Virtual webinars should be a tool in every business’s customer acquisition arsenal for one key reason—these sessions put you face-to-face with prospects who are genuinely interested in your products or services. After all, they’re signing into these sessions to get educated about your business and weigh how they may benefit from closing a deal with you.

When implemented and led effectively, webinars can help you establish credibility with these valuable individuals, engage their attention, and build relationships that ultimately convert into bookings.

However, investing your time and finances into these marketing sessions necessitates a positive return, meaning that underperforming webinars can be a detriment to your organization. Brad Swineheart, host of the Be Advised podcast and chief marketing officer at Oxford Advisory Group, offers several ways webinar leaders can hold more impactful sessions. Whether you’re tracking low conversion rates from certain sessions or want to polish your skills as a host, adopt his nine consistently proven methods to help better fill your pipeline after webinars.

1. Start with a power opening and introduction 

According to a study by Microsoft, the average person has an attention span of only eight seconds. So if you’re hosting a webinar, you need to employ an engaging hook like a story or statistic to immediately nab your attendees’ interest. Once you’ve done so, you can explain who you are and what your organization does. This information will be more meaningful and memorable after you capture their attention.

2. Allow attendees to book with you during the webinar 

At various points in your webinar, you should offer a postwebinar consultation as a call to action. Invite attendees to meet with you one-on-one (these conversations can turn into deals), and provide a calendar link that allows them to book sessions with you at any point during the presentation. Webinar hosts who get the most appointment requests are the ones who mention their calendars three to four times throughout their webinars.

3. Leverage polls

Using a poll during your event encourages attendees to weigh in on a concept or question. This increases engagement, which not only retains their interest but also makes them feel like active participants in the presentation. Once you can get attendees to lean forward and connect with the subject matter, the subsequent booking process will feel more natural. You can even review poll responses to help you qualify leads.

4. Use embedding to appeal to both emotional and analytical thinkers

Before displaying your calendar link a second time, perform the embedding technique by sharing a personal story. Here’s a solid example: “I was wrapping up a webinar a month ago when an attendee followed this link to book a call with us. We uncovered a few strategies that would go on to save her thousands of dollars in taxes this year alone.”

5. Plug your social media

Encourage attendees to follow your social media pages; even if some don’t immediately convert, convincing them to connect may keep those leads warm. Simply drop your links in the chat window to make them easily accessible. But before you do, ensure these pages have engaging, informative, and valuable content—links to your blog and seasonal greetings, for example. Post a solid balance of copy, images, links, and videos to maximize their appeal to a variety of audiences and preferences.

6. Tie it all together

Deliver a closing statement that briefly summarizes what you covered throughout the webinar. Be skillful with your verbiage; don’t just restate concepts, as repetitive language can reduce attendees’ engagement. Instead, review what you went over compellingly and connect information with overarching themes. At this point, plug your calendar link again. Acknowledge the action-takers who’ve already booked, then reference that some people haven’t yet and encourage them to do so.

7. Follow up immediately

Webinars allow for immediate reengagement. Aim to reach out right away to all attendees who did not book an appointment with you. You may need to follow up multiple times via different avenues, like an email one week out and a phone call the next, before you convert them. It’s natural for consumers to weigh major purchases before handing over their payment information, but it’s your duty to ensure they don’t forget about you or court your competitor in the meantime.

8. Innovate your follow-ups

Send your attendees a follow-up video instead of a plain email. You don’t need fancy equipment—your smartphone should do the trick. Simply record your message and upload it to a video-sharing site like YouTube or Instagram. Embed a link in the body of the email, and conclude with a call to action.

9. Utilize training resources

Those who lack confidence in their public speaking skills often stifle their ability to convey information to consumers, especially on an impersonal virtual platform. But even advisors who are rock stars in person can struggle to deliver a dynamic virtual presentation. If you are determined to master the webinar medium, pursue coaching and training opportunities to help you develop the necessary skills. Hosting high-converting sessions is a muscle, so the more you train, the better your results will be.

TAKE ACTION:
Implement these tips in your next webinar, and train your team to follow suit.