re really generous (read: strategic), giving them

the opportunity to make an offer to your super-qualified (for them!) and captive audience could be enough to sway

them. Keep a wish list of webinar guests and swing back to those who say no the first time only if you really do

have something more to offer.

PRO TIP Do not expect that your expert guest will email their list about your webinar.

Here’s why:

1. You can’t assume that your webinar fits into their marketing department’s plan. There is no way for

you to know what emails they have scheduled or the expectations of the people on their list. Your list

is precious to you; respect the preciousness of their list to them.

2. Asking someone who is very busy to prepare a professional, well thought-out presentation for your

audience is bold. Asking them (or their team) to also take the time to promote your event for you is

audacious. Insisting they email their list in order to be your guest is greedy.

3. If they’re a well-known expert in your industry and you’re a smaller player, having their name

associated with your company is a win for you, not them. Don’t push it.

4. If you prepare all the copy and assets they’d need to promote your event, they might mention it to

their social networks or add it to a newsletter. You could get lucky, just don’t count on it.

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Step 3 Craft Your Marketing Copy

After you’ve settled on a webinar topic that both

you and your guest are excited about, it’s time to

take the time to carefully craft the marketing copy

for your webinar. You (and maybe your guest) will

use this copy on landing pages, email invites

and social marketing throughout your webinar

campaign. Getting this messaging just right is

pivotal to the success of your webinar.

Some people like to have their guest take

a first stab at the description. This ensures

that you’re both on the same page and gives

you an opportunity to clear up any potential

misunderstanding before any embarrassing public

announcements. No matter who writes the copy,

always send it to them, confirming it’s in line

with the content of their presentation before

announcing your webinar.

Title The webinar title should answer the question,

“What will I get by giving you an hour of my time

and attention?” The more actionable the title, the

better. The best performing title we’ve used for

an Unwebinar (based on email open rates) was “10 Landing Page Mistakes You’re Probably Making and

How To Fix Them.”

DescriptionA short description of a few sentences, followed

by three to four bullet points outlining exactly

what the attendee will learn from attending, will

set the tone for the event to come. You don’t

need a ton of copy, you’re not selling an expensive

or complicated product. Focus on the benefits

attendees will walk away with.

“The webinar title should

answer the question, ‘What will I

get by giving you an hour of my

time and attention?’”

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Guest BiographyMost often, your guest will provide their own

bio; be sure that it introduces them in a way that

qualifies them as the best in their industry and an

expert on the topic at hand. Including a photo

helps to personalize them, putting a face to the

name, and making them more relatable. It also

helps visitors familiar with the expert guest to

recall that they know and trust them, so if they

use a particular profile photo consistently, be

sure to use that one as it’ll be recognized first.

PRO TIP Clarity trumps all other copy decisions. We split-

tested the following two webinar invite subject

lines for an upcoming webinar with our comedic

Scottish co-founder Oli Gardner. Can you guess

which one won?

Variation A: [Webinar] Some Call Him the

Scottish Chuck Norris of LPO…

Variation B: [Webinar] The 3 Landing Page

Mistakes 98% of Marketers Are Making

Answer: B. The clear and descriptive headline

won all around with a 3% higher open rate and a

34% higher click-through rate. Lesson learned?

Don’t sacrifice clarity for cleverness in your

webinar title or description.

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Step 4 Build the Perfect “Register for the Webinar” Landing Page

With your webinar marketing copy in hand,

it’s time to create the most important landing

page of your campaign, the “Register for the

Webinar” landing page (catchy, I know).

This landing page will make or break your

webinar – because if this page fails to do its

job, you and your guest will be talking to no

one (cue the crickets).

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The 5 Elements of a High-Converting Webinar Landing PageEvery landing page needs the following five

elements to be successful:

Unique Selling Proposition (USP) - Your actionable

webinar title

Hero Shot - Your expert guest’s photo and bio

Benefits - The description of what attendees will

learn from the webinar

Social Proof - Testimonials about the guest or your

pervious webinars

Call to Action - Your registration form and button

It’s worth pausing here to stress the fifth element

(great movie). Every landing page should have one

and only one purpose, so as you’d expect, only one

call to action. That is, only one link (or leak) off the

page and toward your one desired conversion goal.

