Episode 8- Invites and managing Filling the seats Part 2 (also known as marketing/promotion!)
In E7 we got this going- I talked about how far out to connect about your webinar and options to reach your fans.
Today’s episode- number 8-
We will look at light sign ups and cancelling.
Let’s review the options I gave for connecting and inviting.?
· Email (Direct and in Sig file)
· –Share button!
· MailChimp-Constant Contact-others
· Blogging
· Any “Property” (social, etc) you own!
· Popups on webpage (Timer?)
· Friends & Family
· Fellow presenters/keynotes
· Chamber of Commerce, networking groups, etc.
· —Lower on the ladder are
· SMS texts
· Paid ads on social media
· Influencers you can afford
Why? We need to remember that people love to buy/ be involved with people and organizations that they know and trust!
‘DUH,’ right?
With that in mind, in my opinion- we reach for the audience that we know best and that knows us best.
Long term we should be working to ALWAYS build that long-term audience and virtually the entire list above helps build audience.
So we need to look at that audience first when we start reaching out.
If this is your first webinar, I’d also suggest reaching out in the most organic way possible.
Obviously, this has a lot to do with the size of your audience. If your current “natural” audience is only 20 or 30 people, pick up the phone or message them personally!
Otherwise, pick each channel (they’re likely mixed over several channels, right?) and send a message to inform there.
This should be your earliest people to sign up. Make your offer solid and without desperation. Many clients I work with get nervous at some point ahead and want to start “begging” the audience to attend. DON’T!
- Remember one of our first points was that you’ve been building an audience and they’re already saying they want focused content! “When will you do a webinar???”
- If your content or audience is so weak that you’re not getting sign-ups, reconsider!
- IF you do decide to cancel, pull it off your site, or better yet- change the page to “Coming soon; date TBD” for the “next” one.
- And just let it fade on social and other channels. NO “we cancelled” notices. Regroup and reconsider. The ONLY time you should announce a cancellation is for reasons OTHER than low sign up numbers!!
- If sign ups are still really low, go back to calling, yes, calling close friends and get SOME bodies on the call. Even if it feels like the audience is way less than you’d like, this is a golden opportunity to practice and ensure you know what’s going on.
Use this session to get feedback from your friends!
Next week, episode 9 and part 3 of filling the seats!
I’d love to hear your questions and comments!
This series is for smaller organizations and soloprenuers that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.
Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”
As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at TheWebinarGuy.com
Thank you for listening!
Can we help you create & produce an awesome webinar or event?
Editor’s Note: This was originally posted as a “Grants Voice” post before we split the brands.