Acceptance is one of the things we all desire. We want our status updates to be liked on Facebook. We want a reply, mention or retweet on Twitter. And when it comes to our online events, we want people to not only sign up, but show up!
Many frightening things can happen to affect your webinar success:
- You lose your voice
- The power goes out
- The webcam stops working
- Your phone gets cutoff – (I was on the phone once with a car dealership and Verizon cut off their service right in the middle of my call. The poor customer service rep called me back on her own cellphone and apologized profusely. Talk about embarrassing.)
Other than these things, what could possibly go wrong, I mean what could be the worst?…
GHOST TOWN!
You realize it’s five minutes into your webinar and it’s only you and one other person.
One of our biggest fears when it comes to webinars is that no one will show up live to the event. We’ll end up talking to ourselves and God forbid we’ve promised a Q&A at the end and there’s no one there to ask questions.
While this seems like the worst thing that could possibly happen, it doesn’t have to be the case if you plan accordingly.
Getting everyone to sign up for your event is a big deal, however the overall goal is to get those who signed up to actually show up for the event.
According to the 80/20 rule, you can typically expect 20% of the people to actually show up for the event. However, there are several things you can do NOW to improve that percentage.
1. Remind them. No one wants to be spammy or clutter someone’s inbox, yet we can all appreciate a could reminder. Send several reminders about your event. A good schedule is one week prior, two days prior, one day prior and one hour prior.
2. Include valuable information in your reminder emails. Instead of sending bland reminders with just the name, time, and link for your webinar, why not also include information like:
- What the webinar is about
- What attendees can expect to learn
- Information they can learn from in the mean time from, like articles, a free report they can download, or a YouTube video, all related to your webinar topic
By providing valuable information you keep the webinar subject fresh in their mind. This will help your audience remember why they signed up in the first place.
3. Don’t assume everyone knows how to join your event. Some systems require you to download webinar software in order to attend an event. While others may require existing computer software to be current, including Java or Flash. Be aware of the requirements for the service you’ll be using and make sure your audience knows exactly what to do in order to participate.
Remember, those who sign up expect to hear from you, so don’t worry that you’re sending too many emails. Just concentrate on providing value and the information they need to be able to attend, and you’ll have a much better turnout.
You can fill those live seats with proper planning and the right approach. Your next webinar will not be a ghost town.
No more webinars for one!
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