The image to the right demonstrates where and

how you might like to use each element on your

“Register for the Webinar” landing page. If you’re

interested in reading more, check out the five

elements of a high-converting landing page.

Here are the five elements of a high-converting landing page in action on a “Register for the Webinar” landing page.

USP

Benefits

Hero Shot

Social Proof

Call-to-Action

Get Unbounce’s Webinar

Registration Landing Page

Template Free

FREE TEMPLATE

We’ve A/B tested this landing page for over a year

and saw our conversion rates increase 150%.

For your webinar registration page to be as

conversion-oriented as possible, you must

include these five elements. They provide just

the right amount of information for a visitor to

make their decision.

Right around now, you might be thinking that

your webinar tool offers its own generic webinar

registration page template. That should do the

trick, right?

Nope.

You should never use your webinar tool’s

landing page.

Here’s why:

• It doesn’t represent your company or

brand;

• It’s missing important elements that will

hurt your conversion rates;

• It’s generic and not professional-looking;

• You can’t optimize it through split-testing;

• You’re missing out on a post-conversion

opportunity (more on this later). DOWNLOAD THE ULTIMATE WEBINAR TEMPLATE

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Here’s a typical default landing page template from your webinar software.

And here is a custom-built experience you could be providing visitors, incorporating the five elements of a high-converting landing page. This switch yielded us a 150% increase in conversions.

“You should never use your

webinar tool’s landing page.”

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Connecting Your Landing Page to Your Webinar SoftwareCollect registrant information on a landing page built with a page builder like, say, Unbounce and connect

it via Zapier to your webinar hosting software of choice (like GoToWebinar). It’s really that simple and the

increase in conversions you’ll see is worth any extra hassle.

Using the default webinar software registration page, we saw a conversion rate of approximately 23%. But

since we started using our own custom pages and A/B testing, conversion rates are typically 60-70%. That’s

a 150% increase in conversions. Case closed.

Zapier allows you to connect your Unbounce webinar registration page to GoToWebinar via a “Zap.”

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A/B Testing Your Landing PageWhen you’re first starting out, you should be

focusing on getting your five landing page

elements solidly in place. But you might find that

after some time, you have ideas about how your

page might perform better. Awesome.

Take a read through The Ultimate Guide to A/B

Testing, it’s a great resource to get you started

optimizing your landing pages like a pro.

Here are a couple examples of what we’ve tested in

the past:

• Outlining the description of the webinar

in paragraph form versus bullet points.

The bullet points resulted in 39% more

registrations.

• Adding a counter as an element of social

proof to see if knowing how many people

had already registered would motivate

others to sign up. The page with the

counter had 21% fewer registrations than the

page without it.

Although we did achieve statistical significance

on these tests, there are no hard and fast rules for

what will convert for you and your visitors. Always

run tests for yourself to be sure you’re not

missing out on opportunities to increase your

conversion rate.

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PRO TIP Asking people to participate in advance (by

submitting questions, for example) is a great

way to help build out the webinar content

and get extra “buy-in” from registrants.

For our Science of Landing Pages webinar,

we asked registrants to submit a landing

page for a live critique, received 500 landing

page submissions and saw a 20% increase in

attendance.

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Step 5 Never Miss a Post-Conversion Opportunity

You’ve successfully convinced your visitor to register

for your webinar. Well done!

Don’t neglect your confirmation page (also referred

to as a “Thank you” page), they are a seriously

undervalued marketing opportunity. Because

they’ve already put their trust in you (by filling out

your form, for example), the people who reach your

confirmation pages are warm, qualified and willing

to engage with your content.

After the conversion, when they’re still hot for

you, offer more.

