How to promote a webinar and get more registrations

A great webinar that nobody hears about stays empty. The good news is that you rarely need a big ad budget to fill one. For small businesses, educators and organizations, most registrations come from people who already know you: customers, followers, members, and the people they pass the link to.

This guide covers what to fix before you promote, where to promote, and when.

Start with an offer people want

People don't sign up for a webinar. They sign up for an answer to a problem they have. So the first thing to work on is the title. It should say what the viewer will walk away with, and who it is for.

"A session about marketing" says nothing. "How to get your first ten leads from Instagram, for small business owners starting out" says a lot. The right person recognizes themselves at once, and the wrong person wasn't going to come anyway.

A quick test: read the title to three people from your audience and ask whether they'd register. If they hesitate, keep working on it.

Keep the registration page short

The registration page is where interest turns into a sign-up. A few rules that hold up almost every time:

• Title, date and time at the top, visible without scrolling.
• Three or four lines on what people will learn. No more.
• A sentence or two on who is presenting and why they're worth listening to.
• Name and email. Each extra field costs you sign-ups.
• One clear button.

If your audience is spread out, show the time in their main time zones, or say clearly which zone you mean. And check the page on your phone. Many people will open it from a link in a message or a social app, and if it's awkward on a small screen they won't come back to it later on a computer.

Begin with the audience you already have

Your first and best registrations come from people who already know you. Before you think about paid ads, go through this list:

• Your email list. One email explaining what the webinar is and who it's for, then a reminder a few days before.
• Communities, groups and forums you run or belong to, where it fits the group's rules.
• Past customers. They already trust you, and this can be a good reason for them to come back.
• Your email signature. One line with a link, working for you every time you reply to someone.

If you don't have a list yet, that's fine. A webinar is one of the better ways to start one, since every registration leaves an email address.

Social media

One post with a link isn't enough. Most of your followers won't see it, and those who do will forget. Spread a few posts across the promotion period, each from a different angle:

1. The announcement: what, when and for whom.
2. A small tip from the webinar's content, with an invitation to hear the rest.
3. A short video of you, a minute or less, explaining why you chose the topic.
4. A question to your audience related to the topic. The answers also give you material for the webinar itself.
5. A reminder the day before, and on the day.

Put the registration link where it's easy to find: in your profile, in the first comment, in a story with a link. Reply to everyone who comments. A conversation under a post helps more people see it.

Partners and guest speakers

One of the most effective ways to reach new people is to run the webinar with someone else. A guest speaker, a business partner, or an organization that serves the same audience as you without competing with you. Each side promotes to its own people, and you both get in front of an audience you didn't have.

Make it easy for your partner. Send them ready-made material: the email text, a social post, an image and the link. When they don't have to write anything, they're far more likely to actually share it.

A simple promotion timeline

There's no single right schedule, but a basic one keeps you from skipping steps:

• Two to three weeks before: open registration, send the first email, post the announcement, and reach out to partners.
• One week before: post a tip from the content, and send a second email to those who haven't signed up.
• Two or three days before: a short video or a question to your audience.
• The day before and the morning of: a last reminder on social media and in your communities.

Plenty of people sign up at the last minute, on the day itself. Don't skip the morning reminder.

Turn registrants into messengers

Someone who registered is already interested. You can ask them for one more small step. In the confirmation email, add a line like "Know someone this would help? Feel free to forward them the link." It promises nothing, but it costs you one sentence.

A registration isn't a viewer yet

Some of the people who register won't show up. It happens with every webinar, and there's a lot you can do about it: reminders at the right moment, a time that suits your audience, and a real reason to come live. We wrote a separate piece on how to raise webinar attendance.

The people who missed it are still part of your audience. An email with the recording the next day brings many of them back, as explained in what to do after a webinar. And if this is your first one, start with our complete guide to hosting a webinar.

Try it without committing

On Kolcast, every webinar can have a registration page with your logo and colors. Each person who registers gets a personal link by email and a reminder an hour before you go live, without you sending anything yourself. You can see the audience's side in the live demo, and look at the plans, including one free webinar.