Webinars have seen a massive uptick in popularity in recent years, and this is due mostly to the rise of video. Facebook has prioritized video in its algorithms several times over in the past year, Twitter is still fighting to maintain Periscope, Instagram and other social platforms have integrated live video options, over a billion hours of YouTube videos are consumed every day, and Amazon recently acquired videogame-streaming platform Twitch—the list goes on.
So how does a marketer compete with the flood of video content on the web to promote an upcoming webinar? There are two ways: by choosing a stellar webinar service and through social media promotion.
Choose a webinar service that meets your needs and scales easily
A simple Google search will reveal a number of webinar providers that offer a myriad of features and components to attract customers.
When choosing a service provider, seek out core features like custom branding options, streamlined registration pages, email marketing solutions, social sharing options, client directories or CRM integrations, screen sharing options, support for multiple presenters, and webinar analytics data. All of these features will allow you to create a stellar experience for viewers that can easily scale as your webinar attendance grows.
RELATED: 6 Steps to ‘Teach’ Your Way into Your Customers’ Hearts … and Businesses
Leverage social media’s most compelling components
The bane of most marketers’ existence is the failure to generate engagement and conversions through social media. However, by leveraging the most alluring parts of social media, you can capture an abundance of leads and attendees for your webinar.
Here are four ways to promote your webinar through social media:
1. Drive signups with image advertisements
One of the most engaging forms of content on social media today are images; this is particularly true with image-based Instagram. Instagram’s engagement rate hangs around 2.3% per follower, compared to 0.2% on Facebook and 0.03% on Twitter.
This means that creating image shares for the platform can be a winning strategy, and what’s likely to work even better are Instagram ads. Carousel ads are a great way to tell a visual story of what potential attendees stand to learn and gain from your webinar, and can be easily driven to your landing page for signups.
2. Reach customers through video advertising
If you want to take your webinar promotion to the next level, video advertising is the way to go. And the top dog of video ads is definitely Facebook.
The platform’s targeting options allow marketers to reach intended audiences with minimal resources wasted on unqualified prospects. Services like Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences can help target existing customers, recent visitors to your site, and your targeted demographic of prospective viewers. Be sure your video clearly covers the topic, presenters, benefits, and how to sign up for your webinar; ideal length for your video should be 30 to 60 seconds, according to a study by Kinetic Social.
3. Use Facebook Live lead ups to generate buzz
Live streaming video is on fire right now. Over the past two years, everything from watermelon explosions to government sit-ins and childbirths have graced the screens of millions, generating incredible engagement rates. And when it comes to reach, no platform rivals Facebook.