Offer a “next step” to leads who have already self-

selected as being highly qualified. Most people like

direction, and this is your opportunity for subtle

follow-up marketing. The key word here is “subtle”

– you don’t want to oversell. Rather, offer them

something of value to exceed their expectations.

By including a form to subscribe to the Unbounce

Blog on our webinar registration confirmation page,

we grew our blog subscriber list by 60% in just

two webinars.

KISSmetrics turned webinars into their #1 acquisition

channel using a similar post-conversion tactic. It’s

true: Post-Conversion Strategy is a beautiful thing.

Here’s an example of what someone who has just filled out your form might see. This tactic gave us an increase in blog subscribers of 60% in just two webinar campaigns.

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6 Post-Conversion Marketing Ideas for Your Thank You Page

You have a blank page to work with and a few

precious seconds to direct your new lead. Here are

six post-conversion ideas that you can use:

1. Ask them to follow you via social media

(Twitter, Facebook) to learn about other

opportunities.

2. Give them a discount code or coupon.

3. Send them to an important “What to Do

Next” page.

4. Ask them to subscribe to your super valuable

(and related) newsletter.

5. Ask them to subscribe to an email drip

campaign like a course on a similar topic.

6. Ask them to subscribe to your blog to

continue learning.

You get the idea...

“After the conversion, when they’re

still hot for you, offer more.”

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What’s Next?

SUBSCRIBE

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Step 6 Build Your “Offering” Landing Page

Using the five elements of a high-converting

landing page, it’s time to build another page

that will be used strategically throughout

your webinar campaign. This page is all

about promoting your product or service.

New business is after all the goal of these

webinars, right?

Your offering landing page should be tied to

the webinar content in some way so that it’s

immediately obvious why your product or

service is the solution they’re looking for.

Remember, they’ve already expressed

interest in your webinar topic so they’re likely

looking to implement what the webinar will

teach them. Well, there you are – or rather,

your landing page is – with the solution.

This is an example of an Unbounce landing page we use for webinar registrants and attendees to try our platform. Because it’s dedicated to a webinar on lead generation, there is a strong message match between the webinar content and the offer, which helps us to be as relevant as possible to the visitor who lands here.

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Landing Page Optimization Tip: Message Match

Make sure there is a strong message match

between your webinar marketing and your

business’s offering landing page.

Message match is a measure of how well

your landing page matches the marketing

experience that took visitors to the page. For

the best visitor experience possible, reinforce

why visitors have landed there, where they

came from and that they’re in the right place.

In the case of the example on the previous

page, the “offering” landing page was tied to

a webinar about lead generation. We used

“lead generation” copy in the headline, sub-

heading and CTA to ensure a strong message

match between traffic source – our lead gen

webinar (pictured to the right) – and our

offering page.

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Step 7 Tailor Your Social Marketing

The time has come in your webinar marketing

campaign to start driving traffic to your registration

landing page. Though you might immediately look

to email, social networks are a big opportunity for

people new to your company to see you shine.

If you just keep talking to the same people over and

over again in their inbox, you’ll never reach as wide

an audience as you could. Besides, if your guest

jumps on board with this part of the campaign, this

might be your only opportunity to appeal to their

community.

Every social network has its own benefits and should

be tackled individually. Blasting every channel with

the same message and format from your fancy social

publishing tool won’t get you great results. Take

each social network as an opportunity to reach new

audiences and make the biggest impact you can.

Here’s what a typical webinar announcement on Google+ might look like.

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Here are some ways to best leverage each social

network:

Twitter• Attach images to your tweets: It’s a great

way to help them stand out among the

thousands, or even tens of thousands of

other tweets a potential registrant will see in

a day.

• Use a hashtag before, during and after the

webinar (ours is #unwebinar) to engage

with the community and gather some great

testimonials for future webinar marketing.

• Don’t be afraid to tweet a few times leading

up to your event. You may want to cover

the most popular times of day that your

followers are most active (like early morning,

mid-day and late at night).

