Start with the promise, not the promotion
Most webinars with weak registration have a topic where they need a promise. A topic is what you'll talk about. A promise is what someone walks away with. Promotion multiplies what's already there, and it multiplies a vague title by very little.
| A topic | A promise |
|---|---|
| The state of AI in sales | Three AI sales workflows we kept, and two we turned off |
| Pricing strategy for SaaS | How to raise prices on existing customers without a churn spike |
| Event marketing best practices | How to fill a 50-seat meetup in two weeks with no ad budget |
A quick test: could a reader tell a colleague what they'd get from it in one sentence? If it needs "it's about" in front, it's a topic. Name who it's for as well. "For SaaS founders under 20 people" costs you some readers and makes the rest far more likely to register.
Make the page do one job
The registration page has to answer four questions fast: what do I get, who's talking, when is it in my time zone, and what happens if I can't make it live.
- Title as the promise, with a line saying who it's for.
- Three things they'll leave with. Concrete outcomes, not an agenda.
- Speakers, with a face, a role and why they've earned the right to talk about this.
- The time, shown in the reader's own time zone. Asking someone in Berlin to convert from ET is a small tax on every visitor.
- The replay promise. Say so if registrants get the recording. Some people will register who'd otherwise skip it. They won't all attend, and that's fine.
Keep the form short. Name and email is enough for most public webinars. Every extra field needs a reason you'll act on. If you only want one more thing, ask what they hope to get from the session: it costs them a few seconds, and it's the most useful thing you can read before you present.
Check the page on a phone, because much of your traffic will arrive from a post or a message. Then think about how much of the form you can remove altogether: with registration by email, someone taps a link, their own email opens filled in, and they press send.
Your list is the smallest channel you've got
Emailing your list is necessary, and it's the part everybody already does. The growth comes from the audiences you don't have yet. Rank your effort accordingly:
- Speakers. Their followers already trust them on this subject. A co-presenter from another company is often worth more for their audience than for their talk. Make it easy with a speaker kit.
- Partners and communities. A newsletter, a Slack group, a meetup organizer who serves the same people. Offer something real in return, and let them see what they brought.
- Past attendees. People who came last time are the best predictors of who'll come next time, and they know who else should.
- Registrants themselves. The moment after someone registers is when they're most willing to pass it on. Give them their own link, then and there.
- Your own list and social. Still worth doing. Send to the people most likely to care, not to everyone.
- Paid. Worthwhile once you've measured it, and only once you know what an attendee is worth to you.
A three-week plan
Use this as a starting point and adjust to your audience. An event people must plan around, such as an in-person workshop, needs longer.
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| 3 weeks out | Publish the page. Make a tracked link for every channel. Send speakers and partners their kits, with the date of the first post you're asking for. |
| 2.5 weeks out | First email to your list. Speakers post. Personally ask 10 past attendees whom they'd bring. |
| 2 weeks out | Read the numbers by source. Double what's working. Chase partners with one specific ask. |
| 1 week out | Second email, built around a concrete detail: a question you'll answer, a guest you've confirmed. Partners' newsletters go out. |
| 2 days out | Last-chance post from you and your speakers. Short and specific. |
| Day of | A morning note to your list for the people who always decide on the day. Reminders go to registrants. |
Read the numbers in week two, not after the event
This is the step that makes the rest compound. If each channel has its own link, then two weeks out you'll know whether the newsletter worked, whether a speaker's post landed, and whether the partner has actually sent anything yet. You still have time to act on it.
If you can't see that, you'll repeat next time whatever you happened to do this time. Also, the goal isn't really registrations. It's people in the room, so read your attendance rate by source afterwards, and protect the registrations you've got.
Doing this in Programmable Talk
Your webinar stays on Zoom, Luma or wherever it runs. You get a tracked link, QR code and share card for each channel, kits for speakers and partners with their own links, a registration email address, and a share link for every registrant. Registrations show by way in on the Promote tab while there's still time to change the plan.