Topic:
HubSpot,
Sales Tips
(4 Minute Read)
Started hosting lots of webinars lately? Us too. If you're new in the game, you've probably pondered the same question: what is the average webinar conversion rate? And, when it comes to converting registrants to attendees, what does "good" look like? So, we've written this blog to help you benchmark your success and given you a few ways to improve your conversion rate.
According to a 2020 report by the team over at on24.com, an average of 55% of webinar registrants convert to attendees, with data, training and communications webinars seeing the highest conversion rate.
For events with more than 100 attendees, the average conversion rate falls to 43% (but still a pretty impressive figure).
Of course the average conversion rate for webinars varies on the type of webinar being offered. The report by on24.com found communication webinars received an average conversion rate of 68.78%, whilst webinars on continuing education averaged at 36.82%.
For marketing webinars the average conversion rate is 39.29% (Noisy Little Monkey’s average conversion rate for our Business as Unusual webinar is 54% #HumbleBrag 😏)
So if you’re performing below average for your industry, or if you’re the kind of person that likes to excel beyond average (guilty!), you might be wondering what you can do to boost your registrant to attendee conversion rate. Let’s have a look at what has worked in our experience:
Let’s face it - people forget stuff! Someone might have signed up to your webinar with all intention of attending but it’s just slipped their mind, or a more important work task has cropped up. Send a reminder email a couple of days before the webinar to nudge your audience to put it in their diary. It gives them a good amount of time to reschedule other meetings or tasks if they’ve accidentally double booked themselves.
You could also use this reminder email as an opportunity to get your attendees excited about the webinar - can you give them a little sneak peak of what they should expect?
It’s also a good idea to remind people of the webinar an hour or two before it starts (I repeat - people forget stuff!) This will give them more than enough time to finish what they’re doing, make a cup of tea and sit down at their computer. Most online conferencing platforms will have systems in place that automatically send out a reminder email an hour before the start time, but you can choose to send a more personalised email if you prefer.
If you want to improve your conversion rate for webinars, posting on social media is a great way to encourage people to attend. You can design your posts so that they remind registrants of the amazing content they’re going to witness by attending the event, and also encourage those who haven’t signed up already to do so. You can also ask people to tag a friend or colleague that they think might be interested in the topic being discussed.
A video of you describing what will be covered in the webinar is a great way to engage people and leave them wanting more (which they can only get if they attend your webinar!). If you’re going for an image, make it a picture of one of the speakers and give them a little introduction. The more personable the post the more it should resonate with your audience.
If you’re in B2B marketing (like us) we find that LinkedIn and Twitter are the best channels to promote webinars through. If your team is like ours, you’ll probably have a fair few colleagues who are active enough on both channels. Ask your colleagues to post through their own channels with a note as to why they think the webinar is worth attending. If you have any guests joining you on your webinar, encourage them to post something in the lead up too (you can then retweet/share this content on your own channel).
You want to position your webinar as an event so fantastic that people will be silly to miss it. You want to create FOMO (‘fear of missing out’ for those that have never heard of it). One way to do this? Get amazing people to speak at your webinar.
You don’t have to break the bank and get a celebrity in the industry to speak. All you need to do is find someone who is an expert in your industry that knows what they’re talking about - think about the micro-influencers in your circle who you could reach out to. Make sure to highlight your speakers credentials, have they worked with any big brands people are likely to recognise? Or do they have an impressive amount of years in the industry with results that speak for themselves? These indicators are all the proof registrants need that they've signed up for a webinar worth attending.
If you’re stuck for ideas, ask your attendees who they want to hear from or what topic they want discussed. If you’re providing insight on something your audience actually wants there’s no way they are going to miss that webinar!
Now, if you’re hosting an amazing webinar that is simply unmissable, time and day shouldn’t play too much of a factor. But, if you’re really hoping to boost your conversion rate of registrants to attendees, it’s worth knowing what seems to work best when it comes to timing. According to gotomeeting, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday seem to be the most successful days for webinar attendance. For time, 11am and 2pm seem to work best (note: do NOT host your webinar over lunch hour!)
Of course this can get a little trickier when it comes to webinars with an international audience. Finding a time of day that isn’t the middle of the night somewhere in the world is obviously impossible. However, if you notice the majority of your audience attend from a select few places across the globe you should be able to find an appropriate time that suits the majority.
Did you know that webinars also have incredible value for your Search Engine Optimisation? We take the transcript from each recorded webinar and stick it in a blog along with the video - this way Google can read all those juicy search terms. You can squeeze even more content out of your webinar by putting the recording on your Wistia or YouTube channel and use clips from the videos for future sales or marketing collateral.
When it comes to your conversion rate, if you’re truly offering your attendees high quality, relevant content then you should see your attendance rate benefit as a result. Audience members of previous webinars should be able to vouch for you next time you host one (never forget the power of word of mouth!)
One final piece of advice: there are always going to be some people that register for your event but simply can’t make it on the day. Record the webinar and send it out to all registrants so that those who couldn’t attend can enjoy it, and those who did attend can pass it on to friends or colleagues. Over time, you'll start to see your conversion rate and audience size will grow organically!
Claire Blacker is Junior Digital Marketing Executive at Noisy Little Monkey.