• Spread out your tweets over the course of

your campaign. Tweeting once or twice per

day in the weeks and days leading up to your

event, and then picking up the pace closer to

“On Air” time should be plenty.

• Use urgency tactics like “Last Chance”

and “Only one hour left, there’s still room

to register!” This can go a long way in

encouraging last-minuters on event day, and

also warn your followers that your stream is

about to be dedicated to your webinar.

Using images in your tweets is a powerful way to draw attention to your webinar.

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Google+• Create a Google+ event – the notification

gets pushed to every one of your followers.

Be sure to link to your registration page

at the very start of the event description,

making it clear that people must register on

the landing page in order to be counted.

• Post to relevant Google+ communities

who focus on topics which will be covered

in your webinar. No spamming! You will only

hurt your chances of being taken seriously

and you could risk being banned or reported.

• Your giant cover photo is real estate

you could take advantage of. Upload a

promotional banner and put a link in the

description to the registration landing page.

An example of a Google+ event we’ve used to encourage registration for our webinars.

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LinkedIn• Encourage your LinkedIn connections to

spread the love about the webinar one to

two weeks prior to the event.

• Find a non-spammy way to promote your

event in LinkedIn groups. As with Google+

communities, make sure the content of the

webinar is super relevant to members.

• Don’t forget to post your webinar to your

company page. Here again, using images in

your posts will help them stand out.

Here’s an example of our webinar promotion on LinkedIn.

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Facebook• Upload a new cover photo to promote your

webinar (seen in example to the right). Use

the image description and be sure to link out

to the registration page.

• Post a thought-provoking quote from the

expert guest – linked to the registration

page, of course.

• Don’t spam! Facebook users tend to be

particularly sensitive to oversharing and

fans will unlike your page without a second

thought.

This is a great example of a Facebook cover photo being used to promote a webinar. Notice the description, and also not one but two links to the registration page.

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Step 8 Secure Your Webinar with the “Invite” Email

Email is the single most effective way to drive

interest in your webinar and traffic to the

registration page.

In fact, we’ve found that 70% of all our webinar

registrations come via our invitation emails. This

is partially due to a list of people who are already

familiar with us, but also because email is still one

of the most powerful marketing communication

tools.

Double-, triple- and even quadruple-check that

your email has no typos or broken links and that

it clearly communicates your offer. One broken

link and your webinar is at a serious disadvantage.

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Your webinar invite email will have three points

at which a conversion is made. This is where you

should focus your attention:

1. The subject line needs to be clear and concise

enough to describe what the webinar is about,

and attention-grabbing enough to persuade

someone to open it. We A/B test our email

subject lines on almost every email we send.

2. The body copy should be concise and deliver the

benefits of attending the webinar without being

too long. We find that using humor is a great way

to hold someone’s attention, but the tone you

use will depend on your brand.

3. The call to action (CTA) linking to your

registration landing page should be front and

center. The text should describe what the person

will get when they click the button – we often

use “save my seat.”

PRO TIPS• In every webinar email we include the

following text: “Can’t attend the webinar?

Register anyway and we’ll send you the

recording.” We include this in some of

our social sharing as well. Sure, it could

hurt attendance since people won’t worry

about missing it when the day comes,

but registration (lead gen) improves

dramatically, and no one feels like they’re

missing out just because of their busy

schedule.

• Use a “PS” in your email. Links included

here are often the most clicked of

any link. We use the “PS” to link to our

“offering” landing page, which gives

visitors more information about our

product.

“Your webinar invite email will have three points at which a conversion is made.”

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Step 9 Set up Your Webinar Equipment

This ebook is about webinar marketing, but here are

some logistical tips to get you started:

1. You’ll need equipment like a mic and headphonesAudio quality can make or break your webinar.

Although the initial cost of purchasing a mic and

webinar software might feel high to some, it’s an

investment you can’t afford to skimp on.

If the audio on your webinar is bad – or worse,

interrupted during the broadcast – it will kill the

credibility of the webinar you’ve worked so hard on.

