“How can I make my webinar promotion more effective?”
This is one of the questions I get asked frequently. Today I’m going to concentrate on the most basic and fundamental thing you can do to help kick-start the process of registration and attendance.
Your email invitation, landing page (that’s a “more information” web page), and registration page should all clearly state the basic factual details about your event in a clear, concise format. I see promotional materials all the time that leave out basic things that people want to know, or bury them in the middle of dense text. Here is your basic minimum list of information to state up front:
- Subject
- Date
- Time
- Duration
- Cost
Let me comment on each of these items.
Subject – Some marketers confuse “subject” with “title”. Writing good headlines and titles is hard work. Not everyone is an expert. Some titles end up being overly cute, offering wordplay and puns. Some are long and unwieldy. Some are ambiguous. Here’s a radical suggestion: Just tell people what the main topic is. Instead of “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly – What You Need To Know About Fremlishes”, why not include a line in the concise event basics stating “An Introduction to Fremlishes” or “An In-Depth Look at Fremlishes”.
Date – Hey, Americans… The rest of the world uses a different date format than you! And the Internet knows no geographic boundaries. If you write your event date as “1/2/09”, half the people skimming your listings think it is January 2 and half think it is February 1. Spell out the month. It’s not that hard.
Time – It amazes me, but I see listings that simply state “10am”. Give us a time zone! And just as with dates, saying “Eastern” is not clear enough. Europe and Australia both have Eastern time zones. “US Eastern” is good. “New York Time” also works. (Adding a time zone conversion link is extremely helpful)
Duration – No, not all events are 60 minutes long. Make it explicit. People want to know how long a slot they need on their calendars.
Cost – Don’t assume that people will know it’s free if you don’t say anything. We have all had bad experiences with being suckered in with a come-on and then finding out later we have to pay. Let people know the cost up front. Including $0.
Sure, there are additional items you may want to include, but the above five are the magic basics that people want to be able to quickly skim in order to make a snap decision about whether they will click through to find more information or proceed with registration. Attention spans for reading promotional materials are on the order of a few seconds. If your basics are confusing or you leave out key details, you will lose potential clicks. People are too busy to click through to details on every item placed before them.
If you clearly and succinctly present the basics that people want and need, your potential registrants get an indication that you are well organized and know how to present information in a way that provides value without wasted time and effort on their part. And those are the kinds of events that people want to attend!
