Webinar Marketing for Newbies: 5 Steps To Creating and Marketing Your First Webinar

If you’ve never created a webinar before, the thought of webinar marketing can be really intimidating. You’re probably wondering...

• How will I work out the technical aspects of holding a webinar?
• How do I give people access to the webinar?
• What platform should I use for hosting the webinar?
• What should the webinar be about, anyway?
• How do I get people to attend my webinar?

Don’t worry! While webinars are certainly more technically involved than other types of content marketing, once you get the first one under your belt you’ll be off to the races.

Here are five easy steps to creating and marketing your very first webinar:

1. Get hyper-specific on a niche topic

The phrase “go big or go home” does not apply to webinars. That is, you don’t want to try and cover a broad topic in a single webinar, and leave your audience with a grand overview but no specific takeaways.

Since webinars are typically under an hour in length, it’s important to deliver valuable, actionable tips and strategies within the allotted time.

Instead of holding a webinar on “gardening,” for example, you might hold a webinar on a specific topic such as “Top 10 Tips Tor Harvesting Tomatoes In The Gall,” or “How To Plant Sunflower Seeds In Dry Soil.”

2. Choose a platform that’s easy to use

When you publish a blog post or upload a video to YouTube, you have a certain amount of control over when and how your audience sees your content.

With a live webinar, on the other hand, you are ‘on stage’ in front of a live audience. The last thing you want is to be interrupted with technical problems, bad audio, a fuzzy video feed or some other tech nightmare.

Whether you choose GoToWebinar, Google Hangouts, Meeting Burner, or another hosting platform, make sure you’re 100% comfortable with the application long before the actual webinar takes place.

3. Promote to a warm email list

The biggest webinar marketing challenge is getting people to attend. Be sure to promote your webinar to a warm email list - prospects and customers who know you and your brand and are willing to give you 30-60 minutes of their time.

If you haven’t been consistent in emailing your list, it’s better to hold off on the webinar for a few weeks to a month and focus on re-engaging your audience. Doing so will allow you to reestablish rapport and prep prospects before asking them to take action.

4. Do a test-run before the webinar begins

Hold a practice webinar 1-2 days before the actual webinar begins. Make sure all audio and video components are working. If you’re having a special guest join you on the webinar via phone or video, have them call in no less than 30 minutes before you begin. This will give you ample time to deal with any tech issues that may arise.

5. Create and share a recording of the webinar

After the webinar, be sure to share a recording of the presentation with those who attended and those who could not attend.

If you created a paid webinar, you may want to charge a fee to access to the recording as well.

In the days following the webinar, you can email your list a link to the recording and reinforce the Call to Action (CTA) made on the webinar (i.e., a product offer, a special promotion, etc.)

When creating and marketing your first webinar, it’s important to choose a specific topic, use a platform with which you’re familiar, promote to a warm email list, do a test run before going live, and follow up by sharing a recording of the presentation.