If there is only one person in each room on your

webinars, a USB mic will do just fine. But if you plan

on having multiple people (like an in-person guest),

anticipate a more sophisticated setup.

Some webinar software can be funny about

accepting multiple audio inputs, which is a great

example of the type of thing you want to test well

ahead of time.

2. You’ll need software to professionally record, edit and upload your webinar contentGoToWebinar is largely considered the standard for

online presentations. That’s what we use and so

some of the features we mention in this ebook are

specific to GoToWebinar. If you’re worried about

keeping things simple for attendees, you might want

to consider using the most popular software you

can afford.

3. You’ll want a dedicated space for holding your webinarsThis is where your equipment and software setup

will stay permanently. Ideally, you’ll also mount

studio foam on the walls to dampen any echo. Run

through dress rehearsals of your webinar in this

room, mimicking the exact setup you intend to

use so you can avoid any embarrassing technical

hiccups in front of a live crowd.

Read more about the specific webinar equipment

we use at Unbounce.

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Step 10 Prepare Your Guest

Set ExpectationsYour guest might be accustomed to being on

webinars, but everyone runs theirs a little differently.

Have a defined webinar schedule and send it to your

guest in advance.

It might look something like this:

• 30 min before start time: Host and guest start

testing audio levels and software

• Start time to 5 min: Welcomes, housekeeping

and intros

• 5 min to 45 min: Guest takes over for

presentation

• 45 min to 60 min: Questions from attendees

and wrap-up

Help with the SlidesPrepare slide templates for your guest in their

preferred format (Keynote or PowerPoint, for

example). Once they’re done adding their content,

offer – or better yet, request – to go over them to

ensure that the presentation is consistent with

your audience’s expectations (explain that you

want to make sure the webinar is a success). This

gives you a chance to provide feedback and clean up

any little errors you spot.

Ideally, you want to make sure they’re keeping the

promises you made in the webinar description. You

also want to make sure that the presentation is on

point and maintains momentum so that it keeps your

audience’s attention. This isn’t usually an issue for

a seasoned speaker, but remember that you know

your audience better than anyone. It’s up to you to

relay that knowledge to your guest.  

Keep in mind that making sure your marketing

goals are being met with their content is your

responsibility, not theirs. It’s your job to ensure

that your audience will see the link between the

presentation and your product or service. At

Unbounce, we make sure that our presenter ties

their topic back to landing pages and conversion

so we know it will resonate with our audience of

conversion-focused marketers.

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Step 11 Send the “Last Chance” Email

Never underestimate the power of urgency.

Sending a last minute email on the day before

your event to email recipients who didn’t open the

invitation email is a great way to generate additional

registrations.

In fact, we typically get about a third of our

webinar registrants from this email. It’s important

to segment your list carefully so you aren’t

spamming anyone (kittens die, after all). Make it

clear that this really is their last chance to learn

about all the amazing stuff you’ll be teaching them.

This second email doesn’t need new copy. It’s

perfectly fine to use very similar messaging to your

“Invite Email” (remember, they didn’t see it). This is

a great opportunity to improve your email based on

how the first email performed in terms of open rates

and click rates. This is as much your last chance as

it is the recipients’.

Notice that twice in this email we mention that the webinar is tomorrow. We also change the email subject to include the words “Last Chance!”

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Have a Dress RehearsalHow many times have you had a video chat go

wrong? Now imagine adding screen sharing

software, broadcasting capabilities, and a slide

presentation. Add a second presenter with their own

assumptions, script, knowledge of software (or lack

thereof) and agenda.

Mitigate the inevitable technical hiccups by doing

a dry run a week before the webinar date. Use the

same software and hardware you plan to use for

the live broadcast. It’s also a good idea to get a third

person to join the dry run as an attendee to confirm

they have no audio or video troubles.

Having a dress rehearsal also allows you or whoever

is hosting the webinar to build a rapport with your

guest and get a feel for the presentation flow.

For example, you may want to ask how they feel

about interjections or if they prefer to only accept

questions at the very end.

