5 tips for promoting webinars to past attendees

By promoting webinars, your best prospects attend previous events. With webinars, just like with other products and services, it’s easier and cheaper to make repeat sales to existing customers than it is to find new customers.

Here are 5 ways you can encourage past attendees to sign up for your newest webinars:

1. Offer a series of webinars. The closer the connection between the webinar participants attended in the past and the event you want them to attend now, the more likely they are to sign up. For example, if your first webinar taught basic concepts, use the second webinar for a deeper exploration of more advanced skills. Another alternative is to present webinars as steps in your process. Regardless of how you package events, show how your new program content will build on information delivered in previous webinars.
2. Offer a discount for repeat attendees. Reward your past attendees for coming back to your show. You can do this by extending a discount on the program of your choice. If you’re promoting a series of webinars, you could offer a special package price if they sign up for all the events.
3. Personalize your promotions. When you’re promoting your new webinar, customize your promotions for past attendees to incorporate a reference to the first or most recent program they attended. This will help remind them that they have trusted your content before. It will remind them of who you are, which may be necessary for busy prospects who are overwhelmed with information and resources. It also helps customers know that you value them enough to remember their past patronage.
4. Add “keys” to previous participants. Because people who have attended past events are more likely to attend future events, they deserve extra attention when promoting your webinars. Plan to contact them more often than the rest of your general mailing list. For example, send them additional emails. If you have the time and money to invest in direct mail, put these prospects at the top of your list to receive these special promotions. Because they are more likely to attend, marketing to them is more likely to yield the higher ROI needed to justify the money you spend on more expensive promotional tools.
5. Call them. Telemarketing can work well to promote events when positioned as courtesy calls to your favorite customers. Instead of sending an impersonal voice broadcast to all callers, call past attendees with a special courtesy reminder about your upcoming event. Let them know that because they attended your previous webinar, you want to make sure they know about the next webinar, which builds on the skills they’ve already learned. If you can make these calls in person, great. But if you need to use a voice broadcast service, that’s fine too: try to personalize the message as much as possible so listeners know the message is aimed at previous webinar attendees.

Webinars are a great way to build your list and find new clients. However, don’t overlook the importance and ease of marketing new training programs to past participants. Promoting your new webinars to previous attendees will strengthen your relationships and generate more revenue, but with much less effort.