How to Double the Number of People Who Attend Your Webinars
When someone signs up for a free webinar leading into your online course or program, how do you make sure they’re going to show up? Increasing the number of people who sign up and show up is one of the fastest ways to increase enrollment in your program.
We’re going to look at three things you can really zone in on to make sure you’re maximizing the number of people who attend your webinars.
It’s easy to become obsessed with counting the amount of sign ups for your webinar. You find yourself checking the numbers coming from the ads you’re running to promote the webinar. How many people signed up today? Refresh. What’s the number now? Repeat.
But, here’s the thing: the most important number is how many people actually show up for your webinar.
When we examine the reasons people will sign up but not show up for a webinar, they’re surprisingly ordinary and might sound like…
- Hmm, I completely forgot about that webinar.
- I can’t remember why I signed up for that.
- Just realized I have a lunch meeting at that time.
- There’s way too much on my plate to do anything extra right now.
- I don’t remember my login info.
- I can’t find the link.
- This is too complicated. Forget it.
Really hold these in your mind and then think about your ideal customer. How can you weave in key pieces of information and stories centered around the lives and problems your audience might be facing into your webinar reminder emails? Focus on this as you write your email copy.
Let’s look at three things that you can zone in on to make sure your “show rate”—the percentage of people showing up—is where you want it to be.
3 Reasons People Don’t Show Up for Webinars…and What to Do About It
Reason #1. They Forget Why
The first reason is simple: They just forget why. Why did I sign up for this? When I typed in my email address for this webinar three days ago, why did I decide that this was a good idea for me to show up for this for an hour?
Between the time they sign up and the day of the webinar, you need to focus in on reminding them of the problem they’re experiencing, the one you’re going to help them solve. That might be as simple as sending an email crafted to highlight the problem and give a brief overview of what you’ll be covering to help solve it. Maybe you share a story about how you were once in their shoes, or about how you helped a client overcome a similar obstacle.
Reason #2. It’s No Longer Urgent
Another thing that can keep people from showing up is losing a sense of urgency. In the moment it sounded really important, but now that the hour is approaching, other commitments are vying for priority: I wanted to go to that webinar, but I have this deadline and so much work to do.
To get even the busiest of people to show up, you need to demonstrate the real value you’re going to deliver in your webinar. Because they may be thinking: If I’m going to spend an hour on this, what’s the value I’m going to get out of it?
This is where you show them you have the expertise to make an impact. How? By delivering a sampling of that expertise right to their inbox. It could be a checklist, a download, an outline. Email something that shows them what you’re teaching will make a difference right away and that your webinar will be an hour very well spent.
Reason #3. A Tech Issue Gets in the Way
The third reason people don’t show up might sound kind of crazy, but it happens more than you’d think: it’s just a tech issue. They’re searching through their inbox and they can’t find the login, or they don’t remember how to access the link. So they just give up.
The simple solution to this is to think through where people might run into barriers, and make sure you give them easy, step-by-step instructions to follow. As part of your email sequence, send out daily webinar reminders: This is your login info. Here’s the link to access the webinar. The webinar starts in one hour!
If you troubleshoot ahead of time, you can pulse out key information to help remove friction from the process and get more of your signups to show up.
How to Go From 20% to 70% Showing Up in Your Webinar
We created the Expert Experience Method™ to design launch experiences that get people to show up and take action. Recently, we worked with psychiatrist and abstract artist Nancy Hillis on the launch of her book and online course, The Artist’s Journey.
While many webinars have show rates as low as 20%, the launch funnel and copy we created for Nancy has 70% of her people showing up for her webinar. Think about this for a moment. This means that Nancy has almost four times the number of people showing up in her training than the average webinar.
Take some time to think through the experience your audience is having—from the moment they discover you to the day they enroll in your program.
How can you help them?
What content do you need to provide each step of the way to get them to continue moving forward with you?
I’d love to know: What’s your biggest question about increasing your webinar show rate? Share in the comments.
Want Deeper Support?
Need help nailing your webinar using a strategic formula that takes out the second-guessing?
Join me for this NEW free training, How to Create a High-Converting Webinar… Without Being Sales-y, and we’ll walk step-by-step through how you can create a webinar that gets results for your business (and your ideal clients).
We’ll explore…
- What you need to focus on to create a high-converting webinar that expands your audience and generates revenue for your business
- The crucial components to include in your webinar (and how to exactly know how much content you need – and what you should leave out)
- How to authentically share your journey and sell your products and services – without sounding like an egomaniac
- The one thing you must include in your webinar to help your people move past their barriers and take action