Ultimately, this serves to put the guest at ease,

knowing that they’ll be taken good care of during

the live event.

“Making sure your marketing

goals are being met is your

responsibility, not theirs. It’s

your job to ensure that your

audience will see the link

between the presentation

and your product or service.”

Tweet This

Part II

The Live Event

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Step 12 Host Your Webinar

Gather Your Event TeamYour setup will be partially determined by the

webinar software you’re using, but having anywhere

from 3-5 people on deck for your broadcast is ideal.

If you thought running an amazing webinar was a

one-man show, you were sadly mistaken.

Oli and Ryan in our “studio” for one of our first Unwebinars.

Never doubt the importance of having someone on

the webinar who isn’t speaking/presenting. True story:

I attended a webinar that had 10 full minutes of chirps

of audio like a skipping record but the host and guest

had no idea no one could hear them because they were

(duh) busy hosting and guesting!

Despite how hard you might try, you cannot talk and

read (questions, comments, tweets) at the same time.

“If you thought running an

amazing webinar was a one-man

show, you were sadly mistaken.”

Tweet This

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Here’s what your webinar dream team might look like:

If you’re short on resources in your early webinar days, you can absolutely merge the last three roles

like we did (ahem, moi), but be ready to break them out when the number of attendees picks up, since

each role will need a lot more attention.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

The Host is focused on engaging the audience and guest, interjecting at opportune moments

to ask thoughtful questions and keep up momentum from start to finish.

The Industry Expert Guest is presenting their heart out.

The Sidekick furiously answers attendee questions that come in via the chat box and gathers

good questions for the presenter to ask. Some webinars wait until the end to field questions,

forcing the host to skim through them on the fly. That’s awkward. Having a sidekick allows

your host and guest to focus on hosting and guesting.

The Community Manager monitors the webinar hashtag on Twitter and fields questions from

attendees. They are also a great person to gather up any URLs mentioned during the webinar

for sharing immediately and in the follow-up email.

The Manager keeps a bird’s-eye view, keeping an eye on audience attentiveness (a real-time

meter in GoToWebinar which can give tons of insight into what’s working and what’s not), an

eye on Twitter and the GTW question box in case any red flags are raised, and an ear on the

audio quality and pace. If anything looks amiss, they find a way to fix it or pass info along to

the presenters or sidekick.

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Gather FeedbackWhile we’re able to field attendee questions

via the chat widget on GoToWebinar, we also

encourage people to ask questions via Twitter

using our #unwebinar hashtag so that some of the

conversation takes place in public. Lately we’ve

been asking our guests to stick around on Twitter

for an hour or so after the presentation, which is

a treat for attendees and provides the guest with

instant feedback and satisfaction that the webinar

was worth their while.

Your webinar software might also have a feature

that lets you deliver an exit survey when attendees

leave the webinar. This is a great way to gather

instant feedback. You might ask if they found the

webinar helpful (if so, great – but if not, what can

be improved?) and to see which topics attract the

most qualified leads.

PRO TIP Offer something more to do after the

webinar is over. This is something we picked

up from our friend Nemo at KISSmetrics.

At the very start of our webinars we let

attendees know that for anyone who is

interested, we’ll be offering a demo of

Unbounce after the webinar is over. On

average about 40% of attendees stick

around and continue to ask questions.

Brilliant. This is a great opportunity to link to

your “offering” landing page. We also allow

our guests to present an offer of their own

on one slide during the presentation.

Record the WebinarYour webinar registrants and attendees will

definitely want and certainly ask for the webinar

recording. Make sure you press the “record

webinar” button. You won’t make that mistake

twice. In fact, to safeguard we often have more

than one person record the webinar from separate

locations.

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Part III

After the Event

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Step 13 Fine-Tune Your Webinar Recording

The recording of your webinar is one of the most important pieces of your webinar marketing. Don’t

forget, you’ve promised the recording to everyone who registered and there’s no doubt that you’ll be

asked a handful of times before, during and after the webinar when you’ll be sending the recording.

If any glaring mistakes were made during the webinar, now’s your chance to edit those blemishes out.

If you want to get fancy, you can also add special effects, splash pages, or CTAs into your video. When

you’re happy with the video, upload it to your video player of choice (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, etc.).

PRO TIP Video hosting services like YouTube give you the option to add comments and links strategically

throughout your video recordings. Rewatch the webinar looking for opportunities where people

might have liked to dig a little deeper into products or services (ahem, yours) and add them in as

contextually as possible. Whatever you do, don’t overdo it. Depending on the length of the video,

one or two should be enough or you’ll lose a ton of credibility and come across as spammy.

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Step 14 Build the “Watch the Recording” Landing Page

Even though the recording may be hosted by

YouTube or Vimeo, create a landing page with

the recording on it. On this landing page,

include the title and description of the webinar, a

nice large embed of the video, and a CTA linking

to your “offering” landing page. Similar to the

example to the right.

This page will serve two very important

audiences:

1. Webinar registrants and attendees from

your webinar follow-up email

2. Those who request the recording later

from your content repurposing (which

we’ll get to soon)

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The purpose of this page is also twofold:

1. It gives visitors a nice clean video-watching experience surrounded by the relevant information

they need (like who is speaking, what will be covered, and how long the video might be).

2. There is a clear call-to-action button related exactly to the content of the webinar. The CTA sends

visitors to your targeted “Offering” landing page, which is all about implementing what the webinar

has just taught them (because the webinar topic was tied to your product or service and actionable,

remember?).

Though building this page would be very tempting to skip in the interest of saving time, don’t. Sure, you

could just send people to Vimeo or YouTube, but that’s you directing them “out of your house,” so to

speak.

Your goal is not to send people away but to keep them engaged with your brand, your content and the

pages you own and manage yourself.

Besides, if you don’t create this page, you’ll miss out on the awesome lead gen potential that’s yet to

come...

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Step 15 Send the “Follow-up” Email

I can’t stress this enough. If there’s one thing

we know about webinars, it’s that people want

the recording. Give them what they want.

And unless your inbox can handle an influx of

questions about when the recording will be

available, be quick about it.

First, move your list of registrants and

attendees from your webinar software to your

favorite email marketing tool. This should be as

simple as an export and import.

Next, segment your list so you can send

targeted emails. For instance, “attended” vs.

“did not attend,” “asked a question,” “raised their

hand when you asked if they wanted a product

demo”… you get the idea.

Though we’ve tried many ways to slice and

dice, we segment our list simply by “lead” vs.

“customer.” This allows us to add a call to action

linking to our “offering” landing page in our

follow-up email to leads, but not to customers.

Although these follow-up emails might not be the cleanest examples of “one page (or in this case, email), one purpose,” the goal is to deliver on what you’ve promised, and continue to exceed expectations. Just don’t forget your “Offering” landing page.

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In your follow-up email you’ll include:

• A quick recap - How the webinar went and what was covered.

• The webinar recording - This links to the “webinar recording” landing page you created above.

• The webinar slides - You’d be surprised how many times we’ve been asked for these.

• Resources mentioned during the webinar - Gathered by your community manager.

• A request for feedback about the webinar - Start a conversation!

• A promotional offer from your guest (if any).

• A CTA linking to your “offering” landing page (only if they’re leads, not already customers).

PRO TIP Email your expert guest. Share the recording link with them. Ask them how their experience

was. Give them some numbers on how it performed. Share feedback you’ve received. Shower

them with compliments – they deserve it.

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Step 16 Continue to Generate Leads After the Event

Turn the “Register for the Webinar” Landing Page into a “Get the Recording” Landing Page

If you’re a lead gen machine, now’s the time to

repurpose your webinar registration page as a

landing page where people can sign up to watch

the recording.

In your landing page tool, duplicate the “register

for the webinar” page and on the new page

change the copy to reflect the new goal, your

new call to action: “Get the webinar recording.”

Send those who complete the form to the

“webinar recording” landing page you built (in

step 14).

By duplicating the page (rather than building a

new one) you get to use the same URL for your

“get the recording” page as you did for the initial

registration page. This way, all the promotion you did

prior to the webinar will now link to your new lead

gen page. Magic.

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Repurposing Your Webinar Content

The opportunities for getting mileage out of your webinar recording don’t stop after you send the follow-

up email. There are many ways you can repurpose your webinar to keep the content (and lead generation

opportunities) alive:

Create a follow-up blog post about the webinar where you break down key insights, answer attendee

questions that were missed, and include tweetable quotes.

Add a call to action or links within related blog posts which cover a similar topic, linking to the “get

the recording” landing page.

Turn the webinar into a podcast for people who prefer to consume content on the go.

Add a link to the recording to your website’s resources library.

Upload your video to YouTube so that it can be found organically through search.

Share your slide deck on communities such as SlideShare.

The possibilities for repurposing the webinar recording are endless. You just might find that your webinar

recording is a gift that keeps on giving.

“The opportunities for getting mileage out of your webinar recording

don’t stop after you send the follow-up email.”

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Tweet This

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Step 17 Measure the Results

Use tweets about your webinars as social proof (one of the five landing page elements) on your registration and lead gen landing pages.

Should you gauge the success of your webinars by the number of new clients or customers each webinar

drives? Very likely. But to look only at that metric would be shortsighted.

Striving to make each webinar an educational and entertaining experience for your audience is key for

ensuring their long-term success.

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Here are some things you might consider

measuring to know if your webinars are working:

• Registration – This one is easy to track

on both your landing pages and your

webinar software. We receive an average

of 2,500 registrants per monthly webinar. If

registration is ever a little lower, we usually

know our topic or copy might not have been

as good as it could have been.  

• Attendance – This number is gathered

during the live event. The standard

attendance for webinars is 30% (70% no-

shows). We typically see around 25%, since

we heavily promote registering in order to

get the recording (even if you can’t make the

event). This keeps registration numbers high,

but relative attendance a bit lower.

• Attendee Satisfaction – Again, many

webinar softwares will give you the option of

running an exit survey. Asking for feedback

on your event at this moment can be

invaluable. For example, of the attendees

surveyed in a recent webinar, 80% said the

event was the highlight of their day. That’s

awesome, but what could we have done for

the other 20%? Bonus tip: It’s also a good

idea to gather quotes from Twitter, which you

can then use as social proof on your landing

pages.

• Polling Your Attendees – Through webinar

surveys, we found that 41% of our webinar

attendees are qualified leads. Knowing

this helps us select relevant topics for our

audience.

• Your Conversion Goals – By using proper

UTM codes throughout your campaigns, you

should be able to tie each webinar campaign

to your goal (whether it’s sign-ups, sales,

consultation requests or whatever else). With

proper tracking we were able to pinpoint

webinars as our single most successful

type of marketing campaign; over the last

20 months, they’ve been our #1 marketing

channel for acquiring new customers.

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Call to Action

If webinars feel stale, outdated or too resource-intensive, it’s probably because you haven’t seen many

marketers do them right. Having a detailed game plan like I’ve laid out in this ebook – from goals to creative

assets to KPIs – will determine whether or not your webinars resonate and ultimately convert.

In the end, webinar marketing is as simple as creating four landing pages, three emails and kick-ass content

that people love so much they’ll thank you for it with their business. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it.

- Georgiana Laudi

Georgiana Laudi is the Director of Marketing at Unbounce. It’s not easy marketing

to marketers, and she likes it that way. A former consultant, agency hired gun, brand

manager and tech community organizer, Georgiana’s been cracking integrated web

marketing across search, ecommerce, copy, email, social, product, analytics and

usability for more than 10 years. Most days you can find her proving it’s possible

to be a doer and a perfectionist. Find her on Twitter selectively tweeting about

marketing at @ggiiaa. 

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